Soaring
Soaring is a learned skill. Your soaring performance is vastly dependant on your weather knowl-
edge, ying skills and judgement.
“Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judge-
ment.” So be careful and do not expect to become a competition-class glider pilot over night.
Once you have shut down the engine and feathered the propeller as described in this manual, you
are a glider pilot and you must start thinking as a glider pilot.
The most important thing is to try very hard to y as perfectly as possible.
This means perfect stick and rudder coordination and holding the same angle of attack in straight
ight as well as in turns. Only so will you be able to notice what nature and its forced to do your air-
plane.
When ridge soaring and ying between thermals, I would recommend to have aps in neutral
position. When thermalling or making eights along the ridge, do have aps in 1
st
stage.
Speeds range from 75 km/h (40 kts) to 100 km/h (55 kts). To quickly overy the span between two
thermals, y at 130 km/h (70 kts) with aps in neutral position.
WARNING! Never make a full circle ying below the ridge’s top, y eights instead until you
reach a height of 150 meters (500 feet) above the ridge top. From then on it is safe to y full
circles in a thermal.
Entering and exiting a turn when ying unpowered requires more rudder input than when ying
with the engine running. So work with your legs! To quickly enter a sharp turn at speeds between
80 - 90 km/h (43 - 48 kts) basically apply full rudder quickly followed by appropriate aileron deection
to keep the turn coordinated. Same applies for exiting a turn at that speeds.
When soaring for long periods of time in cold air, monitor engine temperatures. Note that if the en-
gine is too cold (oil temperature around freezing point), the engine may refuse to start. Fly in such a
manner you will safely reach a landing site.
To improve your soaring knowledge I would recommend two books written by a former world
champion:
1. Helmut Reichmann - Flying Sailplanes (Segeliegen as German original).
2. Helmut Reichmann - Cross Country Soaring (Steckenkunstug as German original).
The rst is a book for beginners, the second imposes more advanced ying techniques, tactics and
cross country ights strategies.
I hope this chapter is helpful to all beginner pilots ying the Virus. I wish you many safe ying hours and
happy landings.
Always keep in mind that every take-o is optional but every landing mandatory.
Appendix
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