Ulric Jessop seeking the core in a thermal in Zanskar, Indian Himalaya. Photo: Bob Drury

How do you find the core of a thermal? Bob Drury explains

Once you’ve found a thermal, the next thing to consider is what to do with it. It’s a big subject to try and explain in an article, similar to trying to explain to a toddler how to walk; no matter how good my diagrams and words, you really can’t substitute experience. Lots of flying and lots practice is the only answer.

Like so many aspects of our sport, our human perception of what we should be doing vastly over-complicates the subject of thermalling. All the technology at hand means nothing if you can’t find the strongest part of the thermal!

Almost without exception, all thermals get drifted in either a valley wind or by the true meteo wind, and some might even change direction with altitude as they pass between the two.  Keeping track of which way the thermal is drifting will do two fantastic things to your flying: firstly it will help you stay in the thermal, and secondly it will help find the strongest part of lift within the thermal.

Pilots establishing a 360 pattern to find the core of a thermal in the Italian Dolomites. Photo: Martin Scheel www.azoom.ch

FLY 360S NOT FIGURE OF EIGHTS

When you hit a thermal you should try to establish a 360 pattern as soon as possible. Turning in circles is by far the best way of tracking a thermal, and equally it is also the most efficient way of keeping a glider in a specific piece of air. If you fly a figure-of-eight pattern, you are basically doing gentle wingovers, which are effectively just another good way of losing height.

In comparison, if you can establish the glider in a 360 pattern, usually just the very first 360 turn is inefficient, provided you don’t allow it to drop into a spiral dive. Once the glider has established an angle of bank, the glider will stop trying to dive to regain level flight.

FOUR ELEPHANTS

The first thing you should do when you hit lift that you suspect is a thermal, is to fly out to find deep into it to establish if it is big enough to turn 360s in. To do this, some pilots employ the ’four elephants rule’. Once you hit a thermal you simply fly straight on into it, counting “one elephant, two elephants, three elephants, four!”

If you’re still inside the thermal by the time the fourth elephant comes along, then it’s big enough. Start circling. For myself, I just look back at the hillside until I think I am far enough away to throw in a 360 without hitting the hill.

Paragliders core a thermal in Austria. Photo: Martin Scheel www.azoom.ch

That first turn is usually the worst as you haven’t established an angle of bank yet, but once you’ve gone around once, the glider will settle down.

Which direction you circle in is much less important than many think unless you are low. If you’re sharing your climb with others then you must circle in the same direction as them.

If you are close to the terrain and there’s a crosswind then circle in the direction that makes the upwind side of your circle the one closest to the hill. That way you’ll be travelling the slowest when you’re the closest to the ground. Competition organisers set compulsory turn directions for this exact reason.

If you are low then you should fly tight and aggressively, as you are more concerned with hanging on to the thermal than anything else. If you feel a substantial difference in the thermal’s strength towards either direction, then turn towards it. However, if you’re free of other aircraft, clear of the terrain and not worried about going down then you should simply turn towards the side that feels most comfortable.

SEARCHING FOR THE CORE

Once you’ve managed to complete three 360’s in a row in constant lift, with the vario beeping all the way around, then you can generally consider the thermal caught and you should start looking for the strongest lift.

To do this, fly towards the upwind side of the thermal by straightening up slightly each time your 360 pattern faces you into the wind.

Once you reach the upwind edge of the thermal, you’ll often feel an increase in lift as you encounter the dynamic assistance of the air blowing up the side of the thermal. But then, if you fly too far, you’ll fall out into the sink.

However, falling out of the upwind side of the thermal is never as bad as falling out of the downwind side. If you do then quickly turn the glider around, and fly back downwind, through the dynamic assistance to the strongest lift.

Falling out of the back of the thermal is much worse. You’ll fall into heavy sink and then have to turn back into wind to fly back slowly, through the sink, into the weakest lift.

LOOK UPWIND FOR THE CORE

There are two reasons why the strongest lift lies at the upwind side of the thermal: firstly, the stronger the lift, the more vertical velocity it has, and the less it is affected by the horizontal wind.

Weak lift is blown to the back of the thermal, leaving the stronger lift at the upwind side. This is why you always see good pilots searching for climbs a long way out front of the hill on windy days.

Secondly, because the thermal has a mass of its own, some of the horizontal wind will actually ride up the front face of it, rather as if it were a hillside, creating lift. It’s for this very reason that gliders can soar up the sides of cumulus clouds, and why pileus caps appear on the tops of cumulus when the wind blows over them.

