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Cross-Country

There are plenty of publications that cover the art and technique of cross-country flying. My comments will largely be confined to the general philosophy of introducing this subject. Prior to going cross-country the pilot must first meet the legal requirements in their jurisdiction. Many countries require that the pilot have a licence.

Cross-country flying should be taught as a progression from local soaring, to extended local soaring, and finally true cross-country. If this approach is taken in a disciplined manner it will serve to lessen the usual fears that novice pilots have for this part of the sport. The progression is as follows:

  1. Pilots complete the requirements of the Bronze badge which serves to confirm basic soaring abilities.
  2. Pilots then do a number of extended local soaring flights to start to develop orientation and basic glidepath skills and should try to complete the duration and altitude requirements for the Silver ‘C’ badge.
  3. Further local exercises are done to prepare for off-field landings and to introduce the concepts of height bands.
  4. Pilots attempt initial 50 kilometer cross-country with the endpoint an airport. Do either a trailer or a aerotow retrieve.
  5. A series of 100-150 kilometer cross countries are planned that use turnpoints for a 300 kilometer diamond goal course. The emphasis should be on orientation and the use of height bands.
  6. Pilot may now attempt 300 kilometer or more advanced flights.

I believe that it is important that until the pilot is at step 6 that these flights are not part of declared 300 kilometer FAI tasks. Low time cross-country pilots do not often have enough knowledge about when to press on and when to abort tasks. This is coupled with little off-field landing experience and a lot of other pressures on their abilities. If off-field landing experience is desired then it is best done at this stage using airport hopping techniques. While these don’t have quite the same impact as true field landings, they do present a lot of the same problems in a more benign setting. It is also my belief for much the same reasons that pilots should refrain from entering contests until they have successfully completed several 300 kilometer flights and have some actual field landing experience.  Along these lines it much safer to fly in lower energy K6 class of aircraft up to and including step 5.  Some might argue that there is increased chance of off-field landing in low performance aircraft however this is usually offset by the shorter tasks which can be easily completed during the strongest part of the day. Certainly aircraft of this performance are more forgiving in the off-field landing situations. They also climb better in weak conditions.

Again it is recommended that until a pilot has completed the requirements for a Silver ‘C’ badge, some off-field landings, and some longer flights, that they not use higher performance aircraft for cross-country flying. In any event, a pilot should have a minimum of 10 local flights in the particular type before attempting cross-country flights. This gives time to evaluate the flight characteristics of the new aircraft as well as get familiar with the rigging and trailering aspects.