On Thu, 24 Jul 2014 21:03:21 +0000, John Howell wrote:

In the UK:
Me also.

I would say for me lack of XC is due to:

Lack of any possibility for a retrieve crew and no, the fact that I have
recovered others from a field has no relevance whatsoever when trying to
find anyone to retrieve me....

We tend to use mutual retrieval agreements.

Lack of suitable fields to land in - many either too small or with
standing crop at certain times of the year.

Fair comment.

Abuse and aggro' when landing in a field.

I've been in a few and flown competition free flight models for longer
than I've been gliding. Never had that reaction, in either case.

Complex airspace as to where you can and can't go and at what altitude.
Pages of notams to be poured over for all the special last minute
modifications.

Use SPINE - its much quicker than scanning through printed NOTAM lists.
Better yet, if the NOTAM is plottable SPINE can save it in a file your nav
system can display.

Then there is the fact I always get lost,

Both LK8000 and XCSoar are open source, hence free, navigation programs
that run on reasonably priced/inexpensive satnav kit and can display both
NOTAMs saved by SPINE and landout field details. Both are also useful for
local soaring: just set up a task with your home field as the only
turnpoint and, as well as keeping book on whether have the height to get
home, they'll show any restricted airspace/NOTAMs in the area.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |