As I participate in many Soaring contests throughout the US, I can’t
help noticing that many serious Thermal Duration (TD) pilots
still fail to complete their allotted task time in air that is actually
Sailplane friendly.
What is it that makes their Sailplanes founder and sink, while many
other Sailplanes are riding high? Why do many Soaring pilots regularly
miss the thermal boat?
There are various reasons, but a basic prerequisite to keeping the
model aloft for the required duration is that the pilot must choose to
fl y in buoyant or rising air. Even if lift is not
obvious, the pilot must avoid fl ying his aircraft
in sinking air if there is to be a chance of
completing the max.
When a pilot launches a Sailplane, he or she
makes a choice about where to go (and with
open winch contests, when to go). This choice
will ultimately determine whether the aircraft
ends up on the ground early or whether the
pilot will be setting up for the landing task at
the business end of a 10-minute max. It’s rare
that all the air is going up, so to succeed in
achieving every max, the fi rst step is to know
where to go before you launch.
As a budding TD pilot, I made it my
business to fi nd the answers and develop my sixth sense—my thermal sense! To
succeed at this game you must use all of the senses you were blessed with. If you
have the basic fi ve that God gave most of us and they are in reasonable repair, with
some practice you are in good shape to develop your thermal sense.
Let’s look at how we can make best use of each of those fi ve senses we were
born with.
Sight
Don’t depend on poaching from birds and other gliders already in lift. Your eyes
can tell you much more. Practice “seeing” thermals by always watching the air
whether you are fl ying or not. Become aware of what the air is doing at all times.
It doesn’t matter whether you are at work or play, in another country or at home,
driving your car or sitting in the park with your dog. If you become disciplined
about watching the air and become aware of lift as it passes by, it will become
second nature to steer your Sailplane into lift when you actually fl y.
The things you can look for in the air are the less-obvious objects going up or
suspended, such as bugs, spiders, seedpods, birds, dust, or anything else heavier
than air. Watch what the wind is doing to ground-based objects, particularly how it
is affecting long grass, trees and fl ags, bunting, streamers, etc.
Knowing the state of the wind at all times is one big step toward understanding
Discovering your
sixth sense—
your thermal sense
by Gordon Buckland
[email protected]
where the lift is exactly. Having a
transmitter-mounted streamer to
indicate accurate wind direction can be
a huge advantage.
The best advice I ever received
regarding this was from Gordy Stahl,
who encouraged me to obtain a pair
of prescription sunglasses for fl ying.
Oh what a difference that made! I
got a long-distance prescription at the
Walmart optometrist for $60, and a
pair of 50% amber-tinted, aviator-style
prescription sunglasses from an online
company called Zenni Optical for $56.
For less than $120 I could now
see better than ever. The extra
confi dence gained from being able to
see your model well at a distance is a
phenomenal advantage.
With a good set of prescription glasses
The most e ective li indicator you can
have on the eld is a long, light streamer
on a tall shing pole, as seen here at
a recent contest at Kennyworld FL.
Le : Your best investment in training
your thermal sense is to get a longdistance
eye prescription and spend
as little as $56 on amber-tinted
prescription glasses from Zenni
Optical or Coastal.
What you feel when
the wind passes by you
The ‘third vector’
(Thermal Direction)
Thermal
Inflow
Thermal Inflow + wind
(What you feel)
Wind
Thermal
Le : Understanding ground
signals and wind shi s is vital.
Joe Wurts’ concept of the “Third
Vector” is depicted with the
yellow arrows pointing toward
the thermal as it passes.
Below: The more exposed skin, the better you
can read the air. Joe Wurts (L) and his air caller
return from the flightline a er the nal round
of the F3J Worlds held in Johannesburg, South
Africa, in August 2012.
Le : Al Parsons
and Ed White
from the Orlando
Buzzards in Florida,
make use of the
information provided
by an antennamounted
streamer.
A removable
arrow sha can be
mounted on 2.4 GHz
transmitters to fly
streamers.
you can see many other things you
never even saw before such as small
birds high or a long way off, or seedpods
and spiders on the end of webs being
carried skyward by the very forces you
are seeking. Your newfound ability to
observe the direction of the movement
of distant trees and tall grass upwind of
your position also allows you to predict
the arrival of lift.
Another side to seeing lift is watching
your own model intently once you are
in the air. Your Sailplane is easily your
best indicator, but you must know what
you are looking for. If you are passing
lift nearby, it will often steer or yaw
your model away from the thermal. The
infl ow of air toward the thermal acts
on your vertical fi n and the result often
steers your craft the wrong direction. If
you are alert and watching for any such
effect, you can counter this pull and turn
toward the indicated lift.
If you are doing a thermal search,
you should learn to fl y your model in a
straight geographical line (toward a fi xed
point) crosswind at approximately 45°.
Any deviation by your model is then
apparent, possibly indicating the effect
of adjacent thermals.
Another technique to make better use
of your eyes while you are searching is to
keep your model’s fuselage visible from
side-on to allow you to see the effect of
lift on its pitch axis.
Touch
In conjunction with watching the
wind, you will be feeling it on your skin.
Warming air is usually an indicator of lift
forming overhead or somewhat upwind.
