On Feb 27, 8:15*pm, John Cochrane
wrote:
This will probably end up in Soaring sooner or later, but I always get
a lot of help from early readers. If it's not clear or you see
problems etc. let me know. (john dot cochrane at chicagobooth dot
edu0

John Cochrane

John,

You asked for feedback.

The lift to drag ratio of a glider is not impacted by wind. I know
you know that so why use the term L/D out of context? Can you please
use a term such as (achieved) glide angle instead of L/D. Others have
coined the term "efficiency" but I have not taken to that yet.

Other that that nice article. I have been flying decoupled MC glides
for a long time. Even if don't split the speed director and glide
computer I alternate between the two MC values to sample "what glide
do I have" and "what speed should I fly right now". I suppose a
classic example of this is to climb in the last thermal to the
equivalent MC required glide altitude and then fly a lower MC until
clear of hostile terrain. I like to think of my final glides as x
feet over a y MC setting where how good x and y feel depends directly
on the terrain between myself and the goal. Where I fly having a bit
extra 5 miles out is worth quite a few contest points.

The biggest gotcha when believing a glide computer may be when there
is a strong tail wind at altitude. Easy to get suckered into a final
glide that doesn't work out when the tail wind decreases.

Andy (GY)