On Jul 3, 7:34*am, Mike Ash wrote:

To answer your last question, it's a combination of luck and skill.
There is *not* always some way to gain altitude. Sometimes you just
strike out and cannot stay up. But on a good day, a pilot with
reasonable skill has a good enough chance to find something before he
reaches the ground that he can stay aloft for a long time.

Mike,

Wouldn't you agree a good "preflight" would reduce or even eliminate
the luck factor?

Like you said, there are not always some way to gain altitude (no
thermals and no winds) but Mx from other posts and even here doesn't
seem to understand the preparation of flight part which reduces that
luck factor in my eyes exponentially.

Even I know in my student infancy in the flats of MS that gliding
activities in December will be severely hampered by winter :-)