cross country
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March 31, 2022
The genesis of this article was an email question, sent in by a new XC pilot to an XC program panel where I was a mentor. The writer wanted to know if his club’s new acquisition of a higher performance single place glider might mean that newer XC pilots like him could participate in a Regional contest with a plan for “airport hopping” on tasks and thus avoid the challenge
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February 25, 2021
It happens all too often when we find a day where there are good soaring possibilities or life gets in the way which doesn’t allow for cross country. Too short a soaring window, restrictions on the sailplane because of club requirements, the wind is too strong, you’re not feeling up to it, etc.
Rather than just aimlessly flying around the local airfield, some of the below items can be practiced
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January 28, 2021
It happens to all of us, but how we deal with it is very different for everybody. Some will roll over & resign to an out landing far too early, others will get hyper-focused & climb away in the smallest of bubbles. You make your own luck, though occasionally there's nothing you can do & you'll be on the ground regardless. So what can we do to avoid getting low? What can we do to deal with
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August 27, 2020
Editor Note - With schools quickly getting fired up again in some form or another, I thought it might be nice for our readers to read a traditional summer essay written by a newly minted CFI-G who is currently going to college, and represents the future of our sport. Soaring is not dead, folks, it is simply going through a handoff from the baby boomers being the old heads and mentoring Generation
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February 13, 2020
I had just turned 15 years old in 1991, weighed about 87 pounds and had to sit on two barbell weights to get up to the minimum pilot weight in 1-26 #368. However, this was my second-year flying, and I was now really getting the hang of this! I was not only flying the glider well; I was learning how to soar! I had gotten my Bronze Badge and studied cross country flying. I had
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September 19, 2019
Answer: We safely land out.
Going cross country can be intimidating and scary and intense. But really it should be safe; if it is not, you are doing it wrong. Of course, you have to have enough experience before attempting; I am not talking to my newly soloed students here. But ones that are competent at thermalling, finding lift, and good at spot landing.
Being comfortable not returning
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March 08, 2019
35:1 at 70knots
A typical flight in the ASW-19 I would see 35:1 at 70knts (I fly on the strong days). However, the glider is really only able to achieve somewhere around 20:1 at that speed. Either this ASW-19 is really good or I was selecting a good path. So a fun goal I set is 50% of the polar (not best L/D), but anytime you are better than the polar you are doing something right.
Lack
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February 28, 2019
What about practicing by yourself? Most of us end up flying by ourselves, many of my single seat flights are mid-week when it is slower with students. The problem becomes that you do not have any other pilots to base your flying against. There is no way of knowing if you made the best decisions. Thankfully we have
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February 14, 2019
Inspections
Currently, we are doing yearly condition inspection and inspecting the water system. The bags have not been used for a long time and the current owner has never used them. We decided to start out first by leak testing the bags, pulling them out of the wing and leaving them full for a few hours to make sure there were no signs of leaks. The
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October 04, 2018
Why are we cruising in this direction? Why not 10 degrees to the right or left? You should be heading in a precise direction, you should always be trying to increase your odds and find the next area of lift, even finding less sink is great. You should try each and every source. You should be trying every area along the way that you think will produce lift. Of course, you still have to think about deviation