This increase in temperature is often
accompanied by a lull or decrease in the
prevailing wind speed confi rming lift
building in an upwind direction. You can
feel these subtle changes more easily on
bare skin such as your neck and your feet.
Many have observed Joe Wurts feeling
the air by fl ying in shorts and no shoes!
Cooling air, often in conjunction with
increased wind velocity, is an indicator
of lift having passed and now being
somewhere downwind of you.
Your sense of touch should be able
to register the temperature of the air
passing by you, its velocity, and direction.
You are feeling for the thermal infl ow
or infi ll as nearby air rushes in to replace
the thermal air which left skyward.
To effectively feel lift and know
its location, you must be constantly
thinking about the
wind direction and
speed so you are
immediately aware
of any change
from the status
quo. An increase
in wind speed
indicates a thermal
has passed and
will be downwind
somewhere in the
direction the wind
is blowing.
A decrease
in wind speed
indicates a thermal is rising
somewhere upwind of
where you are and will soon
be upon you. A change in
wind direction indicates
that thermal activity is
sucking or redirecting the
air, where you are standing
off its previous course
and changing the wind’s
direction where you are
standing.
The thermal is going to be
Above: Flags, bunting, etc. are very useful
tools to determine wind direction, particularly
if they are located in more than one area of
the field as the flags were at the World F3J
Championships in South Africa.
Left: Attaching a
streamer to your
transmitter antenna
provides invaluable
information such
as an accurate local
wind direction and
strength indication.
This is F3K pilot
Dave Forbes, of
Gainesville FL, with
a parachute fabric
streamer.
somewhere on a vector toward this new
wind direction. The strength of a wind
shift to either side will have a bearing on
the direction of the thermal causing the
shift. Understanding the combination of
wind-velocity change and wind-direction
change gives you a compass directing
you to the rising air.
The best way to visualize this compass
is to use Joe Wurts’ “Third Vector”
illustration. The blue vector represents
what you normally feel as the prevailing
wind direction and the length of the
blue vector depicts the speed of the
prevailing wind.
The green vector is what you feel as
the new wind direction and its length is
the new speed. The thermal direction is
then indicated as the yellow third vector.
This concept can be visualized as you
fly and you then have a compass always
telling you which direction the ground
signs are telling you to go.
Hearing
The sound of the wind as it ebbs and
flows also helps you to become aware of
wind shifts. Learn to listen to what the
wind sounds like as it blows past your
ears or through nearby trees or grass
and when the sound changes, look to
see why. The other important benefit
of your ears is that the wind can carry
sounds from a great distance.
Often the sound of an upwind
highway, building site, or loud music
becomes louder as the wind speed
increases from the sound source’s
direction. This can
indicate that lift is
on its way from the
upwind direction.
Your ears have
other secrets to reveal
as well. How often
have you heard the
chirping of crickets
and cicadas come and
go on a hot summer
day? Aren’t they often
really loud for a short
period and then their
chirping wanes for a while?
If you haven’t noticed before, you
might discover that these insects are
actually telling you something as they
communicate with each other much
more vigorously during a lift phase. If
you are listening carefully and you hear
them singing, then they are telling you
their air is good for flying!
I have to thank my flying partner,
Jody Miller, for this wonderful piece of
extrasensory information he passed on to
me, which he learned as a FF US Junior
representative.
Smell
Your nose is there whether you like it or not. Why not use it to sniff out some lift and maybe keep your Sailplane up a little longer?
The smell of smoke from a fire upwind or the smell of fertilizer being applied can carry many miles. In Florida we often fly at a landfill site and when we are downwind of the active landfill, we can sometimes smell the odor of refuse, smoke, or the smell of dust as earthmoving equipment works on the site.
When we can smell a strong odor from an upwind source, it generally indicates that the air between us and the source of the odor is not rising air. We can smell upwind odors because the air has descended (or at least not risen) on its travels to reach us. In this case, your odds of finding lift may be better to launch and go anywhere else except toward the source of the ground-hugging smell.
The reverse applies as well, so when the constant smell of an upwind site is suddenly missing, we know that good buoyant air is likely to be found upwind from us.
Taste
Can you taste lift? Maybe Joe Wurts can if anyone can. You sure will taste the sweetness of victory, though, if you can command the use of all your God-given sensory receptors when you fly in Thermal contests.
Conclusion
There is no mystery to consistently finding rising air. It just takes a simple understanding of your surroundings, your model, and diligent practice using each of your receptors to maintain a mental picture of what the air is doing at all times.
Each time you launch your Sailplane, practice so you can make decisions based on the available information as to where the lift should be. You will quickly begin to sharpen your sensory skills.
There is no doubt that your eyes are your most important lift receptor, so get that new amber sunglasses prescription and go out and begin to develop your thermal sense by processing the information collectively from all of your receptors (whether you are flying or not).
You can always be practicing the skills you need to stay up when you can decide where to go before you launch. Find that good air and enjoy your well-earned max or enjoy being the last to land in your Man-on-Man (MOM) flight group!
Your thermal sense is waiting. Fly downwind and soar!
