Achieving Success in Competitive Gliding
After the UK Junior World Gliding Championships in 2005, I focused on my career and the initial goal: to be based in BNE (Brisbane Airport) for a reputable airline. However, the burning desire to compete at a high standard always lingered during that time without gliding. In this article, I describe my preparations, action time at the Club Class Nationals, and one big mistake I made to miss out on a podium finish.
Preparations: Glider, Attitudes & Time in the Sky
It was the year 2011. VH-GQT, my father's old Cirrus 75, came up for sale. This was my opportunity to start working towards my next goal—to make the seniors Club Class team, Finland 2014, before embarking on the final lifetime goal of becoming a World Glider Champion.
My father and I started working on this excellently maintained glider straight away, with no stone left unturned with regard to the tweaking of the glider's performance. While I’m not the greatest pilot (yet!) to take advantage of the gains in the glider performance, I’m a firm believer in getting points for free – I’ve always made sure at every competition I enter, as of Day 1, there are no excuses for putting in my best performance each and every day. Anything that comes up and I haven’t prepared for is my lack of attention to detail/preparation.
Every rostered day off, I was dedicated to practice, with the exception of a couple of tweaks that took a weekend longer than expected. Kingaory Soaring Clubs' culture is second to none in Australia. We all practice and have fun with purpose, normally as one. Every weekend, rules, tasks, and de-briefs are set—always tailored to the conditions, upcoming competitions, and practice techniques.
My focus on these practice days was to gain confidence in changing gears, probability, 2 x short AAT's (Assigned Area Tasks) per day to get to know my glide computer (ClearNav! at the time) intimately, the first 50km and the last 90km of a flight. Finally, I entered every competition and coaching course I possibly could. Notable fortnights were with G Dale, the Australian Squad, and the Multi-Class Nationals.
Action: Kingaroy, Day 1, Club Class Nationals, 2012
The championship airfield and organisation are ready. The glider, ready. Self, ready. Day one had arrived, feeling good with plenty of positive energy – just as I had worked towards and envisaged. My game-plan, DON’T LOSE TODAY, or any day. It was a day of changing conditions, first in the blue not above 5,000’AGL in the valley, then into a wave-affected day with CU to 8,000’AGL, signing off with a 15kt tailwind to take us home.
I made a late start due to the thermals having no punch to them, as well as not going to an ideal height. Finally, I get a climb that’s worth taking right over my start point; it's time to have some fun! Up the valley towards Wondai, I line up the local thermals and soon notice gliders on the second leg. I repeat to myself, don’t lose today. Keep flying your own flight, Adam. The pattern of the day came into play regularly in this section – it was the red paddocks with farmhouses surrounding them.
There’s “Mike Fox & Victor 4”, fantastic—great start, now just caught up with great company on the second leg. Don’t lose today. I back off and let Allan and Jim do the work, though I am still keeping an eye on things. Sadly, this didn’t really work for me – three times in fact Allan left me, each time picking him back up using my own race attitude – lesson?
We enter the wave affected sky, instantly it’s apparent that you need to be on the Northern side of the CU’s and never low with the cool ground and strong winds. With markers ahead, it was a case of picking the line and taking people down one-by-one. Turning for Chinchilla, I luckily made a 90* turn to fly downwind of track, but directly cross-wind following the highway. This lead to the next pattern of the day, giving great air on all glides, I later found out by an experienced local, it was a wave system set up by the air being compressed together by the scrub, river system, highway and the Bunya Mountains.
Mike Fox, wingtip-to-wingtip together again, just past Chinchilla into the dying sky. One last go at trying to play the game safe. It works; we ease onto a safe final glide and coast on with good air all the way in.
Day Winner, just!
This set the tone for the start of my competition, with the words “Don’t lose today” frequenting my head. Until…
(Editor's note: Adam continues the story next week on the day he lost the Nationals with key takeaways from both articles)
Banner photo by Sean Franke
Adam Woolley was born into the gliding world, being the 3rd generation in his family. Going solo at 15, his thirst for efficiency in soaring flight & quest for a world championship title to his name has never wavered. One big passion is sharing his experiences & joy with other glider pilots all around the world. Adam is an airline pilot in Japan on the B767 & spends his off time chasing summer around the globe. He has now won 7 national Championships & represented Australia at 5 WGC's & 1 EGC.
