Have you been thinking about going cross country or improving your cross country skills? If so, you are invited to attend the VSA Coaching Week at Horsham in early Feb 2016. Horsham offers excellent, low cost, safe cross country opportunities and is just 3 to 4 hours from Melbourne. The VSA Coaching Team will also be there to help you get to the next level.Please read the following for details of the event. We hope to see you there.
VSA COACHING WEEK @ HORSHAM AIRFIELD: SATURDAY 30 JANUARY – FRIDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2016
Hosts: Horsham Flying Club
Horsham Airfield:
On leaving Horsham township on the Western Highway heading toward Adelaide, turn right at the ‘Airfield’ sign approximately 5 km out.
Accommodation:
Each participant will need to make their own arrangements for accommodation, the options are:
Horsham Airfield
A camping area suitable for tents and caravans as well as tidy but basic toilet and shower facilities is available on site. A limited amount of bunkhouse accommodation is also available on site.
The charge is $ 15 per person per night for a tent /caravan site and $20 per person per night for bunkhouse accommodation.
Horsham City – Fifteen Motels, two Caravan Parks as well as Hotels.
Horsham Visitor Centre - Ph: (03) 5382 1832 or 1800 633 218
Meals:
A lunch orders system available for sandwiches from 31st Jan and the Horsham Club will arrange a barbecue meal on several evenings. On other evenings group arrangements will be made to will eat out at local venues. Otherwise self catering will be necessary.
(Note that the full catering supplied by the Horsham Club for the Horsham Week competition is not available for the coaching week).
Horsham Club Facility and Fees:
There is a large air conditioned room for the sole use of the course with adequate space for briefings as well as tea/coffee facilities. A barbecue is available and the Club has a licensed bar and comfortable after hour’s lounge area.
There will be $50 facility use fee, payable on arrival by all pilots attending the Coaching event. The proceeds from this fee go directly to the Horsham Flying Club as a consideration for access and use of their premises. Please note this fee is in addition to the fee for use of any camping facilities on the airfield.
Coaching Course Objectives and Fees:
The course is intended for two levels of pilots:
- those who are new to cross country flying, and
- pilots with cross country experience who are seeking to improve their abilities.
The course is not designed for coaching at the competition level. Opportunities for competition coaching may be available during the Horsham Week competition which follows the coaching week.
However the course does offer pilots experience in a competition style environment with morning weather briefings, task setting, organised gridding on the runway prior to launching, relight procedures and submitting completed flight traces. The need to be well organised with an early start on daily glider inspections, taking note of the weather forecasts, setting up GPS turnpoints for the daily task, etc is soon appreciated.
As in previous years a range of performance two-seaters will be available to offer direct one-on-one coaching. Pilots with their private glider or a club glider will be offered ‘lead & follow’ coaching opportunities and as demand permits some direct coaching flights in a two-seater. Pilots will be encouraged and supported to achieve Silver, Gold and Diamond badge flights depending on their abilities.
This is a self help event and we will all assist with glider rigging, launching and outlanding retrieves. Pilots with their own (or club) single seater glider can expect assistance from the other pilots on the course.
The Coaching Course fee will be $50, this is to cover various course expenses and aspects of the tug ferrying cost.
All launching will be by aerotow, the cost for which will be a set fee of $50 for a launch up to 2000’ AGL. We will operate a tow tickets system as in previous years. If you fail to get away we will provide relights at a discounted tug rate as encouragement!
Glider hire will be at favorable rates and kept to the minimum possible for those participants intending to fly with a coach in a 2 Seat glider.
Daily Format of the Course:
Saturday 31 January
Arrival and rigging gliders. Site checks as required. A short task will be set for those who are ready to fly. Launching might be a little slow, depending on demand, as we won’t have all tugs available until Sunday.
From Sunday, 31st Jan. onwards, the daily Course routine will commence at 9:00am with:
- De-brief on highlights of previous day’s flying using the GPS data logs
- Information sessions on a cross-country topics
- Preparation of weather forecast
- Task setting and allocation of gliders and coaches
- Prepare gliders and pre-flight organization
- Cross country flying on the assigned task/s
- Evening meal
GPS Units, Data Loggers and FLARM:
Many of the 2-seat gliders will be equipped with GPS navigation, flight data loggers and FLARM units. We will be utilizing the ‘See You’ program to analyse the data logs after each flight to assist pilots improve their techniques.
You should bring any GPS unit or data logger that you have access to.
FLARM units for collision warning are not mandatory but are highly recommended. It should also be noted that FLARM units are now approved for use in logging Silver and Gold Badge flights.
Maps:
The 1 million scale WAC charts covering the area around Horsham are:
- Hamilton , Map no. 3469
- Adelaide , Map no. 3458
If longer flights are possible, then you should also consider
- Canberra , Map no. 3457
- Melbourne, Map no. 3470
Reference Materials:
GFA Safety briefing notes – supplied on registration
A useful reference text is Bernard Eckey’s “Advanced Soaring Made Easy’.
Other material and notes will be made available at the course.
Coaches:
To be advised as we receive acceptances from individual coaches
For further information contact:
Primary Contact - David Meredith:
Tel 0417 054622
Or
Tim Shirley:
Mob 0417 268 073