This week's tip is a sneak preview from the XC Files, as featured in the next issue of Cross Country magazine – in production now

Thermalling and staying in the core can take up all a pilot’s concentration. Add turbulence and you need more effort to manage your wing.

Navigating round airspace takes up another level of concentration. To help reduce this, get to know your airmap really well.

Pin it up in a prominent place in your house and draw on any XC routes you are planning. Look at it over and over again. Google Earth with airspace overlays is also good for this.

You need to accumulate ‘the knowledge’. In London, taxi drivers have to spend years driving around on scooters learning the different roads off by heart. Neuroscience research has shown their brains actually grow during the process.

We need to do the same: memorise the maps, and visualise each route over and over again. This will drastically reduce your workload in the air.

Photo: Ed Ewing