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Highs and Lows

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Craig

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
543
Location
Jupiter, Florida
Strange thoughts sometimes circulate in my brain. So i will share with all ya'll (plural of ya'll) the latest thinking:

We are all taught that air circulates clockwise around a high pressure area, and counter-clockwise around a low. Basic weather, right?

So in a thermal, which way does the air circulate? I know from glider flying that I am usually more comfortable circling in a thermal to the left - CCW. Comes from learning to fly first in a side-by-side airplane, instead of a tandem-seat glider, I guess. And thermals do travel with the prevailing wind, in an ascending slant to the ground over which they are formed.

But is there a circulation within the thermal? And if so, which way would it go? And would it be more beneficial to travel with the circulation, or against it? Certainly one way would give you a higher apparent ground speed than the other - good or bad?

Just something to tease your brains.
 
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