(Kees Mies) wrote in message . com...
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?

To add to the replies already on this interesting thread:

1. As Kees noted in his last post here, efficient thermalling requires
steep banking near stall. If you do that, make sure your ship is
benign in its stall or that you have plenty of altitude to recover and
know how. Playing areas of lift by slowing down and then speeding up
in sink will make for a more efficient flight without thermalling,
though here too "slowing down" can mean approaching stall. I
frequently "commute" between the San Francisco Bay Area and Minden, NV
in a motor glider and have noticed frequent long wave type lift across
the Central Valley. I'll go for about a mile with about 100 fpm (1/2
m/sec) lift -- not enough to climb (engine off), but enough to more
than double my normal glide ratio (50:1) -- followed by the same
distance with about 100 fpm of sink. Slowing down and speeding up
stretches my glide and reduces my engine run times a bit. Plus it's
fun.

2. Someone noted the need for a variometer as opposed to a
rate-of-climb meter. While the faster response time of the vario would
help, I was able to thermal my glider when I first got it (sans vario)
using just the ASI. Watch for a sudden increase in air speed to
indicate entering lift. The seat of the pant feel and which wing
lifts, as already noted, also help.

3. Try to learn where the "house thermals" are. Glider operations,
which fly out of the same airport all year, learn where these are and
convey the info to tow and glider pilots. While there may not be a
glider operation at your airport, there are likely to be house
thermals that you can learn about.

4. A lot depends on where you are. During the summer, lift at Minden
can be over 1000 fpm, but on the same day, there can be almost no lift
at my home base (Hayward, near Oakland and SFO). The marine air in the
Bay Area kills most thermals.

5. Centering a thermal is a skill, though one more easily learned than
most people (myself included) might think before they learn it.
Levelling out for a few seconds when you enter the area of increased
lift is the usual method, but in really small thermals (or if your
stall speed is so high you can't stay in a normal sized one) there is
a seemingly contradictory technique that also works. As soon as you
hit the lift, bank steeply (but don't stall/spin!) and raise the nose
agressively (ditto), much as a swallow might do. This keeps you in the
area of lift longer. And, since you can't stay in it for the whole
circle, you don't want to be centered since that would put you into
reduced lift or, worse, sink. Being centered while going down isn't
the goal.

Hope this helps.

Martin