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?

No, not at all.

Get some experience in a glider so you know and have felt the various
sources of lift that are available.

I used to own a half share in a Cessna 140. It had an 85hp engine and a
cruise prop. Even at sea level, getting much more than 300fpm climb was
asking a lot in that plane.

I flew that plane coast to coast in the United States. That meant doing
things like crossing the Sierra Nevadas, and taking off from airfields
at nearly 6000' MSL. Knowing what sources of lift were avalable (and as
a corollary, where the sink was likely to be) really helped climb. For
example, coming out of SLC and needing to be above the mountains by
Provo, I used upslope lift to help the climb rate. Doing a photo shoot
over the Wasatch range was a much quicker job because there were some
good thermals, and the C140 can be flown slow enough to take good
advantage of them.

If you are flying a plane without much power, glider experience can come
in very handy indeed especially at high altitude.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"