criuse or climb mode?

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

Just wondering how many out there keep their vario's in climb mode while cruising. I have spoken with one pilot that likes is audio while cruising to be the climb vario audio and the STF is just graphical on the dial.

I noticed my flying has evolved, perhaps due to the new airfoils, or maybe I am just lazy with old age. Years ago in my previous iteration of soaring, when I was flying an ASW-24 or Nimbus 4, I tended to dolphin, especially with the N4 or N4D. I would both pull and push hard, going through the flaps on the N4's. Years later now and I am flying a modern 18 meter bird, I tend to hold a steady inter-thermal speed and only stop to climb. Sure I make use to energy lines, but I am not pushing and pulling in lift or sink anymore. I usually fly between 90-110 kts inter thermal. In very good lift, I might slow to 85-90 kts, but no slower. Wondering if someone much brighter than I ,i.e., almost anyone, could speak about how both the inter-thermal techniques have changed and how we need to change the information we get from our computers to adjust to this different technique. Or perhaps the techniques haven't changed and it took me 20 years to figure out the correct way.

Jon

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On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 12:04:13 PM UTC-8, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
> Just wondering how many out there keep their vario's in climb mode while cruising. I have spoken with one pilot that likes is audio while cruising to be the climb vario audio and the STF is just graphical on the dial.
>
> I noticed my flying has evolved, perhaps due to the new airfoils, or maybe I am just lazy with old age. Years ago in my previous iteration of soaring, when I was flying an ASW-24 or Nimbus 4, I tended to dolphin, especially with the N4 or N4D. I would both pull and push hard, going through the flaps on the N4's. Years later now and I am flying a modern 18 meter bird, I tend to hold a steady inter-thermal speed and only stop to climb. Sure I make use to energy lines, but I am not pushing and pulling in lift or sink anymore. I usually fly between 90-110 kts inter thermal. In very good lift, I might slow to 85-90 kts, but no slower. Wondering if someone much brighter than I ,i.e., almost anyone, could speak about how both the inter-thermal techniques have changed and how we need to change the information we get from our computers to adjust to this different technique. Or perhaps the techniques haven't changed and it took me 20 years to figure out the correct way.
>
> Jon

Wil Schuemann wrote an numerical analysis of dolphin vs more steady state cruising in 1972.

http://www.betsybyars.com/guy/soaring_symposia/72price.html.

He makes a convincing quantitative argument favoring a "steady-state" cruising model and the discussion board composed of Dick Johnson, Ben Greene, George Moffett generally agreed.

I believe the metal and physical effort required for aggressive dolphin flying is a significant factor in favor steady-state cruising. Yanking and banking for 6-8 hours is a a serious energy drain on the pilot.

[Tim Taylor]

In contest flying most of the current top pilots pull in lift and push in sink, just not as aggressively as in the 70's. A constant speed would be suboptimal and waste much of the energy available. How hard you pull and how much you slow down depends on many factors, but in general most do not pull harder than about 2g today.