Guidlines for Safety and Efficiency

Never launch in less than 15 minutes after arriving at the field, or less than five minutes after assembling the ship and completing the cockpit preparation.

Never relaunch immediately after a short flight without getting out of the glider and reviewing what you did right or wrong on that short flight, unless you are specifically practicing takeoffs and landings.

You should never endanger yourself or others.

If you don't feel it's safe to do, then don't do it.

It's not polite to create a dangerous situation.

You are always responsible for your own actions.

You should never strap into a sailplane unless you are confident that you will have a safe and enjoyable flight.

When cruising in the ASW-20 on an average day, set trim to maintain 65 knots at flaps 2. On a good day, set trim to 70 kts, and on a really good day, set trim for 75.

Rarely lock flap handle into a detent while cruising between thermals.

Never lock flap handle into thermaling detent unless you will remain below 45 knots.

Never change flap settings in a thermal if other gliders are in close proximity below you.

Always lock flap handle into a detent before lifting off the ground, or before descending below 200 feet before landing.

Always lock flap handle into a detent while in steady wave lift.

Never stall in a thermal while other gliders are in close proximity below you.

If changing flap setting on takeoff roll, lock them into a position before lifting off the ground.

Never change flap setting when low, and never increase or decrease flap setting if below 200 ft, on either arrival or departure.  Reason - if the flap handle slips out of your grip, it will probably go full forward to the full negative position, and the ship will probably drop 50 to 100 feet before
you have a chance to raise the nose to prevent further altitude loss.  There was a crash in mid-90's from the handle slipping forward out of the pilot's grip.

Never select a lesser flap setting while others are below you.  (e.g. don't go from +8 to zero! The ship will drop vertically)

On a glider with flaps, never select landing flaps unless landing is assured with the spoilers half open.  i.e. if you can't make it to the field with your present altitude and with spoilers half open, then you shouldn't select landing flaps.  The major effect of flaps past the thermaling position is the
creation of drag, not lift!

If you had a good flight, revel in it. Make notes to yourself so you will remember the important points.

If you feel bad after a flight, try to write down why you feel bad - but don't show it to anyone. A few hours later, try to write down what you learned from that flight.  Write down the positives!

You can learn from the mistakes of others or learn from your own mistakes.  However, the ones you learn on your own are often more costly in many ways, and are usually more traumatic.  Try to learn from the experience of others.

Learning from your own mistakes is often less effective, because it's difficult to be objective about the factors involved in a personal experience.

Learning from the mistakes of others has less permanence, because the memory of a story is less memorable than that of a personal incident.
 

Guidlines for Local Flying

Set a least one goal for every flight - whether it is improvement of skills or just enjoyment.

Even if it's a local flight, if you are able to stay aloft, practice going from point to point. Predict what your height will be when you arrive at the next point. Try going back and forth between two points to see the effect of wind on the altitude lost.

Record your flight on your cambridge. Fly criss-cross over possible local turnpoints and possible emergency landing sites. After they are confirmed as useable, submit the precise Lat Longs of them to the local manager of turnpoints.

A stabilized final approach is being on the desired glide angle, in the landing configuration, at the desired approach speed.

If you can't always be on a stabilized approach by at least 100 ft, then you should not fly cross country.

If you can't "spot land" consistently, in various wind conditions, then don't fly cross country.

You need to practice as many variations of abbreviated patterns as possible before going on your first cross country.

Spoilers are always used to control altitude, not airspeed!  (Yes - if you add drag then you must lower the nose to control speed, but speed is secondary to altitude when talking spoilers).

Pitch control/ elevator  is always used to control airspeed, not altitude. (Yes -  if you lower the nose you lose altitude, but the speed increases, and you can gain some of that altitude back by raising the nose again, but altitude is secondary to speed when talking pitch control).

Glide angle, may be adjusted by flying too fast for the existing wind and wing loading, as this will decrease your best glide ratio, but the affect is hardly noticeable in a descent of 500 feet.  Also, glide angle may be adjusted by adding drag - such as spoilers, or increasing flaps past the 50 percent of normal flaps - such as full flaps or landing flaps!

Speed is life!

Anytime you are outside of gliding distance of a normal pattern entry for landing at your home field, then you are on a cross country.

If you are uncomfortable thermaling at 800 ft on a high base leg with no other traffic around, then you should be just as uncomfortable when trying to catch a thermal at 800 ft over a hill top far from home.

Being unable to predict lift in the immediate vicinity of the home field is not a reason avoid flying cross country because there may be little or no lift in the area in the vicinity of the home field.

• At Minden, typically, the lift near the airport often becomes non-existent during the mid-afternoon, due to the cooler drainage winds coming into Carson Valley - you need to be on the Pine Nuts to have good lift in mid-afternoon.
• At Williams, a blue hole often develops over the airport just after mid-day, while at the same time, there is good lift over three sisters, just 10 miles to the west.
• At Truckee, if you can't find lift in the hills to the east, then land.  Truckee is the exception to this rule about not finding lift locally.

If you can't enter an "average thermal" and climb nearly to the top of it, then don't fly cross country.

Review Books on Dangerous Thought Patterns, and soaring related safety stories at least once per year.

Minimum approach speed (not even considering the wind) should be 130 percent of the stall speed in your approach configuration plus 5 knots if there is no wind.  (e.g. If your stall speed is 40 kts, then your approach speed should be 57 (40 * 130 % = 52 +5= 57))  I have observed this to be standard procedure in planes such as Cessna 150, B-727, DC-10, DC-9, C5, etc, ie, nearly all airplanes.

Another reader has suggested that you should use 150 percent of the stall speed, and then, not add the five knots for no wind conditions. This would equate to about the same as the above 130 % rule plus 5 knots for no wind. What type of adjustments are then used for various wind conditions lead to lots of theories, however I have found that the following work well.

Approach speed should normally be increased by fifty percent of the headwind component plus gust conditions, but corrections should normally not exceed 20 knots.  This is also standard procedure in most airplanes.  (e.g. if wind is 45 degrees off the nose at 15 kts, and is gusting to 20, then the head wind component is 11 kts and the gust is 5kts , thus you would add 16 kts  (11 + 5) to 52 kts and your approach speed would be 68 kts - if stall speed was 40 as in the previous example).

Changing from approach speed to touchdown speed should be done after you know you are not going to land short.

Touching down too fast or forcing the airplane onto the ground at higher than normal touchdown speed is not practical if the nose is going to contact the ground first, or if you have poor brakes, or if the surface is not a good braking surface.

Wheel brakes in a glider are rarely effective.  Even if the wheel can be locked up, or a rolling skid used, there is only a single wheel in contact with the earth. Besides, as long as you have some speed, even half that of stall speed, you have some lift on the wings, so you don't have full weight on the wheels, thus the wheel brake is not effective as you would expect.

Flying safely and avoiding accident or injury is more important than following rules.

Do what you have to do to be safe.

Following rules normally results in a safer operation.
 

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