COORDINATOR: AL SORENSEN

PILOT MEETING: 9:00 AM

LOCATION: Lyon Oaks Park

by Ed Granger

A thermal is basically rising air. To take advantage of this knowledge, you first need to have an airplane that flies reasonably well "hands off."

Good thermal recognition requires you to detect the slightest rise or fall in your Sailplane. Many thermals are missed because pilots go too heavy on the stick in search of a thermal. Airplanes with a tendency to fly in a shallow left or right bank also make thermal recognition

more difficult.

I'm not talking about the ability to find a boomer thermal—anyone can find the boomers. I am talking about the ability to catch the slightest whiff of one. This can often be the difference between first and third place in competition.

Thermals are easier to work with if you work them upwind. I have seen airplanes do several things when they encounter a thermal but will only mention a few of the important ones. A big thermal needs no explanation. Even if you're a new pilot, believe me, you'll know when you're in one.

• Watch the horizontal stabilizer. It rises when encountering a thermal, more so than the wing, and especially in weak or edge thermals.

• Watch the wing tips. They often will bobble. The airplane goes through a series of rapid, but small, left and right roll gyrations.

• Watch for an unexplained turn. Often a thermal will seem to pull an aircraft toward it. This is further evidence of the rotating nature of a thermal.

So when do you launch? Don't launch when the wind is picking up. You probably just missed a thermal. Wait until the wind subsides a little and let the airplane go.

Be observant to subtle changes in air temperature. Sometimes, you'll notice a puff of cool air. This is thermal wind. When or if you feel a cool puff, launch the airplane. Be patient. I have a tendency to release my airplane as soon as possible, especially when using a hi-start. If you can, wait a minute, it can really pay off.

Look down field. If you're lucky, your field has trees at the far end. Optimally, a thermal will generate upwind of you (those that generate downwind are useless). The trees often will swirl. Straight-line wind is one thing, but when the trees swirl or move haphazardly, they are probably in the midst of a thermal. If that's the case, launch your airplane.

Recognition, entry, and establishment should take about 30 seconds to one minute depending on thermal strength.

Entry. Entering a thermal is a multistage event. The early stages must be smooth and controlled. Once you establish the strength of the thermal, you can begin to work it. This maneuver will look like a figure eight. You will also make efficient use of time and energy. Your first entry into a thermal should be smooth with the wings banked no more than 30°.

Here's what you do: Turn left and begin a nice large arc. If the airplane does not climb, one of two things has occurred: You missed it entirely or it's on the other side. Continue your turn, straighten it out after 270 degrees and begin a right turn.

The 270 degrees is important. If you complete the turn and then initiate the right turn, the thermal has probably blown past your airplane and is now behind it. This basic pattern is based on a wind of roughly 7-12 mph.

Escape. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you will have to escape a thermal. It happens to the best of us. Don't panic and don't sweat it. Some veteran pilots feel that escaping from a dead thermal is more important than finding one.

Here's what you do: Decide when to get out. This is subjective. I've seen thermal recovery from as little as 20 feet off the ground. Turn the airplane into the wind and fly hands off, as though you were starting from the launch release. I determine a thermal is dead when I cannot gain altitude and have been losing it steadily for 30 seconds.

from the Sacramento Soaring Society, Novato CA

V Tail Glider, 100 inch WS with spoilers

“Daydream” Glider, 78 inch WS with spoilers

“Aeronca” Sedan for speed 400 power, 40 inch WS

“Whisper” Glider, 78 inch WS with ailerons and flaps

Contact Tom Blaszak [Key_string_guy@yahoo.com] 313 585 3351evenings

I don’t know about others, but I know I have the most fun when I’m comfortable with what I’m doing and not worrying about picking up the pieces from a mistake that could have been avoided. I am reminded of an old joke about a visitor to New York City who asks a local, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” to which the local responds, “Practice, practice, practice.”

While “practice” is well and good, it helps to have some objectives to aim for. I have found two things that have helped increase my skill and my enjoyment of the hobby. They are the eague of Silent Flight (LSF) and competition. The LSF is a self-paced program that gives RC sailplane pilots simple, achievable goals to shoot for as they improve their piloting skills. Those who participate in LSF are likely to become better pilots, and will find that they enjoy flying more.

The other thing that has helped me is participating in competitions. Now this is where a lot of readers are going to skip to the next article, but I hope some will read on and discover one of the keys to my enjoyment of the hobby.

Gordy Stahl posted the following text in RC Soaring Exchange. I think it sums up what the attraction to competition is for those of us who partake in that venue. Give it a read, nd ask yourself if you might be missing out on something good.

“For years I used the argument ‘I don’t like competition flying because I just want to fly sailplanes, I’m in it for the fun.’ I’d go out and fly around hoping not to land in trees or hit something during the landing. Once in a while I’d hook into some no-brainer lift and put in, what seemed like, hours per flight.

I thought I was pretty good at “getting my sailplane way up high,” so I attended a sailplane contest. I had no clue about winch launching, what the tasks were, or that I would be expected to put the nose [of my airplane] down in a specific landing zone—right on time.

I attempted to get some help or some information about how to do the tasks, but everyone was pretty busy getting their equipment ready to fly themselves. To me, it seemed like they weren’t very friendly.

I gave it a try anyway and really thought I’d be in the winners circle because I was one hot glow power flier (for real). When I ended the first flight with a pop-off and a oneminute time in a five-minute round— completely missing the landing area—it became pretty clear that my skills didn’t extend into the competitive soaring world.

That competition set the tone for the next 10 years of my RC soaring experience. I’d still go out occasionally and put up whatever sailplane I picked up cheap at a swap meet. I would usually end up wrecking it on launch or during landings, but I was having fun.

When I moved to Louisville, Kentucky the sailplane club met every Thursday and Sunday with winch and retriever. Most of the guys were involved in contest Soaring and were excellent pilots. I could not understand what the attraction was to competition!

I mean, on Thursdays and Sundays, we’d spend all day in the clouds on just a few launches, with very little time waiting around on the ground. There was no stress to compete, just float around all day.

However, I quickly noticed that they all were launching less than I was. I would go up to where they were going, but I would end up having to land. They landed their models near them, but I was always walking for my airplane.

But no way was I going to get involved in the rat-race of competition. I had all the reasons why I wasn’t going to get involved—busy that eekend, not interested, don’t care what some other guy is doing, I’m just a sport flier, I just enjoy being out—you’ve heard them all.

That part I was starting to get, but I had one thing way wrong about contest flying. In soaring it’s not possible to be beaten. there is no way in competition soaring can you ever be beaten; you can only do the task or not. Other pilots have no affect on our success or failure.

At a contest, we show up as if we are going to work. The boss says get five 10-minute flights, make all the landings perfectly, and you will be rewarded. The rest will be paid in the form of having a day of soaring, and an opportunity to measure their learned and practiced skills against others flying that day.

If the assignment is MOM, you get to test your learned and practiced skills in a more precise comparative situation. It is definitely possible for someone who has studied and practiced his hobby more than I, to end the day with results closer to what the boss assigned, but no one can beat you in soaring (well maybe in Combat).

Task flying is what every one of our models was created to do. Not one thermal duration ship was ever created to just go out and soar around. While they all can do that, they really come alive when put into a task format. They show their strengths and expose their (or their pilot’s) weaknesses.

When I hear that old tome about competition soaring, I think back to Shakespeare and me, “I think thou doth protest too much.”

from the Clarence Sailplane Society, Glenwood NY

by Marty Timm, editor