Glider flight, Club Planeadores Bariloche, Nahuel Huapi Aerodrome, Argentina.
Image by ER’s Eyes – Our planet is so beautiful.
The glider flies in the same way as an airplane with a ‘reduced’ engine. That is, it is always losing altitude. So the higher the glider is, the farther it goes. A competition glider has a ratio of 1/40: for each km of height it flies 40 km.
In the glider there is no engine to gain altitude or accelerate to get home soon. The device flies at the pace of the wind and, above all, with the help of ascending thermal currents, layers of hot air that, due to temperature and pressure, move upwards. And when this “wave” passes, the glider can hitch a ride on it and thus gain altitude.
You have to find meteorological phenomena to climb and replace the height you lost. The most common is ‘updraft’, which can be found in signals on the ground or in the clouds.
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The Grob Twin Astir (G103) LV-EKZ Glider was purchased in 2019 from the Aeroklub Edvard Rusjan of Slovenia, and was imported by the Club. Since then this glider has been flown by member pilots of the Club Planeadores Bariloche. It has been affected by training and instruction flights.
Wingspan: 17.50 m
Fuselage length: 8.12 m
Empty weight: 400 Kg
Maximum weight: 650 Kg
Maximum speed (VNE): 250 km/h
