Fear of flying cross country

Thanks you all for your detailed and thoughtful responses. It is nice
to see that my issues are understood and perhaps were even experienced
by many others in the soaring community. (Seems like we don't talk
about this much.) I will definitely incorporate all of your collective
insight and suggestions into my cross country endeavors going
forward. I'm actually looking forward to the remainder of the soaring
season!

Thanks again,

Steve

First, just by the act of asking these questions, I can see that you
want to succeed. As someone who remember clearly only a few years ago
having the same concerns you have, here are my suggestions.

1) John mentioned flying dual. Maybe a two place ship is not
available to you for XC. I started some of my best early XC by flying
alongside of someone else. I asked him to help me out and to play
follow the leader. There are a few things that help here. One, if he
is staying up, I know that I could also. He will help find those
elusive thermals. Actually flying abreast on a blue day you can help
each other. If he is better than you, then he will wait around for
you if he gets ahead. Its less boring too.

2) Landing out. As someone told me once, it isn't *IF* you will land
out, it is *WHEN* will you land out. I remember thinking that landing
out means that I am not any good. This was reenforced by some club
members who berated those that landed out. They probably don't cross
country. Actually I now know that landing out is, to a certain
extent, a badge of honor as it means I am pushing the XC envelope.
Also, getting low and making a save is a great confidence builder. My
home club is now actively helping pilots for XC. What's the first
thing that they teach? How to land out! Heck, I now announce that I
am flying to xxx, and I may land out. There seems to be those that
are willing to retrieve. I am lucky flying near Chicago because there
are so many small airports and private strips to land at.

3) Tasks - Moffat writes about flying tasks on weak days within a
short distance your home airport. Don't just hover over the field, go
somewhere! Fly somewhere even if it is only a few miles away --
maybe juuuuuuust beyond final glide. BTW, fly the first leg upwind
-- it's easier to get home that way.

4) Equipment - Take you mind off navigation by flying with GPS. That
frees you to find that lift!!

Good luck, John "67"

all suggestions have been excellent.

I fly similar performance. my first landout in the Cherokee resulted
in ripped fabric on the nose. Oh Well. I did two dual XC flights
before I flew solo XC and both of those involved landouts (In A
Lark!!!). I think that that was critical in teaching me a lot about
field selection and all the fun stuff that happens after you have
given up. That is where it truly gets interesting. This eased my
fears and made landing out basically a non event for me. ive done all
my cross countries using pilotage and its worked fine, but I have a
lot of experience instructing in power around the state so im familiar
with the area. the nice thing about a 1-26 is you just cant go fast
enough to get lost really. and of course you should always be
prepared to land out cause you and I fly gliders that go more down
than forward. what part of the country are you in? that is
important. out here in the flatland midwest you can land anywhere in
the spring and fall. its perfect. in many other areas thats just not
the case.

club dynamics can be an interesting factor. my club is fairly neutral
as far as XC flying goes. XC flying in club gliders is allowed as
long as you prep the trailer. its fairly rare that club gliders are
taken on XCs though. however i have found a lot of interest in most
of the local flyers in how well i did on my XC flights. they seem to
fly XC vicariously through me. I think I have motivated a few of them
to spread out a little further, and that is great.

I would recommend, as said above, to fly every flight XC. just keep a
nice landable field below you, be very conservative. dont go for max
speed or distance, just go. and have fun! because it is.

Tony

ContestID67 wrote:

4) Equipment - Take you mind off navigation by flying with GPS. That
frees you to find that lift!!

An addition to that.

This applies if you carry a GPS and GPS-aware vario (one that can
compute final glides to a GPS way point. When you're local soaring make
sure both are running and that the GPS has your home field set as its
current way point. You can use the information these provide to push out
toward the glide angle limit and get a good feeling for being well away
from your home field, gain familiarity with the instruments and get to
know the wider local area. You'll also get a good feeling for how far
your glider can go from various heights. Just make sure you have a
conservative safety height set in the vario and have taken the trouble
to match its settings to your glider's polar.

I have an SDI C4 and a GPS II+ in my Std Libelle. If I'm soaring locally
rather than going XC this is the way I operate. Besides, doing this is a
lot more interesting that flapping round just outside the circuit.


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