It probably isn't worth it if you are going cross country. It is very
much worth it if you are staying local and have some reason to
get to altitude.

On climb out cross country, speed up when you are not in lift,
slow down in lift. Go where the bumpy air is (under the clouds).
The reason to speed up when in the sink is to get through it
as soon as possible. The opposite when in lift. Full throttle all
of the time.

At cruise, don't drive down the non-cloud streets. Drive down
the cloud streets. The blank area is where the sink is.

Power plane drivers often don't like bumpy rides, so prefer to
fly in the sink and then complain about their draggy plane or
sour engine. In power planes, it is considered bad form to
deviate from your altitude. This is opposite of what is needed
to get there the fastest on the least gas. When in sink, you
want to lose more altitude (go faster), then gain it all back
(go slower, pull higher) when you hit lift. The instructors
and check pilots would take a very dim view of sailplane
techniques. Efficiency loses on this one.

As far as recognizing thermals, you really should get some
glider pilot help. It can be done, although not as well as in
a glider with accurate instrumentation. Power plane instrumentation
sucks. The lead/lag in the rate of climb is really bad. The nudge in
the seat combined with an anticipation of rate of climb indication
is your instrumentation system in the power plane. Don't even
bother to circle if you are uncomfortable with banks in excess of
45 degrees within a knot or two of stall buffet. 60 degrees is common.
This is really steep. Most pilots overestimate how steeply they
are banking.


In article ,
(Kees Mies) wrote:
Hi All,

I need some advise.
The summer is starting and my plane is a rotten climber, certainly on
hot days at MTOW.
The best it can do in these conditions is about 300fpm.

My idea is to use thermals to climb (much)faster like gliders do.
Is this a stupid idea?
If my idea is not that stupid how do I find thermals and how to use
them properly?

Maybe I should have asked this on a soaring site but I think there are
a lot of pilots flying both kinds of planes.

BTW, my plane is a MS880 Rallye.

Thanks,
Kees.
D-EDMB.