My Flying

So after a good week's flying we hitched the trailer and headed out early for our 9 hour trip back home, so I'm guessing that this would now be a good time to summarise the week' flying as well as to highlight a few lessons learned.

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Table of the week's flying:

Date____Avg._____Avg.__Max.Alt.__Total____Distance
________Lift_____L/D___Gained____Time_____________

30-Nov__0.4 m/s__28.4___626m_____1h 28m____53.5 km
01-Dec__1.3 m/s__32.4__1228m_____2h 52m___195.9 km
03-Dec__0.6 m/s__35.3__1312m_____2h 24m___121.7 km
05-Dec__0.8 m/s__27.8__1956m_____5h 23m___258.7 km

The above stats are from SeeYou using my logger traces. The distances flown is not the length of the task, but rather all the straight glides added together.

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First off - a short note on the organisers, Soaring Safaris: They run a very professional operation with reasonable pricing and I was very happy with the service that I received, but for the few small issues mentioned in the day's blogs above. Their services are clearly directed towards attracting foreign pilots to our shores and this is reflected in their Euro pricing as well as how they generally conduct some of their operations at the airfield. Never the less we locals (all two of us) were made to feel welcome.

On this note, during my week at New Tempe, 90% of the pilots there were from Britain and I'll be honest - I was extremely impressed and somewhat surprised as to just how friendly and helpful a bunch they were. In some respects us South African's can learn from this.

The facilities at New Tempe, which I understand are maintained by the Bloemfontein Gliding Club (BGC) are very good, but unfortunately for the condition of most of the runways. Pretty K@K (crap) to say the least. The grass (or rather mowed bush) runways are very bumpy and you need to ensure that you land within about 5 metres of the centreline else the chances are good that you will find some or other hole. Runway 36/01 is much better than 27/10, which is truly horrible, and I came close to breaking by bakkie when I drove though a huge donga.

Probably the greatest lesson that I learned during this experience is that I can. It's very nerve-racking taking off and landing at a strange airfield, especially in a glider where you get one shot at it, but I managed and managed well. Furthermore, leaving the comforts of being within gliding range of a designated runway is also a little un-nerving, but gets easy the more you do it and the greater your confidence becomes.

Another lesson that I learned, which is something that I'm rather good at but this was never the less seriously reinforced during my week is: be organised and prepared. Make sure all the equipment works, that the trailer is ready, that you know where everything nut, bolt, cable tie and screw thingy goes and that you can do all of this blind folded and under pressure. Gliding is a strange sport. You get to the airfield early and everything is moving at a snail's space. You get the aircraft ready for the day and then spend lots of time just sitting around chatting and looking at the sky, then BAM, all of a sudden the tug powers up and things start to MOVE, and move quickly. Then once the stress of the aero-tow and finding that all important first thermal are behind you, things again become pretty peaceful and slow down. Then later it's home time and time to join the circuit and then the peace is suddenly broken while you are frantically trying to get out the plane and remove the glider from the runway while other planes come in. Bloody great stuff I'll tell you!

What also really helps are checklists, and not just for flying, but for ensuring that you bring along all the correct kit as well as for prepping the glider for flight. A further huge factor is having people to help, even if it's only one person and they are your wife. They can help you with small things at the airfield and the launch site and believe me this makes a big difference.

During the week I achieved my two main objectives by flying my short 50km cross-country course, required for my license and, as a bonus completing my Silver-C badge.

Finally, I would just like to thank my fellow club member's who provided me with advice and some labour in preparing for this trip, my father who was a massive help in doing a lot of the engineering work in getting the trailer and aircraft sorted and my wife for the help and the huge amount of support.

Well what now? The only way to get better at this gliding thing and especially at cross country flying is practice and that means flying. If I'm really lucky I can do a gliding camp each year and thus build on my skills and experience. This will of course require a large commitment in money and even more so in time - so here's hoping for an abundance of both.