Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 2: February 2014 | Page 54

launch.
I was looking at the wind indicators to determine where the thermals
were feeding. The site tends to pull up
thermals from multiple points and as
each one combines with or replaces
the previous feed, it can change the
wind flow at launch. When I noticed
the wind shift right (counterclockwise), I expected lift more to the left
as the flow pivoted (see figure 2). I
was by no means in a steady thermal
and had to constantly adjust to the
wandering lift (lesson 12) until I was
about 600 feet above launch.
Typically on a weak day you have
to wring a thermal out for every last
drop of lift so you can survive through
the dead cycles between thermals
(lesson 13). Height is your salvation.
On this day there were more or less
constant light feeds that buoyed me
gradually higher. At that 600-foot
level it seemed that I broke through
lower stable air (typical in a high) and
the core came together in a solid 200
fpm, eventually building to 250 fpm. I

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HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

was happy and climbed content until
I reached about 1000 feet over (3000
MSL). Then the thermal slowed and
began to get bumpy and iffy. I had hit
an inversion. Again I tightened my
circles to stay in the smaller cores and
to drift with the lift. Often an inversion layer has differing wind conditions and this one showed a northerly
flow (lesson 14).
I became a bulldog, horsing my
glider around when necessary to snake
it through the lift patches. I was still
climbing in shots from 100 to 200
fpm. Nothing was steady, but I was
smiling because, after all, the whole
flight was an unexpected gift. The
fun got funner when I broke above
the inversion at 1600 feet over. The
thermal got stronger and the flight got
longer. I then had no trouble climbing
to 2400 feet over launch.
At that topping point the lift
died, no matter how I caressed and
cajoled it. Maybe there was a stronger
inversion there, or maybe the thermals were exhausted (there were no

clouds to promise greater height).
But the wonderful thing was I could
fly around at will and find additional
lift to maintain my perspective from
2000 to 2400 over. Hyner often offers
such conditions, and in fairness to the
previously mentioned pilot, a couple
weeks later he had two flights when he
climbed to 4200 feet over and boated
around at will.
After about an hour, the lift suddenly died. I slowly sank beneath the
inversion. The reason, in my judgment, was the day was getting on and
the thermals were getting weaker, so
they no