More feedback on CCSC XC Camp

Received these comments from Camp graduate John Bird, and he was gracious enough to allow me to post them here. John flew his Russia at the camp, and so had an especially challenging time with the XC tasks.
Frank (TA)
——————————-    Comments from John Bird ————————————-
On inspection of my comments they seem to be largely on the issues I observed with the camp, so I guess I’d like to make clear first and foremost that my total experience with the camp was incredible. I learned an immense amount about cross-country and competition soaring, and I’m sure I’ll be digesting the lessons I learned for years to come. The more critical nature of my feedback is intended to help identify areas where I felt my learning could have been most enhanced, not a criticism of the camp as a whole. On the sum of it, the experience was not only one of the best aviation learning experiences I’ve ever had, but was one of the most fun and enjoyable weeks I’ve ever spent; I would heartily recommend that the camp be offered again so others could have the same experience and learning opportunities.
Lectures:
The information presented in the lectures seemed to very thoroughly cover the relevant aspects of cross-country and competition flying. Having them available in the future on the camp website is a great resource that I’m sure I’ll continue to reference over time. While there was great information in the lectures, at times they seemed to wander somewhat. I got the impression several times that the presenters were seeing the lecture material for the first time and trying to figure out what the slides meant “on the fly”. At times this led to the slide material seeming to be unrelated to the topic being discussed, often leading to discussion of another topic already covered (or covered later), at the expense of the subject at hand. A more concrete lesson plan for each lecture would help (at times I did notice lecturers deferring questions or comments to their relevant section in order to keep the material on track, which was good).
The Good 
– knowledgeable lecturers
– thorough and relevant information, with well put-together presentations
– excellent response to student questions (this was often the highlight of the lectures for me, if only I knew which questions to ask…)
The Bad  
– sometimes rambling, often the same point was re-emphasized to the exclusion of other topics
– organization/preparedness for the lecture being given
Recommendations
– specific plan for coverage of the material in each lecture to ensure nothing gets lost
– ensure lecturers have thoroughly reviewed the presentation material/aids they are using
Condor
Damn it all, the weather just didn’t cooperate with condor flying :) so I don’t have too much feedback here. Having a condor day on the first day was great, it allowed some time to adjust to the environment and settle in a bit. The instructional value of the condor flight was a bit dubious however, it didn’t seem to be too different than just hopping on MNS, just with everybody in the same room. The review of the flight traces the next day was really good though, definitively identifying in-flight decisions and linking them to outcomes (this was actually one of the best presentations at the camp, having the head-to-head comparison of the flights really drove home a lot of points).
The Good
– Time to get settled in to CCSC before flying
– Direct comparison of my flying to others
The Bad
– No clear and immediate objective to the task, we were just presented it and flew
– Differing classes of glider made comparison a bit more challenging
– No real feedback on my performance besides seeing where the everybody else ended up compared to me
Recommendations
– Order the same weather next year (so you can get in condor without wasting a day)
– Everybody fly the same ship
– Fly a shorter task and devote time to postflight analysis
Preflight Planning
I felt this was the weakest area, my group would typically convene on the flightline just before launch and John (Lubon) would give us a few turnpoints to head for. I realize that the uncertain nature of weather development makes definite task planning difficult, but it often seemed to be too disorganized and ad-hoc. We weren’t able to discuss tactics to take in accomplishing the task, and only had time for brief discussions of the reasons for our selected task. The need to be able to change with the conditions is central to both cross-country and competition flying, but it would have been nice to have more of a plan to start with.
The Good
– John certainly seemed to know the area, the weather typically developed how he was expecting in the areas we flew, and the tasks he called for us were always challenging without seeming impossible.