SOURCES:
Zenni Optical
(800) 211-2105
www.zennioptical.com
Coastal
(866) 333-6888
www.coastal.com
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/11
Page Numbers: 107,108,109,110
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/11
Page Numbers: 107,108,109,110
As I participate in many Soaring contests throughout the US, I can’t
help noticing that many serious Thermal Duration (TD) pilots
still fail to complete their allotted task time in air that is actually
Sailplane friendly.
What is it that makes their Sailplanes founder and sink, while many
other Sailplanes are riding high? Why do many Soaring pilots regularly
miss the thermal boat?
There are various reasons, but a basic prerequisite to keeping the
model aloft for the required duration is that the pilot must choose to
fl y in buoyant or rising air. Even if lift is not
obvious, the pilot must avoid fl ying his aircraft
in sinking air if there is to be a chance of
completing the max.
When a pilot launches a Sailplane, he or she
makes a choice about where to go (and with
open winch contests, when to go). This choice
will ultimately determine whether the aircraft
ends up on the ground early or whether the
pilot will be setting up for the landing task at
the business end of a 10-minute max. It’s rare
that all the air is going up, so to succeed in
achieving every max, the fi rst step is to know
where to go before you launch.
As a budding TD pilot, I made it my
business to fi nd the answers and develop my sixth sense—my thermal sense! To
succeed at this game you must use all of the senses you were blessed with. If you
have the basic fi ve that God gave most of us and they are in reasonable repair, with
some practice you are in good shape to develop your thermal sense.
Let’s look at how we can make best use of each of those fi ve senses we were
born with.
Sight
Don’t depend on poaching from birds and other gliders already in lift. Your eyes
can tell you much more. Practice “seeing” thermals by always watching the air
whether you are fl ying or not. Become aware of what the air is doing at all times.
It doesn’t matter whether you are at work or play, in another country or at home,
driving your car or sitting in the park with your dog. If you become disciplined
about watching the air and become aware of lift as it passes by, it will become
second nature to steer your Sailplane into lift when you actually fl y.
The things you can look for in the air are the less-obvious objects going up or
suspended, such as bugs, spiders, seedpods, birds, dust, or anything else heavier
than air. Watch what the wind is doing to ground-based objects, particularly how it
is affecting long grass, trees and fl ags, bunting, streamers, etc.
Knowing the state of the wind at all times is one big step toward understanding
Discovering your
sixth sense—
your thermal sense
by Gordon Buckland
[email protected]
where the lift is exactly. Having a
transmitter-mounted streamer to
indicate accurate wind direction can be
a huge advantage.
The best advice I ever received
regarding this was from Gordy Stahl,
who encouraged me to obtain a pair
of prescription sunglasses for fl ying.
Oh what a difference that made! I
got a long-distance prescription at the
Walmart optometrist for $60, and a
pair of 50% amber-tinted, aviator-style
prescription sunglasses from an online
company called Zenni Optical for $56.
For less than $120 I could now
see better than ever. The extra
confi dence gained from being able to
see your model well at a distance is a
phenomenal advantage.
With a good set of prescription glasses
The most e ective li indicator you can
have on the eld is a long, light streamer
on a tall shing pole, as seen here at
a recent contest at Kennyworld FL.
Le : Your best investment in training
your thermal sense is to get a longdistance
eye prescription and spend
as little as $56 on amber-tinted
prescription glasses from Zenni
Optical or Coastal.
What you feel when
the wind passes by you
The ‘third vector’
(Thermal Direction)
Thermal
Inflow
Thermal Inflow + wind
(What you feel)
Wind
Thermal
Le : Understanding ground
signals and wind shi s is vital.
Joe Wurts’ concept of the “Third
Vector” is depicted with the
yellow arrows pointing toward
the thermal as it passes.
Below: The more exposed skin, the better you
can read the air. Joe Wurts (L) and his air caller
return from the flightline a er the nal round
of the F3J Worlds held in Johannesburg, South
Africa, in August 2012.
Le : Al Parsons
and Ed White
from the Orlando
Buzzards in Florida,
make use of the
information provided
by an antennamounted
streamer.
A removable
arrow sha can be
mounted on 2.4 GHz
transmitters to fly
streamers.
you can see many other things you
never even saw before such as small
birds high or a long way off, or seedpods
and spiders on the end of webs being
carried skyward by the very forces you
are seeking. Your newfound ability to
observe the direction of the movement
of distant trees and tall grass upwind of
your position also allows you to predict
the arrival of lift.
Another side to seeing lift is watching
your own model intently once you are
in the air. Your Sailplane is easily your
best indicator, but you must know what
you are looking for. If you are passing
lift nearby, it will often steer or yaw
your model away from the thermal. The
infl ow of air toward the thermal acts
on your vertical fi n and the result often
steers your craft the wrong direction. If
you are alert and watching for any such
effect, you can counter this pull and turn
toward the indicated lift.
If you are doing a thermal search,
you should learn to fl y your model in a
straight geographical line (toward a fi xed
point) crosswind at approximately 45°.
Any deviation by your model is then
apparent, possibly indicating the effect
of adjacent thermals.
Another technique to make better use
of your eyes while you are searching is to
keep your model’s fuselage visible from
side-on to allow you to see the effect of
lift on its pitch axis.
Touch
In conjunction with watching the
wind, you will be feeling it on your skin.
Warming air is usually an indicator of lift
forming overhead or somewhat upwind.
