This document provides guidance for cross-country soaring flights. It discusses preparing your glider, trailer, equipment and skills. Key aspects of preparation include checking weather forecasts, route planning, setting goals and turnaround times. The document outlines techniques for finding, entering and working thermals efficiently. It also covers position reporting, using flight computers, completing tasks, making landouts, and practicing both on the ground and in the air. The overall message is that cross-country soaring requires thorough planning, ongoing skill development, and applying scientific methods to maximize lift.

1. Practical XC
Snapping the Rubber Band

2. Waypoints
● Anxiety
● Challenges
● Preparation
● Planning
● Leaving the Nest
● Lift
● Speed to Fly
● Goals and Tasks
● When to turn around
● When to give up
● The Landout
● Flight Computers
● Position Reporting
● Seen from the backseat
● Ground based exercises
● Air based exercises
● Final Tips
● Resources

3. Anxiety
● It's Normal
● Minimize, don’t try to eliminate
● How?
● Skills: landing, wind detection, thermalling
● Weather and forecasting
● Friends for retrieve

4. Challenges
● Long distances without a motor?
● Extremely brain intensive
● High rate of decision making over long periods
● Complex chess game
● Requires thinking multiple moves in advance
● Always having backup plans
● Situational awareness and observation

5. Preparation - Scientific Method
● Soaring is science
o With a dash of luck and some faith
● Hypothesis - There will be a thermal at that peak
o Because: Sun, Wind, Clouds, etc...
● Test: Fly to that peak
● Results: lift/no lift
● Evaluate results
o Wind, sun, clouds
o Timing? Sometimes you are just early/late in a cycle

6. Preparation - Your Trailer
● Tow car ready (keys present, gas full, gas money)
● Road ready
o tires in good shape
o lights work, registration current
o everything secure (tools, doors, equipment)
● Tidy
● Tools and equipment for derigging
● you know how to rig and derig with this trailer

7. Preparation - Your Glider
● Comfortable
o pads, pedals, position
o you need to be able to fly for 3-5hrs comfortably
● Relief system
● Water, food, stuff accessible
● Batteries, equipment, good to go

8. Preparation - You
● 2+ hr flights normal
● Thermal Skills
o Comfortable in tight thermals
o Optimizing climbs (seeking the core)
o Predicting sources of lift, not just lucky
o Aware of wind and drift, using that to find lift sources
● Wind Detection - surface winds are most important
o ponds, dust, smoke, drift in thermals
o birds along ridges far below

9. Preparation - You - 2
● Landing skills
o Comfortable using any runway.
o Left/Right cross is no problem, always on centerline
o minimum energy touchdowns
● Radio skills - phraseology, comfort level, awos, ctaf
● Landout Kit (water, tie downs, blanket, signal mirror…)
● Crew retained
o Buddy up, have backups

10. Preparation - You - Tools
● Flight recorders
o XCSoar
o portable handheld GPS
o phone/tablet w/gps with IGC recording software
o Nano
o See You Mobile
o Oudie
o Glide computer in the glider
o … Lot’s of options

11. Preparation - You - Debrief Tools
● Debrief Tools
o OLC onlinecontest.org - web
o See You, IGC Replay - PC
o GammaFV - Mac
● Performance parameters
o average climb rate - higher is better
o # thermals - lower is better
o % circling - lower is better
o effective L/D or efficiency - higher is better

12. Planning
● Have routes in mind, scope them out
● Weather - pick a good day, don't wait for epic
o clouds? great!
o lift to 7k in the mountains, 5k in the valley
o light winds, decent convergence forecast
● Peers - fly when others are flying
● Coordinate retrieve buddies
● Launch time? turn around time if coming back?
● Goals? Minimums? Successful Outcomes?

