Скачать или смотреть My First Flight in a Glider

My first ever flight in a glider took place at around 2pm yesterday (16/08/23) at Dartmoor Gliding Society's airfield on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon. After a number of years flying an assortment of UAV's (drones), it was fantastic to get up in the air myself with the invaluable assistance of my Pilot/Instructor, Mike. The aircraft we were flying was a dual control (like in a driving school car) glider and we clocked the second longest flight of the day to that point at 28 minutes. After enough time in the air for me to have a good look around and do some filming, Mike repeated his explanations of the purpose and operation of the controls and instruments and allowed me to take over control of the aircraft. Thank heavens for dual controls! The only reason we're not still embedded nose-down in a field somewhere is due to Mike's calm approach and knowing when to reassume control. Seriously though, it was a scary but thrilling experience and I can highly recommend it. Many thanks to Mike for his patience and the loan of a ploythene sleeve and neck lanyard for my little action cam, Cashier Andrew for lots of very useful advice...how to deploy my parachute was a particular favourite...and the loan of a sunhat (it was a really hot afternoon), and to everyone else at the Club for a memorable experience.
As explained above, my action cam was squeezed in to a borrowed polythene pouch, attached to a lanyard around my neck but held in my hands, and not so easy to operate. The camera was also having to film through the perspex of the canopy and was very difficult to hold steady as we were constantly banking and circling to stay in the thermals that were providing us with lift. Consequently the video is nowhere near as clear or steady as I would have liked, but still gives a pretty good impression of what the views were like from up there. I have condensed the twenty-eight minutes of flight down to around four minutes and hope you enjoy them.