It's definitely not a non-issue, but requires a different perspective.

Assuming you are an experienced power pilot, you are used to going into
the airplane's performance charts and determining hard numbers to set
such things as cruise power, takeoff and landing distances, etc - all
based on actual loading of the plane. The bigger the plane, the more
critical (and precise) this becomes.

Gliders are different, for one big reason - you are trying to optimize
your performance (be it climb or cruise) in a constantly changing
environment. Every thermal will be of different strength, size,
turbulence. Every glide will be through a different airmass, with
different quantities (and gualities!) of lift and sink.

So it becomes less a matter of determining a hard number to set on the
airspeed indicator, and more a matter of always analyzing what point on
the polar (or performance range, if you will) you want to be at for the
immediate conditions, and for the goal of the flight (just floating
around the field or going for that 500k).

More specifically, wing loading is about going faster XC. As a rough
rule of thumb, a full load will bump all your reference speeds up about
10 knots.

You will find that you rarely fly at L/D max. If there is any lift at
all you will be cruising at least 10 - 20 knots faster.

And min sink when thermalling is the lowest speed you can comfortably
fly and climb at the wingloading and bank angle you decide on. And
this has to be pretty much determined by trial and error, although most
glider manuals have charts that are starting points.

Suggestion: Get a hold of Reichmann's "Cross Country Gliding" - the
first half is invaluable.

Good luck!

Kirk
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