I Guess That's Why They Call It A Challenge

[RCFlybry]

Talk about frustrating. About 3 weeks ago I had a 3 day weekend and was able to fly on all 3 days. I was able to hook on to a good number of boomers each day and I found myself thinking. "Hey this thermal stuff aint so tough". Just find a good field and your half way there. I even posted here how it was getting easier for me to find thermals and I've been able to max out on a regular basis.
Big Mistake!! :D
I'm not sure if I have jinxed myself in front of the "Thermal Gods" or what, but lately all I find is sink and lots of it. It gets frustrating searching around and flying figure 8 search patterns upwind and downwind and about everywhere else all over the field.
I keep a good eye out for twitches in the wings and praying for the tail to rise instead of staying in that sinking configuration.
I'm getting frustrated and keep remembering the thrill I got from those 3 wonderfull days. If the "Thermal Gods" are listening I would like to say... I'm sorry for blowing my horn too early and please bring back my lift! :D
I guess that's why it's such a thrill to hit the boomers cause yes I'll admit, it's a real challenge sometimes to find them.

Bryan

[Chipwillis]

As long as the plane went home in the same number of pieces it came in.

sometimes the weather just aint there......

Then you can do things like try and slope treelines, or find a standing wave somewhere.

Hell, one evening, I knew I wasnt going to find thermals, as it was late.

I tried flying over a busy intersection and guess what. I didnt come down as fast. Was still coming down, but not as fast.

I flew up and down a busy road and got a 7 + min flight out of it.

I won a round at a contest milking slope lift over some trees.
I didnt really go up, I just out hung two other guys who were doing it. It became a test of nerves too....

An unnamed guy who is very good at hand launch told me that the guys who take risks, win contests.

While this isnt always true, all of the time, im sure it is some of the time.

My best thing this season to me has been stuck out so far away, I had to find lift to make it back to the field. It was during a contest too.....

I made it back to the field, after a hair raising 6 minutes!

I knew the thermals were out there... it was just a matter of finding one.

I guess what im saying is, as you learn to trust yourself, start thinking along the lines- can my plane make it back. Is there really lift today? Am I flying smooth?

If you are certain of your situation- then -- think like this....

Can I safly land out there?

Dont worry about how long the walk is.

Can you see to put it down?

When you can.. start pushing alittle....

Dont be afraid of walking.

It is kinda embarassing to walk 200 yards to get your plane at a contest.

I did that, and really, had to laugh it off. I was barly able to make it back to the landing area, hit a low level bump, had good area to circle and safly land. Went around to where I thought the bump was... and boom... nothing. On the ground and walking a few seconds later.

Another guy the same day, was down low, going to get buried in time..... he was almost at that point of no return. He had a clear area......

He picked up a thermal with a 3 meter ship at about 15 feet or maybe 20.

Two minutes later, he was safe, and maxed his round.

He took an acceptable risk.

So you dont have to be a contest flyer to adopt this mentality.

The weather probably sucked major butt when you flew if you noticed nothing.

But, when there is sink, there is lift. Might be in the next county.

You can run after some, and others... well, you just cant land safly or walk 3 miles.....


Gotta set a limit.

Giggle a bit, and if your piece count on the airplane was equal, then chalk it up as a good day.

Chip

[Daemon]

Around here I fly mostly slope, but being inland slope, thermals roll through all the time. The best days are when the thermals roll through every couple minutes. (I've specked out my 41 oz 56" Bluto slope rocket in inland thermals) The worst is when the entire sky seems to be sinking.. ALL DAY. Can have a 10-15mph wind in your face up an 800 foot slope, and the glider just falls out of the sky. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be flying from a flat field and having it come down nearly as fast as it goes up the hi-start. Knowing what the weather's up to can save you a lot of frustration. If there's a big inversion you're not likely to find any useful thermals for at least part of the day. Or you may find all the thermals capped at a low altitude, as the inversion starts to lift.

Just lately I've been learning how to read the intimidating looking Skew-T diagrams and the accompanying temperature/dewpoint sounding data for my area. It tells you most of what you need to know about the potential vertical movement of the sky in your area. This is a large part of how the weatherman makes his forecasts.
If you're interested, check out this tutorial:
http://nemas.net/edu/skewt.html
and then go here
http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/
punch in a local airport code or your lat/lon, leave it on Latest, and go for it. Click on the sounding for your current time (Zulu time). The red temperature sounding line, plus some local surface temp readings (taken from wunderground.com or outside your door), and a click on the chart at the appropriate altitude and temperature and you'll quickly find out if you can expect any convection. If the new parcel trajectory line starts and stays to the left of the temp line, the sky will be all sink. If it starts and stays to the right, it'll be all lift (and will probably cloud over quickly), and if it starts right and hits an inversion, it'll be lifty to that altitude.

As for taking a risk. I fully agree. People are always telling me I'll never make it back from wherever I've roamed off to. Sometimes they're right, more often than not though, they're wrong, and sometimes I catch some really nice lift a long long way away. I'll tell people.. "Hey, there's a boomer out there." and they'll start flying toward it, find a little lift on the way, chicken out and not go any further. A minute later, they've snuck back to the launch and are back on the ground, and I'm trying to spot my 60" DLG 1500 feet over. Catching a thermal a LONG way away low to the ground, is all the sweeter.

Being a mixed slope/thermal flier, the most common risk I take is to launch off the slope into dead still air. Just like on the flats, if the wind's been blowing and it stops, it means there's a thermal just upwind of your position, and you should launch now, or get thy glider upwind now. When you're looking down a 45 degree slope at a 500 foot drop, throwing a glider out at eye level into dead air is a bit more of a leap of faith. If it's a big thermal some distance out, then it may even be sinky right after launch. Talk about a commitment.

I've caught the big one enough times doing that though, that I'm starting to get the attention of the local paragliders. One in particular will do a tricky no-wind launch and follow me out when I launch and find the boomer. Most of the rest of the paragliders pilots will wait until the thermal blows past (all the Zagi's have sunk out by this time), launch into a great big thermal suck wind, with no lift in it at all, and either sink out, or get lucky and catch the next thermal halfway down the mountain.

Granted, the paragliders perceive the risk/benefit ratio differently than I do, because they're playing with their lives, but most of them don't seem to understand the mechanics of thermals, even though they depend on them.

Ah well, fun stuff.

ian