This increase in temperature is often
accompanied by a lull or decrease in the
prevailing wind speed confi rming lift
building in an upwind direction. You can
feel these subtle changes more easily on
bare skin such as your neck and your feet.
Many have observed Joe Wurts feeling
the air by fl ying in shorts and no shoes!
Cooling air, often in conjunction with
increased wind velocity, is an indicator
of lift having passed and now being
somewhere downwind of you.
Your sense of touch should be able
to register the temperature of the air
passing by you, its velocity, and direction.
You are feeling for the thermal infl ow
or infi ll as nearby air rushes in to replace
the thermal air which left skyward.
To effectively feel lift and know
its location, you must be constantly
thinking about the
wind direction and
speed so you are
immediately aware
of any change
from the status
quo. An increase
in wind speed
indicates a thermal
has passed and
will be downwind
somewhere in the
direction the wind
is blowing.
A decrease
in wind speed
indicates a thermal is rising
somewhere upwind of
where you are and will soon
be upon you. A change in
wind direction indicates
that thermal activity is
sucking or redirecting the
air, where you are standing
off its previous course
and changing the wind’s
direction where you are
standing.
The thermal is going to be
Above: Flags, bunting, etc. are very useful
tools to determine wind direction, particularly
if they are located in more than one area of
the field as the flags were at the World F3J
Championships in South Africa.
Left: Attaching a
streamer to your
transmitter antenna
provides invaluable
information such
as an accurate local
wind direction and
strength indication.
This is F3K pilot
Dave Forbes, of
Gainesville FL, with
a parachute fabric
streamer.
somewhere on a vector toward this new
wind direction. The strength of a wind
shift to either side will have a bearing on
the direction of the thermal causing the
shift. Understanding the combination of
wind-velocity change and wind-direction
change gives you a compass directing
you to the rising air.
The best way to visualize this compass
is to use Joe Wurts’ “Third Vector”
illustration. The blue vector represents
what you normally feel as the prevailing
wind direction and the length of the
blue vector depicts the speed of the
prevailing wind.
The green vector is what you feel as
the new wind direction and its length is
the new speed. The thermal direction is
then indicated as the yellow third vector.
This concept can be visualized as you
fly and you then have a compass always
telling you which direction the ground
signs are telling you to go.
Hearing
The sound of the wind as it ebbs and
flows also helps you to become aware of
wind shifts. Learn to listen to what the
wind sounds like as it blows past your
ears or through nearby trees or grass
and when the sound changes, look to
see why. The other important benefit
of your ears is that the wind can carry
sounds from a great distance.
Often the sound of an upwind
highway, building site, or loud music
becomes louder as the wind speed
increases from the sound source’s
direction. This can
indicate that lift is
on its way from the
upwind direction.
Your ears have
other secrets to reveal
as well. How often
have you heard the
chirping of crickets
and cicadas come and
go on a hot summer
day? Aren’t they often
really loud for a short
period and then their
chirping wanes for a while?
If you haven’t noticed before, you
might discover that these insects are
actually telling you something as they
communicate with each other much
more vigorously during a lift phase. If
you are listening carefully and you hear
them singing, then they are telling you
their air is good for flying!
I have to thank my flying partner,
Jody Miller, for this wonderful piece of
extrasensory information he passed on to
me, which he learned as a FF US Junior
representative.
Smell
Your nose is there whether you like it or not. Why not use it to sniff out some lift and maybe keep your Sailplane up a little longer?
The smell of smoke from a fire upwind or the smell of fertilizer being applied can carry many miles. In Florida we often fly at a landfill site and when we are downwind of the active landfill, we can sometimes smell the odor of refuse, smoke, or the smell of dust as earthmoving equipment works on the site.
When we can smell a strong odor from an upwind source, it generally indicates that the air between us and the source of the odor is not rising air. We can smell upwind odors because the air has descended (or at least not risen) on its travels to reach us. In this case, your odds of finding lift may be better to launch and go anywhere else except toward the source of the ground-hugging smell.
The reverse applies as well, so when the constant smell of an upwind site is suddenly missing, we know that good buoyant air is likely to be found upwind from us.
Taste
Can you taste lift? Maybe Joe Wurts can if anyone can. You sure will taste the sweetness of victory, though, if you can command the use of all your God-given sensory receptors when you fly in Thermal contests.
Conclusion
There is no mystery to consistently finding rising air. It just takes a simple understanding of your surroundings, your model, and diligent practice using each of your receptors to maintain a mental picture of what the air is doing at all times.
Each time you launch your Sailplane, practice so you can make decisions based on the available information as to where the lift should be. You will quickly begin to sharpen your sensory skills.
There is no doubt that your eyes are your most important lift receptor, so get that new amber sunglasses prescription and go out and begin to develop your thermal sense by processing the information collectively from all of your receptors (whether you are flying or not).
You can always be practicing the skills you need to stay up when you can decide where to go before you launch. Find that good air and enjoy your well-earned max or enjoy being the last to land in your Man-on-Man (MOM) flight group!
Your thermal sense is waiting. Fly downwind and soar!
