What is with glider pilots...

[Shiny Side Up]

... and this hat?



Seriously. Is there something I don't know about? For some reason I've been flying out of a lot of places with glider activity and you can spot everyone who's going to fly a glider by their choice of headwear. At least 3/4 of the glider guys are wearing one of these, and I suspect that the rest of them have one at the ready. Does a typical day for a glider pilot involve getting a tow just after a few fly fishing casts? Is this the international code for "I fly gliders"?

Inquiring minds must know!

[iflyforpie]

It was originally to keep from becoming a baked lobster under the canopy during an FAI triangle or whatever.

Now it is kind of like four bars and white shirts..... a way to look pretentious to 'f-ing power pilots' even when on the ground on an overcast day. They also help to block the view of other traffic.... since they don't need to look for any.

[A346Dude]

If you fly gliders you're exposed to the sun all day long, but a ball cap has a large brim that blocks your view upwards (which is kind of important because there might be someone thermalling just above you).

I fly gliders and I think it's a stupid hat, but that's the reason.

[GyvAir]

I misplaced my usual hat once and bought one just like that (it happened to be about the only one I could find in a pinch that wasn't emblazoned with cartoon characters or flower prints).
I noticed that people treated me strangely for the few days that I wore it around the airport before being reunited with my regular hat. I thought it was because it made me look rather douchey, but now I'm wondering if there was more to it?

[CFR]

If you fly gliders you're exposed to the sun all day long, but a ball cap has a large brim that blocks your view upwards (which is kind of important because there might be someone thermalling just above you).

I fly gliders and I think it's a stupid hat, but that's the reason.

What he said. I tried a ball cap and got rid of it pretty quick! I now wear a boonie cap (which is almost as dorky). 9 more solo's to go!

[Chuck Finley]

So much hate. Yes the hat is ugly. But like it was mentionned before, a regular ball cap blocks the view above ya and that big canopy will get you roasted in no time.

Comparing it to white shirt and epaulets without cause is quite ignorant. Maybe take a fam flight and stop judging what other ppl do all the time.

As for the O.P. i hope it answered your question.

[Colonel Sanders]

The floppy hat is part of the theater
and costume of gliding, like an english
or german accent, and a sneering disdain
for powered aircraft. Unless it's a "tug".

Playing dressup is silly and childish, but
have you looked at all the crap people
riding harleys wear? All the leather chaps
and vests and chains?

PS Don't confuse a glider with an airplane.
An airplane is something that you use, to
go someplace. A glider is something you
use to be in one place, much like a sailboat.

[iflyforpie]

Oh..... believe me..... it's not without cause. Not every glider pilot, but just like those who abuse epauletes and white shirts, enough to make a good stereotype about it.

[frozen solid]

Musicians like to say "you play better in your suit". "Playing dress up" is only silly and childish because of people who are so insecure they like to show the world how cool they are by affecting scorn for everyone who likes things that are different than the things they like. Are greek fishing-boat skippers silly because they all seem to affect that blue peaked hat? Cops, Military guys, some pilots, sailors, baseball players, everyone's got a stupid hat. Sometimes going out wearing the costume is part of the fun. Making fun of someone who is trying to have a good time, look professional or fit in is weak.

Personally I think those white baseball hats with the dead-flat brim and the price tag still on it makes you look like a target I would like to pick on. I bet half you guys have one of those.

Christ you guys are dicks sometimes. It's a hat. Mind your own business.

And no I don't have a glider-hat.

[Chuck Finley]

I am curious, what would make a good Avcanada approved glider hat?

[frozen solid]

I am curious, what would make a good Avcanada approved glider hat?

A helmet, with beer-holders on the sides and bendy straws, and googly-eyes glued onto the back, with a built-in reticle and internet access so they don't miss any "texts".

[photofly]

PS Don't confuse a glider with an airplane.
An airplane is something that you use, to
go someplace.

And if it's a real airplane, you can go someplace while inverted, right?

[Chuck Finley]

And do ground level accrobatics!!

[iflyforpie]

I am curious, what would make a good Avcanada approved glider hat?

Why.... a bucket hat of course.

Just keep it in the plane and don't come tell me in your German accent that I should learn to glide so I can becomes a 'real pilot'....

[Chuck Finley]

i have yet to see a glider pilot tell me i am not a real pilot...

[Chuck Finley]

is there anything wrong with a German accent according to Avcanada?

