Preparing for the upcoming soaring season
How are you going to schedule your time? Are you out for the winter and start getting the glider ready the first weekend in April? Are you headed to the seniors in March then off to Perry, and stay in South Carolina for the 15meter Nationals, then...? Maybe you are flying all winter like me and had a nice 14,000ft flight on Sunday in the wave.
More points to you if you figured out a way to get to the Southern Hemisphere, revisit summer and get some flying in. In Douglas South Africa, Laszlo Hegedus of Hungary just set the 100km triangle speed record. Bitterwasser broke one hundred 1000km flights this season before the new year. Tony Condon just finished the Formula 1.0. At the Pre-Women's World Gliding Championships in Australia US Pilots Sarah Arnold, Kathy Fosha and Sylvia Grandstaff are preparing so they can snatch the podium next year.
But most likely you are taking the winter off, staying warm and getting all of the things done you neglected last summer.
How are you going to set-up your schedule? Most of us cannot head off to 6 contest this summer. But let’s start with your spring refresher flights and flight review. What is on your weakness table that you can work on with an instructor?
If you want to fly on every Saturday April-September. Don’t look at the weather. After all of this talk about learning SkySight.io? Look after you are rigged and ready to launch. Be prepared, it will get you ready to race and teach you how to grid squat.
Grid squatting is being ready to launch but waiting for the weather to improve. Sometimes this will last 15 minutes sometimes 4 hours. Being ready to race at peak performance after laying under the wing for two hours convinced there is no way you are going to fly. That is the challenge. Staying focused that whole time, being at peak performance when you close the canopy, even when you are still in disbelief you are launching.
When you look at the weather before leaving the house you can easily convince yourself it won't be very good and miss a good soaring day. This was the story of a few private owners who missed some amazing days last summer because the morning sounding wasn’t very good and the day turned out to be a 750km day...
John Seaborn is probably the most prepared US contest pilot. There is nothing he is not prepared for or has a plan for. Everyday his Ventus is ready to race. The first contest I flew with him he was towing out to the grid while I made my way out of the tent. I would still make grid time, but occasionally there was some scrambling or something forgot. Meanwhile, John is relaxing in his car or otherwise staying relaxed. In the years to follow, I never beat John to the grid (I am really not a morning person) but I did start my glider prep much earlier and began to grid on the early side of the main group. Gridding early has saved me multiple times when I had a flat tire but had time to spare to fix it before gridding closed.
Be ready for an early launch to attempt your 750km flight and when the right day strikes your Saturday you are ready to go.
I have seen guys come out that finally had a good day to go flying, but they were out of practice rigging and it took them an exceptionally long time to assemble, wasting part of the day and more importantly wasting a lot more energy than necessary. Also without a checklist and no rote memory, forgetting items. I have seen people drive back home to get keys, batteries, loggers, Camelbaks, PDA's, licenses... I have walked over to my house to get pilots pee bags, Cliffbars, a hat, sunglasses, sun shirts, SPOT, USB sticks, batteries, I have made battery harnesses, made lunch. All because of no checklists at home when preparing to fly.
I already wrote an article on checklists that start well before your flying day, so you should have been using them for a few seasons now. But if you missed it you can check it out here.
Your schedule might be every other Saturday, Once a week, or multiple contests. Have a plan, you might need to start now for spousal approval. The schedule could include a reading list, maintenance for the glider, taking the time to learn the flight computer, improving your health before next season (or installing the brass tailwheel because you didn't), camps, a safari, contests, a 3day weekend at the airport.
Next week I will discuss ways to practicing at your home field.
SkySight
SkySight is a weather forecasting service. It's the most advanced next-generation soaring weather modeling available to pilots. See extreme high resolution, state–of–the–art weather forecasting, up to 5 days out.
With SkySight's high resolution you can spot convergences and mountain wave. Use powerful interactive tools to analyze forecasts in detail, skewT's, point forecasts, cross sections and more.
SkySight predicts cumulus cloud depth, cloudbase and overdevelopment potential.
LXNAV S10/S100
The LXNAV S10X is a standalone digital variometer, final glide calculator and navigation system with a simple moving map. The LXNAV S10x has both GPS/Flarm and PDA/PNA input/output. The unit has standard dimensions that will fit into a glider panel with an opening of 80 mm diameter (3.15″) or 57 mm diameter. It is also able to supply a PDA/PNA with power (5VDC/1A).
The unit has an integrated high precision digital pressure sensor and inertial system. The sensors are sampled more than 100 times per second. Real-Time Data is displayed via a vario needle, an airspace map and up to 4 variable number fields displayed on a QVGA 320x240 pixel, 3.5″ (S100) or 2.5″ (S10), high brightness (1200 nits) color display. To adjust values and settings the LXNAV S10x has two rotary pushbutton knobs and three additional push buttons.
The S10x unit includes a built-in IGC–approved flight recorder, a Bluetooth module and it's own backup battery which provides from 3 to 4.5 hours of independent operation.
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.