"The wind will give him a similar offset as the thermal tube, so he will stay in the updraft". Nope, that is not what happens in real life. The reason is that the glider is extracting energy from the air, and hence it won't climb at the same rate of the air. Instead it will climb at the vertical airspeed of the bubble minus the sinkrate of the glider. As both the bubble and the sailplane drift over the ground at the same horizontal speed, the higher vertical speed of the bubble, means that the thermal tube must have a steeper angle than that of the spiralling glider, as the steepness of the angle is basically given by the ratio of the vertical speed to the horizontal speed. The result is that if you as a pilot does nothing to compensate for the wind, you will slowly drift out of the bubble in the downwind direction. Therefore, if you loose a bubble, a good strategy can be to fly a bit upwind, to try and relocate it.
You are 100% correct. I just wanted to make things a little more simple, and "similar offset ... stay in updraft" is not exactly what really happens. BTW: Very good explanation. Would you be available for reviewing my text in my next vid: Thermaling advanced?
Awesome video! 😊That thermal animation is very good! I learned to gliding by IS-28b2 sailplane in 2005. My instructor always said me " If you can't find a good thermal and your position below 250 meter, go back and land." And fortunatelly I have never landed on a field or crash the glider plane...
Yeah, from the beginnig feeling the lift in the bottom or seeing it on the variometer ? It depends on… in this video it was a „broad“ updraft. In rhe alps it will be much more narrow, so turning after 2 seconds …
@@spitzflight To be honest, I haven't been soaring for about fifteen years, but I still feel the itch. My brother is an glider instructor. I really have no excuses...lol Edit: about ten years
well, there is actually one, called Variometer. But it does not show where the upwind is, and - unfortunately - its some seconds behind the actual situation ...
Great Video and good work. Please contact me, I would like to have this video translated into Italian as well… let me know me know if you would interested. Thanks.
