To be fair, driving a drag car, competitively, is a world apart from driving a racing car, competitively, on the track, with other cars around you; or a rally car with all the scenery around you (here’s looking at you, Michele Mouton!).

If the Dark Lord Ecclestone ever dies, and if he is buried in the UK, I am going to find his grave and take a very good leak on top of it, because that’s what he deserves.

Winch cable is pulled across the runway by a car (the longer the runway, higher it can climb) to the other side, where the gliders are. Winch pulls the glider, and the glider turns the horizontal acceleration into a vertical (we usually do it by keeping the constant airspeed, some 55-60kt). Acceleration and climb rate…

It started off with a funny photo, but the rest of it was a very civilised discussion from my side; I have presented really credible facts and arguments, but Patrick George disagreed and greyed me out for 6 months. It was last August, I think.

Sometimes, that is the only way to get people’s attention. Last time I made a civilised complaint about Jalopnik’s obsession with Lewis Hamilton’s private life, I got greyed out, even though quite a lot of people supported me (but not Patrick George). I was under the impression that the good news writers are supposed…

Winches are often V8s, truck or marine sourced ones, but sometimes, they can be diesels, so not much of pleasant roar from that one, only smokescreen (especially if it is running on fuel oil).

There is nothing like being hauled up to the sky by a powerful winch; 0-60 in 3sec and 0-2000ft in around 20sec. Also, check this out:

This discussion is pointless as we are both trying to change each others polar-opposite opinions, without any success.

Then the gliding is the way to go! I started out with gliders only because I wanted to fly, not because I was interested in soaring, but then, couple of weeks into the theoretical part of the training, I was instantly hooked onto it.

Seriously? So you think that a decade of following him closely - watching/reading his interviews, comments and other stuff about him does not qualify me to judge his personality? If I were to actually have a conversation with him, I would ask him what the hell is his problem.

And this:

For safety reasons; if there is any sort of a failure during the tow phase, glider will have to make an emergency landing, and glider pilots have a tendency to forget about the landing gear - twice I’ve seen people land with the gear up. That’s why the SOPs are followed during the critical phases of flight - take off…

It’s true! There is a military AN/FPS-117 radar less than 100 miles from our airfield and it sees quite a lot. When parachute drops are conducted from above the allowed altitude, ATC sees it. When metal gliders punch above the zone, they see it. When wooden or fiberglass gliders do so, they rarely see it.

Now you are just throwing around nonsense in attempt to gain the upper hand. I can’t be a third party in this discussion as I am talking to you; Hamilton is a third party as we are talking about him. Also, you know too little about me to judge my personality, while we know quite a lot about Hamilton’s, and BTW, you…

Forward slip?

Glider pilots always carry one, due to risk of collision and the possibility of getting trapped over a terrain where you can’t make an outfield landing.

A fun story: certain pilots in my flying club often break the maximum permitted altitude, but when flying with the fiberglass gliders, ATC never sees them; when aluminum gliders do so, we immediately receive an angry call from the authorities.

Gliding is awesome! Check this out:

Does anyone still use bungee cords?

Does anyone still use bungee cords?