RAPID DESCENT TECHNIQUES
Need to get down in a hurry? Bob Drury explains what to do and when to do it
The stark reality of any form of aviation is that you are at the mercy of the elements: a wrong decision or a warning sign missed and your life can be seriously threatened. In an ideal world you would never put yourself there, but flying’s not like that; once you’re hooked on motoring it’s difficult to resist the urge to fly. The overwhelming pull of the sky can do strange things to a pilot’s mind: a dark brooding sky can suddenly change to be ‘probably OK and worth giving a go’ and a violent and gusty wind can miraculously drop down to ‘probably not so bad once you’re in the air’. However, reality begs to differ, and almost all of us will at sometime or other find ourselves in the sky wishing we were on the ground and wondering if, and how, we can get there.
Every pilot’s arsenal of skills should include an array of rapid descent techniques. Big ears, B-lines, spirals and wingovers all have their place, each with their pros and cons. Knowing when and how to use each technique is imperative to your safe progression in the sport, and practice is the only way to master them.
Paul Haxby, one of the UK’s most experienced instructors advises, “Practise rapid descent techniques in the same way you would an emergency landing, so if you do get into trouble you can do them naturally and without panic or hesitation.”
BIG EARS
The simplest, safest and quickest technique to master is big ears. Collapsing the wingtips of your glider reduces the surface area of your wing and increases the sink rate. With the reduction in surface area the wing loading also increases adding greater stability and resistance to collapses, making it a very popular method of descent.
To initiate it take the outer A-line and pull it down to collapse the wing tip. The further you pull, the larger the big ears you make, and the greater the effect. Depending on the number of A-lines you have, you may have to take more than just the outer line.
It’s important to be aware of the pitching position of the wing when you pull in the line. If the wing is pitching forwards at the moment you pull you may cause a big, and potentially difficult-to-manage, collapse. Instead you should wait until the wing is either directly overhead or pitched behind you.
One of the benefits of using big ears is that you can maintain a constant direction and speed, making it the descent technique to use when trying to escape from strong winds. Add speedbar too and sink rates of around -5 mps can be reached. Big earing is a mellow and undramatic descent technique, and as such is now included in most pilot syllabuses.
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