How long is it since you last flew? How long is it since your club last flew? Have you had to come back to gliding activities after a long break? Have you ever found yourself unexpectedly rusty, behind the glider, having to concentrate hard on stuff that used to be fully automatic and effortless?
There are numerous reasons why we might find ourselves in this situation; your club may be trying to get airborne again, and competition staff might be up to their armpits in trying tp organise and prepare for rescheduled events. Same in the hangar, doing maintenance and finding it trickier than usual. Maybe out on the airfield, coaxing tractors and mowers and winches back into life.
In response to many requests from members and clubs, we have just issued a new Safety Bulletin SB No 01/21 Resumption of Gliding Activities After Periods of Inactivity.
The link is: Here - SB 01/21
This is guidance; not prescriptive. It does not matter why the break has occurred; it highlights key questions and considerations that should guide your path back to gliding activities. It discusses issues around skill decline, currency, proficiency, regaining skills, a graduated approach to taking on all the variables we manage in our operations, maintenance, aerodrome activities.
Some areas where things might go wrong are described, but the main messages are about the strategies that individual members, teams and clubs can apply to mitigate some of the risks, to do safety right and get back into high performance gliding activities with reduced risks and headaches.
We are trying to be helpful here.
President Steve Pegler has sent this SB 01/21 via an email to Club Presidents and CFIs, and I expect you all should get some more info by email soon. I am greasing the rails here, trying to improve awareness and collaborative team activity to get better safety for you all.
Discussions on lessons learned, good ideas, pitfalls to avoid, better processes to apply, are welcome here.
Drew McKinnie
