The Decline of Soaring Awards

On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 10:19:59 PM UTC-6, 2G wrote:
On Monday, March 23, 2020 at 8:57:12 PM UTC-7, John Foster wrote:
I read the recent article in Soaring and it has got me fired up. I have been a member of a small club in Washington State for the last 2 years, learning to fly. The club has a 2-33 and a Lark and a Pawnee. That's it. Badge flying has not been an emphasis, even though one qualifies for at least the A badge once you solo. Part of the reason is that there is very little emphasis on cross-country flying, mostly because most of the club pilots don't like flying the Lark, and it is too big of an ordeal to disassemble the 2-33 and transport back to the airport should an off-field landing occur. As a result, most people just fly the 2-33 in circles around the airport, never venturing outside gliding distance. The club has been in the market for a decent glass two-seater to do cross-country flying with, but there is no budget for this. And the one CFIG is getting about ready to hang it up, and has not had much interest in teaching cross-country flying, at least in part due to the club not having appropriate aircraft for training students to do this. While the Lark is perfectly capable of flying cross-country, it is still not regarded by club members as a good glider to learn this in.

At the recent SSA convention, some of the club officers were discussing the dilemma with other folks from other small clubs, and again and again they encountered the same problem--aging out CFIGs and club gliders not up to the task of learning cross-country flying in.

Most of the loudest voices we hear here on RAS seem to be indifferent to the plight of smaller clubs. These people are typically close to large metropolitan areas with a very large (and wealthy) population base to draw from, and are members of large, well-established, and well-funded clubs. But the reality is that there are many small clubs that don't have a CFIG that will teach cross-country or they don't have a club trainer they can teach it in, and they don't have a membership base that can support/afford a $50-75K glass two-seater capable of cross-country training, let alone a motor glider that could be used to practice going through the motions of off-field selection and setting up an approach. Why? Because they can't afford it..

So, in order to save the sport, get more more young people flying, and make it more accessible to people other than retired old men who are sitting on a nest egg large enough afford a new JS3 or Arcus M, what can we do? How can we make it more affordable?

You can always form a partnership with 1-3 other club members and buy a single seater. You can fly the Lark cross-country - you just have to arrange the flight such that a landout is at another airport where you can aerotow.. I flew a Blanik L-13 cross-country before buying an ASW19. There is no particular magic to flying cross-country; it is just your normal flying out of gliding range of your home airport. PM me if you are interested in other tips (I am also in WA).

Tom

Those are good ideas. Thanks. How do you solve the problem of the CFIG not willing or able to teach cross-country though?

I'm not a lot more experienced than you. My regular club is busier than yours, but suburban so actual outlandings are not a good option. We do have a very good relationships with a sister club where we go for cross-country flying. However we still always train our students locally to be prepared for an outlanding as you can always make a mistake with the conditions.

In terms of training/preparation, you can still do a lot within gliding range of your club. You can get trained in outlandings, even if just by judicious use of areas of your airfield you don't normally land on. You can also set yourself mini-tasks that fly around the airfield in a triangle or box with the airfield in the middle. You'll still get the experience of trying to go a distance without just sitting in a thermal once you find it.

John you brought up a common issue. I second Marks advise. You can actually train all of the skills needed to fly xc right there within safe gliding distance from your home field without the need for an expensive two place ship. Short field and spot landings, effecient entry-coring-leaving thermals, choosing and monitoring cruising speed, calculating and flying final glides can all be taught using your 2-33 albit you need some relatively decent soaring wx days. I have actually done this with my restored 2-22. A nice 30 mile triangle can be flown in a low performance trainer and never be more than 5 miles away from the home field. Having a xc experienced and willing CFI is not necessary. Any experienced xc flier can demonstrate the skills needed sitting back seat in your 2-33. He can also lead in the 2-33 while an inexperienced guy follows in the Lark.

As for an inexpensive xc bird, the 1-26 was actually designed around the very idea your club is struggling with. They were designed to be inexpensive, easy to fly, very easy to land in small fields and easy to crew for and of performance for guys to pursue badges up thru gold. It was intended to be the first xc ship for club use. Incidentally, the 1-26 is still responsible for earning more silver and gold badges than any other machine here in North America. Many of us have pursued the challenge of doing much more with these birds with a couple hundred guys earning all three diamonds in one, and if the xc bug really hits a club member, we have our own regional 1-26 records and a national Championship every year.

So John, there is hope and right now you pretty much have what you need to get the ball rolling at xc already in hand. You can get guys going xc without laying out big bucks for the glass.

