On Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 11:19:38 AM UTC+2, wrote:
I'm interested to know if primary gliders were capable of soaring flights or if they only flew short hops.

The SG 38, for example, has a sink rate of 1.3 m/s so in theory it's possible. I'd be very interested to hear of any stories about soaring one of these gliders.

Its certainly possible. We can do it in Condor, if the thermal is stronger than 2 m/s and the towplane drops you in the lift. Then you have the problem of getting to the next thermal at 8:1.

You 1.3 m/s sink rate is wrong for the SG38. Its actually 1.8 m/s min sink and 2 m/s at best glide.