yesterday i went to our field at noon. it was overcast, and the windmills in the way were still. when arrived, there were clouds all over and almost no wind, so i launched my Maverick 3 (a 2 meter electric sailplane) that has vario, and climbed to 200 meters (440 ft), which is the height that makes easy to catch thermals for this size of airplane, and immediately began to get beeps that tell that there is lift, so swept the area. lift was at a corridor across the field from where the breeze was coming, a so-called wake, that i have experienced here some times before. then. after some time, i began to turn at the point where there was the strongest lift (the highest tones) and in short time i reached 351 meters (1,168 ft)! i could not believe my eyes (or should say: my ears, as it was the vario that told me the height). i never had an airplane so high. and still i could see the plane and what it was doing. but was so tiny! the good thing of having a vario is that now i know how high it is at any time. before, without it, my estimate of height was out of reality. anyway, now i began to worry at loosing the plane and trimmed it to go down, but still kept getting the tones that it wanted to climb. had to give it 'down' signal until i watched it increasing its speed, but was careful that it was not too fast as it could loose its wings. it was quite a fight, but eventually i managed to bring it down to 200 meters. and then the low voltage alarm went off! i had to hurry it down and land. then at home i checked the battery: it was down to 9%! i barely made it.
the flight was 35 minutes, but could stay there for a long time. it was good that i decided to bring it down to 200 meters, otherwise i would loose it due to low battery.
some say that flying is an adventure: you never know what may come. sometimes is the agony and the ecstasy.
still, i was lucky to have such experience and having a happy ending.

How come you depleted your battery if you were gliding?
One power climb to 200M and a 35 minute glide should consume very little power.

i started a thread here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2521471
please follow up there. i provided data, and your comments there will be appreciated and may help others too. see you there.