Our club was in the same position when I moved here. We have a blanik for training and a 1-26 that was not being utilized much. Our club guys who did’nt own there own ship were slightly interested in xc but all thought it would take having a much higher performing ship. I started showing the guys what fun I could have with a 1-26 and lo n behold, now two years later we have four 1-26’s flying here along with a group of club guys taking the club ship to this years 1-26 Championships. Good luck John, any help I can lend to you guys, just drop me a line.
Dan
Dan

Correction, 40 guys have all 3 diamonds earned in a 1-26, and about 200 earning distance, alt or diamond goal legs in a 1-26.

If you can find a copy for sale on eBay the book: Soaring For Diamonds is a great read. About flying 1-26 to various levels of badges, including Diamond.
This is the 1st book I read about soaring and really fired up my imagination.
https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/book...orDiamonds.htm

On 3/24/2020 4:31 AM, Mike N. wrote:
If you can find a copy for sale on eBay the book: Soaring For Diamonds is a
great read. About flying 1-26 to various levels of badges, including
Diamond. This is the 1st book I read about soaring and really fired up my
imagination.
https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/book...orDiamonds.htm

Much good, basic feedback/advice from others already. Two - somewhat redundant
- points for consideration: 1) XC *can* be safely (and satisfyingly and
'funly') self-taught with a modicum of common sense (don't hit things you
don't want to hit; don't put yourself in the position of 'being *forced*' to
hit things you don't want to hit; fly within your existing skills, and *not*
within some imagined 'XC-necessary' skills; etc.), and 2) high L/D (whatever
that may mean to any individual) is *NOT* fundamentally necessary to going XC.
And as I'm sure others will be eager to point out, YMMV and a person *can*
kill themselves in soaring by doing things in a less-than-sensible fashion.
Don't do what they did, and remember - perfection is never an option. Live
life accordionly...

"Soaring for Diamonds" was the first book I found in a library after bumbling
into soaring way back when. Great read! Years later I obtained a copy for
myself. Minor reviewer's nit - Joe Lincoln (author) was "up to" a 1-23 by the
time he bagged his diamonds. He didn't really *need* it, I suspect he was just
impatient!

I trained in a small club in the MD mountains; it trained in a 2-33 and had a
1-26 and a member-owned tug. No XC training per se that I ever noticed, just
basic inputs from my instructor, mostly in response to my questions. My
instructor was an old guy of about 30 who - I later (after my first landout)
learned - had built his own 1-26 from a kit. So far as I could tell, he seemed
to know about what he taught...which emphasized the basics: don't stall in the
pattern; pick a decent field if you're gonna have to land out *before* you're
down to pattern altitude; you're in charge - so act like it. It was sufficient
when soon after solo I bumbled my way into needing to make an off-airport
landing...without even trying to! Other than the elevated heart rate and
sweaty palms (telling 'em to stop didn't help, ha ha), it was little different
than landing at the airport - every late-training/subsequent-solo approach to
which had been an intentional short-field approach over a pretend obstacle.

Result? Successful OFL; no damage; greatly increased belief in what ye
instructor had been telling me! Never looked back. Began ownership by
partnering with instructor and another newbie new glider-only pilot in
instructor's 1-26; soon enough 'was forced to' (job location change) purchase
a 1-26 outright in which I (unofficially) completed my Silver Badge.

Have been amused ever since by pundits convinced - as judged by their
willingness to share their opinions - XC is impossible in (used to be) 30:1,
and is today seemingly 35/1 or even 40/1 ships. The late great Dick Johnson
begged to differ (cf: old "Soaring" mags; superb resource!), as do I, members
of the 1-26 Association, Uneek (also with a Most Excellent article in the
latest "Soaring" mag as well as a longish history on RAS of fundamentally
sensible soaring-/XC-/pilot-centric food for thought. And no, I've never met
the man...)

It's been interesting to infer your own soaring-centric growth over the past
few years on RAS, John F. Best of continued luck!

Bob W.

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On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 08:13:15 -0600, Bob Whelan wrote:

Much good, basic feedback/advice from others already. Two - somewhat
redundant - points for consideration: 1) XC *can* be safely (and
satisfyingly and 'funly') self-taught with a modicum of common sense
(don't hit things you don't want to hit; don't put yourself in the
position of 'being *forced*' to hit things you don't want to hit; fly
within your existing skills, and *not* within some imagined
'XC-necessary' skills; etc.), and 2) high L/D (whatever that may mean to
any individual) is *NOT* fundamentally necessary to going XC.

Agreed. From personal experience, I think flying mini-triangles is very
useful for a flegling XC pilot. It gives yoyu experience in navigating to
the next point in a self-declared task while remaining close to your home
airfields and its as good a way as any to discover that you don't need to
take *every* thermal you come to while you're learning to efficiently
find, center and climb in the better thermals.

Something that worked for me, anyway, was to not worry about XC speed
until you have taught yourself to get high and stay high rather than
periodically having to stop and dig yourself out of a hole or even land
out. So, don't worry too much about XC speed until you have learned the
trick of staying high - learning that dramatically reduced my landout
rate.


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Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org