Paragliders climbing in a gaggle in Poggio Bustone Italy. Photo: Martin Scheel. www.azoom.ch

As you search around in the thermal for the strongest lift, you might feel a strong pull on one side of the glider. If it’s on the inside of the circle you can simply tighten up even further to centre the core, but if it’s on your outside wing, it also often pays to tighten up and quickly bring yourself around 270 degrees so that you can straighten up and fly back to where you felt the stronger lift.

AVOID CHANGING DIRECTION

Personally, I rarely, if ever, change direction in a thermal unless it’s really big. Changing direction in thermals scrambles most pilots’ mental mapping, and it’s also inefficient as discussed earlier when we talked about flying in figure-of-eight patterns.

As the thermal drifts, it’s imperative that you constantly assess which direction is into wind. You can do this by feeling which direction you face when you fly slowest. Remember that this may not be exactly 90 degrees from the slope, as the thermal may be drifting across or even away from it, especially if you are flying in mountains.

When you’re close in to the terrain it’s easy to keep track of this, but as you climb higher it becomes harder to judge. GPS systems that give you your ground speed can help, but it’s more important that you constantly update your picture by staying alert and thinking.

A gaggle of paragliders forms in Governador Valadares Brazil. Photo: Martin Scheel www.azoom.ch

Finally, thermalling is not a science, it’s an art. It’s difficult to describe in words alone, yet I know of several so-called ’rules of thermalling’.

The first is: Turn tighter in strong lift and flatter in weak lift. The first part of this rule aims to keep us in the strongest lift for as long as possible: by turning tightly hopefully we won’t lose the core. This is a technique to help you hold onto a core once you’ve found it.

But, the second part of this rule tells us to widen our circles within the thermal to cover more ground, and increases the chances of bumping into a core. This rule is the rule of choice if we’re either in a strong climb or hunting around within a thermal looking for one.

However, there is a second rule of thermalling that appears to contradict the first. It says: Turn as wide and flat in strong lift as you can and turn as tight as you can if you fall out of it. This second rule appears to contradict the first until we look closer.

By turning as flat and wide as possible we maximise the performance and climb rate of our glider, because ultimately a glider climbs best in a straight line, without any angle of bank. But if we lose the core and fall into weaker lift, we should turn quickly to get back into it – even at the momentary expense of our sink rate. In reality it’s far more important to be climbing in the core, than to suffer a lower sink rate for a few seconds.

A gaggle of paragliders at the Paragliding European Championships in Nis, Serbia. Photo: Martin Scheel www.azoom.ch

Even when you’re established in a thermal, it’s important to keep monitoring where the strongest lift is, by listening to your vario and constantly updating your picture of the thermal. If you ever make two 360’s the same, you’ve let yourself down, because you’ll have taken in no new information.

If you do fly through an area of stronger lift, remember where it was, and on the next time round, flatten out your turn to take you deeper into the area of stronger lift. Fly straight ahead until you pass through the core, then turn tightly again to try and re-centre yourself back in the core. This will help you stay in the strongest lift for as long as possible.

Good pilots always want more from the lift so they explore within the thermal. The really good guys in competitions often don’t turn very tightly. Instead, they appear to wander about the gaggle picking off the best bits of lift. That’s because they stay alert to all the information that the rest of the gliders are giving them. If someone rises slightly faster than them, they fly straight over to them and profit from the other pilot’s core.

Remember it’s not how you fly your glider that counts! It’s where you fly it!

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XC131: the latest issue of Cross Country magazine

The latest issue of Cross Country magazine ‘XC131: the mountain issue’ has just gone to print. As you can guess from the title we’ve focused the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of Cross Country magazine on mountain flying.

Accompanying XC131 is a FREE A2 colour poster that explains how valley winds work.

FREE poster with XC131 on how valley winds work

The 84-page glossy colour extravaganza kicks off with a six-page gallery dedicated to mountain flying, with contributions from the legendary lenses of Maupoint, Scheel and Busslinger.

With your appetite thoroughly wetted towards adventures in the big stuff, flick onwards to ‘Mountain Flying’, the first main feature of the issue. Cross Country’s outgoing editor Bob Drury gathers some of the best names in the sport to create an eight-page focus on how to fly the mountains. With special attention given to understanding those mysterious beasts the valley winds, it’s a must-read for anyone serious about flying in mountainous terrain.

Staying on topic, ex-paragliding world champion Bruce Goldsmith looks at some of the techniques he’s used over the years to bring him his world title and three British Championships, when he explains how to race in the mountains.

