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Gliding risk....
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November 9th 19, 12:00 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
BobW
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Posts: 504
Gliding risk....
On 11/8/2019 3:18 PM,
wrote:
...I heard a really useful axiom awhile back. It was in an interview of
one of the founding engineers of the X-plane/X15 program. When questioned
about the differences between the approach they took during those
heated-space/aviation race days of the cold war and the more cerebral go
slow pace of later test flying. This guy called what they did earlier as
“Educated Courage”, meaning, yes they were involved in risky business but
they entered those risks thoughtfully with preparation and built in
contingencies.
It does take a level of courage needed in the pursuit of certain goals, in
our case that being xc or contest flying. Without courage and just
operating from “thoughtfulness” and a guy could consider venturing off
anywhere beyond gliding distance of home as foolhardy. Or flying in a
gaggle with 10 other guys all flying within a few hundred feet of each
other sounds like a recipe for trouble. But when thoughtful preparation,
common sense precautions and contingencies are joined up with a measure of
courage, great things, enjoyment, and accomplishment can result.
I have gone thru my big dollar high performance phase of soaring, but have
jumped into a different pond of challenge, namely, trying to do great
things in low performance machines. In order to do this, I have to ask
things of my bird and my own abilities way beyond the norm, not having the
L/D to get me free of trouble areas etc. As a result, it takes gobbs of
courage, just ask Daniel Sazhin or Ron Schwartz who ran the ridges in
their 1-26’s to put up some of the first few 1000k 1-26 flights. Without
courage they could never have even gotten started. But given the need for
courage, what comes along with it is the need for a whole bunch of
Thoughtfulness. Read study, knowledge gained from numerous failed attempts,
having well defined and adhered-to personal minimums. I spend way more
energy and flight time working on the skills needed to safely stretch into
this challenging low performance flying than I do one the record attempts.
In my case it involves lots and lots of low level and weak wx flying, and
very short small off field landing simulation. This is all done to perfect
and sharpen my skills, skills that are essential for reaching my goals. In
three years of pursuing low performance records, I have made over 20 off
field landings. Not airports or grass strips, but actual farm fields,
roads, unoccupied parking lots etc. Have I learned things? Absolutely. Was
I ever scared, absolutely not. Concerned? Yes, but never fearing for life
or limb. In it all I have not hurt my bird in any way, a few scraps on the
fusalage bottom is all.
Put the package together and you can have success without falling either
into the “chicken little” syndrome or the other end of the spectrum, namely
foolhardy confidence.
FWIW Dan
"I'm with Dan, here" (and, e.g., his reference to Daniel Sazhin and *his*
similarly nuanced posts and "Soaring" mag articles).
Never met "FWIW Dan", but the mental (and practical/physical) approaches he
tries to convey in his posts "work for me." Like him, I've only scared myself
once while indulging in this wonderul sport - it had zero to do with an
imminent landing - though there *were* (rare, entirely self-inflicted) times
when the possibility of an imminent outlanding had all my focusable senses at
what-then-seemed-to-me highest-possible-alert. That noted, I never actually
had to make a "100%-on-my-/ship-limits" off-field landing...though that one
time I seriously thought I might have to surely burned itself into my mind.
Some posters seem eager to disagree with Dan's posted words, and there
unquestionably are certain things associated with the sport 100% of us should
*never* do. Experience an uncommanded departure from controlled flight in the
landing pattern immediately springs to mind, here.
That noted, much, if not most, of the sport screams for nuanced thought, and
not rarely, nuanced practices. Seems to me that this is what Dan is attempting
to convey in many of his posts. If his posts don't "work for you," by all
means ignore his advice. But if you're able to "get a glimmer" (relating to
what I imagine he's trying to convey), keep noodling on it. It might one day
begin to make shining sense to you...at which moment you'll have attained a
new mental height which may seriously add to your enjoyment of the sport...and
personal flight skills, too. Skilled-enjoyment is what instruction and stick
time are all about.
My .02-cents.
Bob W.
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