Notes from the Safety Officer

1. Normal Course of Instruction
   With the beginning of the season and the best thermic weather for soaring, I ask the club members to accommodate a practical schedule for the club's pilots. As in the past, the normal course of a weekend day has the instructors working with primary students in the morning, ensuring fewer interruptions between the student and the instructor. This provides the added benefit of a full day of towing and revenue for the club.
   Because RWSA does not have a duty roster for instructors, call them to schedule your training, flight reviews, and checkouts. Students, pilots and instructors should read and use the calendar to avoid over scheduling the gliders.

2. Radio Call to begin the Tow
   If the airport is busy and the CTAF is clear, consider announcing your immediate plan to stage a glider when flying from Runway 04/22.
   The club's pilots have been consistent in establishing radio contact with the tow pilot, prior to a flight. However, the content of the communication has been about the general course of the tow. I would ask all pilots to improve on this by changing the content of their radio call as follows;
   As part of the agreed general course of action between the tow pilot and the glider pilot, I recommend that both pilots complete their communications as follows just before the launch with this added safety feature. The glider pilot shall inform the tow pilot over the radio, “Canopy and airbrakes closed and locked”. The tow pilot will then confirm radio communication and the intent of the call, “Confirm canopy and airbrakes closed and locked”. The glider pilot may then signal the tow pilot to launch.

3. Radio Calls in the Pattern
   We have all seen and heard the importance of listening and communicating well while in the pattern. Let's improve upon using the same, brief calls, helping other traffic find us at the airport as noted below.

• “Osceola traffic, glider 74 Charlie left downwind to Runway 28, Osceola”.
• “Glider short base 28”.
• “Glider short final 28”.

4. To ensure a higher level of flight safety in the club,
and a redundant list of pilot's achievements, I ask that the Association's pilots send a note to me confirming the following checkouts. Your note should include the date of the checkout and the name of the endorsing instructor. I suspect that some long-standing members may not be able to find this or it exists as just a recorded flight in your logbook; we can be creative.

• 2008 Spring Checkout
• Backseat checkout in the Blanik L13/L23
• Pilatus checkout