One of the pundits in our club has a simple saying. It's "God's Air", so lift is where you find it. Bubbles, pulses, streams, multiple cores, lines... you name it. Like TT mentioned above, there are some days when you find yourself screaming out loud in the cockpit wondering where the *#$%! 10kt core just went or the dreaded 6kts up and 7kts down "thermal". The circle is as good a model as any to start, but the re-centering strategy and the need constantly be executing that strategy is the real key.

FWIW, my LS4 was a glider that let you get away with "dynamically thermalling." You could haul back on the stick, slam the rudder, and sort of pirouette into a core without degrading climb performance. My LS8 is a little less forgiving of large airspeed/pitch excursions; my friends tell me the ASW-24 is even less forgiving. A lot depends upon what your particular glider can/can't do. I make it a habit to fly one of the club's 1-26s a couple of times each year, just to remember how much fun it can be to flail around in broken lift with a low wingloading glider. I think the "model" you use has to take into account flying styles and the glider as well.

P3

On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 9:34:16 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Monday, July 29, 2013 12:00:11 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:

I'm starting to think that the textbook circular thermal is primarily a flatland phenomena.

(Am I crazy or)does a stream of wind coming through a mountain pass often interact with a series of ground generated thermals to produce a long line of lift (bordered by a parallel line of sink.) Circling just divides my time between the line of lift and the line of sink. What about flying a rectangle so that the downwind leg is not in sink? Tight turns to reverse direction at either end of the line of lift?