[iflyforpie]

i have yet to see a glider pilot tell me i am not a real pilot...

At my airport.... I have piston pilots, turbo prop pilots, jet pilots, rotary wing pilots, float pilots, tailwheel pilots, VFR pilots, IFR pilots, paraglider pilots, ultralight pilots, home built pilots, and even the occasional gyroplane pilot.

Not one of those pilots EVER told me that I should go fly their type of aircraft to be a 'real pilot'.


The very first day I came to my field... these guys didn't know me at all.... they come up to me and say 'we should get you up in a glider IFFP.... make you into a REAL pilot'.


I'm sure that not all glider pilots are like that.... but going on 8 summers of this crap, plus this local club and their shoestring operation they've pretty much run into the ground, their distain for any sort of operating rules, the number of 'out landings' that have badly damaged equipment for no good reason, the poor unpaid tow pilots they take ruthless advantage of, the number of deaths, the political infighting that had jeopardized the airport and my livelihood which was 100% their doing....

.... leaves me pretty cynical about that category of flying.

[CFR]

"PS Don't confuse a glider with an airplane.
An airplane is something that you use, to
go someplace. A glider is something you
use to be in one place, much like a sailboat."

I don't know 5-6 hr 300 km round trip seems pretty good for something that stays in one place.

And if it's a real airplane, you can go someplace while inverted, right?

Not certain you would want to, but the above noted trip could be done inverted in some gliders.

And do ground level accrobatics!!

[SIC]

Yup that too. It's all energy management

The very first day I came to my field... these guys didn't know me at all.... they come up to me and say 'we should get you up in a glider IFFP.... make you into a REAL pilot'.

Well that's just rude! I can tell you however that if you have issues with good coordinated rudder control, flying a glider will help sort that out pretty quick.

[Colonel Sanders]

5-6 hr 300 km round trip

Next Thursday I'm going to Toronto. Should
I take the C421 or a glider? Four people are
coming with me. Does the glider have an
IFR GPS?

[frozen solid]

It's amazing how some people can make "going to Toronto" sound like such a big deal.

[Colonel Sanders]

It's amazing how some people can make "going to Toronto" sound like such a big deal

Maybe it is for you, but it really isn't.

And a glider can't do it - next Thursday,
IFR, with four pax.

If a glider actually flew that trip - over
many hours - medals and ribbons would be
awarded, great banquets would be served,
all with strong english and german accents.

A glider is NOT a serious method of
transportation. Like a sailboat, it's how you
spend $$$ being in one place.

your C421 is the right tool for your "world adventure"

Sarcasm? Instead do you think I should take
the Citation, the TBone or the Beech 18? I
was thinking 421, but I yield to your superior
knowledge of aviation.

[CFR]

Colonel,

... I only ask that you acknowledge that a glider/sailplane is capable of much more then lounging around the local airport ...
Mapleflt

You might want to start with something a bit easier and perhaps doable, like reforming COPA.

[lownslow]

Are there still a lot of Germans gliding? I found when I dabbled in gliders a while back most pilots were either middle aged English guys who learned to fly Slingsbys with the Air Cadets back in the home country, or very old German fellows who often started gliding as HJs. One of the Germans even had Messerschmitt 321 time, a glider even the Colonel could come to love.

...and those hats were everywhere.

[alpha1]

An interesting look at the role of gliders in WWII.....

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics ... rld-war-ii

[Shiny Side Up]

.... leaves me pretty cynical about that category of flying.

I've never really had any more trouble with glider guys than any other group of pilots, they definitely are a different bunch though. I can applaud how the club near here certainly is a lot more active than a lot of other clubs that have tangental relations to flying though, there's certainly something to be learned from that. Especially since they're way more active when it comes to retaining their right to do it, I wish I could get that sort of action around my own and other threatened aerodromes.

The Hat thing is funny though. I thought at first maybe its a local thing, and maybe tied to the larger fraction of Germans involved, but then travelling farther afield, the hats seemed to be common whether the group be largely German based or English based, or in the rare cases, French based (one notices that gliding is far more popular in Euro circles - probably due to the increased popularity there).

I do note that as a powered guy I am treated somewhat suspiciously though, like I'm giving away candy from a van at a school yard. I know of a lot more converts to the dark side of powered flying than the other way around.

The best part of having a local gliding club is that they keep a dandy grass strip nearby, with lots of width for initiating tailwheel people, which of course I can make more use of than they can through out the year.