13. Planning - Goals and Timelines
● Goals
o How far?
o What turnpoint(s)?
● Launch time?
o When will it be good enough to go?
o Work backwards from when you need to be back.
o Do you have enough time?
● Turn around time if coming back?
o Just a little bit farther… Great way to land out.
o Winds? Headwind or tailwind going home

14. Planning - Minimums and Success
● Conservative minimums
o I won’t go on final glide without 1000ft over pattern…
o I won’t thermal below 1000agl, I will commit to land.
o I won’t go over unlandable terrain without fields 10:1
or less away…
● Success
o Safe landing
o Convenient landing location
o Completed my task

15. Leaving the Nest
● Myth: There is only lift around the gliderport
● Truth: In the same airmass, the lift will probably be
pretty similar.
● Myth: I have to get to 8k at Avenal before I can head
out.
● Truth: You only need to keep a safe conservative glide
to a good landing.
● Myth: The best path is a straight line.
● Truth: Rarely is the best route directly on your course

16. Leaving the Nest 2
● Head out a little bit.
● Get a thermal, head a little farther, no thermal, come
back.
● If one path doesn’t work, try something different.
● At some point, you will be unable to glide straight back
to Avenal. You’re now going XC.
● Losing glide to Avenal is snapping the rubber band.
● There is a freedom that comes with being beyond glide
of the home airport. Enjoy it. Settle into the rhythm.

17. Lift - Finding Thermals
● Know the surface wind, know the sun angle
● Look for wind shadow areas with direct sun
● peaks with multiple gullies/spines
● ridges perpendicular to the wind
● tractors, farm houses, cattle troughs, small ponds
● Start your search downwind of a suspected trigger
● Track along ridges, closer to the front as you get lower

18. Wind Shadows and wind flow

19. Multiple ridges/gullies -- EL5

20. Multiple ridges/gullies -- EL4

21. Track towards ridge face with loss of
height

22. Lift - Working Thermals
● Primary lift source for XC
● 270 entry to compensate for cruise speed
● Centering
o 40-45 degree banks, consistent bank angle
o consistent airspeed
o small adjustments 1-2 seconds of reduced bank
● Get ambidextrous left/right turns
o ridgelines
o other pilots, you can’t always turn the way you want

23. 270 Entry from cruise to thermal

24. Inconsistent speed/bank
inconsistent
bank or
speed
Consistent
bank and
speed

25. Small adjustments
6 second
correction
2 second
correction

26. Lift - Convergence
● Not a continuous line of lift
● A line of occasional lift and often much stronger and
higher reaching thermals
● Follows ridgelines, pushes farther down valleys
● Think of water flowing and being divided by ridges
● Can be more turbulent. Mixed up, confused thermals
● Half up/half down
● Little to no wind on the ground
● Often can be run along for miles without circling

27. Lift - Ridge and Wave
● Ridge not used for XC typically (out here)
● Wave - XC possible. Adventurous in the blue.
● Wave is where you find it.
o Often can thermal into wave
o Will influence thermals. damping them or improving
o 15kts of wind is plenty for some wave events
● Lenticulars often just look like a line of cu from below
● Regularly spaced lines of cu across the wind might be
rotor cu if downwind of a trigger

28. Speed to Fly
● Keep it simple 3 main speeds (low, med, fast)
o known as block STF
● Increase to cruise speed in your last thermal turn
● Slow down in extended lift lines
● Slow down for lift, not for expected lift
● Speed up in sink
● Speed up in a headwind if on a final glide
● Resist the temptation to extreme porpoise
o usually less efficient

29. Goals and Tasks
● Start small. Triangles around the airfield that keep you
within glide of Avenal are excellent training tasks.
o practice glides, thermal entry, thermal prediction
● Build up to longer and longer flights.
● Do laps of shorter courses, use fewer thermals, skip
thermals
● Silver distance.
o Avenal to Lost Hills.
o Avenal, Orchard Peak, Old Coalinga 50km leg...

30. When to turn around
● Often we fly out-and-return.
● Have a turn around time. Respect it.
● Have a final glide height and distance in mind based on
the day.
● Have a sense of when the day will die
● Have a sense of if the day is as forecast (some days go
long, some die early, be aware of how it is trending)
● Know if you will have headwinds or challenges to
expect on the run home. (crossing 41/46 valleys)

31. When to give up
● Never give up, never surrender !!!WRONG!!!
● Set conservative minimums, adhere to them
● As you start to sink out, identify specific LZ options
● Do not focus on landing until you need to.
● Move towards LZs, seeking lift of course
● If it is an airport, switch to that frequency, broadcast
position and intention (5H 1 mile west, maneuvering)
● Stay situationally aware, stay focused on finding lift
while you are above minimums.

