final glide
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October 14, 2021
Prepare for Landing on Final Glide
As you approach your finish use the last 15 km or so to police up the cockpit for landing and get relief systems, oxygen tubing, and other stuff out of the way of the flap, spoilers and landing gear handles. Drink the rest of your water or sports drink, have a bite of something to eat and go through your checklist early - you
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September 30, 2021
In these articles I have avoided reference to specific times of the day - because so much can depend on a particular day, how far east or west you are in your time zone, and what time of year it is. In this section of the article, I define “late in the day” as whatever period your achieved climbs are beginning to trend down in strength because of lower surface heating. As this occurs you have to make
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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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October 29, 2020
Final Glide Gone Wrong
These can be a roller coaster of emotions, at one moment everything is tracking nicely, then you start to get a sense that something isn't quite right, then you fall onto slope with no margin to spare, hope starts to set in, you start to tense up & tunnel vision becomes a factor, right now you need a miracle to get you home - you don't want to be here, this is a
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October 15, 2020
Final Glide Made Easy
An exciting, rewarding, sometimes nervous or anxious part of the flight. Done right, it is usually the first two! If the weather doesn’t go your way, you’ve been too aggressive in your attack or you’re just too late in the day, then it can definitely feel like the latter two. In this article, I aim to share my thoughts on when to start on final glide and how to do it
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March 21, 2019
In previous articles, I talk about using an MC=6 for your final glide settings. Here are other considerations to make sure that you make it home using your flight computer.
At the 2018 WGC Mike and I flew our first flight together in the EB28 ASH25 with an electrical failure and we had to do our final glide by eyeball. So Day 1 was a ‘hope’ that this would all work. However, we slowly fell
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June 21, 2018
There are 3 outcomes: save a few minutes, conservative, or land-out (this could be replaced by a low very slow save). Being conservative typically costs a few minutes. Strong high days more because you might stop turning 40 miles from home. Miss timing your glide and landing short of the field will cost you a lot of points, so it is probably best to error towards conservative. The most challenging
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June 14, 2018
I can still remember clearly flying a WGC in an ASW-22. There were great clouds all the way home. My teammates ahead were finding good air. The ground crews were saying the clouds were making it all the way to the airport. But others were still climbing trying to get final glide. It was a calculated risk, but it looked like a great sky.
I headed off, leaving the gaggle I was with and passed
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June 07, 2018
Going into the last day at the 2010 WGC I was in the top 10. Ron Tabery and I were flying very well together and our scores proved it. It was pre-start and probably 20 Minutes before our thought about start time. I was on the top of the gaggle, let’s say 500 ft below cloudbase... but I was on-top and it was glorious. Ron was right below me and all we needed to do was wait. However, the entire open
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July 06, 2017
Previous articles have been covered for calculating a safety margin for your final glide. I have mentioned I like a MC=6 or something close. Especially in big sky places where the sink can be widespread and strong. Another consideration is disconnecting with clouds.
You spent the day near cloudbase hopefully looking and reading the clouds. However, as you get lower looking at the clouds becomes