WAGA X-Country Lectures

En-Route Decisions

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What’s here?

What’s the best Secret for Success When to start? What ring setting to use? What speed to fly? What thermals should we take? What changing conditions can we expect? When should we dump water ballast?

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Practice

Everyday you can

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Secret to success

MORE PRACTICE!!!!

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When to start?

4000 feet above ground level for your first X-countries

3000 feet AGL if you are desperate to go far

6000 feet AGL if you want to go fastbut you have to start at 3280 feet

(1 KM) to set records.

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McCready Ring Settings

2kts

6kts

0kts

2kts

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What thermals should we take? In the best part of the day, only the best the best way to increase your x-country

speed is to increase your climb rateuse other gliders as visual variometers if they are doing better than you

join them

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Ring Setting

Rule of thumb should be half your best average rate

should be the reading that you leave the thermal

and the minimum strength that you take the next thermal

if under 3000 feet AGL, wind back to 1 Knot.

90

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4

6

8

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2 4 6 8 10

10%

5%

5%10%

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Inter-thermal Speed Control

Generally McCready averages a speedSome guns fly constant speed (Ingo) then slow to 60 knots looking at lift then back to thermalling speed when

decision is made to take itbe fussy about what you take fly fast in sink, fly slow in lift

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Watch for Changing Conditions

Around 3-3.30pm get high, stay high 3 o’clock pause often happens because air

mass gets homogeneously hot then convection resumes normally Watch out for late afternoon increase in lift usually in the pre-seabreeze mini-trough plan for a sea-breeze final glide

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Water Ballast

+3 knots = keep it

-3 knots = lose it

Finally another hot tip:

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Even more practice!!!

Questions?