Wasting time getting to final glide
I can still remember clearly flying a WGC in an ASW-22. There were great clouds all the way home. My teammates ahead were finding good air. The ground crews were saying the clouds were making it all the way to the airport. But others were still climbing trying to get final glide. It was a calculated risk, but it looked like a great sky.
I headed off, leaving the gaggle I was with and passed a lot of other gliders thermalling getting to final glide. As I cruised I slowly crept up on my final glide, but at this rate, I would catch it pretty fast, so I started flying faster. It was awesome I beat the gaggle I was last thermalling with by roughly 5 minutes because they wanted to climb to final glide.
The mistake for them being with the sky ahead there was no reason to stop now and climb, it was possible to climb going straight. But there is that great feeling of getting on final glide and having your computer say you are going to make it. You can breathe again and just push the stick forward.
But really the final glide is still using the air and flying as efficiently as possible. It gets very easy to disconnect with the thermal height band you have been working so hard to maintain. I also have a rule of thumb about the top half of the sky is connected to the clouds and the bottom half is not. I have definitely jump the gun on heading out on final glide, not anticipating the sink ahead, not having enough of a safety and had to stop 5-10 miles out to get back to final glide. The problem is at this point you will take ANYTHING to get back up because landing out is getting very real and very fast.
Out west where the sky offers big thermals and even bigger areas of sink a MacCready setting of 6 is not a bad idea. That is my safety margin. Not 1000 ft over the airport, a high MC setting. I might be climbing in a 4 knt thermal waiting to get to a MC setting of 6 before heading home.
Where people have a tendency to slow down is when they take a below average thermal to get to their MC=6. This might be an idea where this is probably going to be the last climb because of the sky or terrain ahead. However I try and let the final glide happen more naturally. I don't force it by taking a weak climb just because I want to get there. I just keep going on looking for another climb and work on finding the good air.
There is a good chance that as you cruise in good air you will gain on and maybe catch that higher MC=6 setting. There are sites and days where that is a little excessive. However you have to work in your safety margin somehow. As I said before nothing is worse then grinding away close to the airport to get back on glide again.
Banner Photo: Mika Ganszauge
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.