Here is some basic but more technical information for those who are more interested.

The instrument panel below illustrates what you might find in a glider. This particular panel can be found on a Discus B glider belonging to Surrey and Hants, the single seater club at Lasham.

The ASI (Air Speed Indicator), Vario (Mechanical Variometer) and Altimeter are the basic three instruments that you will tend to find in all gliders, along with the compass. The Turn/Slip instrument is essentially an artificial horizon that can be used when cloud flying. (Usually when soaring up through a large cloud.) The electric vario and L-Nav are very useful variometers that also do way more besides. Many gliders will have other forms of electric varios. The radio is handy for contacting people on the ground, and also talking to fellow glider pilots - especially useful when on a cross country flight.

The GPS is not shown here. However last Spring I bought a Garmin II+ GPS. When it plugs in it connects up the the glider's power supply and L-Nav via that GPS socket. I wrote a review of the Garmin II+ which appeared in Gliding Magazine on 29th October. Click here to read the article.

One of the most useful and accurate instruments, however, is not seen here. It is the yaw string, taped near the front end of the canopy. This tells you if you are going straight, or sideslipping a bit.

Note: In 2011 the Lasham Discus instrument panels were updated. The centrepiece is now a ClearNav moving map display. They replace the old L-Navs. It certainly makes navigating cross country easier than ever. The switches are now much better laid out and easier to understand. The gliders also now take 3 batteries. Two in the rear are connected in parallel to provide more power for the L-Nav, and one under the instrument panel, which now lifts up in all three gliders. Watch this space for a new image showing this set up.