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Cravats,Stalls,Spins anybody?


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Hi everyone,

I have been flying for around 10 years.

I just plod around the sky enjoying the view and am not interested in pushing myself or my wing but have made mistakes and took off only to find the sky not as friendly as I thought.

In all these years I have never had a Cravat,stall,spin,collapse or anything that required emergency action.

I have read a thousand times what to do but how I react if it happens remains to be seen.Unfortunately its not something we get to practice before it happens for real.

So all you guys and girls that just fly to enjoy the view,have you had a similar event free few years or am I lucky and my Fusion is just waiting to catch me off guard .

ps If you wonder why I fly a Fusion if all I do is potter around on sunny evenings its because its such a joy to fly,even if its wasted on me.

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I cannot help thinking that this is a very relevant post and I relate to it totally.

Although I have had only a few hours on this type of aircraft, I already know that I'm going to be a similar pilot to Cambodia (plodder). Mainly because I get motion sickness :oops:

Thanks for the alternative viewpoint Cambodia.

Dan

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Dan,its so beautiful up there you don,t need to do acrobatics to get the biggest thrill in the world.

Just enjoy the view.

When I was learning to paraglide in the 90,s I was sick on my first ridge soaring flight from 200ft.

Missed the instructor thank god.

Now Im OK :D

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Risk assessment is a hard lesson to teach.

It requires previously acquired consequences to be properly realized and applied to flying, especially when you plan to fly safely.

I recall being told that even though one comes out of an unforeseen extreme event without a scratch, if you do not assess what went wrong you can simply consider it one tick on the counter toward when it WILL go bad. That is, the one in a hundred event WILL get you if you don't learn from the ninety-nine you got away with (if you're that lucky).

I've not had many events to scare me yet - 40% asymmetric in mechanically turbulent ridge lift, dealing with really strong "popcorn" lift, landing in wind shadow to escape a thermal thrashing...

Those poor decisions I've made were all last minute ones, which in itself makes the decision poor, but directly after I made them I knew they were the wrong ones ;-)

If you fly often you're not wasting your Fusion :-)

Visualization is for me, the next best thing to SIV (not having been to an SIV course) watching movies and imagining what you see happening does help. The asymmetric deflation weight shift happened automatically because I had "lived" it mentally so many times. Instructor had told me what to do, but everyone learns differently.

I've seen people spin, land parachutal, fly into trees, fixate on , and take pictures of things that could have gone horribly wrong. I've even seen an idiot launch right directly into a thunderstorm.

The only example I try to set it for myself, so I can fly tomorrow too.

Sounds like you're flying a similar path - good on ya.

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Its a shame we can,t practice these situations without going on a SIV course.

I always fly so carefully it would be good to know how much further I could go.

My brake imput is so light that a 747 could turn quicker and

I would need a thermal the size of a football pitch if I was free flying. :oops:

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There are "drills" you can do with your wing to become more comfortable with it safely.

Playing with pitch and surge in the beginning is an eye opener for sure.

On a fusion heavily loaded I've found that even neutral has more pitch stability than my free flight wing, but your mileage may vary.

Try turning as flat a 360 as you can (vario as measure).

Try Losing a specific amount of height in a specific amount of time via ears, S-turns or spiral if you've progressed to that.

Good practice for that emergency landing you will have.

All little drills that don't necessarily provide revelations, but DO expand your flight envelope and comfort with your aircraft.

Wingovers are fun too, even if they are actually S-turns in the beginning ;-)

The dangerous stuff you can do in your head, but DO really do it in your head. Be specific and deliberate as though it were actually happening. If the mental exercise is done with sufficient intent, the only difference from the real thing is the video... :-)

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The dangerous stuff you can do in your head, but DO really do it in your head. Be specific and deliberate as though it were actually happening. If the mental exercise is done with sufficient intent, the only difference from the real thing is the video... :-)

I love this... Defo my new saying of the day...

:P:lol:

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