Post Flight Learning
What do you think about on the drive home after an enjoyable days soaring? Is it about the family and all the things you need to do at home, the coming week's work, or the party you’re going to tonight? All things that need to be thought about and rather normal, but if you really want to make progress in your soaring career, then you should ask yourself, what did I learn today?
Learning from Mistakes
As you know, gliding is mostly a mental sport, which means that we need to put a little thought into the mind. You probably did many things well during todays flight, but what about the not-so-good things? Have you already put them aside, or are you willing to front them so you don’t repeat the same mistakes twice? Making mistakes is human nature, learning from the mistakes of others is important too, but there are big learnings in making mistakes of your own, analysing, then locking in the lessons.
The Good
We often pat ourselves on the back for doing something well, which is all fine and well, as long as we also learn from it. Why did your day, flight, or decisions at particular times go well? Perhaps it was your nutrition for clear thinking, or you identified a drier patch of ground along your route that others hadn’t, or you realised that the thermals were really strong at altitude and focused on staying high at all costs.
The Bad
But what about the poor things? Maybe you are an early solo student, two of your friends thermalled away from the airfield seemingly effortlessly, but you took three attempts and still only did circuits. Was your failure because of bad luck and you’ve made up your excuses to help forget about it? Or are you going to be real and honest with yourself, you were relying on luck rather than good management. On your drive home, this is the perfect time to reflect on your flights. Perhaps you might realise that you didn’t have a plan when you took off, that you didn’t realise that the thermals were slightly downwind of the likely trigger points. Remember, your flights serve no purpose at all, if you haven’t thought about the good and bad points of the flight, these crucial lessons will be removed from your memory. This is one of the reasons why I run my facebook page, @Adam Woolleys Gliding Adventures – it’s a tool for me to debrief my own flights, to share my experiences so others can learn, whether they be good or bad experiences. I use my driving time to dream up soaring scenarios, to prepare my mind for the days flying, and of course, as my own personal self-reflection time, be honest with yourself!
Take Action
The learning process doesn’t have to be only related to flight, what if you were having issues with concentration or fatigue on the way home? How much water did you drink today, what did you eat, have you eaten? Perhaps it’s dehydration and poor nutrition as the reason. Time to pull over, get the CamelBak out and have a drink, finish off that banana that you didn’t eat. Reassess, did your energy levels return for the rest of the drive home? If so, then take this as a lesson. How can I implement this into the cockpit so I don’t forget? Perhaps buy a simple timer set to alert every 30 minutes, put a post-it note on the panel, or set up the alert function on your LX90XX to say, ‘Eat, drink, think clearly'.
Make every flight count for something with good debriefs on the drive home, it’s another wonderful way to continue to enjoy this wonderful sport of ourselves, and to always strive for better, further, faster, and higher!
Banner photo by Holger Weitzel, aufwind-luftbilder.de
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.
