7th January 2018 and really cold – not much above freezing!

This is a solo flight in one of the club’s K13 training gliders at NWGC.

It shows me trying hard to fly in “thermals” – No! not nice warm underwear but actually bubbles of warm air that rise up through the atmosphere. Caused by warm parts of the ground heating the air above, they eventually detach themselves and slowly climb. If you can find one and keep inside the bubble by flying in tight circles you and the bubble will rise. It’s that easy! Well not really. That’s the theory but doing it in practice is another thing altogether. We are given clues to help us find thermals – cumulus clouds mark them as they are created by the rising air – large birds like Buzzards also use them so we can follow (although they are slightly better at it than we are).