XC Dynamic Soaring along cloud streets

On Monday, January 27, 2014 9:58:38 AM UTC-5, Evan Ludeman wrote:
Why aren't we all doing this?



http://youtu.be/Ln9fuR8uwIc?t=36m48s



I'd give it a try if I thought I understood what the nature of the shear is that is being exploited and how to work it. I am inclined to think that whatever the nature of this "longitudinal shear", it isn't terribly commonplace, but if I were wrong about that, I'd really like to know!!



Evan Ludeman / T8

Ingo Renner accomplished dynamic soaring in Australia a couple decades ago. My recollection is that he was towed in a Nimbus 2 above an inversion that had strong winds just above it. Anyone out there have more specifics?

Karl Striedieck

On Monday, January 27, 2014 9:58:38 AM UTC-5, Evan Ludeman wrote:
Why aren't we all doing this?



http://youtu.be/Ln9fuR8uwIc?t=36m48s



I'd give it a try if I thought I understood what the nature of the shear is that is being exploited and how to work it. I am inclined to think that whatever the nature of this "longitudinal shear", it isn't terribly commonplace, but if I were wrong about that, I'd really like to know!!



Evan Ludeman / T8

Should have Googled it first! See "Ingo Renner Dynamic Soaring."

He accomplished it first in a Libelle and later in a PIK. In the latter case he was able to cancel the downwind drift.

Karl Striedieck

On Thursday, January 30, 2014 7:36:14 PM UTC-5, RR wrote:
was the JS1 flight working the sink near the edge of the street?

I'd love to hear about this flight from Gary. I sent an email a while back that went unanswered, so perhaps I don't have his current contact info. I don't know him personally.

I *think* what Gary must have been doing was a sort of cork-screw pattern at the edge of a cloud street, pulling up in lift, then pushing over in adjacent sink. If true and this actually works, it's a shear that a) occurs up away from terrain where we can use it safely, b) that we can navigate by reference to cloud and c) that we can potentially use for efficient XC flying.

Evan Ludeman