some pilots are not "in the zone" with their gliders, and could not
determine a "lifted wing" if they had rely on it to find a therma

I was recently enlightened by Tom Knauff that the lifted wing approach only
works about half the time.

Consider three sections of air: calm air, sink before a thermal, and the lift
of the thermal itself. Imagine that you're flying along and you happen to run
into the sink on the left wing and lift on the right wing (hand flying really
helps here). In this case, the lifted wing approach would work; turning into
the lifted wing would take you into the lift.

Now consider if you're flying along and run into the calm air on the left wing
and the sink on the right wing. If you use the lifted wing approach, you woud
turn into the calm air and away from the lift! The best course would be to
turn into the lowered wing, drive through the sink and on into the thermal.

So, it really makes do difference which way you turn. It matters more how you
respond to the conditions you experince when you make the turn.

Jim Vincent
CFIG
N483SZ