Athlete Profile

• Name: Nathanael West
• College: Churchill
• Degree: Engineering
• Hometown: Wurmlingen, Germany

Nathanael West can often be found jetting off into the air at the Cambridge Gliding Centre in the nearby village of Little Gransden. It’s a sport he can’t speak highly enough of. But glider pilots are a unique sort. Their craft are engine-less, lifted into the air only by a powerful winch, and have to take advantage of thermal updrafts to have any chance of staying in the air. And though it might not seem that way to you, he wants to make it clear that gliding is a sport as safe as any other. It really is for the faint-hearted.

Here the CUGC captain tells all about how, as a secondary school pupil in Germany, he threw caution to the wind and became a glider pilot. 

Can you give us a summary of gliding?

Gliding is the practice of flying a plane that does not have an engine, i.e. a glider. Due to the lack of engine you are dependent on naturally occurring updrafts of air, thermals, to stay airborne for a significant amount of time. Your job as a glider pilot is to find those thermals, use them to gain height and then convert that height into distance (to get somewhere and preferably back again). On good days there will be lots of thermals and you can do cross-country flying, covering large distances (the UK record is 1109km). Gliding also involves spending time on the airfield, helping other glider pilots, and is quite a social activity as you are reliant on other people to get in the air.

How did you even get into it in the first place?

I personally started gliding in Germany, in the south-west, an area in which gliding is quite popular due to the weather conditions. As a child I had always wanted to become a pilot, a wish I could finally fulfill upon taking up gliding. However, we have many members who started gliding at university, without any prior experience!

What’s the hardest thing about gliding?

Staying in the air!

What do you need to be a success at gliding?

Lots of time! As with most things, one can only become a good glider pilot through lots of practice. Also it’s a definite plus if you’re not afraid of heights.

Who is the most famous athlete in your sport?

Off the top of my head: Otto Lilienthal, the first person to make repeated, successful gliding flights. His gliding flights inspired the world as he showed that one day, the possibility of flying machines could become practical. In 1896 he suffered a crash in his glider, dying soon after. His last words were “Sacrifices must be made!” Don’t let that discourage you from trying out gliding, though, aviation safety has improved a lot over the past century and gliding is quite a safe sport.

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Is gliding really a sport?

Gliding requires and trains motor skills like eye/hand coordination, balancing, positioning in 3D and although flying an aircraft may not be considered physical exercise, gliding can indeed be tiring at times. When you’re on the airfield you spend a considerable amount of time pushing aircraft from one place to another. Being subjected to the sun for an entire day is another factor. Also, the body has to adjust to the change in height and the resulting change in pressure you experience in the glider. Thermals can be quite narrow at times, especially close to the ground. Using these thermals effectively means making narrow turns at high bank angle, resulting in higher G-forces. All these factors contribute to the fact that I don’t have any trouble falling asleep after a day of gliding.

What’s the state of the sport in Cambridge? What kind of facilities do you have access to?

Gliding is a half-blue sport in Cambridge. We, the Cambridge University Gliding Club, share an airfield with the Cambridge Gliding Club. We have a high-performance glider of our own, an ASW19, and can use the many aircraft belonging to the Cambridge Gliding Club.

How do you compete against other glider pilots?

That depends! We do compete in Varsity, and usually the objective is cumulative height gain, so basically a test of what’s called thermalling skills [catching onto updrafts of warm air]. However, last year we did Varsity towards the end of the year, when there are fewer thermals, so we decided to do spot landings [landing on a strictly demarcated point] instead. ‘Regular’ gliding competitions usually involve getting from one place to another as quickly as you can.

Some might say that gliding is a sport only available to members of certain socio-economic statuses. How do you respond to that?

Flying is indeed quite expensive, however, things get relatively cheap once you remove the engine! Also, a lot less can go wrong without an engine. If you want to learn how to fly, gliding will most definitely be the least expensive way. Once you convert to our single seater, you will be paying £8.25 for a winch launch and £9 per hour for the aircraft, not too bad at all I think!

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What kind of training schedule do you have?

In contrary to most other university sports we don’t have regular training times. You go to the airfield and fly whenever you want and find time for it.

And how do you reconcile a Cambridge workload and your training schedule?

You can! However, gliding can be quite time-consuming as you spend at least half a day on the airfield when you go flying. Though half a day every one or two weeks is not a huge investment compared to some other university sports.

How would you persuade people to get involved?

Try it for yourself! Gliding is the closest you can possibly get to being a bird. For me, gliding is a great way of clearing my mind when I get too stressed with work. The Cambridge University Gliding Club offers trial flights regularly, which are listed on our website. You can also find lots of general information about gliding on there too.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity