Jay, first off, as soon as you notice that you are in a thermal, start
turning.
Then figure out which side of the turn is better.
Don't fly thru it and try to get back, you may not always be able to.
Also you are probably on an edge when you see it, or in the core if it
is light and you only noticed it when it really indicated.
TURN...
How to figure out which side is better. alti drop/ gain, sluggish
control usually means sink, but may also mean booming thermal that you
can't turn in (rare here in the east).
Don't fly straight to correct, just oblong the turn in the better
direction. You will stay with the thermal this way without loosing track
of it.
Guys that straighten out and try to come back often lose the thermal.
If you are in a small thermal with a DLG turn tight, a big ship will
depend on the amount of lift, sometimes you can't turn that tight so you
would fly flat to get the most lift and fly in and out to get bumped up
OR go find a better thermal.
If it is booming and small a big ship can be put on a wing tip.
Then gradually open it up.
When your plane is climbing nicely and you have power all around you
have probably cored the thermal. If it is not smooth all the way around
you are on the edge or gowing in and out of the center of the thermal...
and therefore it isn't cored.
I'm sure others will chime in.
Jay Hunter wrote:
First off I am flying a photon II R/E dlg. No flaps, no camber mode,
just simple RE poly...
I am not sure if anyone can help me but I have been flying through
thermals. I have progressed to point where I can tell I just flew
through a thermal, and I can circle and fly BACK into the thermal, but
I can not figure out how big the thermal is and I can see the plane
'falling' out of the thermal.
Any thoughts on how to gauge the size of a thermal, so I know how
tight to turn? Also any tips on doing thermal turns so that the
circles are tight and so I don't stall then speed up, then stall then
speed up.
Thanks for any help you can offer...
Jay
--
Jeff Steifel
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe
messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email
such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
