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XC - Retrieval Tips - 2004
by Andre Odinius

I sat at my PC feeling a little sad that I had 18missed a great day at Talybont Wales late in April 2004. But I then thought of how I would be able to get back to the car after an epic day, being stranded in the middle of Wales, especially as the last couple of XC’s in 2003 were rather arduous when it came to making my way back to the car. Anyway, I quickly posted a message on EUROPG and the AVON CLUB forum and had many responses with in hours. There were lots of good ideas and many I had not thought of.

Thanks to Tim, Rich, Nev, Raphael, Andrew, Will from the Avon forum and Neil, David, Michael, David, Matthew, Fergus, Helen from Europg for your contributions. – Apologies if I have forgotten anybody.



See below a list of Tips consolidated from my own experience and the many e-mail / messages that have come in. Most of them are common sense, but it sometimes difficult to remember the most obvious things to do. I hope they will make your journey back to the car easier and maybe get you to fly again on the same day.


Planning

Ensure you have a local map of the area you are likely to land in.
Have a list of Taxi companies for the area you land in but more importantly for the town / village near your take off site (where you car is parked)
Make sure your mobile is fully charged and you have credit - phone boxes are much rarer than you think.


Landing

Don’t fly the last 2K if you know you are not going to make it, especially if it takes you away from a main road, you just have to walk it back.
Try and land near people and strike up a conversation, they maybe able to tell you where you are more accurately and where there is a good spot to catch a lift, or with a bit of luck give you a lift some of the way.
Landing near children will mean that parents are likely to be near, also the children are likely to call them over to see the strange person that has just fallen out of the sky and may offer some help.



NOTE: Please make sure you always land safely away from livestock and people so you don’t endanger them.


Public Transport

If you are happy to try public Transport, find out where the nearest bus stop or train station is, it may get you part of the way back to the car. Remember your air map shows railway lines and train stations.
Make sure you have enough money on you for Train, bus or Taxi fare. £20-£30, the old plastic can come in handy too. If you don’t spend it you can always buy yourself that hard earned beer, cider or cup of tea J


Hitch Hiking

The majority of us no doubt will use this method to get as close to our parked car as possible and possibly supplement it with a short Taxi ride as necessary. Try any or all of the following ideas to improve your chances of getting a lift, in no particular order:



Always show your glider bag
Have a sign saying Glider Pilot, and /or a destination sign (Pen & Paper may be required to write a sign to where you want to go for each leg of your journey, or have them pre-printed for you favourite flying sites.
Take off your sunglasses
Smile at oncoming traffic and mouth the word please when they can see you.
Try and look reasonably clean and tidy, nobody will take you if you look like a smelly / scruffy tramp.
Show how happy you are, after all you just had a good XC (even if it was only 5k)
Stand relaxed, with an open stance
Make eye contact when ever possible
If you happen to walk, and it is towards oncoming traffic, walk with a little wobble in your step, this will help them to see you and slow down, you can also get the sympathy vote for carrying that heavy glider bag (soz hangies)
If you walk past people that are getting into a car strike up a conversation, they may offer you a lift.
Try wearing your flying suite, this makes you look more interesting
Always position yourself somewhere where the traffic is slow, near a roundabout or 100 ft after a corner are good positions. On straight roads people tend to go too fast to stop. Bus stops and lay-bys are good positions too.
Petrol stations are another possibility; you can stand at the exit or even ask people filling up, but be careful some proprietors don’t like it.
If you don’t mind going on a motorbike show your helmet.
Don’t look too needy while waiting, maybe read a book.
Once in the car, be safe, make a quick phone call (pretend if you want) telling a friend you have found a lift and are on your way. You can always text car details to a friend too.
Once in the car be enthusiastic and polite but don’t bore them to tears, they may not be interested in flying.
Also don’t be too pushy to make them go out of their way; if you are humble they will more likely take you that extra mile.


Walking

* Well, we all have legs, so use them, especially to get to better positions. You are better off investing 20 – 30 minutes to walk to a good spot on a road then stand somewhere where you are unlikely to get a lift.


Happy flying, Andre Odinius – register.odinius@dsl.pipex.com