Who is CAS? Canadian Advanced Soaring Corporation

2. Who is CAS?Canadian Advanced Soaring Corporation • CAS is a group of dedicated cross-country soaring pilots who provide a pool of knowledge and experience for the guidance, training and coaching of new cross-country pilots and future champions

3. CAS’ Objectives • to further cross country and competitive soaring in Canada, • to ensure the future health of the Canadian soaring movement as a whole by introducing new pilots to the world of cross country flying and competition and thus showing there is "life beyond the circuit". • to actively support the participation of Canadian pilots at the world level

4. How does CAS meet these Objectives? • CAS helped develop the Bronze badge training syllabus to extend training to a point after licensing to prepare pilots for the silver badge • cross-country training initiatives such as: • lectures at the club level, • cross-country clinics, • a cross-country manual (for the clinic) • contest support • seminars

5. What are the cross-country clinics? • Beginners clinic: • takes pilots to the level where they can fly cross-country routinely and have a good chance to succeed in Gold distance attempts • Advanced clinics (aka racing school): • prepares pilots for competition flying

6. CAS Contest support • Contest kit • flight recorders, GPS software, radio, ropes, clocks • assistance to the organizers as required • seed money to finance contest start-up costs

7. Events to Attend this Summer • 25 March • 2nd Annual CAS Winter Soaring Seminar (Toronto) • 19-22 May • MayFly Fun Contest (Gatineau Gliding Club) • 25 June- 6 July • Canadian National Soaring Competition (Gatineau Gliding Club) • July 18 – 22 • Cross-country Clinic (Montreal Soaring Council) • 14-18 Aug • Cross-country Clinic (SOSA Gliding Club) • more events are listed at: www.sac.ca/cas/casevents.html

8. Introduction to Cross-Country Soaring

9. Introduction to Cross-Country Soaring • A purpose for every flight • Thermalling • Effective inter-thermal flying • Glider Polar curves • Final Glides

10. A Purpose for Every Flight • What do you want to accomplish this season • 5 hours, 50 km badge leg • 300 km • What skills do you need to improve to meet your goals for the season • thermalling • cloud selection • What do you want to accomplish this flight

11. A Purpose for Every Flight • Skills that should be practised • proficient handling of the glider in all conditions • effective thermalling • effective navigation • cloud reading • using only the best lift • final glides • off-field landings • turnpoint photography

12. Thermalling • Important points • finding thermals • centering the thermal

13. Thermalling • finding thermals • clouds • at what stage of development is the cloud • what side of the cloud (wind, sun) • no clouds • ground features (wind, sun)

14. Thermalling • Finding the thermal while cruising • fly towards a likely source, (cloud or ground) • feel the thermal, vario indication • feel which side the thermal is on • turn into the up-going wing

15. Centering Techniques First circle Core Ideal circle How do we move from our first circle to the ideal circle?

16. Centering Thermals • We want to centre quickly, to optimize our climb • first technique (basic): • Level out in lift • fly straight for a couple of seconds • roll back in

17. Technique 1 Feel the strongest lift here Core Straighten out

18. Technique 1 • Why does this happen? • Vario lag • flying straight for too long • how long does it take to roll from 40° to 40° • Disadvantages • it moved the circle, but we are still half out • the lift is now north of us as opposed to east • this means it is easier to loose your bearing to the lift

19. Technique 1 • How can we improve on this technique? • Good vario with minimal lag • anticipate where the increase in lift will occur • don’t fly straight for too long, • in some cases just rolling out and back in will provide sufficient displacement of your circle

20. Technique 2 • As soon as the lift becomes weak tighten up the turn for half a circle

21. Technique 2 Core Lift becomes weaker Increase bank angle

22. Technique 2 • This technique results in a smaller displacement of the circle and brings us closer to the core than the first technique

23. Technique 3 • Is a combination of the first two techniques • Increase bank when you leave the strong lift • (this is technique 2) • Reduce bank when you enter the strong lift

24. Note that if you do not increase bank again you will fly out of the lift here, so as soon as the lift starts to weaken again, increase your bank to stay in the core Technique 3 Lift becomes stronger decrease bank angle Core Lift becomes weaker Increase bank angle

25. Technique 3 • Advantages: • Reducing bank in the strong lift • allows you to spend more time in the strong lift • moves your circle towards the strong lift • Increase bank when you leave the strong lift • allows you to spend less time in the weaker lift • moves your circle towards the strong lift • Disadvantages • It requires more pilot effort, properly functioning varios and a good physical perception as to where the thermal core is located

26. Effective Inter-thermal Flying • Set a working band for the day • below what height are the thermals weak and difficult to work? • At what height does the thermal strength drop off? • These altitudes may change throughout the day!

27. Effective Inter-thermal Flying • Fly with purpose! Don’t let the thermals push you around

28. Effective Inter-thermal Flying • When you feel lift always slow down and turn into it • Anytime you can climb while flying straight on course is advantageous

29. Ring Settings for Inter-thermal Flying • Q. What ring setting should you use? • A. The expected average climb in your next thermal • Q. When do you leave a thermal? • A. When your rate of climb has reduced to exactly what you expect your next average climb rate to be

30. Glider Polar CurvesBest L/D

31. Glider Polar CurvesMinimum Sink

32. Effect of Wind on Best L/D Speed 40 km/hr tailwind 40 km/hr headwind 0 40 20 -40 -20

33. Effect of Lift on Best L/D Speed For more information on the internet go to: http://www.isrv.com/~lhuffman/STF.htm Sink -2 kts 40 0 20 -40 -20 Lift 2 kts

34. Final Glides • What is a final glide? • When do you start a final glide?

35. Rules of Thumb for Final Glides • For an L/D of 30:1 (a conservative estimate?), use • 1000 ft of height required for 5 nautical miles of distance to cover • this is about 1000 ft per 10 km • where does this come from? • 30/1 means from 1000 ft you can fly 30,000 ft over the ground • 1 nm = 6076 ft, so 30,000  6076 = 4.93 miles = 9.1 km

36. Setting up your Final Glide • What ring setting do you set for your final glide • You are in the last thermal needed to get you home, when do you leave? • Which is more conservative for a final glide a 2kt or 5 kt setting?