Monthly Archives: June 2017

'A smart man learns from his mistakes a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.'

Many of us have made mistakes that cost us a podium finish. Everyone has done something that cost us points, the question is at what stage of your racing career do you learn?

A few days ago an anonymous pilot failed to use a checklist. Turned a 72 mph flight (a would-be winning speed for the day) to

You have done your homework, you have flown with your map to see how practical it really is (revision 3?). Hopefully you found a 2-seater and experienced pilot to take you cross-county and talk about judgment and planning (I am always available at Sky Sailing in our S10vt).

Another fun option is doing some lead and follow. I have successfully done this with more advanced students. The only real

I would be lying if I said your first cross country will be totally relaxed. Actually, if you are not a little scared you are probably doing something wrong. The below topics are what I have my students do when they come to be.

Of course, you have read all you can on cross-country flying, tactics, and weather.

I would use a mentor and the OLC to get a good idea for your first task.

Don't land out, that definitely defines the line of pushing too hard. You can see on the graph above (graph from @SouthAfricanGlidingTeam ) how devastating one bad day can be.

My classic lawn darting experience was in 2005 at the Standard Class Nationals. The last few days placing were 3rd, 5th, 2nd, a 1st.....Then I didn't even make it 20miles....I had to take a relight that day, and did not

When you have artillery pointed at your tail it's definitely time to go. Otherwise, the simple, fail-safe, hard-fast rule, for determining when to stay and wait it out...well, there is not one. I had some questions and was asked to expand on the newsletter from two weeks ago. But a lot of this is intuition and experience.

Waiting in zero sink while waiting for the thermal to kick-off might be