Alltrikes

Beautiful job Joe! Debbie and I were sitting here in the living room watching you soar and reminiscing about the great people and great times the Polson fly-in was. Hope we meet again!

Thanks again for all the comments every one.  Rick, I too hope we meet again and maybe even fly together. John, hey it was really great to be able to share this flight with you.  I certainly hope you and I will fly together some time in not too distant future.  I really enjoyed having a chance to meet you.  Rizzy that particular flight was a combination of orographic (ridge) and convective (thermal) lift.  Some of that thermal lift was drifting up the ridge.  It takes many years to learn to efficiently fly thermals.  I still do not consider myself an expert at thermalling although I have improved my skill in recent years.  I think you need to be part "bird brain" to really do it well.  Many novices think thermals are geometrically uniform cylinders of rising air. More often they are more like amorphous bubbles that drift according to prevailing wind.  As W.E. correctly pointed out they vary alot in size and intensity.  It takes lots and lots of practice to soar thermals well.  W.E. yes wing loading is very important but "sink rate" is king.  Of course sink rate is correlated with wing loading but some wings perform better with an equivalent wing area due to efficiency (L/D) and over all handling than other wings of similar area.  In any case, soaring can be a heck of a lot of fun.

yup agreed joe they both go hand in hand. and thermals will be triggered by those big bowls you were flying over. a great way to learn about thermal flying is a rc sailplane. john and I have years of experience with rc sailplanes . I don't concider myself an expert on thermals but I got a lot of experience flying a switzer 2-32 and 2- 33 sail plane at sandia peak. but in a soaring trike or hang glider thermaling is even more fun because you can smell and sometimes hear the thermals. in new mexico you can even see the big boomers rising up . there so big that you can see how they work by the dust that goes with them and lots of times will be paper and trash floating up as well, thermal breaking is what causes thous pretty little tornados called dust devils.it should be noted that when a thermal  bubble breaks from the ground it is very violent . not a good idea to enter them at low agl.talking about bird brains I flew my hang glider at point of the mountain with jim lee larry toudor and jc brown. watching those guys work lift was a real work of art . 20 pilots scratching for lift and lee jc and larry up through the middle of them all over the top of the wasach range and gone they were.being a good thermal pilot as which I admit iam not is a real talent.  joe you should give yourself credit that was not monsterous lift you were in and you did just a fantastic job with that 4000 ft gain dude.