Cross Country

Now you know you can stay up (given the right conditions!), you can use this to go places or go "cross-country". Normally, this involves using one, or even all three forms of lift to get height, and then using this height to go forward to the next point on our task (or to the next area of lift). A typical task may be a 300 kilometre triangle, with the aim to get back to where you started. It is in this way that you can race - very simply, a task is set and the fastest person round it is the winner!

A pilot's cross country day will usually start at 8am with the rigging of the glider.  This involves putting the wings on and checking that everything is safe and ready to fly.  At 9:30-10:00am the pilot will then attend a briefing on the weather, airspace and (most importantly) the task that they will fly.  Once the pilot has this information they can then set their computers and instruments for the day ahead.  Once this is done the pilot then has to wait for the weather to be right.

A good Cross Country day usually relies on there being plenty of heat from the sun getting to the ground, so this could mean that the pilot is waiting for the temperature to get above 20 degrees.  Once this has been achieved thermal often develop and the pilot can launch.

Once launched the pilot can then choose the optimum time to start their task.  Start too early and they will miss the best part of the day.  Start too late and they will run out of sun to heat the ground and this could result in an outlanding away from the airfield.  This could be at another airfield or in a farmer's field.

However, if the pilot times their start right, then the task will be usually be completed and finished off with a spectacular final glide.  Once the pilot knows they have the height to get back to the airfield, they can pile the speed on and show off to the people watching below.  This is called the finish and can be one of the most spectacular sites in any sport...Gliders can be doing over 160mph at only tens of feet of the ground.

After the pilot has landed and packed the glider away, the important part of any flight begins...the "how I dunnit" speech in the bar afterwards.  Glider pilots love nothing more than telling tales of how low they got at one point in the flight or how fast they have got round.