Safer Soaring Overview:

Safer Soaring...Made Easy

1. Soaring, Speculation, & Aeronautical Decision-Making
The gamble, the speculation, and the Sure Thing. Decision types and soaring. Sporting decisions versus safety decisions. Speculations, Sure Things, and the blurred line between them. The seductive qualities of the bad speculative decision. Factors that give rise to unsafe speculative soaring decisions. Safety decisions = Sure Thing decisions.

2. Preparing Your Glider For Flight: The Big Three
Background. Causes of incomplete assembly. The Big Three. Written Checklists. Positive Control Check (PCC). The Up-Thumb tool. Visual Critical Assembly Check (CAC). The role of interruptions in assembly accidents. Lack of familiarity with type being flown.

3. Kiting Above The Towplane During Aerotow Launch
Kiting. Causes of kiting. If kiting occurs. Preventing kiting accidents.

4. Aerotow Launch Failures, Flight Training, & Emergency Action Plans
Launch failures. Towplane problems. Flight training for partial or gradual towplane power loss. Early detection of aerotow problems. Planning for aerotow emergencies. Very low altitude launch failures. Intermediate altitude launch failures. Cross-country retrieve aerotow failures.

5. The Effects of Sinking Airmass On Glider Performance & The Role Of Sinking Airmass In Gliding Accidents
Effects of mild, moderate, and severe airmass sink rates on gliders of low, medium, and very high performance. Sinking airmass and gliding accidents.

6. Spin Training
Why spin training is important. Why many pilots avoid spin training. Three spin questions for every glider pilot. Spin training methods and the advantages and disadvantages. Factors that contribute to inadvertent spins during the landing approach. The cure for inadvertent spins.

7. Forward Slips, Side Slips, & Turning Slips
The three slips. Slips with straight flight paths: Forward slip and side slip. Function of the forward slip. Function of the side slip. The difference between forward slips and side slips. Curving flight path slip: The turning slip. Function of the turning slip. Learning and practicing slips. Stalls, spins, and slips.

8. Landing Gliders Safely: Serial Task Or Parallel Task?
Undershoot landing accidents. Overshoot landing accidents. Preventing landing accidents. Serial Tasks. Parallel tasks. Approach and landing in a glider: Serial task or parallel task? Teaching methods and the parallel task. Danger of using serial task methods to solve parallel task problems. Flight training standards: Comparing launch training in gliders with landing training in gliders. Teaching landing emergencies. Flying the approach as a parallel task. Concentrating on the desired outcome: A safe landing on the spot you intended to land on.

9. The "Traffic Pattern"
The AIM traffic pattern. Tools that fail. The traffic pattern is a tool. When the traffic pattern tool fails. History of the traffic pattern. Unique characteristics of the glider flying an approach to landing. Recommended training with CFIG.

10. Getting The Most From Your Recurrent Training
Pre-flight phase. Takeoff and aerotow phase. Free flight phase. Approach and landing phase. Finishing the job. The FAA Wings program

Author:  Bob Wander