"Martin Hellman" wrote in message

Snip a lot of good stuff________________

There was an interesting article in Soaring Magazine about a year ago
which talked about related issues. Sorry I don't have the date, but if
memory serves me it's by a Biz School prof from Chicago. He argued
that you should use a lower setting when close to the ground because
you have less time to find a thermal and will almost surely have to
settle for a weaker one. Once you're high, you have more time to be
picky and can use a setting close to or even equal to the maximal
thermal strength of the day.


Snip some more good stuff_____________________

The prof is John Cochrane and his articles are he
http://www-gsb.uchicago.edu/fac/john...s/soaring.html

I like his point that the M value is basically an optimism setting. If you
are optimistic about your situation and the weather ahead, set a high M
value. If you are less optimistic, set a lower M value. That pretty much
takes care of all situations.

Bill Daniels