Cloud Reading Made Easy
Clouds lie, sometimes they are honest, some days they will get you home and others they will put you in a field. The cloud was formed by some kind of rising air, however, this could have been a bubble so small you pass underneath it. The little wisp could be marking a 9knt thermal or 5 minutes ago it was 2knts. It is a game of odds, increase your odds with small deviations and go under a lot of them.
Today have the clouds been honest? Are the larger or smaller clouds being the most honest? I ran a morning training session at the US Club Class Nationals in Hobbs, everyone agreed the clouds after Day 2 were about 25% honest. As the weather changed the clouds became more honest.
There is no solid rule on reading clouds, but lots of rules of thumb. Look at the upwind side of the cloud and think about the thermal drift we talked about a few weeks ago. The sun-side of the cloud generally does better. Look at the base of the cloud, I generally go towards the higher base, especially if it is concave and darker.
Do the edges of the cloud look like they are drawn with a pencil and have a nice crisp line or do they look like watercolor with soft edges? I like a cloud that is the basic shape of a triangle with crisp edges.
Each day will be different and it will change during the day. Later in the day, thermals could shift towards the downwind side of the cloud when earlier it was the upwind side. Be adaptive and ready to change.
Clouds look very different from different sun angles, after making a turnpoint you will see them differently.
Practice on the ground while not flying. Take a mental snapshot of what the clouds look like and what is growing, plan your route. Five minutes later take a look again and see if you guessed correctly. Continue doing this as if you were flying. We will go into this in more detail next week.
My super secret tip of the week. 'Don't go to the last cloud.' As you cruise to the end of a cloud street, don't expect a climb under the last one. This cost me 1st place at the 2005 Open Class Nationals. There was one last beautiful cloud hanging out in the turn area. All I had to do was glide out, climb, and glide home. There was no climb and I landed out. I did a similar mistake at the WGC in 2008. I now wave at the last cloud, say my parting words, and turn around.
Banner Photo by Aeroklub Krnov z.s
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Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.