riding thermals in my gyrobee

[Redbaron]

Has anyone tried to hunt for lift while flying a gyrobee or hornet? I did a little flying this evening and it was such an awesome feeling to ride a thermal while at near idle. Iwas surprised at how fast I could climb in a gyrocopter with the help of thermal lift

[WaspAir]

You can thermal almost anything if you catch a good one and know how to center in the lift; I've even managed it in an 18A.

The energy available in thermals is pretty impressive. When I was instructing in Colorado, I would routinely thermal in a 1400 pound 2/3 seat glider(like the picture below) with climb rates over 1000 ft/min.

[Hattrick]

if you want to hunt thermals, find a bixgbox store with a big black parking lot, they love to hide over those the other place to find them are on ridges I.E. Ridge lift, just stick to V-BG (and being a gyro newcomer I'm not even sure we have a V BG) and have some fun.

[Redbaron]

[QUOTE=Hattrick;473500]the other place to find them are on ridgesQUOTE]

There aren't any ridges around here just multicolored fields usually surrounded by trees. Darn now I want a variometer.

[hangman]

Tractors in fields work really well, and have given me a few low save on hang gliders. Birds are good markers, they don't need to be vultures, swallows, martins and such rise and fall with the insects carried along by thermals.
Last time at our local ridge the Long Mynd I had a Red Kite for company in ridge lift.

[WaspAir]

One of the best markers, if there is any moisture in the air, is a flat (or slightly concave) bottomed cumulus cloud. The cloud forms at the top of a thermal when the rising warm air carries the moisture up to an altitude at which it cools enough to form the cloud. The clouds/thermals cycle frequently, forming and dissipating. If the bottom is no longer flat or concave, you're too late -- look for a wisp just forming or one with a nice flat bottom and head that way instead. Sometimes the clouds appear in "streets", and if they align more or less with your direction of travel, you can fly along that street, slowly while rising and rapidly in between, to maximize the time in lift and minimize the time in sink.

In very strong conditions, you will find rapidly sinking air surrounding a thermal (what goes up must come down somewhere, or you'd run out air someplace). You can picture it like a hose pointed up -- you want to be in the upward flow inside the hose, not the cascading back down flow around it.

Thermals usually tilt downwind, and can become twisted columns as the wind direction shifts with altitude. To stay in it, you'll need to drift with it as you climb.

[Brent Drake]

The darker the ground or field the better. Lots of thermals there. Plowed fields are great for us flat country folk.

[Erik the red]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

Has anyone tried to hunt for lift while flying a gyrobee or hornet? I did a little flying this evening and it was such an awesome feeling to ride a thermal while at near idle. Iwas surprised at how fast I could climb in a gyrocopter with the help of thermal lift

Great video! It´s a great gyro to fly. I got mine to Sweden a couple of years ago. Needed some spares some week ago, arrived today first class. Talk about after sales service! First class. Erik

[tadgyro]

El Mirage is excellent for thermal on hot days.
Tadgyro

[hangman]

Flat land flying in medium to high winds, look out for clouds streeting, basicaly long lines of clouds that look like they come from the same source.
On my old hang glider progress was always relatively slow, but I've been there in a Tomahawk, you can still feel the benefit at 85/90 knts.
For just playing around remember the old adage slow in lift speed in sink, to center thermals tighten your turn if the lift slackens and flatten the turn when the lift increases.
I apologise. if I'm teaching your granny to suck eggs, but not everyone has flown gliders.

[Redbaron]

The gyrobee is very reactive to thermals. Flew over some sink from a patch of woods and she started to pitch up and stand on her tail then I went over a dark field and up up she goes. This was flying around 4 pm. Just a caution to newbies don't fly in active air if you have to climb over obstacles.

[RockyMeLad]

Good point Red.
Yes, desert flying on a summer afternoon let's you enjoy both lift and sink (around here they are closely related). Flying in a straight line at nominally 300 ft with constant air-speed and not changing pitch, one can watch the altimeter fluctuate up and down 50 ft and a corresponding change in height above ground.
A few years back Charlie was flying with my daughter in the rear seat to take pictures of me in the air. We were only about 300-400 foot apart, but I caught up and and they caught down. In a minute or two, I was a thousand feet above them.
There was a thread about "down air" a couple of years ago. I seem to recall that most of the time if you kept your air-speed up, you'd loose the down air before hitting the ground. So far that's been my experience as well.
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