Confusing Cumulus
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short term plan mental snapshot long term plan cumulus 50/50 rule

Cumulus Clouds can be confusing and give you too many options. Left, Right, more left, 2 to the left looks good, but the right looks better 5miles down the task, and it never looks better straight on course. So many choices to choose from, I am like a kid in a Candy store, completely overloaded with options.

Mental Snapshot

Taking a mental snapshot of the clouds is crucial because you want to know if the clouds are growing or decaying. You want to know how long they are lasting. Remember that a great cloud 10miles away might not be there in 10 minutes when you get there. Maybe you can get there faster; however, you might need to stop and take a climb to make that 10 miles and that time could double. You get the idea that you will not be teleporting under the cloud with the snap of your finger…

Not all of the clouds work. How annoying is that? It could be an excellent looking cloud that doesn’t work. Remember that it might not just be your inability, talk to other pilots, and see how successful they are. At the Club Class Nationals in Hobbs one year I did a pre-briefing briefing (I was soliciting donations for the US Team click here for the US Juniors), and that was one of the questions I would ask the pilots to get a group average percentage of the reliability of the clouds. There was always one pilot that said they had a higher percentage of working clouds (generally the day winner). It made everyone feel better because many pilots assumed they could not get the clouds to work. “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” was something that 3-time WGC Champion George Lee always told me.

50/50

Connect ground to cloud base. There is the 50/50 rule of thumb. When you are in the upper 50% of the working band look up at the cloud, and the lower 50% look down at the ground to find the thermal. It is always a good idea to figure out the thermal from the ground to the cloud, this is especially true in mountain sites, and when cloud base is high as you might be looking under the cloud, but on the wrong side of the mountain.

Short term/Long term

When you are looking at the clouds and trying to determine how to pick your path to get to the turnpoint, you want to have a short term goal and a long term one. You need to look at the next few thermal options and how you are going to use them, so you do not get stuck. Then you need to look farther down the course to get the fastest speed, and also, so you do not get stuck in 20 miles.

You do not have to stop at every cloud. You are going to sample a lot of clouds and thermals; however, only stop and take the strong ones, at a minimum take the average ones.

Committed pilot

As you head North, the clouds are working better on the Westside. This might be easier when you are on the East side of the course line because the side of the clouds closest to the course line is working. However, many pilots forget the West side of the clouds are working better when they get on the west side of course line, especially when you are already making a significant deviation and the clouds are big. Because you have already deviated to go under the cloud, make sure you are going to the side that is working best.

Many times I will have a student make a heading change to a cloud, but then as we get closer, they end up flying near the thermal not under the part of the cloud where it is probably working. My favorite is when right before they get under the cloud, they turn to head towards the next cloud. Since the sink is generally near the lift, all we end up doing is deviating to areas of sink and resulting in me having more grey hair.

Banner photo by Sophie Mahieu

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