Anatomy of an SIV course

[AlastairW]

Anatomy of an SIV course…..

This is intended to give some explanation and insight into what exactly is involved in doing an SIV course (Simulation des Incidents en Vol - literally simulation of incidents in flight).

In my view the best place to do an SIV is Olu Deniz in Turkey. Take off is over 6000ft, and you are then only half a mile away from the beach, so by the time you reach the manouvering area you will still have over 4000ft before you hit the water…….!

The course starts with a detailed briefing from Jocky, dealing with where to position yourself to carry out the manouvers, headings that he will want you to take, and the doling out of life jackets. Then down to the beach to check out the landing approach, before jumping into the truck for an hours rough ride to the top of Babadag. Everyone fairly silent, and trying desperatley hard to remember the other group members names! Group sizes vary, but the last one I did had 13 members……. Unlucky for some……..

The first flight is pretty much an orientation flight, allowing you to find your way around take off, check your radio is working ok, and then find the way to the beach.

Everyone launches at about 8 minute intervals, so it takes a little while for everyone to get off. It is interesting watching people on take off….. everyone is a little nervous, nobody really wanting to go first, but the minute a couple of people are off, the queues form! Chris White, the launch marshall is however very fair, and if you go first one day, you will be at the end the next.

Actually the most scary bit is the flight out to the manouvering area……. You can see the guy in front starting his manouvers…… generally looking impossibly close to the water from you vantage point. Jocky will then come on the radio, tellng you where to head for…. And then silence….. waiting waiting and waiting for the voice to come back. On one flight I radioed Jocky to check he was still there… (I had no faith in my radio batteries….) and got the typical laid back reply "where else would I be mate?"
Eventually the radio crackles and you are off into the manouvers.

On the way down you will have to do big ears (hey - this is easy!!) Big big ears….. pulling not only the outer A’s, but also the next set as well, and then a B line stall. All fairly calm and peacefull. The flight finishes of with wingovers….. as will every flight during the week. It is a clear demonstration of your skill in controlling the glider, and your ability to coordinate your brake inputs and weight shift correctly. Jocky will just let you do them in your own time on the first flight….. no instruction. He then gets an idea of how bad you are.

If you are one of the early ones you get a chance to sit and watch from the beach, radio on, watching the other pilots perform. In many ways this can be as informative as the manoeuvres themselves….. Jocky shouting "your bell ringing mate" during wingovers…… and you can see exactly what he means, a sack of potatoes just pulling one brake line then the other.

After everyone is safely down it is back to the hotel for a de brief, with everyone getting individual feedback from Jocky as to what they did right and wrong.

Day two dawns bright and early…. Out of bed by 8, ie 6am UK time….. and of course you had been out for a few beers at cloud 9 bar the night before…… Briefing at nine for the first flight of the day.

This time it is going to be full frontal collapses…… grab both A risers and yank them down as hard as possible….. then dynamic full frontals….. braking the wing, releasing the brakes so the glider dives, and then collapsing….. then speed bar, and collapse the front….. followed by wingovers, this time with Jocky talking you through them, telling you exactly when to weight shift and when to brake.

This really does require a leap of faith….. the flight out to the manouvering area seems to take for ever, subconciously reaching up and grabbing the A risers, just to feel how to do it.

And then into the manouveres, and hey, it is not as bad as you might think! Yes it is bloody scary intentionally collapsing your wing, but it will recover itself pretty well instantaneously…..

Another debrief, a short lunch break, another brief and of up the mountain again.

This flight we will mainly be doing asymetric collapses! Grabbing one A riser and throwing it down as hard as possible, trying to get as big a deflation as possible. Ideally over 50%.
It is not so scary now as you have experienced the sensation of collapsing the wing in the morning flight.
Then Dynamic asymetrics the emphasis always being on 1)maintain your course then 2) correct the deflation.
Then lets see what happens when you do nothing….. hold the asymetric in by pulling the A riser and holding it down until the wing has turned through 360 degrees. Finally on asymetrics holding a 50% collapse In and flying straight and level, amazingly not that difficult with a little outer brake and weight shift.
Finally searching for the point of stall. Not actually stalling the wing, but applying more and more brake until you can see the canopy bottom surface starting to crinkle nd the lines starting to go slack. Hands up and break the dive!
Then more wingovers……..
Debrief……
By this time you know everyones name, and most people go out to eat as a group, so you can have a whole day flying or talking flying……. Bliss!! You will probably go to bed and dream of flying, as the next flight is full stalls…..

