On Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:58:35 -0800, Morgan wrote:

Planning and preparation will probably help with the fear more than
anything. Confidence in your ability to land the glider exactly where
you want at minimum energy without using the altimeter is critical in my
mind.

Yes, good points - especially the point about not using the altimeter,
which *will* be telling lies during a field landing since you won't know
how high the field is.

Along with that goes not getting reliant on ground features round the
home field.

It strikes me that a decent final glide computer might be a good pre-xc
confidence builder. I'm thinking of something cheap and portable like
XCSoar or LK8000 running on a Binatone B.350 satnav. Of course, that does
require a way to mount it in the glider you're using.

The advantages are two-fold:

(1) you can get familiar with this type of instrument before you use it on
xc flights
(2) if you set a cautious safety altitude[1], make sure the
glider's polar is selected and load a task with your home field as
the single turn point, the glide computer will continuously show you
where home is and how much you're above the glide path back to there.
In the right conditions you can extend the local soaring[2] quite
considerably.

I'll do this if I'm just local soaring on a non xc day. On one of those
flights I knew that I had reached the local soaring limit when I was 35
km away from home, but I was upwind of home and at 5300 ft at that point.
I'd also confirmed that the final glide computer was, if anything,
conservative in its calculations on previous, shorter flights.

Using such an instrument in the way I've described and gradually
extending your local soaring radius should give you confidence that your
instruments and (hopefully, steadily improving judgment) aren't
misleading you about your ability to spot your home field and get back to
it. You can also fly mini-triangles[3] round your field, which will
vastly improve your navigational skills and your ability to use lift to
fly along a predetermined course.

[1] The 'safety height' is the target arrival height AGL at the
turnpoint. The computer uses this along with wind speed, wind
direction and the glider's polar when deciding if you're above or
below the glide path.

[2] 'Local soaring' in the UK means being within gliding distance of
home, i.e. that you can get there without needing a climb. UK rules
also require you to have a map onboard if you're more than 5 miles
from the home airfield.

[3] Mini-triangles are small practise tasks that you mark on your map
and/or set as a task in the glide computer before take-off. You fly
them as though they are an xc task. They are quite short (15 - 20
miles) and with the turnpoints chosen so you're never more than 5-8
miles from home. In good conditions you might fly two or more laps
in the same flight.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |