Ours is a technical and scientific sport that draws heavily from meteorology, aerodynamics, electronics, and mathematics.  As students and participants in the sport, we become technician/consumers who look outward to the next OSTIV paper, the newest flight computer, the latest variometer advance, the best weather predictive program, and other new technical tools to help us. But soaring also remains

Outlanding (or an off-field landing as others would call it) preparation starts from a long way out, even at 5000’ when we still have 40km of distance to cover before hitting terra-firma.  It starts with a simple, there’s my track line to the turn point, off to the left is a scrub line and generally unlandable terrain, to the right is generally better, this thought at that moment is enough. 

Is There Anything To Learn?

I believe the answer is clearly “yes”.  The following summarizes my personal takeaways.  You may need to adjust these based on your flying environment, your experience and skills, and your glider.

Recognize

There’s no doubt about it, there is a growing popularity of gliders with retractable engines.  They come in all sorts, ‘sustainers’ or ‘turbos’, which typically take us towards home with a few hundred feet per minute climb rate through a 2-stroke or jet engine. The other method is the self-launching type, which offers greater independence and convenience than the previous type mentioned.  A massive

How Does It Feel in the Cockpit When We Encounter A Microburst?

What we experience in the cockpit differs greatly depending on our altitude (and on the stage of the microburst’s development when we encounter it).

Microburst Encounters at Altitude

Imagine that you fly through the descending shaft of the microburst as illustrated below.

In this case, the only indication of a microburst may be very strong