The second volume of the gliding cult book by the British author Gerrard Dale in English language. The second volume covers the topics: Flying in convergences and wave systems.

My intention is this: to create a resource for all those people who care about how the air moves. Primarily for glider pilots, but, I hope, interesting for paraglider pilots, hang glider pilots, even light aircraft, mountain and bush pilots, the modellers and the sim guys - anyone who is interested in what the air is doing around them. And critically, what it is likely to do next!

There are many books on soaring, plenty on "how to fly gliders" and even some on flying across country or racing - but few on this specific subject. I want to engage those people who are passionately interested in the way sun, wind, terrain and the airmass combine to create all the varied patterns of air movement that we collectively call "lift". Ridge, thermal, wave and convergence lift are all familiar to soaring pilots, but to look ahead at the sky and predict what will happen as you fly through it has always been a hard skill to acquire.

Fear not, it isn't a black art and no talent is required - except for a hunger to know what is going on. There is a solid, well understood body of knowledge and a set of well proven techniques that you can employ to play the great game of soaring successfully and safely, in all kinds of terrain, and in all types of lift. Unfortunately although this knowledge exists, it isn't widely disseminated. Yes, there are books, videos and magazine articles, and plenty of stuff on the internet. But is difficult to dig out the information in any coherent way that hangs together as a set of lessons, any scheme that makes it easy to learn and to make progress with your flying.
I was always taught that you should should teach (and learn) in a sensible fashion - from the easy to the more difficult, from the known to the unknown. Straightforward concepts and easily remembered, clear images help this rather abstract stuff stick in the mind, to be recalled when you need it. And when it comes to the science of how the air masses behave it's important not to get too deeply involved in the maths and the physics. Leave that to the meteorologists: we only need to find the rising air.

So the first part of the project is to publish three simple text books. The first volume is a primer on the most common forms of soaring: ridge and thermal, flatland and mountain flying. The second volume gets a bit more technical, covering the less well understood areas of wave and convergence flying. The third volume is about "the inner game" - how to learn to make the right decisions to fly fast and reliably in all the circumstances you may experience.

The third volume of the gliding cult book by the British author Gerrard Dale in English language.

One of the great joys of gliding is that it is many things to many people. Whilst our first steps typically revolve around learning to fly the glider, we soon start to set ourselves ever more challenging goals. Whether that be flying our first cross-country flight or entering our first competition, to setting a new national record or winning an international medal. Put simply, gliding is far more than just a form of aviation. For many people, it is a high-performance sport.

Within any high-performance sport, you find great sports men and women

working alongside great coaches. But it is exceedingly rare to find someone who genuinely wears both these roles quite so comfortably as G Dale. G has been operating as a professional gliding coach for over 25 years, and racing gliders for over three decades! He is a multiple-time British National champion and current European silver medallist. I have been privileged in recent years to get to know G as a coach, a competitor, a teammate, and a friend. I have raced with him, and against him, and I can think of few people better qualified to educate others on the art of high-performance soaring.

In the first two volumes of The Soaring Engine, G explored the phenomenon of Thermal, Ridge, Wave and Convergence lift. Now, in this third volume, ‘High Performance Flying,’ G introduces us to the techniques and processes required to extract performance from the atmosphere. In other words, now we understand how the Soaring Engine works, we need to learn to drive it. Fast, consistently, and in all conditions. G will freely admit himself that he was not a natural born racing pilot. He has worked hard at developing his skills over a long period of time. But these are skills that you can learn, and that you can practice. With motivation, dedication, and armed with the right information and processes, you can achieve your goals.

This book will help you identify your own strengths and weaknesses and give you the ability to improve your own flying.

As anyone who has ever had the privilege of listening to one of G's lectures will know, he is incredibly passionate about his students and has an enviable ability to deliver key information precisely and eloquently. His coaching style is exciting and energetic, driven by a deep understanding after decades of asking himself ‘why things happen'. This latest book is no different. G has taken traditional theory and broken it down by way of simple, clear diagrams, and concise language. Throughout the book, you will find intriguing examples from

throughout G's international flying career, and he will suggest simple methods that you can use and practice.

