[Scan-DC] Glider frequencies -- 123.3 MHz (main) & 123.5 MHz (backup)

[Andrew Clegg]

A friend and I stopped by Front Royal airport (FRR) on Saturday. It's a very 
small airport staffed by some very friendly aviation enthusiasts. FRR sees a 
lot of glider activity, since they are at the foot of the Shenandoah 
mountains. A prop plane is used to tow the gliders up in the air ($32 per 
tow), then they detach from the tether, and the gliders stay aloft on 
thermal currents. They can be up as long as 3.5 hours, although an hour is 
apparently more typical. It depends on the currents. The gliders stay below 
8000 ft and they are outside of the controlled Dulles air space.

Anyway, one of the glider pilots gave us a close look at his glider, and we 
talked to him quite a bit about the radios. In his, he runs a standard VHF 
radio tuned to the FRR unicom frequency, but when he's up in the air, there 
are also two national "glider-to-glider" frequencies that he uses. So of 
course I scanned those frqeuencies all weekend, and caught some "glider 
chatter" from about 20 miles away from the airport. Anyway, I wasn't aware 
that there were standard glider frequencies, and thought others might be 
interested in listening in. I am back in Arlington now and I can hear some 
activity, although they are quite weak, even with my antenna at 200 ft. I 
suspect most or all of the activity is only on warm, sunny weekends. 
According to the glider pilot, the best time of day for gliding is mid 
afternoon on a sunny day, when the heat currents are at their greatest.

If you ever get a chance, stop by FRR on a sunny summer afternoon. It 
appears that they are launching gliders just about every sunny weekend day. 
We saw two launches in the space of an hour. It's a nice place to bring 
sandwhiches and a drink. They have chairs outside in back of the terminal 
where you can sit and watch the activity from just a few tens of feet away. 
They also have an airshow coming up on Sep 12th. Unfortunately I'll be on 
travel then.

Cheers!
Andy

FRR unicom: 123.0 MHz
National glider-to-glider frequency (main): 123.3 MHz
National glider-to-glider frequency (backup): 123.5 MHz
FRR info: http://www.airnav.com/airport/KFRR