General safety improvments

[Niklas Lofgren]

General safety improvements

I've been talking, and writing, about improved safety frequently last years. I'm very happy to see this initiative. The below is part of an email I have sent directly to the IGC president and a few others.

Without any ordering here are some suggestions for improved safety.

In the current system we can improve by creating better separation between gliders in the air and also create better separation between gliders and the ground. We can also reduced stress and fatigue among pilots to improve safety. Further we can remove anomalies in the rules which promotes dangerous flying. Better and more fix routines can reduced the risk for misstakes.

Separation between gliders in the air, reduce gaggles.
Please read this to understand the concept of scoring systems involvement. It might not be 100% correct but understand the concept: https://niklaslofgren.net/gliding/breakgaggles/breakgaggles.html

Combine a new scoring system which promotes tactical risk taking with less participants and we have taken a big step in the right direction. 

We can further use the assigned start time system where every pilot is assigned a number between 0-9 at the beginning of the competition. Your number indicates your fixed start time. For example 5 will allow you to start 14:05,14:15, 14:25, 14:35 etc. This will further separate the gliders in the air. If we use completely free start there is a big chance a lot of gliders start at the same time.

Separation between gliders and the ground
The most glaring issue here is the vaguely defined finish circle. I have been on several competitions where the defined minimum hight and minimum circle diameter have been so badly chosen that it have caused accidents and/or promoted dangerous flying, EGC2019 in Prievdza as the most stand-out example in my memory. Countless dangerous approaches including one crash and one damaged glider in the finish circle. As recent as last years WGC in Hungary the circle and altitude was chosen badly but corrected before first competition day.

In the competition part of the flight we must separate the gliders from the ground when practically possible. 

Gliders have the same glide ratio no matter if they are in Sweden, Germany or Australia. Airports are built to have free approaches. We can have a fix finish procedure, it should not change from competition to competition. No glider pilot in the world learns how to do direct landing from far away, we always learn to use downwind, base, final. Changing our landing routine when going to a competition is not good, we should find a way to also use the same landing procedure at competitions.

I watched the SGP final in St.Auban last year. There they used a high finishline vertical over the airfield and every pilot made a downwind, base and final landing.

Reduce stress and fatigue
A competition is a platform for finding the best pilot, not for discovering how far or fast we can fly in absolut terms. Or trying to find out which pilot is the most resilient to fatigue...flying 7 of 7 days in Texas(wgc2024) is not a good idea.

To reduce fatigue it is also important for the pilots too have a fixed daily routine. It is today common to have brefing and grid times moved occasionally because the weather might allow for longer flights. Stop this!  Example: fix the times for the whole competition: 10h30 brefing, 12h30 grid closes, 13h00 earliest start...every day. I see only one exception and that is if the competition is struggling to get enough competition days to be valid...everyone should be well rested in such a case anyway.

At WGCs and EGCs pilots travel to a new country. To expect that every pilot will stay perfectly healthy for the two weeks competition period is naive. Pilots do fly even if they are sick. There is nothing in the rules to allow for an individual rest day. By allowing in the scoring for the pilot to discount one, or two,(after certain amount of valid days) of their worst scoring days from the total we invite pilots to take individual rest days when needed.

Promoting dangerous flying
Imagine end of day, no more thermals and you are at 1000m AGL 100km away from home. You gain points for every km you keep gliding towards the finish. When do you stop to make a safe landing?
At the moment the scoring system promotes you for every km, so straight in out-landing is the best. Not the best for safety. This specific case can be remedied by only counting your distance to the point where you are 300m AGL your outlanding spot.

In certain situations it is very beneficial to just cross the finish line(giving 100s of points more) rather than stop earlier and make a safe outlanding. A change in scoring system to the SGP system(daily placing system) would remove this.

Fix routines
The basics for safety is to have safe routines to follow. Everywhere where we can improve this helps. From having fixed daily time schedule(briefing, grid close, first start) to fixed finishing procedure. The more a competition follows the same routines as a local flight at the club, the better.


What I lack in the current Annex A is a better definition of the champion pilot. The current wording is only "...the pilot's performance in the tasks set". I would like to add words in the line of "role model for all glider pilots" and "display exceptional flight safety"....and make sure the rules live up to this.

[BartekLA]

Hej, zastanawiam się, czy któryś z was lata czasem wieczorami nie tylko dla siebie, ale i dla towarzystwa? Może ktoś ma ochotę na niezobowiązujący lot w parze albo na kawę po lądowaniu?
 
 
 
 
 
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[Toniek]

Hej, po dzisiejszym locie wpadłem na pomysł, żeby zrobić sobie wieczorną przejażdżkę nie tylko z widokami, ale i z kimś, kto nie będzie narzekał na moje opowieści o termice. Może ktoś ma ochotę na niezobowiązujące spotkanie w powietrzu albo na ziemi, żeby potem razem pogadać o tym, jak fajnie jest latać, kiedy słońce już schowa się za horyzontem?
 
 
 
 
 
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[witek948]

Hej, a może by tak połączyć przyjemne z pożytecznym? Ktoś z Was ma ochotę na niezobowiązujące spotkanie w powietrzu albo na ziemi, żeby pogadać o lotach, pogodzie i życiu między chmurami? Może akurat ktoś szuka towarzystwa na wieczorny lot albo kawę po starcie?
 
 
 
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