Monthly Archives: July 2017

A growing cloud is much better than a decaying cloud. But determining what it is doing is key. Take a mental snapshot then look at it again a minute later and see if it is growing. There is generally too much going on to stare at the cloud for any length of time. Especially with all of the other pilots looking at and heading for that same cloud.

The base should be firm and well defined, not

I received a fair amount of feedback from last week's article and felt I should continue with this topic. Then the picture above happened on Wednesday (they were not in the air).

My article last week was about staying away from the storm. It is very common for pilots to want to return or beat the storm back to the airport. But as I said last week now you are on the ground and the glider is outside

The FAA recommends avoiding thunderstorms by 20 miles (see AC-00-24c). However, sometimes we might fly a little closer to fly in the strong part of the lift. This does not come without risk. I have talked to pilots who have had the spoilers open at VNE and still climbing.

Previous articles have been covered for calculating a safety margin for your final glide. I have mentioned I like a MC=6 or something close. Especially in big sky places where the sink can be widespread and strong. Another consideration is disconnecting with clouds.

You spent the day near cloudbase hopefully looking and reading the clouds. However, as you get lower looking at the clouds becomes