How to survive winter thermals in a glider

It's amazing how some days just come together nicely. Despite shorter days, low cloud bases we managed to get a good flight out of the day. The ridge did help a bit, but with light winds we were dependant on thermals to drag ourselves around the Waikato. Come along for the ride :)
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00:00 Getting in the air
00:30 Convergence
01:48 In the poos
05:30 Tokoroa
07:43 The Struggle North
10:56 Cruising up the Ridge
11:27 Pauanui Beach (nearly)
13:30 Long glide home into the murk

[@BillPalmer]

“Holy crap, a thermal!” LOL. Life’s pure joys. 😁

[@PureGlide]

I was shocked! Just shocked

[@simon3142]

What a great bonus flight. I used to have a Libelle and was a keen cross country pilot in the UK, but I had to give it up 20 years ago due to deteriorating eyesight. It gives me great pleasure to watch your videos and also to see how far the technology has advanced since my day, a lot of my flying was done without even GPS. I do remember one magical 200k flight in February, the only winter cross country I ever did.

[@PureGlide]

Hey thanks for watching! Glad you’re enjoying the videos. I just wish I fitted in the libelle…

[@simon3142]

@@PureGlide I'm 6ft and skinny, even so the Libelle was quite snug. 🙂

[@carljacobs1287]

I did 120 hours in a libelle, a most glorious little aircraft. I never quite got 500km in it, but I'll almost take 494km for the win.

[@johnfrye4374]

Fantastic. I've recently earned my commercial glider rating, and I know its just scratching the surface. Video's like this make me aspired to keep learning the craft.

[@Johan-ex5yj]

Such a great feeling when you’re deep in the poo, and a thermal saves you by lifting you up high! 💩↗ A real “Beam me up, Scotty”- moment. 😊👍

[@PureGlide]

Such a relief!

[@TheSoaringChannel]

Your landings are getting better and better Tim. Keep practicing! 😜

[@PureGlide]

:P

[@travisharrisphotography]

I love that you are always thinking about "plan b" and "what if". I would be the same too, always thinking "okay, where can I set this bird down if things dont go well"/

[@PureGlide]

Yip that's critical in gliding, gotta be thinking a few steps ahead all the time

[@travisharrisphotography]

I wanted to ask you.. (I have never been in a real glider before), I do love to practice in MSFS and have learned a lot from you! When it comes to the flight stick, I know from watching that you want to have a loose grip (most of the time) to kinda feel out what the plane is doing. I often see just two fingers at times. So, this would lead me to think there is VERY little stick resistance (weight) on the flight stick. I ask because I am trying to build and tune my joystick to get as close as I can, lol. One thing I wanted to ask, is if you let go of the flight stick in real life, i'm guessing it will not "center" (like a typical joystick would), so does this mean the stick is "floppy" all the time and you need to constantly be holding it? Or, if you let go, it will just maintain that position? At home, I can change springs and dry clutches on my stick to try and come close. I can also remove my springs completely and just use some dry clutch resistance (stick kinda just stays where you put it), want to get something that is somewhat realistic. @@PureGlide

[@PureGlide]

Yeah great question, you’re right the stick doesn’t spring back into the middle like the joysticks I’ve felt. And there’s no ‘dead zone’ in the middle. The stick is directly linked to the flight controls so as you increase airspeed the aileron left/right stiffness increases. This might be hard to emulate :) pitch is always pretty sensitive. Flick me your email and I’ll record a video of what it looks like next time I’m out at the field. [e-mail] I’d be interested what you end up doing.

[@danielsteele923]

As always, beautifully filmed and edited. Looks like you had a great late winter gliding day.

[@PureGlide]

It was! Cheers

[@ronaldglider]

*Forgotten how a thermal works* and _just beam me up_ I love your comments!

[@PureGlide]

Thanks!

[@brushitoff503]

Bloody fantastic! Thanks Tim!

[@PureGlide]

My pleasure!

[@Will-ui7dv]

Great video Tim, thanks for putting it together!

[@PureGlide]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bungee7503]

Nice. The weather in France seems to have just turned after several days near 40C. I’m looking forward to being home to enjoy the summer.

[@ve6fly]

I love watching your videos. Keep them coming please

[@PureGlide]

Thank you! Will do!

[@davidrichardson1896]

Winter!! This is better than anything we have had this summer in the UK. We have had a full comp week with a cloud base of 2100ft MSL. Great Video! great convergence explanation. I'm still yet to find convergence or realise I'm in it :P

[@TheTonynoble]

Nice to have you back in the air Tim. And cool to get close to our new home base in Whitianga.

[@PureGlide]

Thanks Tony, yeah a surprisingly nice day

[@chuckcampbell3927]

🛫📖🛬 Hey Tim, You are an amazingly talented pilot. Thanks for the ride along. No wonder so many people want to come to NZ to try their hand at gliders. You are the consummate ambassador. 📖🛐✈️🇺🇸

[@PureGlide]

Hey thanks for watching :)

[@KestrelYI]

Nice winter flight!

