FLYING KARLIS · SIV RECOMMENDATIONS
Preparing for Your SIV
Lake Garda. What to do in the months, days and mornings before you fly, so the course is spent learning instead of catching up.
An SIV course costs you money, time, travel and a fair amount of emotional energy. Most of what decides how much you get back from it happens before you clip in. None of what follows is complicated. It is the simple things, done consistently.
You will notice that most of it is about not breaking a routine you already have. If any of it feels like a big change, try it out weeks before the course, not on the morning. We want the day itself to feel like business as usual.
MONTHS AHEAD
Build a checklist, and turn it into a ritual
Launch is busy and your head is already on the flight. Your heart rate will be up before you take a step. Dr Matt Wilkes describes that state as sympathetic activation, and it measurably degrades working memory. That is the mechanism behind almost every forgotten buckle in the sport.
A checklist covers the gap. A ritual on top of it calms you down. The best ones combine something physical, something you do with your breath, and something you say to yourself.
Write your own version rather than borrowing mine. Think back through every mistake you have made before launch, take the ones you have made more than once, and put those on the list. Print it, laminate it, and put it somewhere on your harness.
A WORKED EXAMPLE
BEFORE YOU CLIP IN
Helmet · Reserve pin · Buckles · Life vest · Radio and earpiece · Dry bag · Sun cream · Water
BEFORE YOU LAUNCH
Wing · Lines · Brakes · Twist · Wind · Look and call · Breathe · Go
Work down the first column beside launch while you get ready. Work down the second when the wing is laid out and you are about to go. The breath before the last item is the point of the whole thing.
Condition your shoulders, back and hamstrings
Your neck, shoulders, back and hamstrings work as one chain. Keeping that chain strong and flexible is what stops shoulder and back pain turning up on day three, and it is the same chain that keeps you comfortable on long flights at home.
The reason it matters on an SIV course specifically: your arms and core accumulate fatigue across repeated runs, and fine control of the wing goes first. You will still be able to fly. You will not be able to fly precisely, which is the whole point of being there.
General fitness is worth more than any single exercise. Matt's recommendation is a broad mix of cardiovascular work, strength and flexibility, because that combination also improves your G tolerance, your concentration and your stamina.
Learn the Anti-G Straining Manoeuvre
A spiral at 6 to 10 m/s will pull 2 to 4G. Done well, the Anti-G Straining Manoeuvre gives you back up to 3G of that. That is the difference between managing a spiral and simply enduring one.
It is simple. It is also useless unless it is automatic, so practise it on the ground until you do not have to think about it.
- Anticipate the G. Start before it arrives, not after.
- As you feel the pressure build, tuck your legs up against your harness and tense your legs and abdominal muscles.
- Breathe in and begin to say the word “Hook”. About three quarters of the way through, just before the K sound, close your throat and hold for 2 seconds, building the pressure in your abdomen further.
- Exhale strongly, finishing the word “Hook”.
- Rapidly inhale, beginning the word again.
- Repeat until the G releases.
The AGSM, and the physiology behind it, comes from Dr Matt Wilkes. Worth knowing alongside it: your G tolerance is not a fixed number. It drops at the start of the season, and it drops when you are tired, dehydrated, ill, cold or hungover.
THE DAYS BEFORE
Come early, and go and look at it
If you arrive with time and the conditions suit you, fly the site the day before. Even a top to bottom is worth it. You come up on the gondola from Malcesine and launch from a meadow at 1,750 metres. The landing zone is at 90 metres, right by the water, and it is narrower than it looks, with boulders around the edge towards the lake.
Flying it once means that on the first morning of the course you are not spending attention on the geography. You will need that attention elsewhere.
If you cannot fly, still go and stand on launch, and still go and look at the landing. Ten minutes of that takes a surprising amount of pressure off the next day.
Eat, sleep, and go easy the night before
- Eat a normal dinner and arrive at the morning already hydrated, not planning to catch up.
- If you usually drink most evenings, keep it to a maximum of 2 units. If you do not, skip it. A hangover dehydrates you, tires you, cuts your capacity to learn and focus, raises your chance of motion sickness, and lowers your G tolerance. That is four separate ways to waste a day you paid for.
