Monthly Archives: August 2017

While you are thermalling, you want to be predictable. No erratic movements. No fast changes in direction. At the same time, nothing so slow that the person behind you cannot see what you are intending to do. We all know you should keep your head on a swivel. You want to pay attention to the sailplane ahead of you and follow them while also looking inside of the turn to see if someone is there. You

Do not be intimidated. With new students, there is one glider circling and they want to run the other way, while I am telling them to aim for the glider. Visualize their circle and merge into it just as you would merge onto the freeway. The concept is the same with 1 glider or 50.

However, 50 leads to other problems. It can get very inefficient and hard to get away from once you have joined.

Too many times we get a glider for an annual and the logbook does not show up. This makes it very difficult to complete the paperwork. Many repair stations will not start the maintenance until the logbook is there and is up-to-date.

If the sailplane has a standard airworthiness certificate then you need an IA to do the annual inspection. If it has an experimental certificate then you need and

One of the most common safety issues that come up at contests is gaggle etiquette. At the JWGC 2015, my brother Boyd was the Club Class Safety pilot. His most common "chat" with offending pilots was their inability to safely gaggle fly. Many were being very aggressive trying to gain a few extra feet by compromising safety.

Aggressive gaggle flying is when you cut off another glider in a thermal

In February one of the topics was about landings and to 'not land' when trying to land. To float and dissipate the energy. The following 3 questions are what I repeatedly ask myself on every landing.

Am I high?
Am I low?
Is my speed ok?

They are new separate questions each time. If my speed was fast, I am going to ask it again, because hopefully, I have corrected it since the