[@PureGlide]

Thanks! 👍

[@jme104]

A winter flight here in Europe is 12 minutes tow included .

[@PureGlide]

haha lol

[@Sajxi]

I've missed these longer videos!

[@PureGlide]

Yeah I'm trying to mix it up a bit!

[@petercrowhurst]

Should be an awesome season down under Tim. Looking forward to it

[@PureGlide]

Yeah fingers crossed, can't get much worse than last season!

[@InducedBank]

Bladder buster...... well done!!

[@Davit1600]

New Zealand is such a pretty country, I hope I get to fly there sometime!

[@PureGlide]

It really is!

[@Draavo]

Nice video! Is there any chance you could make a video on your canopy flasher and how effective those sorts of things are? Seems like a pretty interesting concept!

[@PureGlide]

Sure thing!

[@Draavo]

@@PureGlide thanks :)

[@jackoneil3933]

Fascinating and brilliantly done! I really enjoyed this learned from it, thank you! Your ridge and convergence sailing reminded me of a flight many years ago I took with a sailplane pilot friend (Tom) down the cascade range from Oregon to Reno Nevada in my old J-model Mooney. I was astonished when Tom picked out some mountain wave and throttled the old Mooney back to zero thrust and we sailed for what must have been 50nm gaining altitude at 80 to 120kts indicated. Tom used to have a Cessna 310 and said often could pick up 20+knots by flying convergence and wave effect, but most of us "Power Pukes" (as he used to call us) have no idea what to look for and this was very intriguing. I'm also curious if you have any attitude indicator available, and if not how you might handle inadvertent flight into IMC?

[@PureGlide]

Hi yes I have an artificial horizon, although have never inadvertently flown into cloud enough to use one before!

[@henryluebberstedt7819]

Winter? It took me a while to realise that I was on the upper half of our planet :)

[@PureGlide]

Everything is upside down here

[@naturarum]

did you mix aerotow and sustainer motor to reach your desired altitude? never thought of that!

[@PureGlide]

Yeah I do, partly to speed up towing for people waiting to tow, partly to make it cheaper, and partly to run my engine so it’s ready if I need it for a landout

[@johnturnbull7723]

Tim, What was the date of that flight? Love that scratch'n JT

[@PureGlide]

not sure sorry! Would have to track it down in my log books

[@Davit1600]

Hi Tim, I want to record my first solo flight, can you recommend me how and any products that you are/were satisfied with? Thank you

[@PureGlide]

Hi do you mean the flight track? or a video? For video I suggest not mucking around with that on your first solo flight, instead get someone on the ground to film the take off and landing. So that you're not distracted by it! You've got more important things to focus on :)

[@Davit1600]

@@PureGlide video I mean, of course I will have it all figured out and tested long before I will go solo.

[@NWA320DRVR]

"That's a lot of wood." Nope, not touching that one.....

[@PureGlide]

lol

[@beozzie690]

Nice one, I’d like to one day fly with you.. I’m enjoying the region and due to be in your area in a few months. It looks awesome. What’s your aerodrome name?

[@PureGlide]

Yeah please drop into our airfield! We are Piako Gliding Club on the North Island of New Zealand

[@tinkertailor7385]

Noice landing.

[@PureGlide]

Thanks!

[@davesgliding]

You call that winter? Where's the heaps of snow on the ground? 🙂 NZ seems like a soaring paradise. Glad you can enjoy this sport all year round.

[@IlusysSystems]

That's what I wanted to say... Also no hot and wet air from the continent during summer ruining the fun :)

[@WTFBattalion]

Love watching your videos. Do you know if it is possible for a person that weights about 320 lbs to get lessons in gliding?

[@PureGlide]

Sadly very unlikely. Max weight for most twin gliders is 110Kg or 244 lbs

[@TheSoaringChannel]

It depends. If you can find a club with a Schweizer 2-32 - you can fly from the backseat, I believe.

[@moefly14]

what did you move at 14:54?

[@PureGlide]

Gear wasn't down properly. Weird because I checked the video and I definitely put it down on the downwind leg, but it can't have been locked in properly.

[@bokusimondesu]

Did you remember to say Hello to Bruce from me, while you were over Tokoroa?

[@PureGlide]

Haha yes of course!

[@bokusimondesu]

Thank you 👍

[@tricky2917]

What's the furthest you have flown in one day?

[@PureGlide]

About 800km for me, in thermals/convergences in the South Island

[@tricky2917]

@@PureGlide 800 km on no engine just boggles my mind. I used to look at gliders from the ground when I was a kid, never quite understood what was going on up there. But I had probably looked at sailboats before and worked that out pretty quickly. Turns out the sea was right above me all along.