On Friday, March 11, 2016 at 11:13:56 AM UTC-5, Andy Blackburn wrote:
Based on the above, there a places and times when I'll S-turn (or even fly a clover-leaf) to find the good lift I expect might be there somewhere, particularly in cases where there's a marker like a cloud, a terrain feature or when I'm coming to the end of a street where prospects ahead are less certain.

I agree, 9B. I recall a day back in the 70s (the 1970s, just in case there's any question from the younger crowd) down at the old Cordele regionals in August. Yes, it was hot, humid, gnat infested, and plagued with T-storms almost every day. But we flew almost every day.

I'd lost time starting early until, like clockwork, the day broke open and I finished in mid afternoon not long after it really got good. I managed to launch again, then had trouble working up for a start. The clouds still looked good but the day had clearly peaked and the better thermals were harder to find. Rather than plunging ahead, rejecting every soft thermal under a promising cloud and running for the next established cloud a bit farther out than before, I slowed up as I came under the cloud and did S turns and search patterns until I found the [inevitable] strong core. It seemed like a more cautious, possibly even slower way to fly than the exuberant way I'd come home an hour earlier. But I felt like I couldn't afford to drive low late in the day waiting for the good thermal. On the final leg, I was a lot more patient waiting for the "get home" thermal I needed and cruised in to find I had won the day with, IIRC, a 10-15 mph faster speed than my first trip. Hmmmm.

I've never forgotten that lesson. True, it's not always applicable. Often I slow too soon or do a little search and fall behind another pilot who is more resolute on driving straight ahead. But when it's uncertain, it can really pay off to exercise a degree of caution. It costs a lot less time to search a bit for a good thermal near the bottom of my desired working band than it costs searching for and thrash around in a survival thermal down low.

Chip Bearden