In this show, I succeed in promoting The Glider Show in ‘the real world’ for the first time by featuring on someone else’s podcast and putting a little flyer up at my club, I get a few minutes at the controls of the sleek and lovely DG505 but delete the audio the following day. I get lined up to take my mum flying as a special treat but end up getting misted and sorting out some membership misunderstandings instead. I review my first year involved in gliding and make some plans for myself and for the podcast for the coming year. And I get amazed by a gliding app for the iPhone. #gliding #flying #extreme #soaring #3D

A very short interview with a legend of gliding, DSGC's Matt Wright star of more than a few hugely popular YouTube gliding videos. Prompted by Glider Show listener Mike Lawrence, I ask Matt (YouTube ID: 'Balleka') 'What's a 'balleka'?' and try to find out why there's no video of his famous aquatic landing out...

In this week’s show I get some great encouragement, and support from the instructors and members of my new gliding club.

I get a surprise gift in the post from the Glider Show’s very own Australian Ambassador, Mr. Pat Pulis of Adelaide Soaring Club. He very kindly sent me a signed hardback copy of Bernard Eckey’s ‘Advanced Soaring Made Easy’, a wonderful gift. Pat had told me he was sending it – the surprise was how long it took to arrive from Australia: 2 months. Not bad for a £30 postage charge!

I also learn how to run the launch log on a busy day at North Hill airfield and watch a Devon and Somerset Gliding Club member go solo - aged just 14!

And best of all, I silence my bloody annoying inner critic to win back some confidence.

In this weeks’ show I find out how hard it is to stay in formation behind the tug; I discover how hard it STILL is to co-ordinate my stick and rudder inputs. I spend a day watching the grass turn into straw and meet a true gliding giant - the ASH25

In this weeks show I join Devon and Somerset Gliding Club at North Hill in East Devon and get my first taste of aerotowing, my first flight in the well-respected fibreglass ASK-21 training glider and I get a whiff of competition gliding at the curiously-named 'Competition Enterprise'. And I also find myself in my first busy thermal with 5 or 6 other gliders.

And this week, prompted by a question from a listener and a comment from my instructor at the airfield, I think it's time to make sense of keeping my weight under control to avoid the embarrassing risk of being grounded.

In this week’s show I’ll be looking at the gliding news from around the world, I’ll be visiting a different gliding club and I’ll be making a big – and surprisingly difficult – personal decision that will shape my gliding for the next six months #flying #glider #sailplane

In this show, our trusty CFI helps me to get some thermalling experience straight off the wire on my first flight of the weekend. My circuit at the end was too close to the field - meaning that the angle down to the runway centerline was too great. It took me the rest of the day to make sense of that (see Show #12)

in this show I’ll be getting a taste for some thermal soaring in the warm sunshine, watching the local scout group getting excited about gliding and helping out around the club.

I’ll be learning yet another common-sense lesson delivered in a kind and considerate way from an old hand. I’ll experience my second real cable break - and find out just how long my instructor thinks is ‘a long time to react’. I’ll be getting some negative G (and a grunge shower into the bargain), flying by eye with the altimeter taped over, finding myself in an ‘awkward’ situation and experiencing the thrill of landing long downwind.

Phew.

In this show you’ll hear me firmly turning the corner on my journey to solo and making sense of exactly how I knew that I had done so. I’ll be learning one or two basics I can’t understand how I missed the first time around and I’ll ask if our clubs pay as much attention to the ‘how’ of learning as they do to the ‘what’. #gliding #glider #sailplane #flying

In this show, I’ll be getting in some unexpected flying, learning how to spot thermals and most important of all, learning how to slooooow down in the air. I’ll also be digging into our postbag to hear from listeners on two continents