As I write this I have just returned from the 2011 U.S. Seniors contest at the Seminole Gliderport near Orlando, Florida.  I finished 4th overall this year, 42 points out of 3rd place and 145 points out of 1st.  Another way of putting this, my overall score was 97.5% of the overall winners score.  In the top 5 places, I was the only pilot who was not a current or former National Champion/ U.S. Team member.  I am also, by far, the least experienced pilot in the top 5, with about 1/2 to 1/3 the number of years/hours in competitive soaring as the rest.

I make these points not to brag about how good I am (well, maybe a little ;-)), but to highlight what I have been saying for some time now about the Condor soaring simulator.  The Condor simulator, when used as a training tool for cross country racing, can help to significantly improve one’s real life XC racing performance in significantly less time than it would take otherwise.

For the last several  years, I have been flying about 300 hours per year in my real life glider, almost all of it in contests across the country.  This is probably about the best real life training environment possible, as almost all flights are under competition conditions and are objectively scored against the rest of the field.  However, in addition to the real life flying, I have been flying at least that much over each winter in Condor, again almost all contest flying against other very experienced Condor (and real life) pilots.  At this point I am willing to make the claim that the combination of intense training in both real life and Condor has made a significant impact on my overall skill level as a competition soaring pilot.  I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to whether the real life or Condor training was more important – I think they are complementary training tracks.  Real life training is necessary to gain experience and skill in weather conditions such as streeting, pre/post-frontal weather, convergences, etc that aren’t well simulated in Condor, for familiarity with real life contest rules, and for handling the physical challenges of competition.  Condor training helps with race tactics, area familiarization, learning the importance of flying straight lines and thermalling well, etc.

Looking back at my scores for the Seniors, I only had one bad day (21st, 860), and this was on a fairly strong day with significant cloud streeting.  My speed was 64mph dry which is pretty decent, but many others were able to exploit the streets to a larger degree.  Because streets aren’t simulated in Condor, I could make the case that my poor performance on this day is a good indication that Condor flying is having a significant positive effect on my general skill level – just not in those areas that it can’t simulate properly.

In any case, I’m persuaded more than ever that the combination of real life and Condor training is a very effective way of climbing the cross country glider racing learning curve much more quickly than via real life flying alone, and I’m convinced that I’m not the only pilot for which this will be effective.  This experience also has convinced me that my upcoming book “Cross Country Soaring with Condor” will be more useful and germane than I thought before the Seniors contest.

OK, I’ve stepped down from my soap-box and put down the megaphone ;-).  Let me know what you think

TA