The gliding sport:
Nature and advanced technology
Gliding is a sport in harmony with nature: Thirty seconds of fuel for a winch launch, then, with help of natures own power source, the thermals (rising warm air masses) are used to climb to considerable heights, without the use of an engine, without pollution and noise.
Onboard, sophisticated instruments , together with the elegant and efficient designes of modern gliders, constructed from modern materials like carbon-fibers, has made gliding a truly high-tech sport.
While some glider pilots enjoy freedom, aesthetic pleasure and the joy of mastering their machines, others focus on their performance in competitions. These competitions challenge the ability of pilots and co-pilots (in the case of two-seater machines) to recognize and use the aerological conditions as well as their flying and navigation qualities. Finally, there is also the practice of gliding aerobatics.
The “art” of gliding means mainly to pass through air masses with climbing speeds that are higher than the glider’s own rate od descent and gaining potential energy (without losing kinetic energy). As ascending air masses, or thermals are generally very narrow, the pilots must describe circles inside to exploit them to the maximum. The term often used is “spiral”, although the trajectory described by the glider in an ascendancy is helical.
Show more about gliding
Pilots often talk about “refueling”, the goal being to reach the highest altitude possible for a given thermal. The potential energy of the glider – or its altitude, which means the same – can be considered as its fuel.
A novice pilot “refuels every 7 to 8 km, if conditions permit. An experienced pilot, who makes better use of the glider’s performance, can spread the altitude recoveries up to 25 km. He is happy, when he crosses an thermal but believes he still has enough energy to continue his journey, to reduce his speed to make the most of the thermal, without stopping and describe circles on the spot.
The most known ascending air-masses are:
- thermal air currents or thermal lift that are the result of differences in air temperature;
- the updrafts due to the effect of slope when the wind hits the foothills of a relief forcing it to pass over, the altitude gain rarely exceeds 700 m above the top of the ridge; these lifts are called dynamic lifts
- the ascents of the wave flight depending on the ridge and the weather and which allow very large gains in altitude thus allowing the altitude records to more than 13 000m
Exploitation of the effects of the wind on the ridge -effect of slope, wave or wind gradient- is referred to as the generic term of orographic flight. In competition, the challenges can be of different types:
- either a fixed goal in a minimum of time;
- either a free circuit where only the distance is taken into account;
Our members
The Cercle Luxembourgeois de Vol à Voile CLVV is a truly international flying club, with members from all over Europe, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Norway etc. The common denominator, is the shared passion for gliding !
Communication among this small European community is excellent. Many members are multilingual or speak “Euromix”, the universal language originating from the Useldange Aerodrome.
CLVV is a member of the Federation Aeronautique Luxembourgeoise, the Luxembourg association of all flying and airial sports clubs
CLVV History
On March 9th, 1958, the statutes of the Cercle Luxembourgeois de Vol à Voile are signed by 35 gliding enthusiasts.
At first, the new club has neither land nor flying equipment, but following the dissolution of the gliding section of the L.A.S.E.L. (the League of Luxembourg Student Sports Associations), the CLVV recovers the flying material of this section and can continue to exercise its sports activities on the “airfield” in Reichelange.