XC Soaring camps

Then there is the old fashioned way. With an ASW19, 100 hours, a
license, a bronze badge (which means you know how to thermal) and
power experience (which means you know how to navigate and use
airspace)... just go! All of the rest of us got going in cross country
by simply looking at a map, picking a simple course to some nearby
airports, and going. Sure, it was slow the first time.

Is there nobody flying XC at your club to talk to? Just ask for some
advice on the simplest triangle. If not, pick a better club!

Instruction, camps, and contests will all be more fruitful once you've
been out a few times. You have to go do it, get some sense of visual
navigation and thermaling and gliding, before you can really benefit
from camps and such. The camps will tell you to go faster, to stop
taking every thermal. You can't really take that advice until you've
been out a few times. Go when you're at a plateau.

You really only get good at cross country by going every weekend. And
it really is a self-taught exercise. A little instruction here and
there can help a lot, but 99% of learning to fly cross country is,
read all the material on the ground, then go try it out in the air. By
yourself.

John Cochrane

On Aug 23, 12:24*pm, RAS56 wrote:
Looking for recommendations/ advice wrt attending some of the xc camps
put on by various organizations/clubs in the USA.

My time schedule is such that weekend club flying is not going to get my
skills level to where I want it to be in the time frame I'm dealing
with, so am looking for an "immersion" type of experience to truncate
the process.

I'm aware of the program out at Air Sailing, feedback on it would be
appreciated and suggestions or reviews of other sites would also be
appreciated.

A Central US location would be a bonus to keep road time to a minimum
from my Texas residence.

Thanks in advance!

RAS

--
RAS56


Hi,
There are numerous X-C cross country flying camps in Europe at
reasonable prices. If you're you looking at spending $3 grand for 5
days of duo discus flying; you're better of going to places like
St.Auban in France, including the reasonably priced airfare 7 days of
flying there will be still cheaper. And on the off days there is whole
lot to see... You can also view charter link on the segelflug.de /
kleinanzeigen tab. On average you can get a Duo cross country flying
at 200 Euro per day, unlimited hours.

Cheers,

GK

Thanks to all for the replies, I greatly appreciate it.

Looking at my logs, maybe it's not as bad as I thought...actually closer to 60 glider hours is what I've bagged. "under 100" was true, but not totally accurate.

Frank, I do fly Condor, have flown it with you in fact! You may remember at KAQO I responded to your query about making it a more effective training platform by suggesting a 12 or 24 volt electric fence controller wired to an appropriate part of the pilots body to make the stress of bad decision-making in Condor equal to that in RL! ;-))

I do appreciate all the input, maybe a little offsite dual to get me spooled up and build confidence would be in order; self-confidence, decision-making and stress management are what I know are my weak areas at this stage of my soaring experience.

Sure would be great though, to learn it in my own aircraft, with my own nav system and in conditions like we have here, not in a soaring Mecca like Minden...

RAS

On 8/24/11 8:09 AM, John Cochrane wrote:
You really only get good at cross country by going every weekend. And
it really is a self-taught exercise. A little instruction here and
there can help a lot, but 99% of learning to fly cross country is,
read all the material on the ground, then go try it out in the air. By
yourself.

As others have said, most of us "old timers" (I started in 1973) did it
all solo. After several years, I hooked up with a Janus owner and flew
as co pilot in numerous contests. I still recall the first few flights
were HUGE eye-openers for me and my XC technique.

So my suggestion is to go fly dual XC with an EXPERIENCED pilot. One or
two flights of a few hundred km will provide all the incentive and
observed skills you'll need for a long time to come.

It's also a lot easier to get even the most aloof pilot to critique your
performance, no matter how bad, than to talk to someone with no
perceived common ground. So just go fly, then talk about it at the end
of the day with those guys who flew hundreds to your tens of kilometers.
Launch first, act as sniffer, then when the "big dogs" climb through
you and take off, try to follow. Maybe you'll keep up to the next
thermal, maybe not. Then, at the end of the day, ask what they were
thinking when they left you in the dust. Next time, you'll keep up for
2 thermals, etc...

This is also the perfect way to learn at a contest. Start early, then
latch onto each pilot for a few minutes as they overtake you. Most will
be happy to share decisions made while sharing your airspace. BUT
REMEMBER to fly your own flight at YOUR comfort level. Don't do
anything that makes you uncomfortable, and be sure to maintain
situational awareness as you follow.

-Tom

On Aug 23, 10:24*am, RAS56 wrote:
Looking for recommendations/ advice wrt attending some of the xc camps
put on by various organizations/clubs in the USA.

My time schedule is such that weekend club flying is not going to get my
skills level to where I want it to be in the time frame I'm dealing
with, so am looking for an "immersion" type of experience to truncate
the process.

I'm aware of the program out at Air Sailing, feedback on it would be
appreciated and suggestions or reviews of other sites would also be
appreciated.

A Central US location would be a bonus to keep road time to a minimum
from my Texas residence.

Thanks in advance!

RAS

--
RAS56

Soaring Society of Boulder has a camp most years at Dalhart, Texas.
It often includes early XC pilots and a few from other states. The
area is considered generally safe for landing out and will include
some mentors (and maybe even crew).

Frank Whiteley