My first thermal!

[flying jeep]

I think I found my first thermal! I moved from the great slopes of California to the flat, hot, humid midwest. I bought a cheap electric arf sailplane and for the first time I think I caught some good thermals tonight. It was a nice long flight compared to the short glides I'm used to. It sounds like hot still days are the best for thermals?
Jay

[saltydog]

Awesome! It is such a thrill to catch a thermal. Way to go.

-saltydog

[nuevo]

Way to go !!! Congrats.

[Resurgam]

It's more than a thrill ... it's an addiction :)

Congrats on joining the addicts ...

[kzimmerm]

... and for those of you addicts... there are regularly scheduled meetings to deal with that addiction... lol.. Congrats!!!

Welcome to the club!

[LVsoaring]

Jay, to answer your question about hot, still days, the answer is.... sometimes, but not always. Thermals are columns of rising air, and if air is rising, there must also be air descending somewhere. What really creates thermals is differential heating of the earth. Dark areas, such as plowed fields or roads get hotter than surrounding green areas, and thus thermals are created. Thermals can even be found in the dead of winter in Minnesota. There are lots of threads on here about thermals, take a look, and I'm sure you'll get a better lesson than I can give here. Welcome to the club!

[TLyttle]

To take best advantage of LVsoaring's advice, fly early in the morning, and hour or two after sunrise. That is when the uneven heating is happening, and as the morning wears on the activity gets more powerful.

We had a field where there were bubbles all morning (enough to fly), and at 1:30PM you couldn't miss: as high as you wanted, as long as you wanted.

Learn the field!! Watch the birds, bugs, clouds, and track the activity, you will learn lots.

[flying jeep]

I had my first real feel for thermals in Las Vegas! My wife and I paid for a glider ride off a dry lake bed. Her ride was about 5 mins. Mine was about 45 mins up to about 5000' AGL! Bump, Bump, Bump and up we went! So cool! The pilot told me to turn back into the bump that turned you away.
Works for me!!!

Time to get the Spirit 100 up on the high start!
Jay

[Up&Away]

... and for those of you addicts... there are regularly scheduled meetings to deal with that addiction... lol.. Congrats!!!

Welcome to the club!
Hi! My name is Rene, and I'm a Thermal Addict :)

[bwanajim]

Congratulations, Jay! Now, you have had a taste of the true addiction of soaring!

[wingsnapper]

Caution: I think it can turn into a real problem. It's been almost 10 years since I caught my first thermal and three days since I had anything in lift of any sort (do magic bubbles out back with the kids count???) Lately I tend to get a bit short tempered when I know that optimal thermal conditions exist and I cannot get away to put something in the air. Still I haven't missed any work.... yet.

Hoping I don't get invited to attend a Dr. Phil Show tapeing with my wife...
Jesse

[rdwoebke]

Jay,

Congrats on your first thermal. It gets even more enjoyable.

I suggest if you have a chance to hook up with other local RC glider pilots. I know a few that fly in the Carmel area. Also the MIST club in Muncie would be good to hook up with. They have an informal contest at least once a month. June 2 would be a great day to hook up with them in Muncie, as they are flying a laid back "woody" sailplane contest in Muncie that day.

Ryan

[flying jeep]

Ryan, thanks for the info on local flying groups.

I have another question for all of you. If you're up in a little wind, how do you know the bump or wing lift on one side was thermal or wind gust? I tossed the thing up this last Saturday and I felt like I was chasing ghosts and loosing altitude at every turn :confused:

[Liberator]

Jeep,

You don't. But if you see indicated lift (wing tip rises, whole plane pops, or the plane looks like it is surfing the front of a wave) among other things, you are in lift. Make a few turns, if you are gaining, stay with it. Also remember that thermals will follow the prevailing wind, so you often will follow the thermal until the plane is so far away you hit your comfort level, then you make a run back to the field and try and find another.

Once you hit a certain altitude you may find lift every where. In fact the hard part may be getting down, a good problem to have.

How bad is the addiction? well for what it's worth, here has been my progression (or regression depending on your outlook)

1 st radio Futaba 6EXA
1st plane gentle lady

Two years of experimenting, deciding what to fly at least 2 one hour plus flights countless 45 minute flights (we fly 40 times a year)

Current radio
JR 9303
Current plane
Dragonfly Strong (and ordering my AVA this Thursday)

So as you see, it never gets better or depending on your perspective it can't get any better than this. :)

Welcome to the hunt.

Good lift

Tom

[ehartu]

I too caught my first thermal this past weekend. I used to fly slope in Ca about 12 yrs ago, and then got out of the hobby. I'm back, and live at Fort Sill, OK, where thermal is my only option. So, on my second flight, I actually caught one and stayed up. My 4 yr old son was with, and wanted to fly, too. So...I let him put his fingers on top of mine, so he thought he was in control. Well, he got board with that, so decided it would be more fun to flip switches... Yeah, you know where this is going...It didn't dawn on me that he turned my transmitter off as I was watching my glider spiral rather quickly into the only bush in the middle of an open field. Luckily, it was only about 40ft up, and only sustained minor wing damage that I already repaired. I think my son was more upset than I was.
Oh well, better luck next weekend...

Eric

[artemus]

I too experienced my first 'real' thermal in weekend two weeks ago on a local ultralight airfield. The wind was quite calm, just some light gusts every now and then. The sun shone about the whole day so I couldn't resist going soaring with my Easy Glider. :rolleyes:

Even after the first highstart launch that day I was able to find some slight lift above the runway area (grass runway). Then I made some more launches & searches and happened to fly near the dirt road & aircraft hangars near the runway.

After that, the plane started "wobbling", and it was quite difficult to keep in direction. I started to make some circles in the air, into the direction where the plane tried to turn away from. and WOOHOO! For my great pleasure I noticed it started to rise first very steadily, after many circles it was so high it was hard to see the plane's attitude... no need to say, that must have been my most exciting moment with RC aircraft ever! :D

[Liberator]

Artemus,

Your Doomed!! :)

Fun stuff Huh?

Tom