I got the Cherokee back out today as conditions looked good and my
schedule was free for the afternoon. I discovered a few things that
all of you people know.

1) I need to fly faster. dawdling in sink in a steinway sailplane is
a bad idea.

2) I basically need to take every thermal, and take it to the top.
For a while I was thinking I was some hotshot racing pilot in a racing
glider and would only work a thermal until it started to weaken, or
skip a "weak" thermal altogether. probably why my average distance
last year was something like 20 miles.

So today I wanted to fly but had to be home for a powered lesson at 5
PM. headed west to the airport next door and worked up to 5000 AGL.
decided to make a run northeast to a small town and then make a turn
south with a very light tailwind for the trip home. Using the
brainwaves mentioned above I had a successful, and necessarily slow
flight. In fact its the first real triangle that I have ever
completed in the Cherokee. 46 nautical miles total in a mere 3 hrs 10
minutes. Lift was strong and so was the sink. A few times I pushed
ole 373Y up to a whopping 70 mph! I was always rewarded with another
thermal.

Final glide was fun too. I managed to get to my highest altitude of
the day over the last turnpoint. 6100 AGL with 18 miles to home. I
heard other club gliders having trouble finding lift at all near the
airport so I knew I should get as high as I can while I still had 500
fpm thermals. some high cirrus were moving in from the west and
partially obscuring the sun down there. I was pretty much on
glideslope the whole way back. I finally broke down about 4 miles out
and 1700 AGL and spent a few minutes circling to try to better my
position. I managed to improve it slightly but not much really. I
got to the airport with plenty of altitude to do a pattern. The good
ole cherokee managed a solid 18:1 ratio on the final glide, with
basically calm winds.

Maybe, just maybe, im starting to get the hang of this. Or I just got
lucky, cant really tell.