Club Procedures for Late Day XC Flights

A note about texting in an environment of iffy connections or cellphones that are sometimes turned off (or to "airplane mode"): When one finally receives the text message, the time stamp on it is when it was received. There is no indication of when it was sent. That could have been much earlier, and even if the message says "I'm still flying" that pilot may have landed out since. When composing such a message you may want to add a time stamp into the body of the message: "still flying at 1740".

Not disagreeing with you (assuming your post was directed at me.....).
I stated it was not the best.

Just saying our normal club method works, but may need improvement.
Also stated what I did "once" since the radio check was fine on the ground within a few hundred feet. Didn't know I had an issue until later in the flight.
I figured whatever I could send (via text) to give a general direction/flight plan was better than nothing.

I do believe I covered my bases in my first post. What I did, why I did it, why it was not the best, why our club may need to do something else.

I won't even go into a Friday flight way over trees (almost last leg, Sullivan County airport to CherryRidge, then home) with no crew on the ground, nobody (other than the two of us) on the ground having a clue where we had been, where we were going. Good thing we made it back home.
This way before trackers, I believe before cellphones you could fit in a large pocket.

Some on here will know the area......the crap some of us did way back when..........

If a club member (even in his own plane) is still flying and unaccounted for, I think it is absolutely unacceptable for the club operations to shut down. That's why you join (and pay for) a club!

At our club, the "hard core" hangs around until the last ship is down or retrieved. Tracking is via Spot or Cell or radio calls. We more commonly do aero retrieves, so a tow plane and pilot will be ready until we are sure they are not needed (then, and only then, do we open the beer cooler).

The club I was a member of (for 3 months) before joining this one did not have that philosophy. After they asked me to come back and land on a windy but perfectly good XC day - around 2pm! - because they couldn't stay up and were all about to go home, I quit and moved to a much more accommodating operation. And haven't regretted it a minute. My wife/crew was surprised I lasted that long!

Kirk
66

On Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 9:42:00 AM UTC-4, Roy B. wrote:
Friends:
I am trying to learn more about how different clubs with active XC pilots flying privately owned gliders handle the problem of determining "Is everybody back safely?" - before everybody at the airport goes home.

In my club we frequently shut down training operations around 5:00 pm or so and the day's Duty Officer, the instructors and tow pilots will all leave, but we will often still have pilots out on course sometimes as late as 7:00 pm or later. Some pilots have landed back to find that they are the only ones at the airfield. It has happened to me several times.

It seems that there is a real risk of an accident happening on course and nobody realizing it until the next day, or a risk that somebody lands out safely but that fact is not communicated back to the airfield (with a lot of unnecessary worry and confusion).

I'm trying to come up with a procedure that makes sense for our club and so I was hoping people would share here how they try to solve this problem.

Thanks
Roy B.
GBSC Chief Pilot

The Aero Club Albatross drinking club sticks around while there is still flying going on. They keep drinking until the last pilot is down (and long thereafter).

The longer the last pilot is up, the bigger their challenge! They've never complained about my routine late landings, sometimes at sunset.

As such, there's always people around at Blairstown Airport. And then everyone goes out and gets dinner after a nice soaring day.

This is why a healthy social culture at a club is really important.

All the best,
Daniel

Ah, the drinking club that sounds like every Yacht Club I have ever visited or been a member of!

That might be the only thing that ACA has in common with a Yacht Club...

Fitch and others during liars dice?!?!
Could be.

On Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 9:42:00 AM UTC-4, Roy B. wrote:
Friends:
I am trying to learn more about how different clubs with active XC pilots flying privately owned gliders handle the problem of determining "Is everybody back safely?" - before everybody at the airport goes home.

In my club we frequently shut down training operations around 5:00 pm or so and the day's Duty Officer, the instructors and tow pilots will all leave, but we will often still have pilots out on course sometimes as late as 7:00 pm or later. Some pilots have landed back to find that they are the only ones at the airfield. It has happened to me several times.

It seems that there is a real risk of an accident happening on course and nobody realizing it until the next day, or a risk that somebody lands out safely but that fact is not communicated back to the airfield (with a lot of unnecessary worry and confusion).

I'm trying to come up with a procedure that makes sense for our club and so I was hoping people would share here how they try to solve this problem.

Thanks
Roy B.
GBSC Chief Pilot

Burt, most of the guys today do not remember the old ground crews of the past. Remember chasing the glider with the radio on trying to stay one stop ahead.

We use tow tickets at KSA, so if there's any question I just look through the tickets in the towplane to see who took a tow, and compare with visual observation of who's not back.

I really don't like leaving the field until everyone's accounted for.

On Friday, April 6, 2018 at 7:29:13 AM UTC-5, Tony wrote:
We use tow tickets at KSA, so if there's any question I just look through the tickets in the towplane to see who took a tow, and compare with visual observation of who's not back.

I really don't like leaving the field until everyone's accounted for.

And like most places, there is a central place where all wing and tail dollies are deposited after launch. If there is something still there, someone is still out. If you put all your stuff back in your car, park your car where it will certainly be noticed by those that are still there.

And, thank you for sticking around for some of my late returns, Tony! I don't like to leave until everyone is back, either. I have been on a few sunset and after retrieves of others, too.

Steve Leonard