When should you go on an SIV course? Should you do a refresher on your comp glider? What about pod harnesses? And what does new glider technology mean when you get bent out of shape? Between full stalls over Olu Deniz Andy Pag asked SIV guru Jocky Sanderson all about it
SIV in Olu Deniz, Turkey. Photo: Jody MacDonald
Jocky Sanderson isn’t a man that sits still. During the pre-flight briefing for our SIV course in the Turkish resort of Olu Deniz he bounces around in his chair, pulling imaginary brake lines, leaning over the arm rests and swooping his hands overhead to illustrate how our wings will bend, fold, scrunch and then “Bouff”, re-emerge in perfect flight at the end of the manoeuvre. His liveliness is in stark contrast to how still the rest of the class sit.
“Bouff” is just one of his many teaching catchphrases designed to build reassuring familiarity as the manoeuvres become progressively more demanding. The contradictory,
“In your own time – NOW!” is another regular that crackles over the radio, and he admits that he consciously changes the urgency of his tone in opposition to how contorted the wing is; forceful when the pilot needs to be encouraged to bend the wing out of shape, and soft as a pussycat when it’s all spinning them around in a flailing mess…
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