Hurry Up and Wait

0800 - meet up with Jocky and get the run down on the planned flights for Day 1 of the SIV (Simulation des Incidents en Vol - Simulation of Flight Incidents). What I thought would be a simple warm up to more advanced maneuvers took a decidedly Jocky turn for the interesting. I mean B-Line Stalls, Big Ears, and Symmetric (Frontal) collapses, been there done those, never did get the t-shirt in the mail. But Jocky plans to expand upon these:

B-Line 1 -> pull down normally, hold, let snap back up (no smooth release). Let the wing surge unchecked, to get a sense for a surge that will not become a problem.

B-Line 2 -> pull down normally, pull further, pull further  until the wing is pencil thin and beginning to snake around. Rapid release, check surge. Develop sense for surge control. Then the words that will become dreaded as we approach Day 3, "Now repeat these on your own time.". Martina's MAT (Martina Aerial Technique) comes to mind as a potential outcome to this maneuver.

Big Ears 1 -> pull in outer A's. Apply speed bar. Release.

Big Ears 2-> take hold of out A line and a single inner A line, repeat for other side. Pull one side straight down hard (creating and holding a small asymmetric collapse), as the wing rolls, quickly pull down the other side. We now have BIG Big Ears.

Frontal 1 -> grab all A's. Pull hard. Release.

Frontal 2 -> quick application of brakes to rock the wing back, quickly grab A's, pull hard, release. Becoming accustomed to falling out of a very strong thermal and failing to check a surge.

Frontal 3 -> apply full speed bar. Grab all A's. Pull hard. Release.

Dry out kit as necessary.

All of this was fine and dandy, if the winds cooperated. And the winds didn't cooperate, causing the day to devolve into an hourly check in to find out if we would fly and being sent off with instructions to return.

After the second check in, Jocky and crew (now joined by British Women's champ, Emma Casanova) set up the black canvas tent with a screen and projector to walk us through the maneuvers for the day using segments of SIF (Security in Flight) Volume 2 - with alot of emphasis on stalls being used to help recover from when things go particularly sideways.

Perhaps today the wind gods will smile upon us.