SOURCES:
Zenni Optical
(800) 211-2105
www.zennioptical.com
Coastal
(866) 333-6888
www.coastal.com
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/11
Page Numbers: 107,108,109,110
As I participate in many Soaring contests throughout the US, I can’t
help noticing that many serious Thermal Duration (TD) pilots
still fail to complete their allotted task time in air that is actually
Sailplane friendly.
What is it that makes their Sailplanes founder and sink, while many
other Sailplanes are riding high? Why do many Soaring pilots regularly
miss the thermal boat?
There are various reasons, but a basic prerequisite to keeping the
model aloft for the required duration is that the pilot must choose to
fl y in buoyant or rising air. Even if lift is not
obvious, the pilot must avoid fl ying his aircraft
in sinking air if there is to be a chance of
completing the max.
When a pilot launches a Sailplane, he or she
makes a choice about where to go (and with
open winch contests, when to go). This choice
will ultimately determine whether the aircraft
ends up on the ground early or whether the
pilot will be setting up for the landing task at
the business end of a 10-minute max. It’s rare
that all the air is going up, so to succeed in
achieving every max, the fi rst step is to know
where to go before you launch.
As a budding TD pilot, I made it my
business to fi nd the answers and develop my sixth sense—my thermal sense! To
succeed at this game you must use all of the senses you were blessed with. If you
have the basic fi ve that God gave most of us and they are in reasonable repair, with
some practice you are in good shape to develop your thermal sense.
Let’s look at how we can make best use of each of those fi ve senses we were
born with.
Sight
Don’t depend on poaching from birds and other gliders already in lift. Your eyes
can tell you much more. Practice “seeing” thermals by always watching the air
whether you are fl ying or not. Become aware of what the air is doing at all times.
It doesn’t matter whether you are at work or play, in another country or at home,
driving your car or sitting in the park with your dog. If you become disciplined
about watching the air and become aware of lift as it passes by, it will become
second nature to steer your Sailplane into lift when you actually fl y.
The things you can look for in the air are the less-obvious objects going up or
suspended, such as bugs, spiders, seedpods, birds, dust, or anything else heavier
than air. Watch what the wind is doing to ground-based objects, particularly how it
is affecting long grass, trees and fl ags, bunting, streamers, etc.
Knowing the state of the wind at all times is one big step toward understanding
Discovering your
sixth sense—
your thermal sense
by Gordon Buckland
[email protected]
where the lift is exactly. Having a
transmitter-mounted streamer to
indicate accurate wind direction can be
a huge advantage.
The best advice I ever received
regarding this was from Gordy Stahl,
who encouraged me to obtain a pair
of prescription sunglasses for fl ying.
Oh what a difference that made! I
got a long-distance prescription at the
Walmart optometrist for $60, and a
pair of 50% amber-tinted, aviator-style
prescription sunglasses from an online
company called Zenni Optical for $56.
For less than $120 I could now
see better than ever. The extra
confi dence gained from being able to
see your model well at a distance is a
phenomenal advantage.
With a good set of prescription glasses
The most e ective li indicator you can
have on the eld is a long, light streamer
on a tall shing pole, as seen here at
a recent contest at Kennyworld FL.
Le : Your best investment in training
your thermal sense is to get a longdistance
eye prescription and spend
as little as $56 on amber-tinted
prescription glasses from Zenni
Optical or Coastal.
What you feel when
the wind passes by you
The ‘third vector’
(Thermal Direction)
Thermal
Inflow
Thermal Inflow + wind
(What you feel)
Wind
Thermal
Le : Understanding ground
signals and wind shi s is vital.
Joe Wurts’ concept of the “Third
Vector” is depicted with the
yellow arrows pointing toward
the thermal as it passes.
Below: The more exposed skin, the better you
can read the air. Joe Wurts (L) and his air caller
return from the flightline a er the nal round
of the F3J Worlds held in Johannesburg, South
Africa, in August 2012.
Le : Al Parsons
and Ed White
from the Orlando
Buzzards in Florida,
make use of the
information provided
by an antennamounted
streamer.
A removable
arrow sha can be
mounted on 2.4 GHz
transmitters to fly
streamers.
you can see many other things you
never even saw before such as small
birds high or a long way off, or seedpods
and spiders on the end of webs being
carried skyward by the very forces you
are seeking. Your newfound ability to
observe the direction of the movement
of distant trees and tall grass upwind of
your position also allows you to predict
the arrival of lift.
Another side to seeing lift is watching
your own model intently once you are
in the air. Your Sailplane is easily your
best indicator, but you must know what
you are looking for. If you are passing
lift nearby, it will often steer or yaw
your model away from the thermal. The
infl ow of air toward the thermal acts
on your vertical fi n and the result often
steers your craft the wrong direction. If
you are alert and watching for any such
effect, you can counter this pull and turn
toward the indicated lift.
If you are doing a thermal search,
you should learn to fl y your model in a
straight geographical line (toward a fi xed
point) crosswind at approximately 45°.
Any deviation by your model is then
apparent, possibly indicating the effect
of adjacent thermals.
Another technique to make better use
of your eyes while you are searching is to
keep your model’s fuselage visible from
side-on to allow you to see the effect of
lift on its pitch axis.
Touch
In conjunction with watching the
wind, you will be feeling it on your skin.
Warming air is usually an indicator of lift
forming overhead or somewhat upwind.
