Lever Yourself Up!
In my last article, I wrote about stitching the sky, effectively how to fly cloud streets in the blue, or at least give yourself the best chance to maximize your chance of staying within one & extending your glides. Clouds, glorious clouds, they sure make life easier
The beauty about clouds is that they give all sorts of hints, that's of course if you're willing to look out for them. There's rarely a moment that my heads in the cockpit, basic navigation & a really good audio (I find the ClearNav the best, equally, the LX varios using 'digital positive') is all I need.
Look out - it's much more fun if you do!
You've got your cloud line all figured out, you've looked deep, figured out all your deviation angles, it's time to action the plan. The big question is, where to fly underneath the individual clouds or streets of them?
You can use the stitching technique of course! All you have to do is listen to your glider, feel it through the wings, through your shoulders & out of the stick.
You've got a general idea on where you want to fly, you've checked out the local wind, you know the sun is coming from, you've assessed the ground features, you have your experience gained before start on where the thermals are in relation to the ground & the clouds - simple stuff.
Start using those stitching skills now, let the glider do the talking, but with guidance from the clouds. Left-wing pops up, dig that left-wing in, steer yourself into it, feel the lift through the elevator & wings. Right-wing pops up, dig it back into the right. The right up again, you got it, dig that wing into it, step or lever the glider up in effect on these air currents.
Repeatedly do this & you'll extend your glides, you'll also feel yourself into some pretty sweet climbs too! Having said that, it's quite tiring to practice this all the time, but guess what? The more you practice, the easier & less tiring it gets.
The bonus with using this technique of levering yourself & the glider up on the invisible air currents is that you can then take it to blue conditions. Lose a street, no problem, just keep listening to the glider, it'll show you the way
Adam Woolley was born into the gliding world, being the 3rd generation in his family. Going solo at 15, his thirst for efficiency in soaring flight & quest for a world championship title to his name has never wavered. One big passion is sharing his experiences & joy with other glider pilots all around the world. Adam is an airline pilot in Japan on the B767 & spends his off time chasing summer around the globe. He has now won 7 national Championships & represented Australia at 5 WGC's & 1 EGC.
