Thoughts on team-flying training and Condor

After this year’s WGC at Uvalde, there was a lot of talk about whether our U.S. teams lived up to our expectations (especially since it was held at one of our better known U.S. competition venues), and how much or how little of that was due to lack of expertise in team flying.

I have been advocating the use of the Condor simulator for U.S. team training for several years now, and have had (and continue to have) a standing offer in place to facilitate Condor training for any U.S. team member that would like it.  Other national teams, most notably the Australian National Team, have been using Condor for years now to train for  upcoming WGC.  The use of Condor for team-flying training hasn’t caught on here, even though our demographics and geographic challenges are even greater here than in Australia.

In preparation for the Uvalde WGC, theU.S. Soaring Team organization arranged for British team coach (and former WGC winner) Brian Spreckley and most of the U.S. team to come to Chilhowee Gliderport for a week of pair-flying coaching.  In addition, Peter Alexander (98) graciously trailered his Arcus all the way in from California for Spreckley to use as his ‘observation platform’.  While this was a great step in the right direction, neither the weather nor the terrain were much like Uvalde, and team pilots had limited opportunities to practice team flying techniques as coached by Spreckley.   Instead, imagine the following alternative scenario:

  • All team members fly several times per week at Uvalde with their exact make/model gliders, in Condor.  All teams fly together in realistic simulations, without ever leaving their homes.
  • Brian Speckley flies with all of the teams, in an appropriate front-line glider, and without ever leaving his home in England.  The popular ‘Team Speak’ software developed for multi-member role-playing games would allow all pilots in a flight to talk to each other, precisely as they would do in real life.  The time-zone issue is addressed by having all participants temporarily switch to an appropriate U.S. time zone (probably CDST).
  • Lecture sessions, and/or preflight and post-flight brief/debrief sessions could be held using any number of popular teleconferencing packages, complete with interactive lecture sessions, whiteboards, etc.
  • After extensive on-line team/pair flying, the team meets in ‘RL’ Uvalde (instead of Chilhowee) a few days prior to the start of official practice to apply the lessons and techniques learned in Condor to the real-world Uvalde.

This is not a far-fetched pie-in-the-sky scenario.  John Mittell (BZ) and I have been team-flying together now for about two months, because it’s a lot of fun, and (for me at least) as an exercise to determine just how well or poorly Condor can work as a team flying trainer.  We have been flying several times per week (sometimes twice per day) in online races like the popular US Nightly Soaring (USNS) or Monday Night Soaring (MNS) races, or just by ourselves.  I estimate that in the two months we have been flying together, we have racked up close to 200 hours of pair-flying time (more than most competition pilots fly in an entire season), and we are just getting started.  By the time we meet up in RL for the start of the 2013 competition season, we will probably have over 1000 hours of intense pair-flying training under our belts, including literally hundreds of contest days.  While neither of us are likely to set the competition world on its ear with our talent and brilliance, I’m confident that a lot of what we are learning in Condor will transfer to RL glider racing.   Just imagine for a moment what might have happened at Uvalde if our U.S. teams had showed up there with 1000 hours of site-specific team flying training under their belts, instead of 10-15 hours in completely different conditions and terrain.

I hope to report on our progress from time to time here at Soaring Cafe, and John and I plan to collaborate on a Condor Corner article for publication sometime next Spring.  Stay tuned!

Frank (TA)

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