How are you preparing for the 2022 season?
Believe it or not, there is a lot to do during the winter to help you prepare for the upcoming season.
| Next year are you planning to get your bronze badge? or complete a badge distance? how about entering your first regional, national or international competition? Wherever you are in your flying experience, you can always keep busy during the winter months. A few ideas that might help you prepare to achieve your goals for next year: The most important thing is to STAY CURRENT! Most pilots have a tendency to do less flying during the winter months. Either because their sites become water-logged, or the weather creates a great excuse to not get airborne... Take the opportunity to visit another site: one that is equipped with good winter soaring opportunities, such as a club in Wales: Denbigh or Talgarth for example, or in England the Long Mynd, Shobdon or Sutton Bank. Or you could even plan an expedition to a club in Scotland and enjoy some wave and ridge. The more current you stay the easier it will be in the spring when you want to go cross-country. You wont spend as much time getting used to handling again, and have more brain capacity to focus on your goals. Flying competitions can be quite stressful. Take the winter time to go and chill out somewhere on a ridge and have some fun! Whilst competitive flying can be quite exhilarating, it can often take the fun out of the sport for some of us. Having a good wave flight and pottering about over a different landscape can remind us why we love flying for just the flying aspect. Winter can also be a time to outline new learning objectives that can help you achieve your goals, so you can hit the ground running when spring comes. If you are stuck with what might help you, ask someone who has already achieved the goal you are after, find out what made the difference for them and practice that. Lastly winter provides space to really get to know your glider and kit. Read up on manuals. It's quite often annual inspection season for glider pilots who own their glider, so it's a good time to buy that new instrument, or change something that will help you going into the new season. Make sure you know your instruments inside out as this will really give you the confidence when you are in the air. We have a few events coming up that might help you over winter. Why not join us either online or in person? 16 Dec 2021 @ 8pm: How to improve your confidence in XC flight Dec 2021 / Jan 2022 (tbc): SeeYou Mobile Q&A session - what are your pressing questions? 19/20 Feb 2022: Women's Winter Weekend at the Long Mynd |
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