This increase in temperature is often
accompanied by a lull or decrease in the
prevailing wind speed confi rming lift
building in an upwind direction. You can
feel these subtle changes more easily on
bare skin such as your neck and your feet.
Many have observed Joe Wurts feeling
the air by fl ying in shorts and no shoes!
Cooling air, often in conjunction with
increased wind velocity, is an indicator
of lift having passed and now being
somewhere downwind of you.
Your sense of touch should be able
to register the temperature of the air
passing by you, its velocity, and direction.
You are feeling for the thermal infl ow
or infi ll as nearby air rushes in to replace
the thermal air which left skyward.
To effectively feel lift and know
its location, you must be constantly
thinking about the
wind direction and
speed so you are
immediately aware
of any change
from the status
quo. An increase
in wind speed
indicates a thermal
has passed and
will be downwind
somewhere in the
direction the wind
is blowing.
A decrease
in wind speed
indicates a thermal is rising
somewhere upwind of
where you are and will soon
be upon you. A change in
wind direction indicates
that thermal activity is
sucking or redirecting the
air, where you are standing
off its previous course
and changing the wind’s
direction where you are
standing.
The thermal is going to be
Above: Flags, bunting, etc. are very useful
tools to determine wind direction, particularly
if they are located in more than one area of
the field as the flags were at the World F3J
Championships in South Africa.
Left: Attaching a
streamer to your
transmitter antenna
provides invaluable
information such
as an accurate local
wind direction and
strength indication.
This is F3K pilot
Dave Forbes, of
Gainesville FL, with
a parachute fabric
streamer.
somewhere on a vector toward this new
wind direction. The strength of a wind
shift to either side will have a bearing on
the direction of the thermal causing the
shift. Understanding the combination of
wind-velocity change and wind-direction
change gives you a compass directing
you to the rising air.
The best way to visualize this compass
is to use Joe Wurts’ “Third Vector”
illustration. The blue vector represents
what you normally feel as the prevailing
wind direction and the length of the
blue vector depicts the speed of the
prevailing wind.
The green vector is what you feel as
the new wind direction and its length is
the new speed. The thermal direction is
then indicated as the yellow third vector.
This concept can be visualized as you
fly and you then have a compass always
telling you which direction the ground
signs are telling you to go.
Hearing
The sound of the wind as it ebbs and
flows also helps you to become aware of
wind shifts. Learn to listen to what the
wind sounds like as it blows past your
ears or through nearby trees or grass
and when the sound changes, look to
see why. The other important benefit
of your ears is that the wind can carry
sounds from a great distance.
Often the sound of an upwind
highway, building site, or loud music
becomes louder as the wind speed
increases from the sound source’s
direction. This can
indicate that lift is
on its way from the
upwind direction.
Your ears have
other secrets to reveal
as well. How often
have you heard the
chirping of crickets
and cicadas come and
go on a hot summer
day? Aren’t they often
really loud for a short
period and then their
chirping wanes for a while?
If you haven’t noticed before, you
might discover that these insects are
actually telling you something as they
communicate with each other much
more vigorously during a lift phase. If
you are listening carefully and you hear
them singing, then they are telling you
their air is good for flying!
I have to thank my flying partner,
Jody Miller, for this wonderful piece of
extrasensory information he passed on to
me, which he learned as a FF US Junior
representative.
Smell
Your nose is there whether you like it or not. Why not use it to sniff out some lift and maybe keep your Sailplane up a little longer?
The smell of smoke from a fire upwind or the smell of fertilizer being applied can carry many miles. In Florida we often fly at a landfill site and when we are downwind of the active landfill, we can sometimes smell the odor of refuse, smoke, or the smell of dust as earthmoving equipment works on the site.
When we can smell a strong odor from an upwind source, it generally indicates that the air between us and the source of the odor is not rising air. We can smell upwind odors because the air has descended (or at least not risen) on its travels to reach us. In this case, your odds of finding lift may be better to launch and go anywhere else except toward the source of the ground-hugging smell.
The reverse applies as well, so when the constant smell of an upwind site is suddenly missing, we know that good buoyant air is likely to be found upwind from us.
Taste
Can you taste lift? Maybe Joe Wurts can if anyone can. You sure will taste the sweetness of victory, though, if you can command the use of all your God-given sensory receptors when you fly in Thermal contests.
Conclusion
There is no mystery to consistently finding rising air. It just takes a simple understanding of your surroundings, your model, and diligent practice using each of your receptors to maintain a mental picture of what the air is doing at all times.
Each time you launch your Sailplane, practice so you can make decisions based on the available information as to where the lift should be. You will quickly begin to sharpen your sensory skills.
There is no doubt that your eyes are your most important lift receptor, so get that new amber sunglasses prescription and go out and begin to develop your thermal sense by processing the information collectively from all of your receptors (whether you are flying or not).
You can always be practicing the skills you need to stay up when you can decide where to go before you launch. Find that good air and enjoy your well-earned max or enjoy being the last to land in your Man-on-Man (MOM) flight group!
Your thermal sense is waiting. Fly downwind and soar!
