I was just contemplating such issues as I was bouncing
around today in the Colorado high country. My scenario
was this-FL140 and real strong/turbulent rotor-thermal-ridge
lift, which happened to be best in close to the rocks
which I was still looking up at. MC said to slow down
while running through this strong stuff, NO WAY JOSE!
I wanted a lot of airspeed regardless of the lift
and what the computer was telling me. And I also had
to deal with the same ridge crossing issues as JJ.



At 03:12 28 September 2003, Bill Daniels wrote:

'JJ Sinclair' wrote in message
...

Does that make sense relative to your practice of
turning off the MC
audio?

Yeah, I have the B-40 audio on all the time set for
up only, so it is
telling
me to slow down or thermal in lift. Just isn't constantly
giving me input
about
the cruise speed I have chosen. Works for me.
JJ Sinclair

Makes sense to me too. McCready requires an estimate
of the NEXT thermals
strength. In the big mountains thermal strengths vary
widely so there's no
way to be sure what to set.

On the good side, thermal strengths are likely to be
so strong that the
McCready speed-to-fly computation will ask for speeds
that far exceed
'reasonable and safe'. The maximum turbulence penetration
speed (Vb) then
becomes the best speed to fly. Makes me wish the designers
would spend some
time raising the Vb speeds instead of the L/D.

Bill Daniels