XC Files, Cross Country magazine’s tuitional section, looks at the effect of a wind gradient, the performance gains of pod harnesses, and long-time hang gliding weather expert Denis Pagen challenges our resident meteo columnist Honza Rejmanek on his explanation of dust devils last issue.

As well as a look at the safety of 2 mm sidewires on their wings, hang glider pilots also get a closer look at the goings on in the European championships, then get closer still with the new European champion Gerolf Heinrichs.

If thrills are your thing then be prepared to be overdosed when you read the firsthand account of Cross Country magazine’s resident acro columnist Pal Takats’ experiences of learning to Infinite Tumble a tandem with Gabor Kezi. The bit where the glider explodes and they plummet into freefall will make you shiver; the onboard images of it happening are amazing!

And there’s more…

Find out what the test team thought when they took the Ozone Delta and ITV Awak Tandem for a spin. Read about the 312 km flight and the PG pre-worlds in Spain’s Piedrahita, the latest from the PWC, the El Yelmo festival, iPhone apps for flying and the sad discovery of Russian Alexey Ashurov, the pilot who disappeared in Bir, India last Autumn.

XC131 is available in paper or digital format as part of a yearly subscription or as an individual issue.

Click here to buy it.

Pål Hammar Rognøy D-bags from his own paraglider above the Swedish ski resort of Åre.

Britain's Kirsty Cameron tops the podium, flanked by Spaniards Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia, at the first women's paragliding open in Ager.

Britain’s Kirsty Cameron has won the first female-only paragliding open that was held in Ager in the Spanish Pyrenees, both open and serial classes, winning herself a new Sup’Air harness and Flymaster B1 nav GPS-vario.

Spanish pilots, Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia, were second and third respectively, both also on serial class gliders. Britain’s Ruth Churchill-Dower topped the sports class category,

The competition finished on Friday 27 August, having had four tasks which ranged from 38 to 100 km, wind unfortunately depriving pilots of the last potential task day on the Friday.

The field of pilots was not huge,only 36 pilots being on the final results table, but judging by the blogs and Facebook comments, a good time was had by all, and those who attended seem to be looking forward to attending the next event (it seems there will be one) and pilots who missed out this time promising to swell numbers next time.

www.womenspgopen.org

PWC Portugal 2010 overall winners' podium. L-R: Claudio Virgilio, Lucas Bernardin, Julien Wirtz

PWC Portugal 2010 womens' podium. L-R: Katarzyna Gruzelwska-Losi, Seiko Fukuoka-Naville, Marina Olexina.

The seventh competition in the 2010 Paragliding World Cup series finished in Serra da Estrela in Portugal on 14 August.

Three tasks (104, 53 and 66 km) were held, the other days being plagued by strong winds.

France’s Lucas Bernardin and Seiko Fukuoka-Naville lifted the trophies for the competition, and Thomas Brandlehner (AT) and Seiko became the PWC European champions following the completion of the three European rounds (Greece, Italy and Portugal).

Next stop – the PWC Superfinal in Turkey from 21 September – 2 October. The list of pilots who got through in the first selection are now up on the PWC website.

RESULTS – PWC PORTUGAL 2010

OVERALL

1 – Lucas Bernardin (FR, Ozone Mantra R10)
2 – Claudio Virgilio (PO, Niviuk Icepeak 4)
3 – Julien Wirtz (FR, Ozone Mantra R10.2)

WOMEN

1 – Seiko Fukuoka Naville (FR, Ozone mantra R10.2)
2 – Katarzyna Gruzelwska-Losi (PL, Axis Mercury)
3 – Marina Olexina (RU, Gin Boomerang 7)

TEAMS

1 – Ozone
2 – Kortel
3 – Advance

NATIONS

1 – France
2 – Spain
3 – Austria

EUROPEAN CUP – OVERALL

1 – Thomas Brandlehner (AT, Ozone Mantra R10.2)
2 – Luc Armant (FR, Ozone Mantra R10.2)
3 – Lucas Bernardin (FR, Ozone Mantra R10)

WOMEN

1 – Seiko Fukuoka-Naville (FR, Ozone Mantra R10.2)
2 – Renata Kuhnova (CZ, Axis Mercury)
3 – Regula Strasser (CH, Niviuk Icepeak)

TEAMS

1 – France
2 – Austria
3 – United Kingdom

www.paraglidingworldcup.org

GALLERY: MOUNTAINS

FUTURE HERO: NOVA DASALLA

‘I’m Nova and I live in San Francisco.’ This Future Hero is a West Coast US acro pilot who wants to take on the world, and win

MOUNTAIN FLYING

Your complete guide to flying the mountains, with advice from some of the best in the sport.

