On Thu, 19 Sep 2019 03:18:15 -0700, Mar M wrote:

Le jeudi 19 septembre 2019 11:47:27 UTC+2, a écritÂ*:
Of the phases - "prospecting, climbing, floating and gliding", only
climbing and gliding are familiar to me for sailplane flight
analysis. Are floating and prospecting hang glider and paraglider
terms? I wouldn't find them useful.

Those terms apply to the 3 disciplines, and yes, they are new in flight
analysis !

In a few words:
- when you look for a thermal/wave, or lose it to find it again, it is
"prospecting".
- when you fly a portion of your flight better than you usually glide,
it is "floating".

This can be very useful to help pilots progress during debriefing. For
example, it is actually used by instructors in France to discuss the
flight a posteriori with their students, so they can better understand
what can be improved.

To me, 'floating' sounds like what I'd call 'running an energy line'
which can be anything from following a blue street to playing 'join the
dots' with haze caps or smallish cu, both being generally more useful if
your track is more or less parallel to the local wind direction.



--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org