The Bad
– Insufficient planning of the task
– “Head toward turnpoint x and play it by ear” made it difficult to understand task planning in a racing context, it certainly pushed me further away from the airport (and John pushed me faster than I would have been on my own), but wasn’t very instructional from a contest standpoint
Recommendations
– Make task planning a specific instructional item, perhaps set aside a time specifically for mentors and groups to plan/discuss tasks (it seemed to get lost in the lunch/grid chaos)
– As an instructional exercise perhaps make up some weather and very thoroughly go through a badge or competition flight plan (this was covered somewhat when explaining the different task types in lecture, but it wouldn’t hurt to be an item of discussion of its own)
Flying
Flying was the highlight of the camp for me, I probably doubled my cross-country distance tally, and didn’t add to my landout tally (new territory for me :) ). Flying in a group helped a lot, having the mentor out on course gave me a lot more confidence in going further (knowing the calculations say you can make it back is fine and good, but it’s intimidating to get far away for someone who hasn’t done it much). Besides the moral support, having someone who knows the area and the conditions was a lot of help, everywhere John said there would be a thermal – there was one. The flights we flew were always enough of a challenge to be a good learning experience and very satisfying, but never seemed impossible. The biggest issue I had with the flying is that my group never really hit a groove flying together. Never having done group flying before, we didn’t really know what we were doing, and weren’t experienced enough to figure it out. I also dropped off the back a few times, but except for Friday it wasn’t too big a deal (and I ended up just setting out on my own on Friday and had a great flight). Flying every day was an incredible experience, if more taxing than I ever expected. The level of intensity a week of flying brings was something I wasn’t prepared for, but was very instructional by itself (and luckily the Russia’s belly is ok).
The Good
– The weather :) (again, order up the same for next time)
– The area, just as I started getting comfortable with going away from the airport, I moved to Pennsylvania and trees still scare me. Being back in the midwest was nice, having all of that landable terrain spread out for me made me much more comfortable.
– John certainly knew his stuff, group flying with him was very instructive. There was never a thermal lacking where he said there’d be one, and I never did well trying “one more turn” when he suggested leaving a thermal.
– Having a bunch of gliders out with me helped, at least I’d have company if I ended up in a field, and having thermal markers helped prevent that
The Bad
– Our group fragmented sometimes or had trouble coordinating climbs and leaving thermals/spreading out on course.
Recommendations
– A bit more focus initially on how to fly as a group.
Post-Flight
I didn’t do too much post-flight work, part of it was coming back late, and part was because we never really had an organized enough task to look at how well we did around it. Having a pre-declared task would really help in assessing how well we were flying on course. Setting aside some time specifically to do this would be a boon as well, I always came back pretty late and there wasn’t a good time to do this.
The Good
– Having everybody around to talk about the day’s flying was great – there was always somebody around to look at their/your trace and relive the flight
The Bad
– No task to analyze
Recommendations
– Have a task (even if it doesn’t take up the whole flight) so that we have sometime to look at and discuss
– Set aside time for the mentors to discuss with the group
– Daily examine one group’s flight with the entire camp (seeing how another group flew would be really interesting and bring in a different perspective)
The Facilities
Caesar Creek was a great place to be, I felt right at home in no time at all. Everyone was very friendly and all of the volunteers that made everything happen did an incredible job. The field was one of the most perfect and beautiful places I’ve ever flown out of, if I could figure out how I would have brought it home with me… Being able to stay on the field and having lunch/dinner there was great – it eliminated a lot of hassle and made things run very smoothly. Having everyone around to sit and talk after the flying was also incredible, the social community around the gliderport was just a whole bunch of fun.
The Good
– yes
The Bad
– Nothing to say here at all
Recommendations
– Move CCSC closer to Pennsylvania so I can fly there
Whoa, I wrote a lot more than I ever though I would. I hope that my mini-thesis helps y’all in deciding what to change for future camps. I’m pretty sure that a lot of my suggestions conflict with each other and probably would require a month-long camp, but I guess making those trade’s is why you guys get payed the big bucks :) Once again, the overall experience was incredible, I certainly learned more about soaring than in any other single week of my life. I’d certainly recommend having another camp in the future, I know for myself it has only made me more excited/knowledgeable/confident in cross-country flying. I can’t wait now for the next time I get a good day so that I can take the Russia out and go somewhere, and now I’m really looking forward to building up the skill to start competition flying as well.
Thanks to you and everyone else who made the camp happen, I had a blast.