SOURCES:
Zenni Optical
(800) 211-2105
www.zennioptical.com
Coastal
(866) 333-6888
www.coastal.com
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/11
Page Numbers: 107,108,109,110
As I participate in many Soaring contests throughout the US, I can’t
help noticing that many serious Thermal Duration (TD) pilots
still fail to complete their allotted task time in air that is actually
Sailplane friendly.
What is it that makes their Sailplanes founder and sink, while many
other Sailplanes are riding high? Why do many Soaring pilots regularly
miss the thermal boat?
There are various reasons, but a basic prerequisite to keeping the
model aloft for the required duration is that the pilot must choose to
fl y in buoyant or rising air. Even if lift is not
obvious, the pilot must avoid fl ying his aircraft
in sinking air if there is to be a chance of
completing the max.
When a pilot launches a Sailplane, he or she
makes a choice about where to go (and with
open winch contests, when to go). This choice
will ultimately determine whether the aircraft
ends up on the ground early or whether the
pilot will be setting up for the landing task at
the business end of a 10-minute max. It’s rare
that all the air is going up, so to succeed in
achieving every max, the fi rst step is to know
where to go before you launch.
As a budding TD pilot, I made it my
business to fi nd the answers and develop my sixth sense—my thermal sense! To
succeed at this game you must use all of the senses you were blessed with. If you
have the basic fi ve that God gave most of us and they are in reasonable repair, with
some practice you are in good shape to develop your thermal sense.
Let’s look at how we can make best use of each of those fi ve senses we were
born with.
Sight
Don’t depend on poaching from birds and other gliders already in lift. Your eyes
can tell you much more. Practice “seeing” thermals by always watching the air
whether you are fl ying or not. Become aware of what the air is doing at all times.
It doesn’t matter whether you are at work or play, in another country or at home,
driving your car or sitting in the park with your dog. If you become disciplined
about watching the air and become aware of lift as it passes by, it will become
second nature to steer your Sailplane into lift when you actually fl y.
The things you can look for in the air are the less-obvious objects going up or
suspended, such as bugs, spiders, seedpods, birds, dust, or anything else heavier
than air. Watch what the wind is doing to ground-based objects, particularly how it
is affecting long grass, trees and fl ags, bunting, streamers, etc.
Knowing the state of the wind at all times is one big step toward understanding
Discovering your
sixth sense—
your thermal sense
by Gordon Buckland
[email protected]
where the lift is exactly. Having a
transmitter-mounted streamer to
indicate accurate wind direction can be
a huge advantage.
The best advice I ever received
regarding this was from Gordy Stahl,
who encouraged me to obtain a pair
of prescription sunglasses for fl ying.
Oh what a difference that made! I
got a long-distance prescription at the
Walmart optometrist for $60, and a
pair of 50% amber-tinted, aviator-style
prescription sunglasses from an online
company called Zenni Optical for $56.
For less than $120 I could now
see better than ever. The extra
confi dence gained from being able to
see your model well at a distance is a
phenomenal advantage.
With a good set of prescription glasses
The most e ective li indicator you can
have on the eld is a long, light streamer
on a tall shing pole, as seen here at
a recent contest at Kennyworld FL.
Le : Your best investment in training
your thermal sense is to get a longdistance
eye prescription and spend
as little as $56 on amber-tinted
prescription glasses from Zenni
Optical or Coastal.
What you feel when
the wind passes by you
The ‘third vector’
(Thermal Direction)
Thermal
Inflow
Thermal Inflow + wind
(What you feel)
Wind
Thermal
Le : Understanding ground
signals and wind shi s is vital.
Joe Wurts’ concept of the “Third
Vector” is depicted with the
yellow arrows pointing toward
the thermal as it passes.
Below: The more exposed skin, the better you
can read the air. Joe Wurts (L) and his air caller
return from the flightline a er the nal round
of the F3J Worlds held in Johannesburg, South
Africa, in August 2012.
Le : Al Parsons
and Ed White
from the Orlando
Buzzards in Florida,
make use of the
information provided
by an antennamounted
streamer.
A removable
arrow sha can be
mounted on 2.4 GHz
transmitters to fly
streamers.
you can see many other things you
never even saw before such as small
birds high or a long way off, or seedpods
and spiders on the end of webs being
carried skyward by the very forces you
are seeking. Your newfound ability to
observe the direction of the movement
of distant trees and tall grass upwind of
your position also allows you to predict
the arrival of lift.
Another side to seeing lift is watching
your own model intently once you are
in the air. Your Sailplane is easily your
best indicator, but you must know what
you are looking for. If you are passing
lift nearby, it will often steer or yaw
your model away from the thermal. The
infl ow of air toward the thermal acts
on your vertical fi n and the result often
steers your craft the wrong direction. If
you are alert and watching for any such
effect, you can counter this pull and turn
toward the indicated lift.
If you are doing a thermal search,
you should learn to fl y your model in a
straight geographical line (toward a fi xed
point) crosswind at approximately 45°.
Any deviation by your model is then
apparent, possibly indicating the effect
of adjacent thermals.
Another technique to make better use
of your eyes while you are searching is to
keep your model’s fuselage visible from
side-on to allow you to see the effect of
lift on its pitch axis.
Touch
In conjunction with watching the
wind, you will be feeling it on your skin.
Warming air is usually an indicator of lift
forming overhead or somewhat upwind.
