when I flew this past summer on a 4-hour and an 8-hour flight with a Very Experience Pilot (who shall remain nameless should I misstate), his technique on long legs (we had some 30 minute straight-ahead legs!) was to slow down in rising air, and initiate a turn. Once the plane caught up with the control inputs, he would decide to march on ahead if the lift was weak, s-turn (to keep the plane pointed generally in the right direction) when the lift was medium, and thermal when it was strong. YMMV. he very rarely thermalled, unless we really needed the altitude. --bob

On Friday, February 12, 2016 at 2:46:48 PM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Was reading an article by Mike Borgelt that when flying through a thermal you will not circle in you should just fly the STF.

I have always slowed in such thermals, sometimes slowing to thermal speed while putting the thermal flaps. I do try to accelerate before I leave the lift. My thought being try to stay in the lift as long as possible while still moving forward, sometimes even s-turning to stay in large thermal but still moving down the course line.

Would appreciate any comments, critique, thoughts...