A thorough briefing first thing in the morning, telling you what to do if things go wrong. The trip up is suprisingly quiet…. People doing a lot of navel gazing….
The flight out is stressful. You know that you are going to turn a perfectly good wing into a ball of washing….
"Slow the glider down - more brake, more brake" the wind noise drops of completley, and then you feel it start to collapse. Bury the brake handles, locking your arms out behind your harness, and you feel the sensation of falling backwards, as if tipping over on a chair you are sitting on. Wait for the wing to start hovering above you, and release…..brake the dive. Jockys reassuring voice in your ear throughout.
And then you try another, faster this time, and then another, but this time without any input from Jocky, far more scary! Strangley the fact he is talking to you is very comforting, although in reality he is still 4000ft below you…..
After half a dozen full stalls you take a breather, before the wingovers.
Everyone on the beach is buzzing…. A round of applause as each person lands, and a great feelng of camaraderie.

Debrief lunch and then the afternoons flight. This time spiral dives. First one way, then the other, trying to see if you can get it locked in, or if the glider comes out itself. By its very nature a shorter flight, you use up the height very quickly! Turn reversals as well….. how quickly can you do a 360 to the left, followed by a 360 to the right? (should be about 20 seconds….) Search for the point of spin… (see the performance flying DVD… Russell Ogden gives a brilliant demo of this) And then more wingovers…..

There isone flight on the final day, where you get to choose what you want to do…. More stalls, spirals or whatever you fancy, you can even have a go at a SAT or helicopter.

So what do you learn? An awfull lot….. the brake range that you normally use is probably only a fraction of the amount of travel available. Be dynamic in your inputs….. and most importantly, that the glider is pretty rock solid generally, and will take a lot to make it stop flying!!

And you will almost certainly have made a good few friends, who you will undoubtedly meet again in the following years!

And as for an Instructor - I have done both my SIVs with Jocky, and would not look anywhere else. A brilliant and informative teacher, who is undoubtedly the most experienced SIV Instructor in the world, having been doing at least four weeks of SIV teahing each year for the last 16 years.

[ron freeman]

Enjoyed the read Alistair, looking forward to my turn.

[John Wallis]

I feel sick after reading that

[dave-mclaughlin]

Sounds like all of Jocky's SIV courses are pretty similar. The only other thing I did was to search for the point of spin. When flying, slow down to just above the stall point, and then further apply right brake until the paraglider just begins to spin.
To recover, let up on the right brake, the glider dives from right to left, so ease up on the left to straighten things out, but keep enough brake on both sides to control and stop the dive.
Once you get to the point of spin it feels a little like having one leg slip out from underneath you on an icy path.
One thing you did forget to mention, was the opportunity to completely balls up a low/nil wind launch and end up draped over a dry & dusty, sharp & pointy, ancient holly bush Photo posted on the album page.

The tree landing itself was deliberate. After failing to gain altitude after taking off in nil wind I had successfully flown around several smaller bushes and was toying with the idea of flying around this tree. The day before however, I witnessed a russian pilot clipping a tree on take off and damn near kill himself - broken leg, broken hip, various internal injuries etc.
With that crash in mind I chose to stick my legs out and fly directly into the tree. There was a bit of russtleing as I came to a stop, and for a split second all was silent - there I was, horizontal, parallel to the ground with the wing still directly above me - almost pleasant.


Next second I had dropped about 8 feet to the ground, and was lying in the dust coughing and spluttering. Back protector and helmet did their jobs so no injuries apart from the damaged pride.

All said, the SIV course was extremely useful, and one I would like to do again at some point. It really boosts your confidence in the air, and your confidence in your wing.

Still get sweaty palms when I think about the full stalls though

[gary stenhouse]

well i am considering the ones in september as i believe the weather may be better. sounds like good fun and the fact of water beneeth makes it seem so much easier as there one thing dying but at least drowning doent hurt. so they say anyway.

[AlastairW]

Yes Dave - I forgot to mention flat spins and amp max spins...... they were included on the course, and are a requirement to be signed of before you can get your AP rating.....

[AlastairW]

Just thought I would bring this back to the top of the pile, either to wet peoples appetities, or make them pack a couple more pairs of underwear...

See you all in OD on Saturday!

[John Wallis]

You will probably go to bed and dream of flying, as the next flight is full stalls…..

I'd be a liar if I said my gut's weren't churning today but after having watched several DVDs and talked to people who have done the course I've now got a pretty good idea of what's coming.

Your post was a good read Alastair and pretty reassuring. I've no doubt we are in good hands.

I just hope we can get some on the flight out as we will only have a couple of hours before the "Fun" Starts.

By the way Maltby sent me a text to say he'd had a 12 hour journey and was too knackered to go flying today. The WX is perfect

[gary stenhouse]

can't wait for it even though not on the siv i am pretty sure i can rekindle my spirit and start satting and wingovers

[AlastairW]

For those flying out tomorrow morning, I have arranged a truck to pick us up from the Majestic at 4:30pm tomorrow afternoon.....

Everyone else flying out Friday evening, we will see you at the bar in the Majestic at 10:45am, ready to be lead like lambs to the slaughter....

[dave-mclaughlin]

One last late, late tip.......

Remember to take your BHPA pilot task book. Jocky will be able to sign off the relevant Pilot/Advanced Pilot tasks that come up in the SIV course.

Have fun....