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Original articles (Thermalling Parts 1, 2 and 3) taken from old website by Dave Thomson...

Despite the atrocious weather during the day, there was a good turnout for the club night on Jan 9th. It has been many weeks (or probably months!) since we have flown and so what better way to blow out the cobwebs and get us thinking about a new flying season than Dave Thomson talking us through the mysteries of thermalling. Pretty soon and before anyone could say 'flipchart' we were all imagining climbing out with the sweet beep-beep of the vario in our heads...And that was the main message, "Believe": Believe the thermals exist, believe you can catch one, believe you can work it all the way.

But this wasn't all faith healing - Dave's talk was filled with little tips and tricks to help get us away, along with an idea of progression towards that big climb. Unless you are incredibly lucky you can't just launch and start thermalling, so:
What is the best plan of action to get into position to catch one? (A: Maximise height to increase search area)
Where is the best place to look? (A: As far forward as possible)
By setting clear objectives like these, a picture starts to form of how to fly in each situation and suddenly the in-flight decisions are more straightforward.

This was all about developing a strategy and funny, how at times the simple and obvious is most difficult to see. How many of us put nice clean 180s to S-turn in a ridge thermal? Well, why not increase the turn each time to track back and actually follow the thermal drift? You could see the light going on in a number of heads with that one. OK, this hasn't made anyone a better pilot (yet) but we now have a better picture of what we are trying to do - the rest is practice, practice.

For more info on thermalling, see the Thermal Lore set of articles by Dennis Pagen. (Thanks Sean for this link)





Thermalling Part I took us to the point where we had hooked a nice thermal and started riding it up to cloudbase. Surely not much more to say after that, is there? Well, those who attended Parts 2 and 3 (Feb 6th and Mar 5th Club Nights) were quickly reminded how complex the subject of thermalling is. Just like economics, the end result is simple (up or down), but the path is full of complex and invisible 'levers' and Dave Thomson's excellent talks focussed on those many little details that combine to decide Yes (up) or No (down).

Here is a taster of some of the topics covered:

• Visualisation - is a thermal a 'chimney' or a doughnut? Basic stuff but so important for seeing how to stay with the lift.
  
• Staying in the thermal - centering (not coring!) techniques
  
• Reading lift information - when is negative really a positive? The idea of relative lift and changes in thermal strength above the ridge.
  
• Decision time - when to plan your move to the next thermal
  
• Play time - when to relax during your climbout
  
• Approaching cloudbase - strategies for maximising distance
  
• Second thermal - Low save strategies
  
• Downwind decision-making - Factors in crossing ridges
  
• Leeside thermals - where to find them and how to use them
  

There was so much interesting and unexpected detail in these talks. The discussion on thermal path at ridge height was a revelation, with some very surprising outcomes. How many before this talk could honestly say they would stay with negative lift on a climbout?
And how can you spend 30 minutes discussing which side of the cloud to climb to? The fact that we did, and it was all fascinating stuff, shows the depth of detail covered and how much more there is still to consider and understand.

A very big thanks to Dave Thomson for his time and efforts - much appreciated by one and all.
Now we have the concepts, the strategies, the desire and the belief - Bring on some decent flying weather!