This increase in temperature is often
accompanied by a lull or decrease in the
prevailing wind speed confi rming lift
building in an upwind direction. You can
feel these subtle changes more easily on
bare skin such as your neck and your feet.
Many have observed Joe Wurts feeling
the air by fl ying in shorts and no shoes!
Cooling air, often in conjunction with
increased wind velocity, is an indicator
of lift having passed and now being
somewhere downwind of you.
Your sense of touch should be able
to register the temperature of the air
passing by you, its velocity, and direction.
You are feeling for the thermal infl ow
or infi ll as nearby air rushes in to replace
the thermal air which left skyward.
To effectively feel lift and know
its location, you must be constantly
thinking about the
wind direction and
speed so you are
immediately aware
of any change
from the status
quo. An increase
in wind speed
indicates a thermal
has passed and
will be downwind
somewhere in the
direction the wind
is blowing.
A decrease
in wind speed
indicates a thermal is rising
somewhere upwind of
where you are and will soon
be upon you. A change in
wind direction indicates
that thermal activity is
sucking or redirecting the
air, where you are standing
off its previous course
and changing the wind’s
direction where you are
standing.
The thermal is going to be
Above: Flags, bunting, etc. are very useful
tools to determine wind direction, particularly
if they are located in more than one area of
the field as the flags were at the World F3J
Championships in South Africa.
Left: Attaching a
streamer to your
transmitter antenna
provides invaluable
information such
as an accurate local
wind direction and
strength indication.
This is F3K pilot
Dave Forbes, of
Gainesville FL, with
a parachute fabric
streamer.
somewhere on a vector toward this new
wind direction. The strength of a wind
shift to either side will have a bearing on
the direction of the thermal causing the
shift. Understanding the combination of
wind-velocity change and wind-direction
change gives you a compass directing
you to the rising air.
The best way to visualize this compass
is to use Joe Wurts’ “Third Vector”
illustration. The blue vector represents
what you normally feel as the prevailing
wind direction and the length of the
blue vector depicts the speed of the
prevailing wind.
The green vector is what you feel as
the new wind direction and its length is
the new speed. The thermal direction is
then indicated as the yellow third vector.
This concept can be visualized as you
fly and you then have a compass always
telling you which direction the ground
signs are telling you to go.
Hearing
The sound of the wind as it ebbs and
flows also helps you to become aware of
wind shifts. Learn to listen to what the
wind sounds like as it blows past your
ears or through nearby trees or grass
and when the sound changes, look to
see why. The other important benefit
of your ears is that the wind can carry
sounds from a great distance.
Often the sound of an upwind
highway, building site, or loud music
becomes louder as the wind speed
increases from the sound source’s
direction. This can
indicate that lift is
on its way from the
upwind direction.
Your ears have
other secrets to reveal
as well. How often
have you heard the
chirping of crickets
and cicadas come and
go on a hot summer
day? Aren’t they often
really loud for a short
period and then their
chirping wanes for a while?
If you haven’t noticed before, you
might discover that these insects are
actually telling you something as they
communicate with each other much
more vigorously during a lift phase. If
you are listening carefully and you hear
them singing, then they are telling you
their air is good for flying!
I have to thank my flying partner,
Jody Miller, for this wonderful piece of
extrasensory information he passed on to
me, which he learned as a FF US Junior
representative.
Smell
Your nose is there whether you like it or not. Why not use it to sniff out some lift and maybe keep your Sailplane up a little longer?
The smell of smoke from a fire upwind or the smell of fertilizer being applied can carry many miles. In Florida we often fly at a landfill site and when we are downwind of the active landfill, we can sometimes smell the odor of refuse, smoke, or the smell of dust as earthmoving equipment works on the site.
When we can smell a strong odor from an upwind source, it generally indicates that the air between us and the source of the odor is not rising air. We can smell upwind odors because the air has descended (or at least not risen) on its travels to reach us. In this case, your odds of finding lift may be better to launch and go anywhere else except toward the source of the ground-hugging smell.
The reverse applies as well, so when the constant smell of an upwind site is suddenly missing, we know that good buoyant air is likely to be found upwind from us.
Taste
Can you taste lift? Maybe Joe Wurts can if anyone can. You sure will taste the sweetness of victory, though, if you can command the use of all your God-given sensory receptors when you fly in Thermal contests.
Conclusion
There is no mystery to consistently finding rising air. It just takes a simple understanding of your surroundings, your model, and diligent practice using each of your receptors to maintain a mental picture of what the air is doing at all times.
Each time you launch your Sailplane, practice so you can make decisions based on the available information as to where the lift should be. You will quickly begin to sharpen your sensory skills.
There is no doubt that your eyes are your most important lift receptor, so get that new amber sunglasses prescription and go out and begin to develop your thermal sense by processing the information collectively from all of your receptors (whether you are flying or not).
You can always be practicing the skills you need to stay up when you can decide where to go before you launch. Find that good air and enjoy your well-earned max or enjoy being the last to land in your Man-on-Man (MOM) flight group!
Your thermal sense is waiting. Fly downwind and soar!
SOURCES:
Zenni Optical
(800) 211-2105
www.zennioptical.com
Coastal
(866) 333-6888
www.coastal.com
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org
