140 likes | 219 Views
WAGA X-Country Lectures. En-Route Decisions. What’s here?. What’s the best Secret for Success When to start? What ring setting to use? What speed to fly? What thermals should we take? What changing conditions can we expect? When should we dump water ballast?. Practice. Everyday you can.
E N D
WAGA X-Country Lectures En-Route Decisions
What’s here? • What’s the best Secret for Success • When to start? • What ring setting to use? • What speed to fly? • What thermals should we take? • What changing conditions can we expect? • When should we dump water ballast?
Practice Everyday you can
Secret to success MORE PRACTICE!!!!
When to start? • 4000 feet above ground level for your first X-countries • 3000 feet AGL if you are desperate to go far • 6000 feet AGL if you want to go fast • but you have to start at 3280 feet (1 KM) to set records.
McCready Ring Settings 2kts 0kts 6kts 2kts
What thermals should we take? • In the best part of the day, only the best • the best way to increase your x-country speed is to increase your climb rate • use other gliders as visual variometers • if they are doing better than you • join them
Ring Setting • Rule of thumb should be half your best average rate • should be the reading that you leave the thermal • and the minimum strength that you take the next thermal • if under 3000 feet AGL, wind back to 1 Knot.
10 10% 5% 8 6 5% 4 10% 2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Inter-thermal Speed Control • Generally McCready averages a speed • Some guns fly constant speed (Ingo) • then slow to 60 knots looking at lift • then back to thermalling speed when decision is made to take it • be fussy about what you take • fly fast in sink, fly slow in lift
Watch for Changing Conditions • Around 3-3.30pm get high, stay high • 3 o’clock pause often happens because air mass gets homogeneously hot • then convection resumes normally • Watch out for late afternoon increase in lift • usually in the pre-seabreeze mini-trough • plan for a sea-breeze final glide
Water Ballast +3 knots = keep it -3 knots = lose it Finally another hot tip: