What kind of wind for thermal soaring

[fireforthall]

What kind of winds do you all fly in for thermaling? I know that the hi-start will work alot better if there is some wind but what is the "limit" that you use?

[Hossfly72]

I lose interest in thermal soaring above 10mph of wind. Strangely though, the interest in slope soaring increases as the wind speed increases. The bad thing is, there are no slopes in Lower Alabama!!!!

[Thermaler]

15 mph for my full house and "new" woodie (carbon in the spar) stuff, 10 for the "old" woodies.
But now I have a winch so same wind speeds.

Joe

[tommyt]

I prefer 3 to 5 mph and also pack up around 10.

Tom

[Brendan Miller]

20 is my limit, anything higher is just to hard to fly in.

[glidermang]

Beyond 15 or 20, two things happen to me: (1) it becomes hard to handle the airplane on the ground, either to get it out, launch or put it away; and (2) given that I find a thermal in that wind, it is also hard to get the airplane back home.

Even so, the flying at last year's Blue Skies in Arizona sure was exhilirating (however that's spelled), even in 15-20 mph winds and above.

Yours, Greg

[flyboy320]

Just came back from flying my electric Pulsar 3200 and the wind was about 15-20mph. I almost decided not to launch, but thought I would give it one shot. After using the motor to get about 450' up, shut it off and started to fly around. Noticed that I was getting fairly far downwind and started back up toward me. It was taking some time as the wind up at altitude was much stronger than on the ground, then all of a sudden the vario started to indicate a climb and before I knew it, in about 30 seconds I gained 500' and was up at 1000'....so that was about 1000'/min thermal. Was starting to get real small, so I got out of the thermal and dumped my flaps and down I came.

So I know that the stronger wind can break up the thermals and make them hard to fly in, I got lucky and glad I "gave it a shot"... :)

[aeajr]

3-5 mph is wonderful.

10 mph is very flyable, but I prefer a little less.

15 mph usually causes me to pull out the ballast, but I fly.

20 mph - only if it is contest day, other than that, more challenge and more risk than I typically want to take.

[emersunn]

3-5 mph is wonderful.

10 mph is very flyable, but I prefer a little less.

15 mph usually causes me to pull out the ballast, but I fly.

20 mph - only if it is contest day, other than that, more challenge and more risk than I typically want to take.

And 0mph creates unsatisfactory thermal conditions as well!

Edit: I guess he asked about winds so this post does not count.

[scaflock]

And 0mph creates unsatisfactory thermal conditions as well!

Edit: I guess he asked about winds so this post does not count.

When was the last time you saw a zero wind day? I can't remember the last one I saw. I think it would be nice if you have a known thermal generator that you can reach off a launch and have lift without having to travel downwind with it.

0-5 is great :cool:

6-10 is still quite do-able ;)

10-15 (depending on the plane) can start getting a little rough. Add some ballast :D

15-20 Be breaking out the ballast plates and securing them in place!! :rolleyes:

20+ Time to go wind surfing! :eek:

Like Hoss I'm in an area that is sorely lacking in slopes to fly when the wind picks up. The nearest slope I know of is about 2 1/2 hours away. If it's too windy to fly here... I head to the shop and keep building.

[badboy14]

lol i flew my cularis in 25 mph winds today for an hour if the plane could take more id fly in winds up to 50 mph did it on a simulator many times with no crashes

[ezmo]

I go any kind of weathers, due for me year by year, it has gotten windier and windier..... Climate change, maybe,...

Up to 20mph with F3J, F3K and 2m Miles. I fly and learn in various weather.. Higher than that, I go to slope with EasyGlider

Esa

[aeajr]

And 0mph creates unsatisfactory thermal conditions as well!

Edit: I guess he asked about winds so this post does not count.

While it is never truly 0 wind conditions, Last year I flew in an Eastern Soaring League contest where the wind was so light we had trouble deciding how to set up the winch. And the thermals rarely moved through.

As I recall, there was a boyant layer of air about 500 feet up that seemed to cap around 700 feet. If you had a light plane, you could sit in that layer for a long time, make your time then come in for a landing on the spot. My AVA just loved those conditions.

I also flew on a foggy day, again, not wind to speak of. We had a cloud ceiling of about 500 feet till noon. I took the first launch of the day and lost the plane on the zoom. Popped out the flaps and held my breath till it came out of the cloud. When it landed it was soaked. Fortunately moldies don't absorb much water.

If you zoomed off the winch you would lose the plane. I was flying the Supra that day. Got a 9 minute flight sitting just below the cloud cover/fog.

[blackoutjon]

well 20mph is about the limit for me, though i can get amazingly high launches on my high-start, wind caries thermals faster and it makes it more difficult to stay in them to long due to the fact that you are going down wind.