The weather allowed us to train 7 student pilots between October the 21st and November the 5th:
The bungee launch system run near maximum capacity for Pierre, Yves, Vincent, Patrick, Jacques and Alain.
Yves, Vincent and Jacques had their first solo flight.
Michel made his first solo flight on his own brand new Swiftlight, one year after he made his first 2 Swiftlight flights; he then continued and completed the full training course provided by ADPUL.
Yves, Vincent and Jacques are well advanced in this process: they trained in flying different types of approaches allowing a Swiftlight pilot to fly cross country without stress: L shape approach, steep approach, low height U shape approach, S shape approach…
69 bungee launches and 29 aerotows all together.
Many thanks to Pascal, Jacques and Patrick our tow trike pilots 🙂
Flight training season is not yet completed, there should be some more nice weather days…
Sunrise set up
Days are short in November
Better start early
Michel’s brand new Swiftlight
It is ready to get the electric engine which will be installed in late November
Jac, Michel et Alain
Vincent’s briefing before the bungee launch
Patrick just after the bungee launch
Good glide
and long 🙂
Patrick flying our tow trike
Yves, after his first solo flight
Vincent, after his first solo flight
Jacques, after his first solo flight
The Pic de Bure, our magic mountain 🙂
🙂
Testimonies
4 days training course, from oct. 29 to nov. 1st. Perfect weather: sunny, wind calm. I’m a hanglider pilot and have made only a few glider solo flights (no glider pilot license so far).
We were some days 3, some days 4 student pilots.
One of the trainees had his own Swiftlight, the others flew on ADPUL’s Swift.
First day: bungee launched short flights. This is great to get acquainted with the Swift in a very safe way.
2nd and 3rd day: after 2 thorough briefings, first flights aero-towed by an UL trike.
Second day, for the first solo flight, I was aero-towed up to 1300m height in order to exercise various maneuvers (turns, stall, dynamic stalls – it doesn’t really stall , etc..) radio guided by Jac, after a couple of minutes “free flights” after the release.
Approaches were accurately radio guided by Jac, the first a classic L shaped; the second the same but managed by myself; th followings were more touchy like U shape, S shape, high rate of descent (using full speedbrakes, winglets and a higher speed).
On the last day, we were able to fly ridge soaring along with paragliders.
To cut a long story short, I was able to progress quickly and safely, I immediately felt comfortable in the Swiftlight. Jac is delivering a very efficient training: briefing, debriefing, radio guidance…
And in an always very friendly atmosphere; I won’t forget those 4 days.
Thanks a lot Jac!!!
Vincent
Initial training:
Bungee launched short flights are a good way to fly with no stress at low height on about 200 to 300 meters, only surprise was the vigorous acceleration by release.
You quickly get familiar with the handling, and in fact it flies very well by itself, the less you use the flight controls the better it flies.
First real solo flight:
On a sunny and calm early November day, for the first aero-towed flight I was a bit worried by the flap handling just after take off: although I retracted the flaps a bit early, it was quite easy to follow the tow plane; I started relaxing at about 100m height, released the tension I had unconsciously put on the winglets, tuned a bit the flap position and then it really flies all by itself. It’s way easier than on a flexwing hanglider and as easy as a regular glider.
After release at about 2100m msl, Jacques gave me instructions through the radio, stalls, high bank angle turns, using speedbrakes plus rudder and speed above 80kmh (it sinks faster than a glider), etc. No stress, a feeling of safety, a real pleasure.
Jacques S.
