Virgin thermal flight, but...

[Chuck Glider]

I'm a newbie to RC (though a long time ago did some full-size glider piloting, as many of the folks here seem to have).

A few days ago, I had my first taste of a decent climb in a thermal. The flight was only 5 mins (GREAT PLANES FLING off a mini-bungee in a flat field), but it was great fun!! :D

After climbing in lift I got nervous about going too far downwind and so came back, trying to increase the speed slightly for decent penetration. (Macready and all that). That was fine and I arrived back upwind with a reasonable height and connected with some more lift. Yeeha! But, and this is where I need some help, turns seemed to get un-co-ordinated and the plane was "thrown out" of the next thermal. When I tried to straighten up on the "surge" in order to center in the lift, the plane stalled easily and this lead to a messy turn and I lost contact with the good air.

What centering techniques do folks recommend? Any tips for newbies like me to avoid being pushed out of lift like that?

Thanks :cool:

Chuck

[2motheus]

Practice. You're doing great if that was your first time to be consciously in a thermal.

Some thermals are defined enough that a light plane will get tossed all over the place. You may have to build a little more speed to force your way through the turbulent boundary layer.

[arukum17]

well done!
it's great when you have a good day!

[Chuck Glider]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments :)

What happened here was that there was more lift on the downwind side of the circle. So I decided to straighten up into the area in which I thought there was lift (this is one of the centering methods that I know from full-size gliding, though that's usually above 1000 ft!). However, it stalled and I lost the thermal from there.

What are the centering methods that you guys use for thermalling?

[drcg]

The original Fling is a great thermal plane. Added a bit of rudder area on the one a
friend has and it helped with the turning authority. (This was partially to overcome
some of the wing warp he didn't want to iron out!)

When the lift gets very strong, I usually give a click or two of down trim to overall fly the
glider faster. I have found on numerous occasions that I thermal better that way in strong
conditions.

The best bit of advice I heard on centering is to divide your circle into quarters. Extend the
circle towards the good quarters and tighten it up to retreat from the poor quarters. It's
a neat way to encourage yourself to centerup nicely.

Also, in a tight (60 or 75 degree bank) as you're spinning up a thermal, your rudder is
very useful to keep your fuse pitch relative to the horizon to avoid stalling. Strange but
effective.

Have fun!

[sawman]

That's been my problem as well. Also, I think too much.
When searching I try to add some down trim to keep the speed up, then upon entering lift, I try to circle and add a little up trim thinking I need to keep the nose up (reduced vertical lift component). That's powered flying mentality. I forget the lift from the thermal is making up the difference . . . plus some !
The result is slowing too much and stalling right out of the lift. :o
It's hard to make myself keep the nose down and speed up, but I'm getting there !