Cross Country Minimums

On Apr 13, 10:37*pm, Fred Blair wrote:
What are the minimum experience levels required at your club before a
member is allowed to get out of gliding distance back to the home
gliderport, i.e. go cross country?

Thanks,
Fred
Houston, TX

Bronze badge, Silver duration, plus Silver Climb

Bronze badge entails x-country training, (knowlege and demonstration
of ability)

5 hour flight and 3280' climb shows the ability to thermal......most
likely will be succesful in x-country attempt

We encourage first x-country to be silver distance attempt

Cookie

At my club the first requisite is a minimum of 20 hours local flying.
Then we take them out in a motorglider or power plane to pick fields
and practice several simulated outlandings without actually landing
but getting low enough to see if the field was as good as it looked
from above. This is extremely helpful!!. If it´s with a power plane we
leave some throttle on to simulate glider performance.
While they are students we try to give them plenty of thermal time and
maybe fly a few ´´mini tasks´´ . As new pilots, we strongly encourage
them to fly a little 30 km triangle around the airfield.
By this time the aspiring XC pilots should have participated in at
least a few retrieves so they are familiar with that aspect of the
sport too.
Every year we have an introductory class for the new XC pilots where
we go over all the basics and we put a lot of emphasis on preparation,
attitude and safety. During the winter months we usually have some
more advanced classes on tactics, meteorology, etc. but this first
class is the most important.
If the pilot has the hours and necessary flying skills, has done the
simulated outlandings and taken the intro class, he/she is ready to
go. Most pilots go for a 100 km first task.
My club has three PW5´s and everybody starts flying XC with these.
With 40 hours and at least 5 off field landings in the PW5 pilots can
move up to a Jantar.

Regards,

Juan Carlos

On Apr 14, 6:26*am, JC wrote:
With 40 hours and at least 5 off field landings in the PW5 pilots can
move up to a Jantar.

That's an interesting rule. It seems to imply that pilots who are not
good at XC flying are more likely to transition to the Jantar than
those who never land out on a long flight or only select airports if
they must land. The rule would be satisfied by 37.5 local flying
hours and 5 hopeless cross country attempts each lasting 0.5 hours

Wouldn't simulated off airport landings in the Jantar be a more useful
requirement?

Andy

On Apr 14, 11:16*am, Andy wrote:
On Apr 14, 6:26*am, JC wrote:

With 40 hours and at least 5 off field landings in the PW5 pilots can
move up to a Jantar.

That's an interesting rule. It seems to imply that pilots who are not
good at XC flying are more likely to transition to the Jantar than
those who never land out on a long flight or only select airports if
they must land. *The rule would be satisfied *by 37.5 local flying
hours and 5 hopeless cross country attempts each lasting 0.5 hours

Wouldn't simulated off airport landings in the Jantar be a more useful
requirement?

Andy


The rule is a guideline set in a context of common sense. Someone like
you describe would never be allowed to transition and would most
likely be required to do some dual instruction before trying another
XC. Outlandings have to be while on a task and not just a glide to
the neighbor´s field.
A new XC pilot lands out quite often so most have their 5 landings by
the end of their first season.
I should have added that at least 10 local flights and precision
landings are required before anyone can take one of the Jantars cross
country for the first time.

Juan Carlos

That's an interesting rule. It seems to imply that pilots who are not
good at XC flying are more likely to transition to the Jantar than
those who never land out on a long flight or only select airports if
they must land. *The rule would be satisfied *by 37.5 local flying
hours and 5 hopeless cross country attempts each lasting 0.5 hours

Wouldn't simulated off airport landings in the Jantar be a more useful
requirement?

Andy

I understand where you're coming from but if off field landings
automatically imply that a pilot is not very good at flying XC then
I'm REALLY bad...

On Apr 14, 9:26*am, JC wrote:
At my club the first requisite is a minimum of 20 hours local flying.
Then we take them out in a motorglider or power plane to pick fields
and practice several simulated outlandings without actually landing
but getting low enough to see if the field was as good as it looked
from above. This is extremely helpful!!. If it´s with a power plane we
leave some throttle on to simulate glider performance.
While they are students we try to give them plenty of thermal time and
maybe fly a few ´´mini tasks´´ . As new pilots, we strongly encourage
them to fly a little 30 km triangle around the airfield.
By this time the aspiring XC pilots should have participated in at
least a few retrieves so they are familiar with that aspect of the
sport too.
Every year we have an introductory class for the new XC pilots where
we go over all the basics and we put a lot of emphasis on preparation,
attitude and safety. During the winter months we usually have some
more advanced classes on tactics, meteorology, etc. but this first
class is the most important.
If the pilot has the hours and necessary flying skills, has done the
simulated outlandings and taken the intro class, he/she is ready to
go. Most pilots go for a 100 km first task.
My club has three PW5´s and everybody starts flying XC with these.
With 40 hours and at least 5 off field landings in the PW5 pilots can
move up to a Jantar.

Regards,

Juan Carlos

Our club requires the Bronze Badge for cross country. We're fortunate
to have a lot of good fields around the airport and a good grass
airport
about 10 miles away, which makes a good first step for aspiring
cross country pilots. We include a little navigation training in the
private pilot curriculum, but with only an L13 (currently grounded
of course) and now a G103, dual cross country flying is not done.

We've had several pilots move up from initial flight through cross
country flying with us. However, the biggest problem our students
have
is the lack of time to master basic flying. I'm really amazed that
anyone can learn to fly well with only one lesson every week or two,
which is unfortunately what most of our students wind up doing.

-- Matt