There are lots more questions - and getting answers from experienced pilots who do 300 k flights like you fly circuits is not always helpful. "What if I have to land out?" Don't worry - southern Ontario is one big airport - there are lots of fields to land in." This, coming from a pilot with 10,000 gliding hours and a 45:1 glide ratio aircraft, over simplifies the task and doesn't diminish the worries.

The SAC Flight Training and Safety committee has been promoting Bronze Badge flying for the last two years. SOSA is one of several clubs that has taken heed and actively promotes the Bronze Badge. In addition the club has been running cross-country training programs with actual off-field landings and 10 km final glides back to SOSA.

The next step was to conduct soaring simulations in a power plane and actually fly a 50 km badge task from SOSA to York Soaring at Arthur. The simulation was designed to be realistic - find a thermal off tow, climb up to a good departure height, navigate to the first checkpoint, find thermals, encounter sink, find another thermal, calculate gliding range and keep going. A 20:1 inter thermal glide performance was used and 'students' had to navigate along the way.

The sessions started with pilots preparing a map of the route, identifying intermediate check points, drawing glide distance circles, and a cross country briefing at the airport. We used a high wing Cessna 170 so visibility forward and down was good. Each flight had two students with the idea of switching places at the end for the return flight.

Once "off tow" and in a thermal, students were asked how high they wanted to be before heading off on course. They had to determine direction and flight path to optimize lift. Most had not thought about how much height they wanted before leaving the local area but the consensus was about 4,000 feet AGL. "Practical concepts like finding a thermal and climbing at the enroute edge of gliding distance home were helpful," says Martin Brassard, a 100-hour pilot yearning to travel cross-country. “Since the simulated flight I am considerably more confident about my 50K. I now have a few less things to worry about, since I now know how to pick a field and I also know a route where there are many airports along the way.”

Once on course students would provide navigation for the pilot and the Cessna was set up in a 250 FPM descent until a thermal was found. In-flight calculations of gliding range and estimated height loss to certain landmarks were taxing in the air and reinforced the need to prepare well before the flight. "I hadn't considered the fact that the terrain was rising going north and found it hard to keep track of actual height AGL as we progressed along the route," says Jamie Pinto, an experienced helicopter pilot and proud new owner of a PW5. "I will need to do more preparation before my first attempt at 50K".

Crossing the 401 at 3,000 feet removed the option of gliding home and students had to identify two private airfields as potential landing sites if lift was not to be found. Once a thermal was found we climbed away into slowly deteriorating lift. Students had to determine at what point they would abandon the thermal and head on course.

Navigating Heavy Metal Alley between Guelph and Waterloo Airports was the next challenge, as was determining how to cross the breadth of Guelph city. A thermal just south of Guelph provided lift back to 4,500 feet and a clear glide to the North. The next checkpoint was the old Guelph Gliding Club strip (Art Kamps) north of Guelph. Unfortunately, no lift was found north of Guelph and once below 2,000 feet, it was time to pick out a potential place to land. After identifying a couple of potential fields we flew a circuit and approach. Students quickly realized that those thin lines across fields at 2,000 feet were actually big ditches at ground level.

Jamie Pinto commented that, “Most of my 300 hours of helicopter time has been spent between 500 ft and 1000 ft AGL. So, I was surprised to look at a field from 2000 ft or more AGL and think that it could be Ok for landing, just to find out at 500 ft how uneven and obstructed it was. Learning to make better judgment about the suitability or not of fields for land out was the best experience I got from the flight.” According to Training Committee Chair, Ian Oldaker, “This training builds on the local field selection exercises and circuit planning that we do even as part of basic training.”

Those small undulations turned out to be significant hills. And some were surprised to see power lines one they got closer to the ground. Climbing back up in a thermal, students were already picking better fields. "Reading about field selection in a text book is very different from picking fields in real life," says Phil Watson, an experienced instructor who is looking forward to completing his 50k. "Slopes, power lines, crops and wind direction are all more difficult than I thought. Seeing the field from the sky and being immediately able to check it out at ground level was a great experience".

The next checkpoint was Art Kamps field and students had a hard time finding it even from 5 miles south. Of course once they found it they noted how they found it so they can pick it out again on their actual flight. From Art Kamps it was an 11 km hop northeast to Fergus Airport. "Fergus was hard to find at first, but once you know to line up the Bellwood Dam with a line running north from the east edge of Fergus city, it is easy to spot," said Roger Leavens.

After getting low near Fergus we found a thermal and started looking for Air Sailing Gliding Club just 9 km north. Once near Air Sailing, finding York Soaring was easy - the pilots just followed the concession 5 km to the northwest and the large field with 4 runways and two large hangers was easy to spot. Now it was just a final glide. It took the students a second or two to determine which runway to use and what pattern to fly but soon all was sorted out and we made the field with 400' over circuit height.

The flight back was spent relocating the fields and landmarks we used going north, selecting potential fields and doing practice low approaches. It only took 2 or 3 attempts before students became pretty adept at picking good safe fields with no, or at least identified, obstructions. The program at SOSA is compatible with the SAC training methodology. “Any instructor who has been on a recent SAC course can teach these field selection exercises,” says Ian Oldaker. “In addition we advocate going by car to visit chosen fields and to discuss the choice then and there with the students! “

To finish the session we did a 12 km final glide from abeam Ken Chutes field into SOSA. Leaving Chutes at 4,500 feet with a target altitude at SOSA of 2,000 (800's airfield elevation plus 1000 feet for circuit height and 200 feet for safety) we had 2,500 feet to go 12 km. This turned out to be plenty and we arrived at SOSA with 200 feet to spare.

The simulation soaring flight demonstrates several things. One is the mental math required to make decisions as you proceed through changing terrain. Another was the ability to pick out landmarks and potential landing fields along the way. A third was the recognition that this big leap of soaring 50 or more km is just a series of small steps - find a thermal, climb, glide, repeat. Most participants came away realizing that the 50k task is not that hard and not that risky. With a little preparation and reasonable soaring conditions anyone can do 50 km. Of course if you can do 50 you can do 300, but that is another story.

“The cross-country flights, under power simulating a glider, are a very good addition to the basic SAC training programs and will help immeasurably to increase a pilot’s awareness of the need to plan early and to give him or her the added confidence to complete cross country flights successfully,” concludes Ian Oldaker.

Clubs are encouraged to consider this approach. If one of your members has access to a plane and is willing to spend a day with aspiring cross-country pilots, this is a tremendous way to build confidence and introduce pilots to the thrill of leaving the home field.

Ian Sutcliffe - SOSA Gliding Club