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LOUISVILLE
SOARING CLUB
SAFETY MATTERS - March 2004
2004 Spring Checkout
The Louisville Soaring Club is over 33 years old.
(yes - some of the original members are still flying with us!)
Over these years the needs of the club have changed depending on
the demographics, personalities, and experience levels of the members.
We’re probably a more diverse group now than I’ve
seen since I joined in 1998. We’ve
got very experienced General Aviation pilots, new members with no previous
aviation experience, and a few like me with plenty of military and airline
experience but almost no small airplane time.
Some of our members fly gliders nearly every weekend, and some come
out once or twice a season.
With this diverse group, many of us have spent the
winter thinking high thoughts about what the club needs are and what we
can do to foster a safe, fun soaring environment.
Along those lines the LSC Board has decided to beef up the safety
program in 4 areas:
1) Safety awareness via the “Safety Matters” newsletters
2) Standardized checkouts in the club gliders
3) Formalized operational authority of the tow pilot
4) A Spring Checkout ride with a CFIG for everyone
You’ve hopefully noticed the past monthly “Safety
Matters” pontifications that have been arriving in your mailbox.
The subject matter has been well known, motherhood-and-apple-pie
stuff. The point of the
newsletter is not to necessarily teach anything new, but keep soaring
safety and safe practices up front in our minds all year.
Know your stuff, make good judgments, etc.
In order to keep costs down, we’ll be sending it out
electronically to all who have e-mail, and snail mail to the die-hards.
The second item pertains to anyone in a training
program or planning on checking out in the 1-26 or L-33.
We’ve decided to use the Bob Wander glider series as our club
syllabus for initial solo in the 2-33, and Private and Commercial training
programs. As for the 1-26 and
L-33, the checkout program is being standardized and documentation
tightened up. Everyone
already checked out in a club glider will be grandfathered in.
We’ve also had several discussions on just who
should be in charge of the flying operation on a day by day basis. The details will be spelled out later, but suffice it to say
that the towpilot will carry the hammer.
He’ll be the Board’s representative to make all go/no go
decisions and ensure a safe flying environment is maintained at all times.
Again - more on that later.
Finally - the Spring Checkout requirement.
We’ve set this up to combat several potential problem areas:
1) The wide diversity of members discussed above.
We can all enjoy the benefit of occasionally flying with someone
else with a different background.
2) Once a club member gets his license, there’s
very little accountability and cross check besides self discipline to
maintain essential skills at an acceptable level.
Up to now it’s been maintained mostly by the gentle ribbing of
fellow pilots - “That was a pretty low save, wasn’t it?”
3) Its also nice to find out if you’re doing
anything ‘differently’ than the rest of the gal/guys.
I found out late last year that I’m flying my patterns with a
wider downwind and shorter final than the rest of you.
4) Lastly, many of our members get their BFR
requirements filled in aircraft other than gliders.
It’s conceivable that a club member could go many years and never
fly with a CFIG. When was the
last time you got some good practice in spin prevention, slack rope
procedures, simulated rope breaks, etc?
On to the details:
The Board is requiring every pilot in the club to get
a Spring Checkout flight in the 2-33 with a CFIG.
We’re going to try to front load the CFIG availability during the
first months so everyone can get their review ride completed before the
season really starts booming. A
grace period will extend to June 1st to prevent a bottleneck in
case we have a shortage of CFIGs any particular weekend.
If you haven’t completed the Checkout ride by June 1st,
you must make arrangements
with a CFIG to complete the ride before you fly.
See the attached details for what to prepare for and
a list of what you might want to do.
Nothing’s mandatory per se, so come up with a profile in mind and
discuss it with your CFIG. This
isn’t intended to be a BFR (not as exhaustive and only planned for 1
ride). If you need one, we can easily upgrade the review ride to BFR
quality and get that completed.
Periodic review is one of the best accident
prevention strategies we have. It’s
a good opportunity to learn, to try something you may not have done in
years, and to learn just how you stack up against the skills/knowledge of
the other pilots.
Let the season begin!
SPRING CHECKOUT
The Spring Checkout ride should provide a good
opportunity to refresh your knowledge and skills.
Take a look at the following list and note how many of these little
adventures you may have already run into.
A little prep time before your review ride might not seem such a
bad idea after all.
Preflight
Control system problem
Object in cockpit come loose
Ever fly with a cold?
Ever come to the field, then decided NOT to fly due to stress,
illness,
distractions?
Takeoff/Tow
PIO or balloon on liftoff
Rope break
Crosswind takeoff problems
Trim mis-set
Airbrakes open on tow
Slack rope
Thermalling
Near miss with someone else
Unexpected stall indications
Stuck airbrakes
Canopy popped open
Stall while thermalling
Incipient spin, spiral dive
Botched aerobatic maneuver
Lost sight of field
Caught blown further downwind than intended
Pattern
Too high approach
Too low approach
Traffic conflict
Land on field anywhere else than in the grass
Poorly coordinated turns
Landing
Hard landing
Ground loop
Off field landing
Gear up landing
Crosswind landing problems
Here’s the Spring Checkout “Menu”. The ride will include a before flight discussion of
appropriate knowledge areas and preflight actions.
Obviously there’s more here than can be covered in a single
flight, so come with an idea of the things you’d like to review.
Simulated rope breaks are also available as a second flight.
Ground
Ops/Preflight
Aerotow signals and review of rope break options
What is a stall?
Spin? Where are they most likely encountered?
Water bottle, personal items, land out kit
What glider and personal documents are required for
flight?
Speed review - limitations, speeds to fly
Land-out plan
Weight and balance review
What Before Takeoff and Before Landing checks do you
use?
Positive Control check and Critical Items check
Tow
Tow pilot briefing
Call out critical altitude(s)
High tow references, proper tow position
Slack rope and/or boxing the wake
What should you do if you ever loose sight of the tow
plane when on tow?
Release/The
Joy of Soaring
Clearing
Slow Flight
Stalls (level
flight, turning, 6 signs of an impending stall)
Incipient spin, spiral dive
Turns, forward slip, turning slip
Use of speeds to fly
Pattern/Landing
Landing checklist
Flying pattern without altimeter reference
Radio use
Simulated off-field pattern
Dive brake use
Simulated dive brake stuck open/closed
Touchdown speed, spot landing |
