As I remember, it went more like this ..."NEVER FLY THROUGH THE SAME BAD AIR
TWICE!" which gives the advice a whole new depth of meaning, seeing that this
was one of the few pieces of information in the book - and the book is full of
useful information - to be so notated, and is the ONLY axiom to appear TWICE!
Here are two more from the same book:
SPEED UP IN SINK - SLOW DOWN IN LIFT! ;and (in an outlanding)
STOP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER LANDING!
Members of this forum can no doubt tell many a story re the last axiom. Here is
one that partly fits - but with a twist!
Flight No 224, in my log-book, 01/03/1978, ES 60b GTJ. X/C training was being
conducted on the day in the GCV's two-seater aircraft fleet. I decided to tag
along in the Super Arrow.
A task was set into the hills to the SW of Benalla, but unbeknown to me the
task for the two-seaters was changed, as the weather was not as predicted. So
off I set.The first leg was to Strathbogie, and then on to Euroa. As can be
imagined, the first leg did not go well for me, and it was soon necessary to
pick a paddock around Boho South. The options were a bit limited, as the
countryside was fairly steep. Therefore in accordance with best practice, I
choose to land uphill into my selected paddock. The landing went quite well, up
to and including touchdown, and I can say with certainty that I did stop
quickly - possible no more than 10 or 20 m - which fitted the 3rd maxim above,
quite well. However I was totally unprepared for what happened next. No sooner
had the glider stopped, than it began to accelerate - backwards down the slope!
For pilots who may be unfamiliar with the type, let me say that these aircraft
are fitted with a spring steel tailskid rather than a wheel. This was the thing
that saved me, as the tailskid dug in, and I then quickly came to a stop, with
no damage done.
One further thing. Ed McKeough flew out to check the situation. How was it
possible for him to land a Pawnee, if the paddock was so steep? Well the truth
of the matter was that he landed on the airstrip - which I had totally missed
seeing -in an adjacent paddock! I could have got an easy aerotow out of there,
but instead had to cope with a bunch of noisy fellow glider pilots, and provide
the mandatory slab of retrieve beer!
Cheers,
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Borgelt
To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Intermediate/short term goals
At 06:57 PM 16/03/2013, you wrote:
On 15/03/2013, at 5:12 PM, Adam Woolley wrote:
Have you got any rough 'rules of thumb' that you use in order to decide
if the short term deviation is worth it or not?
Better air within 30 degrees either side of track is worth deviating for.
It is more complicated than that. Keep in mind the extra distance you would
fly to get to the next turnpoint. if you end up abeam the turnpoint by flying a
track 30 off the direct one you will fly 50% further
Also plot the achieved cross country speed vs the average climb rate. It is
not a linear function. It may be worth greater deviations from track on weak
thermal days than strong ones.
You can get these numbers (and a lot of other interesting information) using
a ruler, from the polar plotted on a piece of graph paper and a few simple
geometric constructions. Your highly trained and experienced GFA instructor
should have explained this to you before you try to go cross country.
(Pig squadron on the grid, ready for first launch).
Yes, staying out of sink is very important. Most of us do it poorly. It is
extremely important when trying to center weak and broken thermals which is
why I like a vario with a sink sound as it provides full information on the bad
air as well as the good air while doing this.
Byars and Holbrook said this in their book "Soaring cross country " 40 years
ago - "never fly through the same bad air twice".
Mike
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