Inter-thermal cruise speeds?

On Feb 7, 11:50*am, Frank wrote:

Any thoughts?

I'm late to the thread but I have read the other posts. So far no one
has mentioned:

TAS effect (the advantage of better ground speed at high altitude)
Polar knees (the sharp fall off in performance at high speed seen in
some modern gliders).
Streeting
Wind shift with altitude.

Simple MC theory does not deal with any of this very well, or if it
does I missed understanding it.

Years ago I thought the only way to fly fast was to push forward on
the stick. I used to landout a lot. Over the years I got to fly with
many excellent pilots and was impressed by how slow many of them flew
and how seldom they stopped to thermal.


Andy