Using Thermals While Flying a Glider

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Gene; I'm glider flight instructor on behalf of Expert Village. The variometer over here is indicating whether we're going up or down. Right now, we're going down at about 400 feet a minute. If the needle goes above 0, as you're seeing it's trying to do there. As soon as it goes above 0, we're in a thermal and rising air currents. Once you're in that situation, you start turning in the rising air, and actually the glider will continue to climb upward. Now we're climbing at 100 feet a minute. The glider is going down 200 feet a minute. The air is going up 400 feet a minute, giving us a net climb of 200 feet a minute as we go around in this thermal. How did you find the thermal? The thermal is indicated by the instruments. When the needle goes above 0, you're in rising air. When it's below 0, you're in sinking air or no air movement at all. So once the needle goes above 0, you turn in that lift and continue to climb as we're doing now. If you watch the altimeter, it's actually going up. We went from 1200 feet to 2200 feet. We're approaching now 2300 feet, and if I keep circling in the rising air or thermal, we will continue to climb. I've had students stay up over 5 hours before they even get their license just by staying in thermals and flying around the field. "