If you might be interested in attending a 3-day weekend thermal and cross-country soaring clinic in Huntsville, Alabama, then read on. It’s an open invitation for everyone… not just the few local groups whom I’ve already contacted
For close to a decade, I’ve built/strengthened my soaring skills by using computer flight simulators. Over the past year or two, I’ve begun helping others do the same and have been considering creating a structured “beginner to cross-country racer” simulation-based clinic. I’m confident that such a clinic can give even more benefit than a traditional thermal/XC clinic of the same duration, largely because a simulation-based clinic would not be weather-dependent but would have the weather custom-designed as needed for the lesson at hand and would eliminate all the “overhead” involved with real flying (e.g., travel, site briefing/familiarization, signing waivers, setup, breakdown, etc.). It would also allow the instructor to be IN THE GLIDER with the student (the ideal situation) and to “virtually” hop from glider to glider as needed mid-flight.
This announcement is to gauge interest in such a clinic. The idea is to offer a three-day (Fri.-Mon.?), off-season (mid-January?), eight hour per day clinic with about a 50-50 split of hands-on and lecture time (i.e., about 12 hours of simulated flight time). My main motivation is to help fill the void in teaching thermaling and XC flying. I will charge just enough to cover expenses and for my wife to tolerate my giving up the time required to make this happen. I expect the clinic fee to be in the $100-150 range (plus some rental charges, if you don’t already own the Condor – www.condorsoaring.com – flight simulation software, a joystick, or a computer headset). Typical traditional thermal/XC clinics of this duration cost 2-3X this much and give much less, if any, flight time and usually NO tandem time with your teacher! And…while real-life thermal and XC flying usually requires a moderate amount of pilot skill and experience as a prerequisite, because this is only simulated flying, the clinic would be appropriate even for people who have never flown solo (e.g., students in training, people thinking about getting into soaring, etc.).
I plan to offer the clinic in my home, which we would turn into a computer lab of sorts for the clinic duration, and I would expect to offer lodging and meals for small additional fees (to help save attendees money and to maximize the amount of time spent learning – not driving around town for lodging and food). You could “check in” the night before the clinic starts and “check out” the morning after it ends, never leaving the house in between if you don’t want to. It will be a four-night fun and learning-packed sleepover! In the little bits of free time, you could jog or ride one of our bikes around the neighborhood, work out in our home gym, play our video/card/board/dice games, lounge in front of the TV, or surf the web on our WiFi.
My real-world soaring experience is primarily in hang gliders, but I have spent a few hours in paragliders and sailplanes, too (hundreds of hours in simulated sailplanes). I’ve even spent time thermaling and flying XC in a powered ultralight with the throttle pulled back! The clinic would be open to (and equally applicable to) anyone, regardless of the type of glider they fly (or intend to fly). And while the most benefit would be gained by bringing a computer (so you could get hands-on training), I’d offer an option (probably at about half the regular price) to attend without a computer – just to hear the lectures, see pilots fly, and hear the instructor-to-student interaction during hands-on training. A generous classmate might even let you have a little hands-on time on his computer.
About 2/3 of the clinic would be focused on thermaling (starting at the absolute beginner point and ending in difficult thermals), as this is the primary (and most difficult to teach/learn) key to meaningful XC flying. The remainder of the clinic would cover XC flying, culminating in some multi-player team XC and individual racing XC flights. The “classroom” content of this clinic would cover all the usual stuff covered at a traditional thermal/XC clinic. Only the flying would be different – a LOT of simulated flying vs. little or no real flying.
So the question is … would you attend such a clinic? I don’t live in a hotbed of soaring activity here in Huntsville, Alabama, so most pilots would have to travel at least a couple of hours to attend. I’d like to have 6-8 pilots in the clinic, so I’d like to see at least enough interest to fill those seats before I plan any further. If you’re interested, please contact me. Who’s in?!
