Do you make use of thermals?

As the warmer spring weather arrives, so do the thermals and turbulence caused by the warming of the ground.

I really noticed this on Monday (warm day) flying down to the south coast in a J-3. Leaving the engine at 2,100 rpm, a gentle cruise, I was able to climb to 2500, from a 1,000 ft start.

Despite a little gliding experience, I never really ‘cracked’ soaring, but have developed some habits which seem to work. On feeling a decent bump I promptly pitch the nose up and let the speed fall to perhaps 50 mph, with the aim of loitering in the core of the lift. If the lift is really strong, then it is possible to do orbits, though the radius is rather larger than a glider can manage. Also, if you are en route, it rather delays progress to do this.

I find that without much deviation from course, I can get some really useful lift, and when the rate of climb eventually falters, it is best to lower the nose and start a long cruise descent, slowly burning off the height but adding maybe 20mph to the cruise until another good thermal is found.

Ironically, the best thermals were near Lasham, and these were the ones I had to ignore, to avoid upsetting the local gliders. Not all light aircraft lend themselves to this sort of messing about, but those with a light wing loading seem to go up pretty well. Aeronca 100’s have been used as gliders, and infact there was a glider version of the Piper Cub, the TG-8.