SOARING IRELAND!

We Americans, by the thousands, travel to Ireland each year. It is a wonderful country to visit for many reasons. Many of us have family in Ireland; the countryside is beautiful; the country is rich in history; and the Irish are such charming people. Ireland is also very green. Everywhere you see beautiful green fields. You would think that all the pictures from Ireland must have been taken with green filters over the camera lenses! Many of these same travelers must also be soaring pilots like me, but how many of us think of Ireland as soaring country?

This past summer, my wife Bonnie and I had an opportunity to travel to Ireland for the first time to take a course at Trinity College in Dublin and to experience the country in our free time. As we began making our plans, soaring wasn't even on my mind. As the trip neared, however, I began making some calls and the chance to fly in Ireland became more exciting. Once in Dublin the final arrangements were completed. On Wednesday, August 10, I arranged to borrow a car, "cut class," and spent the afternoon with the Dublin Gliding Club. I learned why Ireland is so green and how this group of soaring pilots are making the best of it

BACKGROUND

The drive from downtown Dublin to the gliderport is about 45 minutes. With the map in my lap, driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and trying to make the best of Irish road signs, it took me about 90 minutes! As it turned out, this was fine because the Club members were taking their lunch break when I arrived at about 1:30. I was met by Brian Connolly, their course instructor who was expecting me. Brian offered to share some of his packed lunch, and over tea in their clubhouse we had a chance to talk about soaring in Ireland.

It turns out that Ireland is so green in part because it rains quite often. Irish weather is dominated by moist air masses coming in over the Atlantic from the west. Rarely do they get cloud bases above 3000 feet. From the Dublin gliderport they soar in thermals and an occasional wave from the Wicklow Mountains just to the south. 300 kilometer triangles have been flown in Ireland ( A 500 kilometer flight is yet to be flown.) At the Irish "Nationals" it is common to fly tasks of 180 km. In wave, they have reached a record altitude of 24,000 feet. As you can see, the soaring conditions in Ireland are not the best in the world. But as I learned, these pilots enjoy soaring as much as anyone in the world!

There are three gliding clubs in Ireland - the Dublin Gliding Club, one near Kilkenny, and one near Derry in Northern Ireland. Brian estimated their total soaring community at around 150 pilots in a country of about five million people, of which the Dublin club has 80 members.

The Dublin club owns six gliders including two Schleicher ASK-13's, an ASK-7, two ASK-8's, and a relatively rare ASK-18 single-place. Also on site are an ASK-2, -6, -14, and -16, the latter two being motorgliders. Brian admitted that they probably have one of the most complete fleets of Schleicher wood and fabric gliders in the world! They have a hangar large enough to house all the club aircraft plus a few privately owned ships. In the back of the hangar is their workshop where they are presently restoring two wood-fuselage gliders. Their tow plane is a 180-horsepower Super-Cub.

The gliderport is leased from a local farmer who grazes a hundred or so sheep in the same field. Sheep, given a little time in such a field, have a way of uniformly distributing themselves over the whole area It was therefore the job of one club member to herd the sheep to one end of the field with his car about every half-hour or so! But this field does give them a nice 1500 foot long grass runway.

In Ireland, as in England, soaring is not regulated by their IAA but by their self-regulating body, the Irish Gliding Association. This has proven to be very successful over the years. Many of the requirements for their pilots are even more extensive than our own.

SOARING IRELAND

The Dublin club was in the middle of a two-week instruction period for seven student pilots the day I arrived. Each student had taken a flight with an instructor that morning and each would take another flight or two in the afternoon.

After lunch, we all jumped into their van and rode a few hundred yards to the launch strip. Two of the ASK-13's were waiting, and Brian and another instructor each climbed into the back seats. The first of the students was launched at around 2:30. With the two gliders alternating flights, and with the instructors never getting out of the gliders, the seven students had soon completed their second flights of the day. It was my turn!

The weather for our flight included about 80% cloud cover with cloud bases at just over 2000 feet. We would take off and land into a 10-15-knot wind with some additional gusts. The temperature was 68[[ring]] F., so the overall effect was a bit cool for mid-August (temperatures in Ireland rarely get above 75[[ring]] F).

Brian went through an orientation for the ASK-13, and I went through a preflight check list. With the Super Cub's 180 hp and the headwind we were soon airborne! Compared to our club's Blanik L-13, the ASK-13 offered greater visibility, especially forward. It responded quickly to pitch control inputs, although I missed the Blanik's roll response as the turbulence tossed us about on tow!

Brian instructed me to position the glider so that the towplane's elevator tips appeared to be in-line with its wing struts. This resulted in the glider flying just above the towplane's prop wash - a position much lower than we fly here, but still being in what would be defined as a "high-tow" position. He explained that this tow position has been adopted throughout England and Ireland in the past few years and has helped to eliminate incidents where towplanes get "nosed-in" by gliders that have gotten too high on tow.

At 1800 feet we released and made a clearing turn to the left. (Somehow this must be related to driving on the left side of their roads!) We were now floating above a beautiful panorama. As many times as I have flown, I was still thrilled by this experience. I'm sure this is why we keep coming back! The great visibility from the ASK-13 added to the scene. The green fields, outlined with hedgerows, stretched in every direction. The Wicklow Mountains, with their peaks in the clouds, were not far away. Brian took the controls for a minute so I could take a few pictures.

With the cloud cover and wind there was no chance for any thermals. After trying a couple stalls and checking out some of the local landmarks, we headed back towards the gliderport. We landed into a strong headwind on the slight upgrade of their field. The sheep, seeking fresh grass, had started moving toward the runway again. But for the American visitor, coming in over them just added to the charm of this whole experience!

The students had decided that with the wind as it was, they wouldn't take a second flight that afternoon. Brian invited me to take another flight, but the car had to be back to Dublin by 5:30 and I was already going to be late. He did give me a quick tour of their hangar and maintenance facility. As we shook hands, we agreed that we would try to fly together again, either in Ireland or in the USA. In this short afternoon, I found that I had developed a certain kinship with these people at the Dublin Gliding Club through the love of soaring that we all share. I look forward to flying with them again soon!

NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN IRELAND ............

If you're visiting Ireland and can fit some gliding in, the Dublin Gliding Club is located at Gowran Grange adjacent to the Punchestown Race Track, which is just south of the town of Naas. Their phone number at the clubhouse is (direct dial from the USA) 011-353-459-7681. (The clubhouse phone is attended only on weekends.) They offer a "Day Membership" good for one flight for 20 Irish Pounds.

I hope you enjoy Ireland and her people as much as we did!