Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas wrote on 5/4/2020 7:55 AM:
On Sunday, May 3, 2020 at 3:30:56 PM UTC-5, ASM wrote:
Any idea where?

Soaring year-round at Marfa in southwest Texas and at many sites in the "sun belt" states plus several more sites east and west, generally north of the 40th parallel (Baseline Road in Boulder, CO.)

I laugh when I read that the "soaring season" begins in April and ends in October in the USA without considering our sun belt states from California to Florida where we are soaring through the winter months.
The best soaring in Florida is in the late winter - early spring - that's why the "Seniors" is then.

Practice soaring on the weak days. I fly sailplanes in Europe every other summer or fall and on marginal days I see pilots launch to team-fly cross-country tasks. No wonder those pilots score well in the World Championships..

When I was a kid flying a 1-26 and later our Open class Cirrus, my Dad would insist that I deploy spoilers to descend directly over our family gliderport in South Miami to 1,000' AGL and practice "saves" or land for another tow to continue the exercise. Climbing in booming thermals is relatively easy. Patiently bracketing zero-sink into 2 knots lift would eventually save me and the sailplane on many flights.

I don't need to purposely create practice saves, as I seem to encounter plenty of
real ones during my normal flying. Flying a motorglider makes "save" situations
likely than it was with a towed glider, but fortunately it also provides the
remedy for failed "save".

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1