From beginner to SPL in less than two years

In this story, Mabel, our secretary, reveals how she went from complete beginner to holding an SPL, all in less than two years.

Coming to Cambridge to read chemical engineering, I have learnt a bit about how lift can be generated provided the right profile of wings and how temperature difference leads to density difference leads to fluid motion, also known as thermals, apparently. However, I had no idea that the two could go together and one could fly without an engine for hours on end. Even the idea of actually flying was more than remote. It was too risky, too much hassle, and too expensive…until I was tricked into a trial flight in the late spring of 2021.

Then everything happened all in a whirlwind: I learnt to plan a circuit and land; soared with birds while watching the summer sun throws its whole colour palette on the evening sky; solo’d; took off in my first single-seater flight; ploughed through the winter months being acquainted with a hundred ways that weather can cancel flying; embarked on my first CUGC expedition to Portmoak (albeit sent back by Covid); passed my bronze test in September 2022, and left the local airspace with a chart and compass (and found my way back!).

Yet the Bernoulli part of the flying is only half of the picture. What surprises me even more is the club and more specifically its lovely people. In my first training session, the launch marshal told me that gliding is a team sport but the team is on the ground while you are in the sky. He could not be more right: the instructors go above and beyond to help the student pilots progress while keeping everyone safe and well-fed with pork pies; CUGC magically keeps the show running throughout the winter months; senior CGC and CUGC members come out in freezing temperatures to volunteer as ground crew; secret squads fix the winch, check the gliders, and pave the ground all behind the scenes… The list could go on and on. Gliding would be unimaginably challenging without a whole club of competent and encouraging members behind one’s back. Learning to glide as a complete novice would be even more unimaginable without CUGC, not only for its practical initiatives that keep training slots accessible and transport affordable; but also for the community of student pilots, to have tea with, to push gliders with, and very occasionally, to fly with.

Mabel Qiao (Secretary 2022-23)

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