tony roberts wrote:



You don't fly down the middle, because that may not leave you enough
space to do a 180 either way

Right.


You don't fly on the updraft side - even though that initially seems the
safest - because if things change and you need to do a 180, you now have
to turn into the downdraft - which you may not be able to recover from.

Wrong. You fly on the downwind side, also known as the updraft side.
If you lose your engine and you are in a downdraft just how smart is
that? You don't knowingly fly in downdrafts, unless of course you want
to go down.



So you fly in the downdraft side. If you can handle that you will get
through. If things get worse, at least your 180 will be into a nice safe
updraft.

If things get worse you may be plastered on the mountain before you can
turn around.