Condor Corner
Kato and the Ghosts
The fifth of this series to appear in the New RC Soaring Digest. The original version of this article first appeared in the June 2022 issue of Soaring magazine. — Ed.
Prologue
Scott Manley
After two years and 80 training flights in the club environment, without earning his private pilot/glider certificate, Mark Griffith was beginning to wonder “what it was he didn’t know”. Having seen my lesson sequencing chart in Soaring magazine and been impressed with its organization and completeness, Mark contacted me with the hope I might help solve his mystery. Over the next three months, we met regularly online, with Mark completing my entire 32 session curriculum, including two lessons he later related to me as “having saved his life.” After completing our online work, Mark traveled to Wisconsin where I was instructing at a commercial glider operation. Within the span of a week, after making a dozen actuals flights and conducting more than 30 hours of knowledge review, I had the pleasure of endorsing Mr. Griffith for his practical test. Twelve days later, having returned home and easily passing his practical test, Mark had achieved his boyhood dream of being a pilot.
Kato and the Ghosts
Mark Griffith
According to the record, prior to earning my private pilot/glider rating on 2 Oct 2015, I had logged approximately 40 hours of ‘dual time’ in Condor with Scott Manley as my very generous ‘distance coach’. During these sessions, the realization that unexpected things can happen was brought to bear by the introduction of what was referred to as Kato and the Ghosts.
Kato was a character introduced in a 1936 radio program. He was a martial arts expert and assistant to the crime fighting main character, the Green Hornet. Kato’s task was to keep the Green Hornet’s awareness level sharp by jumping out unannounced from unsuspecting locations as if to attack. Ghosts are a feature of the Condor simulation software whereby one or more gliders can be made to appear unexpectedly to challenge the glider pilot during otherwise benign practice sessions. Ghosts can appear anywhere at any time, like Kato. The heightened sense of awareness and muscle memory that was developed from this expectation in Condor, resulted in positive outcomes to two unusual real-world flights.
Kato
Logbook entry 28 June 2015:
Emergency release from aerotow, 10’ AGL. Runway incursion.
At our uncontrolled airport, we use radios to announce our intent to take off, glider in tow, a few minutes before and immediately prior to launch. As the takeoff ground run progressed, my glider had just lifted off when I observed another aircraft — Kato? — appearing to “hold short” at the fuel ramp, adjacent to and roughly two-thirds of the way down the runway. However, instead of continuing to hold for the tow operation, and without warning — no radio call — Kato taxied onto the runway in front of us.
Based on my training experience in simulation and hours of simulation-based practice dealing with what can go wrong at various points on an aerotow launch, I was already anticipating Kato. Even as my tow pilot announced our standard call: “abort, abort, abort” — which means release immediately and take care of yourself — I was off the rope, full spoilers, down and stopped behind the tow plane. Having powered down and applied hard braking the tow pilot, while coming within only a few yards of the offending aircraft, was also able to avoid a collision.
Completely unaware, the incursion aircraft taxied ahead to an intersecting runway and departed. We learned later that Kato was a training flight, with an instructor and student, distracted with the operation of an unfamiliar intercom.
The Ghost
Logbook entry 1 Nov 2015:
Early release from tow, 800’AGL, abbreviated pattern/landing. Near midair collision.
After launching from our active runway, the tow plane initiated a smooth, climbing, turn to the left. As I was anticipating another left turn, I looked left to see another glider—the Ghost — at my 8 o’clock, slightly higher but very close. My immediate thought was that the other glider was either going to contact the tow rope or collide with me. Release, pitch down, full spoilers, big slip to lose altitude, smooth landing back onto the runway. On debrief, the other glider pilot never saw us on tow.
Thank you, Scott, Condor, Kato and the Ghosts.
Epilogue
Scott Manley
The two events related above could have had much more serious endings. Mark rightly credits his simulation-based flight training with adequately exposing him to situations rarely if ever experienced in aircraft-based training, affording him the opportunity to practice and perfect the procedural planning, situational awareness, prompt, proper decision making, and flight maneuvering skills required at various stages of an aerotow launch that terminates unexpectedly. For a review of my three-part series on premature tow terminations see the Soaring Magazine archive for my Teaching Soaring articles: September, October and November of 2020.
I recently developed a Condor flight plan to help rating candidates learn to scan for other airborne traffic. The scenario has the pilot flying in the vicinity of the airport and eventually entering the landing pattern. To make things interesting, as many as six other gliders — Ghosts — are simultaneously doing the same thing. In a future Condor Corner, I’ll cover in detail how I developed this scenario and the Condor features and functions that make it such a valuable learning experience.
Congested Traffic Pattern is another lesson in my curriculum that helps prepare rating candidates for the unexpected. Using Condor’s multiplayer function, I have candidates fly normal traffic patterns and landings while I play the role of Kato, repeatedly getting in their way by entering the traffic pattern in front of them and landing short, cutting inside them on base leg, appearing on a straight-in approach as they about to turn base-to-final on the same runway and then limiting their landing options by landing/stopping mid-field in front of them, approaching on a right base as they approach on left base, landing opposite direction on the same runway, simultaneously landing on an intersecting runway and similar.
Upon completion of this lesson, there is very little rating candidates have not realistically experienced and confidently dealt with, leaving them much better prepared to properly handle whatever real-world Kato throws at them. Just ask Mark Griffith.
Thanks for reading! Please leave any questions you may have for either me or Mark in the Responses section below — you get there by clicking the little 💬 below.
©2022, 2023 Scott Manley, Mark Griffith
Resources
- Condor Corner in the New RC Soaring Digest. — The complete set of articles as they have appeared in this publication.
- Simulation-based Glider Flight Education, the author’s website. — “to provide you with the information and resources you need to self-manage the flight training and aeronautical knowledge development required to qualify for a Private Pilot Certificate with a Glider Category…”
- Condor — “simulates the complete gliding experience on your computer. With it you can learn to fly gliders and progress up to a high level of competition skill. The core of the simulator is the state of the art physics model and advanced weather model aimed at soaring flight.”
- Soaring Magazine, the official publication of the Soaring Society of America. — “each issue brings you the latest developments on safety issues, delightful accounts of individual soaring accomplishments, a sharing of ideas and experiences, tips from the great soaring pilots of our times, and…”
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