SAFA Skysailor Magazine

30 SKY SAILOR November | December 2024 Tim W, PG2: When you’re getting started in this sport, it's impossible to know how much you don't know. When you’ve been flying for a long time, it’s easy to forget how much you’ve learned and now take for granted. The best thing about the Newbie Nights is that it sets the assumed knowledge dial back to zero for everyone: The experienced pilots are confronted with questions they haven’t thought about for years, and the process of answering fills in a lot of the blanks that the newbies don’t even know are there. Luke R, PG2: After my PG2 course in Tasmania I knew the basics, yet lacked a huge swathe of detail to be able to tackle the objectives I had in mind safely. Mentor programs like Newbie Nights I believe are critical in sports like paragliding where the gateway to beginner level is relatively easy, however, the path to safe elite flying is long and often hazardous for those who ‘don't know what they don’t know.’ I definitely fell into this danger zone. I can't thank the THPA team enough for their guidance and I look forward to the next night where I can ask my random questions and bold hypotheticals. Often, even the senior pilots learn something from someone else. We have been recording the sessions on video and posting them on a YouTube channel as a sort of ‘reference library’ so that even newbies who can’t make it to the night – and those still to come in future years – can still get to learn from them and we might not need to go over the same topic again and again. Sometimes it’s been clear that a topic is particularly important and needs a thorough explanation that’s accessible to everybody and therefore specific videos were made, or proper graphics added to sessions covering that topic. The sessions have been really well received by the newer pilots and are very well attended by our small community. It seems to be having an effect too, as we commonly see every pilot on the hill ground handling when it’s not quite flyable and feeling entirely comfortable to ask questions. Those interested can find all the videos on the THPA YouTube channel . Our most popular video is ‘Windy’ Weather App Basics . There is also lots of great info on our Resources page. We hope this will inspire other clubs to embrace the ‘Newbie Nights’ concept and anyone is welcome to use our resources to help these initiatives. All PG2s quoted have since progressed to PG3s. Nurturing Newbie Nights