Plain Soaring Analytical Decision Making

George was analytical in his decision making. "Jo is there a particular reason we deviated that three degrees when on final glide?" was something Jo Davis heard from the backseat of the Nimbus. I am not saying that there are not times that we may wonder because we feel that there is lift or there is a wisp. However, there are many times that we wonder, truly aimlessly. That lack of attention is what might cause us to miss a wisp and catch the thermal that gets you home.

I took a student in wave earlier this week, climbed almost to 11,000ft with a forecast of 40knts of wind we ended up drifting backwards. His lack of attention cost us 2000ft to move back into the wind to the lift.

I feel George had his work cut out for him, 5 years he flew with a lot of early twenty-year-old who raced by a whim and enthusiasm. George and Maren took on a slightly older group for another 6 years, totaling 11 years of coaching. I flew and made quick decisions based on hope and optimism. I held the best statistical flight with a 350km triangle at 150kph and 9% thermalling. All because I said I could make it the rest of the way without turning. It took some very calculated planning to go straight for 91% of the flight.

We would see a cloud out in the distance and that would be our target cloud. Then we would discuss how we could get there. We would explain the path we would take, then George would ask about why we were not taking another path. We would have to look at all of the paths and truly make sure we were picking the correct one with the available information.

Sometimes a path you had not thought about turned out to be the best path. You might have only been looking in the short-term not taking into account that in 10 miles it is the clear path to be on. Defending your decisions analytically is a lot of work but it gets you to look at all of the possibilities and make the best decisions.

You have to train yourself to look at the sky and look at all of the decisions to make the best decision. It takes a lot of practice to continually think and plan ahead. A small falter can be the end of a great flight.

 Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.