SPRING 2023 SAFETY BRIEFING
There are countless reasons to take a break from flying. Sometimes, life just gets in the way, whether it’s due to financial limitations, increased family or career responsibilities, or even health issues. But winter isn't one of them! Unfortunately many of our pilots don't see their wings from the end of September until spring boings back into view.
Lately we are starting to see those pilots who hibernated starting to show up on the hills like a bunch of hungry and slightly dozy grizzlies.
If you count yourself among their number, it really is beholden unto you to carefully brush up your kit and skills. At the very least give your kit a close inspection and repack your reserve(s). Three months is the optimum interval. You may wish to send it off to one of the various professional organisations that offer servicing, but if so, get it booked in now as they do fill up!
Charge all your electronics and upgrade any software and airspace files.
Once you have established that your kit is still airworthy you need to address yourself. Don't kid yourself, a layoff of nearly five months will make even the best consolidated pilot's ground handling rusty and if you only learnt in the last few years you may find that you have almost forgotten entirely how it is done.
Flying a desk is an easy way to re-familiarize yourself with fundamental flying knowledge, flight and weather planning, instruments, airspace, and in-flight workload management. Take the time to review checklists and emergency procedures: How to deploy your reserve, how to kill your wing if you are being dragged, etc.
Get yourself onto a landing field or your more local favourite bit of flat ground and spend a day or three refreshing your skills. It is really disappointing when a simple ground handling fail loses you half of the summer season and it happens every year...
Once you have got your ground handling up to speed, conservatively build up your flying. Start off with gentle early morning or late evening flights rather than diving straight into midday thermals & marginal winds. I have already encountered 3m/s thermals here this month, and that was at 17:30! Oh and by the way, it is excruciatingly cold at altitude right now.
Pick an easy site for your first few flights. Not Beachy Head cliffs or the Dyke on a weekend, but do recognise that if you are the only pilot on an SHGC site it is probably either the hours of darkness or the wrong site!
Consider scheduling some time with a coach or instructor to review basic skills and ease your way back into flying safely. You can’t “fail” a flight review. The point is to ensure that you continue to update and expand your skills as a pilot.
If there are fifty pilots already in the air, now might not be the best time for you to take off. But equally it is usually possible to find a part of the hill which, though it may not offer the best thermal activity, it is pleasantly uncrowded.
Note that most midairs seem to occur when the stress of flying in crowded conditions is absent. Either because of risk compensation or through inattentiveness because of complacency. So if you do manage to thermal away with just one or two others, do maintain a vigilant lookout.
All good things take time. Don’t get frustrated if you’re not feeling proficient right away. It’s well worth it to put in the hours to ensure your skills are sharp and you feel comfortable in the seat. Enjoy the process! Before you know it, you’ll be returning safely to the skies.
Steve Purdie