Cross Country Soaring By John Cochrane

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Cross Country SoaringBy John Cochrane

• Safety (also applies to local soaring)
• Speed (a bit)
• Lets Go!

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Airport
Lake
Last field
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Airport
Lake
3. Land in tree/lake
2. Flying 70 kts, losing ridge, moves to valley
center
1. Weak ridge, rain. Computer says Mc0100
Last field
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ADM

• A language to help us think about decision-making
  
• Poor judgment chain
• One bad decision leads to another
• Options are reduced
• Recognize and break the chain!
• Situational awareness
• Pilot, aircraft, environment
• Gear down, spoilers open, flaps wrong? A great
  experience!

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ADM 2

• Operational Pitfalls
• Peer Pressure What will they think of me? Will
  I get yelled at? (Antidote they will remember
  good decisions.)
• Mind Set Inability to recognize and cope with
  changes in a situation. (Antidote Constant am I
  missing something?)
• Get there itis Fixation on the original goal or
  destination..disregard of alternative course of
  action
• Duck-under syndrome Also applies to personal
  minimums.
• Getting behind the aircraft Situation controls
  actionsconstant surprise at what happens next.

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ADM 3

• Hazardous attitudes and antidotes
• Antiauthority
• Follow the rules/guidelines (glide numbers)
• Impulsivity (do something quickly!)
• Not so fast, think first
• Invulnerability (It wont happen to me)
• It could happen to me!
• Macho I can do it
• Taking chances is foolish.
• Resignation (whats the use)
• Im not hopeless. I can make a difference

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ADM 4

• Personal minimums to continue flight
• Glideslope minimums
• McX Y (more in stronger weather)
• Altitude rings around home field. Stretch-glide
  accidents are common in local soaring.
• I will land in a field rather than violate
• Abandon thermaling and land
• X Feet AGL
• Abandon flight and land
• Weather minimums. Height, rain, wind, thunder
• At least an alarm will go off Im breaking a
  rule!

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Safety altitude calculation
Mc3 301
Mc0, 401
Never!

• Moral the only time you need it, the lift sink
  calculation fails!
• For use as a safety (not speed) device, you need
  much greater margin. At least Mc3500

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1. Descend to ridge
2. Wrong side of the ridge!
3.Nowhere to go!
4. Crash in field
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How can you run the wrong side of the ridge??
Possible to limp along!
Ridge-induced thermal instability/convergence
Classic ridge
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Crash field
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Land/fly home crash (Hobbs)
Airport 2 miles
Wind 18 G 26
X
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How NOT to land out
231
46 mph groundspeed, thermaling
213
0.87 mi 32 mph gsp No pattern.
Reverse direction after 1st turn
500
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Lessons

• Not. This is foolishly dangerous
• Not. What a bunch of Bozos, Ill never do that
• Yes. I too can make poor decisions in
  high-stress moments. I can learn to make better
  decisions by preplanning, becoming aware of my
  decision process. Then, exploring new vistas in
  soaring will be both safe and fun.

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Flying a bit faster

• Lets look at some traces.

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Rounded tops staying too long
Decisive centering, no waste
Very straight course!
Slow climb, though high near airport
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Long glide in lift
Course deviation airport, town (lift), setup for
street
Fails to fly directly into wind misses TZ street
Idiotic waste of time
20-30 degree deviation ok never go back!
Overall grade B
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Lets go!

• New glider, 501 min.
• Latest GPS, vario system
• Crew, trailer hitched up
• Tiedown kit, landout kit, signal mirror, GPS,
  satellite phone, spot
• Scout fields along route by car
• Cloudbase 8,000, good cus

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Lets go!

• New glider, 501 min.
• Latest GPS, vario system
• Crew, trailer hitched up
• Tiedown kit, landout kit, signal mirror, GPS,
  satellite phone, spot
• Scout fields along route by car
• Cloudbase 8,000, good cus

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Lets go!

• Thermal consistently.
• Look at map, google map, recognize airports
• Do short triangle with tp 5 miles away
• 3000 AGL thermals
• Go! Send trace to NISC

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