Cross-Country Preparation…(or what could possibly go wrong??)
To avoid everyone having to sit through a 60-minute (somewhat optimistic) presentation I thought I might outline the basic’s beforehand and then we can concentrate on a couple of subjects on the day.
What follows isn’t exhaustive, or in any real order, but probably illustrates the confused state of my mind;
Do you have the required ratings? For flying X-Country as well as landing out. BFR…all that stuff.
Is the glider comfortable to sit for hours on end? Try an hour or so on the ridge to check. If it’s a club glider the parachute might need adjusting or swapping. Or do you really need a parachute at all…it’s only a contest requirement. The time spent getting comfortable is worth it. Can you reach everything, your water and food, the means to evacuate surplus bodily fluids (you know what I mean…), all the other crap we seem to want to carry (camera’s, Cell Phones, extra PDA’s etc)?
Do you know how to get out in a hurry? And how the parachute works…and how to land under a chute…”hint” turn into wind. The internet is full of useful (maybe) video’s on baling out. Don’t sweat it too much…far far more pilots fail the basic stuff first…speed near the ground, turning into the ridge, stall/spin, and so on, than ever need a parachute because of aircraft failure or a mid-air.
Onto more positive things..
Water and food. I’ll cover this during the SOSB – (Start of Season Briefing…not Save our Souls Bob).
Is the glider of your choice up to the task?
Serviceable?
Realistic for the task you have in mind. Except for Maurice Honey, a 500km FAI triangle in a PW5 is slightly optimistic.
Clean, the instruments work (and you know how to use them), the tires are inflated, the trailer is ok and close to your car (which has fuel, chocolate bars and the radio is tuned to the RNZ…rap music = no retrieve crew).
The batteries…many a good task was ruined by batteries going flat. This includes whatever power source you plan to use for tracking software/cell phone.
Maps, an understanding of the airspace, radio frequencies.
If you are flying a recognised task (50km, 300km, FAI triangles etc) then you need to understand the paperwork and all the rules…lots of rules. See here…
A reliable flight logger. And a backup if possible.
I don’t intend to cover the following;
Landing out. It’s important…it will happen, but it’s a whole subject in of itself.
Radio calls and airspace procedures.
Water ballast, speed to fly, etc. It’s all important but probably less important than many people think it is…
Health and safety…are you upto the challenge, did you get sufficient sleep (hint – watch the videos below, that’ll do the trick),
How to take world class photos or video’s that allow you to brag about how good you are…I’ll leave that to Tim.
What I do intend to talk about at the SOSB is;
Drinking…and eating.
Planning the difficult bits.
In the meantime here are some links to video’s we made during the State enforced prison sentence (Covid lockdowns) which talk about getting out of the local area, contest and badge flying preparation etc…find a comfortable chair and a good book…some of them are quite long…
And to the bulk of you won’t read this far…or watch the video’s…I’ll see you on the 30th…which will turn out to be a glorious day and we will all be under time pressure to get finished so that we can rush out and wait for a tow.