INFINITE TANDEM

‘It’s working!’ Take one tandem and explode all the lines. Survive. Do it again. Pal Takats and Gabor Kezi see double

HANG GLIDING EUROPEANS

Ager delivered a brilliant competition and Gerolf Heinrichs emerged the winner. Viva Espana!

THE XC FILES

Pod harnesses, wind shear and dust devils

BETWEEN THE SHEETS

It’s here. Ozone’s Delta (EN C) is reviewed by Bob Drury and Marcus King. Plus, the ITV Awak tandem and the Flymaster B1 Nav flight instrument

Plus PWC Update, PG Pre-worlds, 312km in Piedrahita, El Yelmo festival, self d-bagging and all the latest new products and news from around the globe.

Not a subscriber? You can subscribe online at www.xcshop.com/subs. If you subscribe now you will automatically be entered in our prize draw

You can buy this individual issue here in paper form and in digital format here

The printed version of Issue 131 comes with a free A2 poster “Mountain Flying: How valley winds work”

Free download to the best paragliding and hang gliding sites in the world.

Cross Country magazine’s Global Travel Guide for hang gliding and paragliding is now available online as a free pdf download – perfect for the iPad, your laptop or printing off.

Published in April 2010 the print edition of the guide was given away free exclusively to subscribers of Cross Country Magazine magazine in issue 130. Now it’s available to all.

The guide features some 20 paragliding and hang gliding sites around the world, and draws on the experience of the best pilots around to provide a mouth-watering insight into some of the best sites on the planet.

The idea was to create a guide to ‘the perfect year’. We imagined a pilot who had a year off, unlimited funds, and an open ticket. Where would they go? What would they do? What sort of flying would they get? The result it this, what we hope you agree is an inspirational and information-packed guide.

World famous sites from around the globe are included – from the Alps to the Australian desert and from the Spanish flats to the outback of Brazil. Contributors include well-known flying guides like Jocky Sanderson, Steve Ham and Godfrey Wenness, as well as  the best flying photographers and writers.

The Travel Guide is intended to be an annual publication. The next issue will be distributed free exclusively to subscribers of the print magazine in April 2011.

Subscribe online and find out what the best pilots in the world are reading.

The Cross Country Travel Guide is a free download available to all. You have a choice of of two versions: the single page version is best for viewing on screens that are smaller than 15″ and for viewing on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android phones or any other mobile PDF readers. The single page version also makes it easy to print individual pages. The book style double page version is best viewed on units with a 15″ screen or larger. The Apple iPad will display either version with the double page version giving a more magazine-like experience.

Norwegian acro star Ove Tillung in action over Are, Sweden in the 2010 Downteam Challenge. Photo: Fred Gustafsson

Nordic acro champion, Norwegian Ove Tillung, won the 2010 Downteam Challenge acro competition held in the Swedish ski resort of  Åre from 6 – 8 August.

With him on the Norwegian podium were Rolf Dale and Kjartan Andvik.

Sixteen-year-old Emil Selin, only flying for a year-and-a-half, topped the Swedish podium, with Martin Kjellman (last year’s champion) and Axel Knutsson in third.

As with last year’s event, the weather was very kind for the duration, the pilots getting in six runs over the four days, and the judges basking in the sun while others swam in the lake.

It is now to be an annual event, and the organisers are looking forward to welcoming even more pilots and spectators in 2011.

Full results on Downteam’s website.

Downteam Challenge 2010 Norwegian podium. Photo: Fred Gustafsson

The Swedish podium, Downteam Challenge 2010. Photo: Fred Gustafsson

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Flight international festival for paragliders, hang gliders and microlights takes place at the Tegelberg, Germany, over the weekend of 25 – 26 September.

www.flight-festival-tegelberg.de

In July 2010 India’s paragliding community came together to form a National Association for the sport, the Paragliding Association of India.

The main objective of the association is to provide a national platform for the paragliding community in India and to promote, develop, control and regulate the sports of Paragliding and Paramotoring.

The PAI’s first general meeting took place in Mumbai on 17th July 2010. A Managing Committee was democratically elected to administrate the association and a Technical Committee for flying and safety. A second meeting is planned for 27 August at Yelagiri.

www.pgaoi.org

Three weeks after Argon won the Golden Peak award at the Nissan Outdoor games in Chamonix-Mont Blanc, French team Oseven have won the online contest with their film, directed by Maxime Moulin.

The team were selected by a Julbo Eyewear sponsored contest.

