Summary Of Pilot Report Forms

by Larry Huffman

On Sunday the day after the XC seminar nineteen pilots plus Pete, Ric, and Larry were at Ridgely to fly. Early that afternoon pilots began launching and nineteen of the twenty-one pilots flew XC. The distances achieved were from 3 miles to 38 miles with duration from 30 minutes to 3 hours.

A major part of learning to fly XC is to analyze the flight afterward and attempt to figure out what was done right and what went wrong. With that in mind I passed out pilot report forms to each of the participating pilots to fill out after their flights but unfortunately I only got about half of them back. This was an abbreviated form that we used in the Daedalus club for a number of years. Beside distance and duration there were a few other questions. Some of these I would like to go over.

Thermal Size

Most of the pilots reported thermals of medium size with only a couple of exceptions. So most of us were on the same page here.

Maximum Altitude

Cloud base started at about 3200 feet and went up later with a couple pilots getting to around 4000 feet. Most of the pilots fell somewhere in between so altitude gains were very similar.

Sink

The majority of the pilots reported moderate sink during their flights.

Maximum Climb Rate

Here is where the real differences were. Reported maximum climb rates ranged from 150 fpm all the way to 800 fpm with the average maximum climb of 470 fpm. If we look at the differences in pilots and the possibility of a couple thermals that were significantly better than the others we might be able to explain it. But I would like to offer a different explanation. The pilot with the high maximum climb rate very well may have looked at the max. climb in his vario's memory after the flight. A vario that is not total energy compensated will always give an artificially high number. Remember how Pete said that we use three full turns to determine a maximum climb rate. Even a compensated vario will give high instantaneous readings. Another thing to remember is that most pilots take about 20 seconds to do a 360* turn. This means that an averager set for 30 seconds is only giving the average for 1 1/2 turns. The real issue here is usually discipline.

Average Climb Rate

Here our pilots are more in step. Reported averages ranged from 100 fpm up to 300 fpm with the average being 220 fpm. These are all well within reason.

Reason for Landing

Here is the most important part of the questionnaire and one that I was very pleased with. Most of the pilots looked at their flights with a critical eye for things they might have done differently. While we can never know for sure that doing something differently would have worked out any better, posing the questions can teach us a lot. It is not enough to say that we didn't find any more lift. We must ask ourselves why didn't we find any more lift.

In summary, I would like to thank all of the pilots who attended the clinic and to commend them for the effort that they put into their flights. The entire weekend was very rewarding for me.