Can you become a glider pilot? – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Can you become a glider pilot? quiz, each with a short explanation. Test your soaring knowledge as you work toward your glider pilot license. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Which glider instrument shows whether the aircraft is climbing or sinking?
Answer: Variometer
A variometer shows the rate of climb or descent, usually in knots or metres per second. Glider pilots depend on it to find and centre thermals, and many models beep higher in rising air.
2. What is a column of rising warm air that glider pilots use to climb called?
Answer: A thermal
A thermal is a column of rising air that forms when the sun heats the ground unevenly. Glider pilots circle inside thermals to gain height, and cumulus clouds often mark where the tops of thermals are.
3. In an aerotow launch, what pulls the glider into the air?
Answer: A powered tow plane
In an aerotow, a powered tow plane pulls the glider into the air on a rope. The glider pilot releases the rope at the chosen height. A winch launch is a different method that uses a ground-based winch and a cable.
4. A glide ratio of 40:1 means a glider travels 40 km for every how much height lost?
Answer: 1 km
Glide ratio compares the distance travelled forward with the height lost. At 40:1, a glider covers 40 km for each 1 km of height it loses in still air. The ratio stays the same in any unit, so it also means 40 m forward per metre lost.
5. A wing stalls when which of these exceeds its critical value?
Answer: Angle of attack
A wing stalls when its angle of attack goes past the critical angle. At that point the airflow separates from the wing and lift drops sharply. This can happen at any airspeed or attitude, which is why stall recovery starts with lowering the nose.
6. Which control surfaces make a glider roll and bank to the left or right?
Answer: Ailerons
Ailerons are hinged surfaces on the trailing edges of the outer wings. They move in opposite directions, so one wing gains lift and the other loses it, which rolls the glider into a bank. When banking, the pilot uses rudder along with the ailerons to cancel adverse yaw.
7. What do glider pilots extend on approach to steepen their descent?
Answer: Airbrakes
Airbrakes, or spoilers, are panels that come out of the wings. They cut lift and add drag, so the glider comes down more steeply. Pilots use them on approach to control the glide path and choose where they touch down.
8. Wind deflected upward by a hillside gives gliders which type of lift?
Answer: Ridge lift
Ridge lift, also called slope lift, forms when wind blows against a hill or ridge and is pushed upward. Gliders can stay up by flying along the windward side of the slope. It works best when a strong wind blows nearly straight at the ridge.
9. In a standard landing circuit, which leg comes right before final approach?
Answer: Base leg
In a standard circuit the legs come in this order: upwind (or takeoff), crosswind, downwind, base and final. The base leg runs across the approach path, and the pilot turns from it onto final approach, lined up with the landing runway.
10. Which simple canopy device shows if a glider is slipping or skidding sideways?
Answer: Yaw string
A yaw string is a short piece of yarn taped to the outside of the canopy. When it streams straight back, the glider is flying in balance. When it blows off to one side, the glider is slipping or skidding, and the pilot corrects this by pushing the rudder pedal on the side the string's head is…
11. In a winch launch, what actually pulls the glider into the air?
Answer: A cable wound onto a drum by a ground winch
In a winch launch, a ground-based winch quickly winds a long cable onto a drum, and that pulls the glider into the air. The cable is first laid out along the runway and hooked to the glider's release hook, which is often under the nose.
12. Which tail control surface moves a glider's nose up and down (pitch)?
Answer: Elevator
The elevator is a hinged surface on the horizontal tailplane that controls pitch, moving the nose up or down. The pilot works it by moving the control stick forward or back, which also controls the glider's angle of attack and airspeed.
13. Which puffy clouds often mark the top of a thermal for glider pilots?
Answer: Cumulus
Puffy cumulus clouds form when rising warm air (a thermal) cools to its dew point and the moisture condenses. That makes them useful markers of lift for glider pilots, who look for thermals just below a growing cumulus cloud.
14. In most gliders, what colour is the knob that releases the tow cable?
Answer: Yellow
In most gliders, the knob that releases the tow cable is coloured yellow, as shown in flight manuals such as the Grob Astir CS manual. The colour coding lets pilots find it quickly, and they pull it fully to drop a winch cable or aerotow rope.
15. What is the first stick action to recover a glider from a stall?
Answer: Move it forward to lower the nose
To recover from a stall, the pilot first moves the stick forward, which lowers the angle of attack so the wing can produce lift again. Gliding training manuals warn that pulling back too sharply too soon after recovery can cause a second stall.