Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 13:43:20 UTC No. 16582468

>>16582369
How do you spot thermals anyway

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 14:00:09 UTC No. 16582484

Yeah, gliding is amazing—pure, silent flight, just riding the air. Catching a good thermal feels almost like cheating gravity.

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 14:13:41 UTC No. 16582495

>>16582468
The easiest way is to look at the clouds and where they form, underneath there will be warm air that rises. You can also watch out for birds circling or analyze the ground: the air over wheat fields is warmer during summer months, so thermals often develop there, or you can use dynamic updrift along hillsides if the wind is favorable.
One thing I never got is the true shape of thermals: are they a "bubble" of warm air eventually disconnecting from the ground, then rising, or are they shaped like a continuous "tornado" that stretches from the ground to the height of the dew point?

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 14:20:20 UTC No. 16582501

>>16582369
it's just slower falling, retard

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:31:54 UTC No. 16582800

>>16582495
>One thing I never got is the true shape of thermals: are they a "bubble" of warm air eventually disconnecting from the ground, then rising, or are they shaped like a continuous "tornado" that stretches from the ground to the height of the dew point?
It can be aither, depending on topography:
https://understandingthesky.com/thermal-rising/

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 19:13:20 UTC No. 16582841

>>16582468
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkhj2JheWfc

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 21:15:53 UTC No. 16582989

>>16582800
aether isn't real you idgit

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 21:20:22 UTC No. 16582998

>>16582369
Gliders have to be by far the cheapest way of travelling hundreds of miles at a stretch. Cheaper than walking if you include the cost of feeding yourself over the journey

Anonymous at Tue, 11 Feb 2025 22:46:27 UTC No. 16583131

>>16582501
With style motor slave, with style

Anonymous at Wed, 12 Feb 2025 04:22:52 UTC No. 16583367

>>16582501
so? orbit is fast falling

Anonymous at Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:17:19 UTC No. 16583997

>>16582369
i love thermal kites like the one in the pic. Learning them and being good at finding thermals is amazing, you need to have a lot of free time though.
Also love zero wind kites, being able to fly a kite with zero wind, using no movement except tiny precise inputs to control an unstable kite effectively being in stall, to gain altitude, it is wild to see. You can sit in a sofa and fly a small kite around the house when you are good at it.
I do it all the time and always make sure to land on my wife's head and then take off. She's so used to it she doesn't mind any more.
Picture a kite flapping about with no wind, it is unstable and rocks back and forth, now if you input the correct amount of torque at some precise moment you can make it spin. When it spins you can make it stop spinning (pointing at some advantageous direction) with another input. Let go and let the kite become unstable again and repeat the process. When you're good at it, you can control the kite precisely, going towards, you away from you, in various patterns, up and down etc.

Anonymous at Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:22:16 UTC No. 16584000

>>16583997
>kite flapping about with no wind, it is unstable and rocks back and forth, now if you input the correct amount of torque at some precise moment you can make it spin. When it spins you can make it stop spinning (pointin
And then you will be watching for any sign of thermals, constantly looking at the sky, watching every tree for slight movements in a leaf or two.
This shit consumed me for years!

Anonymous at Wed, 12 Feb 2025 22:57:13 UTC No. 16584082

>>16582369
they are called Sail Planes, not gliders