BeefBear

Gliders, hang gliders and powered paragliders all use thermals to assist in the art of getting from one place to another. Do we ever give any consideration to assisted flying ( using thermals and the like) when airborne and why not?

Obviously the effects of rising and sinking air effect our ability to either stay at a constant altitude when going cross country and as a coounter measure we would need to adjust our power settings wouldn't we, or do we just plough on through irregardless?

Ted

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bones

Ted its just a case of(well in my case any way) of setting the revs to cruise and hold the stick in the middle and go, its not uncommon to have variations of 1000' in a couple of minutes as you go into an upper, then fly into a downer, eg. i lost about 700' in 30 sec today coming home, it was my fault i flew on the down wind side of a mountain, i thought i was high enough to be over the top of the rotor coming off the top, no big deal i still had about 1500' up my sleave..

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BeefBear

Mark,

Thank you for you post. What I'm trying to drive at would you consider using a thermal to give you extra lift if you were looking for it or are you more of a Point A to Point B and bugger the mountain in between sort of guy?

Ted

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russ

Use em every time...........free lift, and it's cooler up there too. [ when doin x country ]

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Birdy2

When ever things are quiet on the ground i'll chase up a thermal and sit onit. Its amazn howe much less fuel you will burn ona thermal, or the updraft off a hill ona windy day.
Bit harder when your go'n from A to B tho, coz the air seems to be nearly all go'n down with the occasional rip snota uppy now n then.

Butch S.

When flying up or down the coast we are taught to fly the pressure wave above the trees just as hang gliders do some days it adds up to using 100-200rpm less & less fuel
while maintaining airspeed & altitude
Butch S.

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