Ridge Lift for Gliders
A fun way to travel by glider is to harness ridge lift, free energy source provided by wind being directed upwards by ridges and mountains.
See Also: Thermals for Gliders
What Is Ridge Lift?
When wind blows against a hill, ridge or mountain, the air stream will be forced upward by the terrain. Gliders can use this lift by staying in the updraft along the side or top of the slope. Care must be taken not to drop into sinking air on the lee side. In addition, stepped ground often creates areas of dead air that can force a landing.
Sinking air occurs over stepped ground
Although this sounds straightforward it isn’t. You will have to be able to anticipate where the lift is when the ground is undulating or broken since the air streams will take the path of least resistance which is rarely uniform.
Wind Visualisation
The flight sim can show you where active thermals are: open the weather dialog box from the in-sim toolbar then enable the checkbox on the bottom-right hand side. You will now be able to see blue trails moving upward from hotspots on the ground. The trails are for general guidance but do not accurately show how the wind is moving. You can find the strongest winds by looking for the highest reaching, and thickest collection of blue lines.
The AS-33me Glider
I recommend the AS-33me glider. Click on the ‘Al / Therm’ button to reveal a plan view of your relative altitude over time. Use the green feedback to locate the best lift available.
Alpine Odyssey
PC users can download a free ridge lift cross-country route from Flightsim.to: Floyds Alpine Odyssey is a 1000 mile glider route through the Alps starting at the Southern coast of France and ending in Eastern Austria. The route is broken into 10 stages so you can tackle it one day at a time.
