Thermalling
When can I leave? To thermal is to admit defeat. At least that it is the motto I use when flying Open Class. Club Class is a little different.
I am not making any headway, granted the higher I climb the farther I can glide so it is important, it will help soon but at the moment... I am pretty antsy about getting going again. This is until I started team flying with Sean and he would generally leave 1-2 turns before I wanted to.
I don't think he did this just to piss me off. He was doing this to keep the average climb rate higher. Generally, on SeeYou he would be about .1 knt higher on average thermal (think Moffat and 'winning by not losing'). How many times have you decided to make one more turn only to gain nothing? The second the average drops you have to leave. There is no substitute for experience and intuition on when to leave.
As I am thermalling I am making sure my average is still what I want it to be. I am looking for the rollout heading, this might be off-course heading to follow a good line under the cloud. I am looking at the sky and see if I can get a clue for a stronger thermal. I am re-evaluating my path towards my target cloud. I continue to work on my centering to maximize my climb rate, I try for the next turn to be better than the last.
When you leave it needs to be done tactically, accelerated before encountering sink, low altitude loss, and on heading. How much more of an idiot can you feel like when you roll out 30 degrees off heading (I am not going to admit more). It is only slightly worse than realizing in cruise the flaps are still set for thermalling...
I also take care of personal needs like food, hydration, and urination.
Banner Photo by Mika Ganszauge
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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.
