Prepare Now for Cross Country

Fellow Soaring pilots, As the Soaring Season is only just "around the corner " I would like to encourage all who enjoy or would like to enjoy more cross country flying to think about some modest goals for the 2009 season. Nyal, I know, will continue to manage the SSA Badge Program and many of you have already earned several badges beyond the initial " A " badge. If you are interested in moving on up though the "B" , "C" , Bronze and on to the Silver , Gold and Diamond badges there exists an excellent series of handbooks written by Bob Wander covering the rquirements for each successive badge. SSA advertize and sell them . Talk to Nyal about what you need to do to prove your flying skills and I know many of you could very easily earn that next badge .

Many of you have also already accomplished a lot of cross country soaring by participating in the club contest the past several years and I'm sure you would readily agree that besides the FUN it provides, the result was improved flying skills on your part . Lets keep the Club Contest alive and well, it's good for us all . Don Taylor is of course the man to talk to if you have any questions or suggestions to improve our system . I happen to think it's pretty close to ideal but would like to see a few pilots agree to fly the same course some days just to add some " on course comraderie " .

Well , what about setting some modest records ? If you have ever paged through the Indiana State Record listings ( on the SSA site under " Soaring Achievements " ) you would readily notice that there are some "easy" ones for the taking. For example in the World Class ( PW 5 ) there are a number of unset records . You could decide for yourself on a modest triangle ( 35 mile say ) or a modest 3 turn point course , go out and fly it and the record would be yours !Likewise if you could talk a qualified instructor or other cross country pilot to accompany you in the Grob ( or a Blanik ) there are a couple of easy to fly records available - How about a 36 mile straight out flight to a pre set goal ? That would do it . I'd be happy to join any one of you on such a flight - just let me know when ! Even in the Standard Class several relatively easy records could be flown by any of you with Standard class gliders .

And if some of you would like we could meet sometime in the off season to discuss how to go about preparing for such flights ( badges or records ) or how to file the paperwork . In fact if there is enough interest I would happily put on a short seminar . Let me know if anyone would like to meet next Saturday ( Feb 7 ) as we have the use of a room at the Remy facilities mid way between Indy and Muncie over the lunch hour . Stretching yourself by going for higher badges , flying contests and records is one of the very best ways to IMPROVE YOUR SOARING SKILLS in the 2009 season . Happy Landings , Ron (ZA)