- Go to bed at your usual time, aiming for at least 7.5 hours. Sleep is when the day's learning is consolidated, so this is not a comfort question.
If you are crossing time zones
Roughly one day to adapt per hour of difference. Flying in from the east coast of the United States, that is around six days to be fully adjusted. Holiday time is precious and I know that is a lot to ask. But if you have travelled this far to fly, arriving a few days early is the cheapest performance you will ever buy.
EACH MORNING
Breakfast, coffee and water
We meet at 07:00 at the landing zone for the gear check and a short briefing, so you have time to eat and digest before the first flight.
- Eat a normal breakfast. Whatever normal is for you.
- Have your usual tea or coffee. Caffeine has measurable effects on performance, which is exactly why the course day is the wrong day to start drinking it or to give it up. Skip the energy drinks unless they are already part of your routine.
- Drink at least one glass of water before you leave. Start the day hydrated and staying hydrated is easy. Start behind and you will not catch up.
IN YOUR BAG
- 2 litres of water. Leave the bottle in the van, and only carry it in the back of your harness if it is a soft container.
- Lunch. A mix of complex carbohydrate and protein.
- Slow release snacks, something like trail mix.
- Cash, in case you want anything from the lake front.
- Sun cream, factor 30 or higher.
- Cap or hat.
- Sunglasses.
- A set of dry clothes in a small bag. We keep it for you at the landing zone.
Sun
The sun comes off the lake as well as out of the sky, and it is stronger than it feels at 1,750 metres in a breeze. Sunburn dehydrates you, distracts you, costs you energy, and does long term damage on top.
- Pick factor 30 or higher. Matt's point on this is that SPF numbers are close to meaningless in practice, because they vary so much with skin type and conditions. So do not read the number as a promise, just go high.
- Sunscreens are either physical, using zinc or titanium oxides, or chemical. Both can irritate and both can cause reactions. Find one that works for you at home and bring that one. The morning of a course is a bad time to discover a new sensitivity.
- If you do get burned, use simple painkillers and aloe vera, drink a bit more, and leave any blisters alone. Burned skin gives you no protection at all, so cover it for the rest of the week.
EACH DAY
Visualise on the way up
The gondola ride is time you would otherwise spend getting nervous. Use it. Run the flight through in your head, including finishing the maneuver properly.
Make it detailed. The more immersive it is, the better it works, so direct it like a film: the angles, the sounds, the pressure in your hands, what the wing looks like above you, how it feels when it comes right.
Look after yourself through the day
- After you land, eat and drink little and often. The goal is to never feel thirsty and never swing your blood sugar, not to have a big lunch.
- On a hot day, or if you are sweating, take a little salt alongside the water. Crisps or salted peanuts do the job. Matt's reason for this: water needs some solute, salt or sugar, in it or alongside it to be absorbed efficiently from the gut. Artificial sweeteners are metabolically inert, so a diet drink does not help here.
- Hat on, shade where you can find it, and top up the sun cream through the day.
Sleep, again
At least 7.5 hours, every night of the course, not just the first. The link between sleep, circadian rhythm and performance is not in dispute. Sleep is what turns what you did today into something you still have tomorrow, and it is what keeps you flying well on day four instead of surviving it.
Requirements vary between people. 7.5 hours is the typical minimum before you start building a debt.
None of this is a rule. You are the pilot in command, on the ground as well as in the air. Take what fits how you already live and leave the rest.
Where the physiology comes from
Dr Matt Wilkes is a paraglider pilot and a doctor specialising in human performance in extreme environments, based at the University of Portsmouth. He holds a master's degree in Mountain Medicine and a PhD in pilot physiology and safety. He has led large international expeditions, run high altitude clinics in Nepal, and flown across East Africa with the AMREF Flying Doctors. He contributes to Cross Country Magazine and advises the British Paragliding Racing Academy.
The sympathetic activation and checklist reasoning, the conditioning and G tolerance points, the Anti-G Straining Manoeuvre, the sleep and time zone figures, the hydration and solute point and the sunscreen guidance are all his.
