Product Description

As the official manual of the world famous British Gliding Association, this book is compulsory reading for all pilots and instructors. Highly illustrated and designed to be user-friendly, it guides the user through a comprehensive range of key subjects. 'Must-have' information is highlighted which, together with the less critical material, provides an authoritative and cutting-edge resource which can be studied or dipped into as required. Making complex topics comprehensible and including 400 illustrations to enhance the explanatory material, this is the manual of gliding.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #704299 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

About the Author
Gliding in the UK is governed directly by the British Gliding Association, allowing them to cater specifically for the needs of the country's pilots and clubs. This volume exploits this inside knowledge, and taps into the BGA's extensive experience of providing first-class training for first-class glider pilots and instructors.

Customer Reviews

A comprehensive review of the science of gliding
This book is not for the beginner of somebody casually interested in the sport of gliding. This book has been written for those who need to know the whys and wherefores of why gliders behave in the way they do. As such it is a quest for the scientific underpinnings of flight in essence Aeronautics. If you buy the book with this in mind I dont feel you will be disappointed. The concepts are concisely stated with relevant diagrams. Not a book to be read cover to cover but dipped into when you want to know why your instructor is giving you certain advice but cant tell you why the thing works that way.

Not a beginner's handbook.
As one reviewer has pointed out, you could make the mistake of buying this book thinking that it is a guide to learning to fly gliders. It is not, other books do that.

This book could be called "The Physics of Flying". It takes you through various aspects of flying: lift, drag, stalling,instruments; and explains in detail what is happening from a scientific perspective.

It is perfectly possible to learn to fly without knowing a lot of this - but I have found that knowing these things has made learning to fly a glider quicker and more interesting.

By using very clear diagrams, rather than pictures, Longland explains things step by step and treats the reader as an intelligent person, but one prepared to make some effort to understand. It is neither "dumbed down" nor submerged in technical jargon.

It is a book I shall have on the shelf and refer to for years to come.

Thorough and comprehensive
This is a thorough manual, nicely seperating into things you must know and the background information for people who like to understand more (or ar prospective full-cat instructors). Previously you had to delve through seperate gliding manuals, now at least here is one bible that you can recommend to guide the aspiring pilot through the technical steps on his way to a fully pledged cross-country soaring pilot.