On 8/28/2016 8:00 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 2:19:58 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I have had numerous climb-outs from 200' in a Woodstock 11.9m. I used to
practice them daily around 8:00 am at Zapata, TX.

However, in the prototype Carbon Dragon I once had a 63' agl climb-out at
Hobbs at the beginning of a World Record attempt. This was witnessed by
an FAI Official Observer who was appointed out of Geneva (pre-Paris) and
who rigorously analyzed the barogram after the fact, being rather amazed
at the time. This was utillizing mid morning, "soft" thermals which
derived more than 50% of their bouyancy from latent heat in the humidity.
There was some wind, and the only challenging moment was when I had to
narrow my bank angle to make sure my inside wing lifted over a telephone
wire while drifting by.

Gary Osoba

Gary, let's be careful with anecdotes such as yours. What you are doing in
a small, very light wing-load glider is not applicable to the kind of
soaring we normally do. In fact it might lead to others trying that kind of
flying in a Discus or '27. My club had just yesterday a safety meeting
around the topic of "Normalization of Deviance". Thermaling lower and lower
and getting away with it fits that definition and has lead to numerous
fatalities in our sport. Your stories are the opposite of what we need. The
fact that I can throw my Discus-launch RC glider in the air and soar for
long times does not mean that's the future of soaring. Please modify your
post. Herb


Modify how? As you've accurately pointed out, wingloading makes for some very
real differences in ship-thermaling capabilities. As a Big Believer in
education (externally-/self-directed, both), I also believe discouraging
discussion is some combination of
pointless/self-defeating/non-positively-authoritarian. (Yes, there's a place
for "positive authoritarianism" as parents of young children and dog-owners
generally understand )

Darwinism is likely ineradicable from life. The trick for us glider pilots is
to avoid making those mistakes that will kill us. Arguably, drawing uninformed
conclusions from RAS has "Very Real death potential," simultaneously with RAS
information also having fundamental educational potential. Life's full of
contradictory conundrums (conumdra?).

Margins. Respect them, cuz they don't respect anything!

Respectfully,
Bob W.