Soaring
Glider pilots can stay airborne for hours by flying through air that is ascending as fast or faster than the glider itself is descending, thus gaining potential energy. The most commonly used sources of rising air are
- thermals (updrafts of warm air);
- ridge lift (found where the wind blows against the face of a hill and is forced to rise); and
- wave lift (standing waves in the atmosphere, analogous to the ripples on the surface of a stream).
Ridge lift rarely allows pilots to climb much higher than about 600 metres (2,000 ft) above the terrain; thermals, depending on the climate and terrain, can allow climbs in excess of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in flat country and much higher above mountains; wave lift has allowed a glider to reach an altitude of 15,447 metres (50,679 ft). In a few countries such as the UK, gliders may continue to climb into the clouds in uncontrolled airspace, but in many European countries the pilot must stop climbing before reaching the cloud base (see Visual Flight Rules).
Read more about this topic: Gliding
Famous quotes containing the word soaring:
“Think of our little eggshell of a canoe tossing across that great lake, a mere black speck to the eagle soaring above it!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery—always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“O Holy Wisdom, Soaring Power, encompass us with wings unfurled,
and carry us, encircling all, above, below, and through the world.”
—Hildegard Von Bingen (1078–1179)