KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

220 KRONFELD ON GLIDING & SOARING
and seems to seek out those spots where the steadiest
currents are to be found. Usually it is not possible in
slope flying to surrender oneself to this " intelligence of the
machine/' but in a cloud upwind it is the very best thing to
do. Deliberately we let the plane go its own way ; it
discovers for itself the places with the strongest wind and
brings us suddenly from blindness into the light. When
soaring in the clouds, our aim is to climb steeply within
them so that we may at last pass through them and fly
above the cloud ocean. The rest is easy. We see once
more the horizon and the places where a strong upwind
blows. Upwinds are generally to be found immediately above
the clouds and their strength depends on the size of the cloud.
We circle over them, push on to the next cloud peak and so
fly onward. Now there are no difficulties ; soaring above
clouds is much easier than soaring above a hillside or even
in the clouds. The one thing which might perhaps be
called a difficulty is the problem of keeping in touch with
the earth. We have to get our bearings through small
gaps in the clouds, and it would hardly be possible to carry
out a flight above the clouds profitably without a compass
and careful calculation made in accordance with a preconceived
plan. But even if we have thought out everything
carefully, measured the height, ascertained the wind's
speed and calculated its course, this method still remains the
best, for it is the one which bears us highest while leaving
us always free to drop down through holes between the
clouds, fly under their bases or to complete a flight over a
hillside.
The kind of weather necessary for cloud flying is often
at hand, so that it is generally possible to indulge in this
highly interesting variety of flight quite frequently. We
know of only one form of soaring which is superior to it
both as a sport and in grandeur : Thunderstorm flying.
Primitive man was not the only person who found
thunderstorms weird and terrifying. They are to a certain
extent a revelation of the forces of nature, but this fact does
not disturb the trained flyer. He does not worry about
thunder and lightning ; quite dryly and practically he
considers the meteorological processes which give rise to