On Wednesday, November 13, 2013 12:47:02 AM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
In theory, it should be possible to dynamically soar straight into the wind.

Magic.

Matt

This is quite an incredible theory! It should be possible to test this in a big field with any RC sailplane, no? Based on Cookies observation of the old control line planes (an RC sailplane has much less drag) so it would work even better. The RC guys who practice dynamic soaring currently use a U turn to pick up speed going downwind. But they use the energy to go faster (record currently over 400 MPH), not so much to climb. We would want to climb.