32. The Landout - off airport
● At 1000ft you should be at your LZ.
● wind, slope, obstacles, backup plan determined
● Fly around your field as you start your approach. View
from all sides.
● Look for poles, you likely won’t see power lines
● Look for fences or lines of taller weeds, dirt built up
● Slope? Land uphill. Favor uphill over into the wind in
most cases.
● Other risks? Squirrel holes, livestock, pipes, obstacles

33. The Landout - off airport part 2
● Fly a normal pattern, most accident reports don’t start
with “The pilot flew a standard pattern…”
● Keep your pattern wide enough. Give yourself room and
time to see things and adjust.
● Touch down at minimum speed. Airbrakes mostly
closed if length isn’t a factor.
● Brake firmly to stop quickly. Wings level till stopped.
Assuming landing into the wind.
● Breathe, relax, take a pic(of the clouds in the
background), your crew will come get you

34. Flight Computers
● Why Last? You need to be able to fly XC without one.
● Everyone uses them. Greatly reduces mental load.
● Get one. Oudie or Dell Streak. Run XCSoar for free.
● Learn it by simulation and playing back flights
● Learn how to ignore it.
● Set it up so you touch it as little as possible
● They lie! They know idealized performance. They
know circling wind. They don’t know what you might
see out the window.

35. Flight Computers - Tips
● Track Up Cruise, North Up Circling
● Long Track display
● Wind Drift off (especially for wave)
● Wind speed/direction
● Distance/bearing to waypoint
● Thumb Rule: Use MC4 as a safety factor, fly slower.
● Double check winds before final glide
● Monitor glide trends
o glide getting better or worse

36. Position Reporting
● Callsign, Altitude, Distance, wpt, Bearing, Heading
o 5H, 6500ft 22 miles NW Avenal, northbound
● Refine for more precision as required
o 5H, 6400 22.4 miles from Avenal bearing 300,
northbound
● Use GPS waypoints
● Use unmistakable landmarks
● If you can see a landmark, you aren’t over it
● No position report is probably better than a bad one.

37. Ground based exercises 1
● Always be scouting landout locations
● Driving along look at fields.
o Could I land here?
o How would I approach?
o Slope? Prevailing winds? Obstacles

38. Ground based exercises 2
● Radio calls
● Practice out loud, in the car, in the shower
o Avenal traffic, glider 5H entering left downwind
runway 31, Avenal
o Coalinga traffic, glider 5H on a 3 mile 45 for left
traffic runway 1, Coalinga
o Get used to the key phrases and timing

39. Ground based exercises 3
● Watch birds
o Thermalling, gliding, hunting, landing, taking off.
o How does a hawk hunt? hint: usually into the wind
o How does a hawk on glide from the top of a thermal
look?

40. Seen from the back seat - Thermals
● Poor speed control (aka pitch)
● Constantly decreasing bank angles
● Cross controlling
● Lack of coordination
● Death grip on the stick
● Not speeding up before exiting lift
● Staying too long when already high
● Not developing a plan while circling
o Suddenly at cloudbase without an idea

41. Seen from the back seat - Glides
● No plan
● No backup plan, no backup to the backup
● Wandering, getting pushed around
● Not flying the right speed
● Always turning one way
● Death grip on the stick
● Not using trim
● Anti-STF, slow in sink, fast in lift

42. Air based exercises 1
● Fly with purpose towards a point
o Note if the air is trying to knock you away from your
intended point.
o Lean into lifting wings
● Don’t let the air decide your path
● Have a reason for going to that point
o I saw a bird or a dust devil
o Sun and wind favor that slope
o The terrain is just like where I got my last climb

43. Air based exercises 2
● Determine 3 speeds to fly based on
o Weak lift, good lift, strong lift
o When leaving one thermal, fly your speed
o Make it easy on yourself. 55/65/75
o Based on the polar of your glider and your wing
loading
● When in doubt, don’t slow down
o Porpoising often less efficient

44. Air based exercises 3
● Don’t waste time searching if you are high
o If you think you hit a thermal, start a turn, if it fades,
roll back on course or try chasing it the other
direction a little ways.
o Don’t throw good altitude away on a bubble
● Build your confidence in finding other lift
o Leave before it gets too weak.
o Speed up in lift before exiting the thermal

45. Final tips
● When in doubt
o A few knots faster is better than a few slower
o A steep bank is better than shallow
o A safe landing is better than risk taking
● Practice on every flight
● Debrief every flight, even if it is just mentally
o How would you have improved things?
● Apply the scientific method to finding lift

46. Resources
Google Earth file for Hollister waypoints
soaringweb.org -- turnpoint files
onlinecontest.org