I felt like I had to jump in here, you guys have touched upon something close to my heart.... to my mind there are few experiences as exciting as gaining alttitude without a noisemaker. The first time you center up in a +3000 fpm thermal and pickup several thousand feet of altitude you're hooked... I know I was.

   <Marv>

"Rino" <lacombr@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:

Ed,

I do have two glider experiences (only a few minutes each) in my Glass Goose
so I know that it does glide without an engine.  After the engine stop, I hear
the airflow (or wind) on the canopy, then I can easily imagine what it is to
be flying a glider.

Rino Lacombe
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Anderson
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011 10:51 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Glider rating: [FlyRotary] Re: The rotary may live.

Actually, Chrissi,  I did get one back in the early 1960s.  Never used it
(in a true glider) since, but it did convey flight was possible without an
engine and prop turning - which undoubtedly lessen the pucker factor a tiny
bit.

Did I tell you about my glider check ride with aileron locks in?   Impressed
the heck out of the instructor who was on board and who told me no pre-flight
was necessary ( he was in a hurry to get back home)  and who gave me heck
about using too much rudder to get around the pattern (but, I couldn't get it
to turn without a lot of rudder).

The scary part was later realizing that if I had ever let the wing get few
degrees too low, the rudder would never have brought it back to level!!

   Yes, after we landed (and me thinking I had flunked the ride) we saw people
running down the runway waving arms and then pointing to the bright red
streamers on the locks did he and I realized how badly it could have turned
out - he had no problem signing me off {:>)

So while not necessary - it keeps you legal {:>)

While I don't recommend (in fact just the opposite) landing engine-out as
practice - a few hours in a glider is great preparation should that very rare
event ever happen {:>)

Ed