Above: The Puchacz glider, a Polish design, had one

main undercarriage wheel just behind the cockpit and

a smaller one below the nose.

Strapped into the seat with the Perspex bubble

canopy closed, it felt quite roomy inside but,

like a rally car or Dave Jenkins’s racing truck,

there were no creature comforts – just an air

vent in the instrument panel. It makes sense.

Why would you want to install any kind of fancy

trim when what you really need to do is to save

weight wherever you can?

Gliders generally take off and land using just one

wheel below the cockpit area and a tail skid.

When the tow plane started dragging us forward,

the wings were levelled out and we were rumbling

off down the runway, but not for long. We were

90  HUMAN POWERED AIRCRAFT

in the air in no time, flying smoothly behind the

tow plane up to around 4,000 feet (just over

1,200 metres), at which point the tow cable was

released and we were on our own.

Guy showed me some basic manoeuvres,

banking left and right, explaining how to use

the rudder pedals along with the control stick,

and then he let me have a go. I knew he was

right behind me and could take over if I made

a hash of it, but I still felt a bit nervous handling

a glider on my very first flight! The controls

were incredibly sensitive and needed a very

gentle touch, but I managed to change direction

without sending us hurtling towards the

ground. That would come next.

Guy wanted to demonstrate how a wing will

stall. He pulled the nose up and our air speed