More than 1500 votes were recorded, and team Oseven were ahead in the voting from quite early on.

www.nissanoutdoorgames.com

The deadline for entries is 31 October 2010 and the winners will be chosen on 8 November. The five winners will receive shopping vouchers of 100 Euros each for Icaro Paragliders and Fly & More.

Icaro suggest perhaps including a piece of the wing or your backpack in the image, to reflect the adventure you were enjoying when you found the alpine flower.

Send your entries, max 5 per entrant,  to Icaro paragliders by email (up to 10 Mb JPEG) or post (address below) with the heading “Fly & bring me Edelweiss”. Don’t forget to include your name, address, telephone number and email address.

Icaro Paragliders, Fly & Bring me Edelweiss, Hochriesstraße 1, D-83126 Flintsbach, Germany.

Edelweiss bloom in the Alps from July to September. You find them on stony meadows, rocks, alpine meadows in limestone surroundings at altitudes of 1,800 to 3,000 metres.

www.icaro-wings.com

As in 2009, the race will start in Salzburg, Austria. Photo: www.redbullxalps.com

Applications for the 2011 Red Bull X-Alps paragliding adventure race, have opened and athletes have until 30 September 2010 to apply.

The fifth edition of the race starts on 17 July in Salzburg. Participants must hike or paraglide their way 860 km across the Alps from to Monaco on the Mediterranean coast. Each athlete has a supporter who can provide food, shelter and advice. The non-stop race ends when the first athlete reaches goal, and fans can follow every participant’s move on the official website’s Live Tracking map.

A race committee will select thirty international athletes from the applicants, based on their endurance, flying ability and overall grit and determination.

In 2009, Swiss rookie Christian Maurer blitzed the field, reaching Monaco in just 10 days – a record time for the event. Alex Hofer (SUI1) was second and Honza Rejmanek (USA) third.

Turnpoint 1, the Gaisberg, overlooking Salzburg. Photo: www.redbullxalps.com

Organiser Hannes Arch says, “In 2009 Maurer raised the bar for the Red Bull X-Alps. He showed everyone that exceptional preparation, a high level of endurance, good strategy and a great supporter are key to success. The 2011 applicants will have to show us that they are capable of all these elements.”

The first two on her website are ‘Interpreting the RASP’ with Mark Riches and ‘Weather – a detailed look at one day’ with David Thomson.

Skyline have a new riser set for the EN B Falcon, improving its performance at speed.

Skyline have created a greatly improved riser set for their EN B Falcon which allows more efficient acceleration up to half-bar, a great asset in an XC glider which can thus glide more efficiently between thermals.

The new risers also make the Falcon faster and more stable in turbulent air, and accentuates its tendency to dive forward into climbing air.

www.skyline-flightgear.de

Stephane Drouin. Photo: www.ffvl.fr

Frenchman Stéphane Drouin’s World and European speed over a 200km triangle record of 26 km/hr, has been ratified.

Stéphane’s flight was made on a Mac Para Magus on 24 May 2010 from Montgirod, France.

The record was previously held for nearly ten years by Klaus Heimhofer (AT) at 23.5 km/hr  (19/6/2000).

http://records.fai.org

Software version 1.22 has been sent out to LK800 beta testers

Version 1.22a of LK8000’s touch screen flight computer, which runs on PDAs and car navigators (PNAs), is now officially stable and available to users.

Improvements over the previous version include:

- Multiple start gates, start in & start out cylinders, time gates for paragliders and hang gliders
- Estimated time-to-go based on current MC and distance to the start line, for efficiently crossing the start line at the correct time without penalties.
- Support for new maps (LKMAPS) with better resolution and topology

For more information or to download the software and manual, visit the LK8000 website.

Karl Reichegger over Monte Cucco, Italy

Following four tasks, Manfred Ruhmer (AT) has won the hang gliding pre-Worlds in Monte Cucco, Italy, which finished on 7 August 2010, flying an Icaro 2000 Laminar Z9.

Jonny Durand (AU, Moyes) took second place and France’s Mario Alonzi (Aeros) was third. Julia Kucherenko (RU, Aeros) was first, woman in 21st place overall.

Italy was top nation, ahead of Austria and France.

To read more about the comp, there are links to several pilots’ blogs, as well as the official one, on the Monte Cucco 2010 website.

Tom Weissenberger. Photo: Moyes.com.au

Austrian Tom Weissenberger has put in a prelimanary record claim for a 345km triangle flight on his Moyes Litespeed RS3.5.

The flight was made on 3 July 2010, and is awaiting FAI ratification as a European record.