Soaring pilots of all levels will be able to learn something from this book. From those embarking on their first badge flights, to pundits looking for that next international medal. I can certainly speak from personal experience of the benefit of G's coaching. It was only a few years ago that I was sat in the front of a two-seater as an early cross-country Junior pilot with THE G Dale!

I’ve spent most of the last thirty years flying cross country, competing, and teaching others to soar and race. I’ve been lucky enough to fly in lots of different places: in the USA from Mifflin, Sugarbush, Parowan, and Minden, all over Europe from Finland to Spain and as far east as Lithuania. I’ve worked in  Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and even Japan. Along the way, I’ve managed some reasonable distance flights and a few good results in the internationals. Lucky, lucky, lucky. And I’ve spent many dozens of seasons coaching: for the BGA, the GFA, GNZ, for Glide Omarama, and many individual gliding clubs. Again, lucky. On the other hand, I never made any money...hence:

The Soaring Engine Series!

In fact, it wasn’t designed as a money-making project, although given that there is no work in coaching right now a little income has been handy. I sat down to write the first book because I was frustrated at having to teach the same skills time and time again in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, I love coaching and I can talk all day but there comes a point where one thinks “there must be an easier way...” 

Volume Four

Volume four  isn’t about soaring. It’s all about the kit: the glider and the instruments. Those of you that have been obsessed with gliding forever might not see the point, because you already know your way around the equipment. I’ve owned, maintained, reworked, and tuned - in order - a Swallow, Ka6, Libelle, Jantar 1, Libelle again, ASW 17, ASW 24, DG100, ASW 24 (again) DG101, Libelle (yet again, but a Striefenader one this time) and now an ASW 24 (yes, again... sigh) and an ASH 25. I know what I’m doing by now. Many of you reading this will have a similar history. But what about the newcomers to gliding? Most beginners today have the means to purchase high-performance ships, but they don’t have the background or experience to operate them efficiently. Sometimes they don’t operate them safely either, which is a real problem. Through no fault of their own, mind: there is almost no training available for the ambitious 200-hour pilot who wants to fly an ASW 27, a DG 800, or a JS1. And all of those machines are much more difficult to operate and more inclined to bite their owners than a Ka6. 

So volume four introduces high-performance sailplane technology and design from the pilot’s point of view, pointing out why the aircraft looks the way it does, what it is designed to do and how to operate it without making a fool of yourself. The text also tackles modern avionics: I’ve just refitted my racer with the very latest gear and I’ve had to work hard to get on top of it all, and there’s a lot in the book dedicated to that subject because even experienced pilots are not necessarily up to date with the latest stuff. 

I had to add an appendix to cover principles of gliding flight and principles of variometry, so the beginner has some chance of finding his way around the more technical material in the main text. This might be useful to those of you that have lots of experience but need reference material for instructing or coaching.

Volume One

Volume one covers the basics of how the air moves around to give us lift, either in flat terrain or on ridges and in the mountains. Having found the lift it discusses how one might safely climb in it: this can be a trick in the mountains. It comes out of the time I spent coaching in the UK for the British Gliding Association, and to a lesser extent from the coaching I did at Glide Omarama and for the Gliding Federation of Australia. I would spend much of every week in front of the whiteboard: it’s a part of the job. So I because accustomed to talking about soaring. When you’re giving lectures it’s important to keep the information clear, concise, and to the point. Diagrams must be simple, uncluttered, with a coherent house style. You must teach from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, the easy to the difficult, with lots of repetition along the way to get the ideas across. And crucially, not only must you know what you’re talking about but you must also understand why the audience doesn’t necessarily get it the first time. Fortunately, pilots all tend to make the same mistakes and they mostly find the same things difficult, so with the experience I’ve had, it wasn’t too hard to find the right crux points to focus on.

Volume Two

Volume two is essentially more of the same: looking closely at how the air moves around but this time in the special circumstances of Wave and Convergence systems. I was able to fly sixteen seasons for Glide Omarama and the soaring conditions there rely heavily on convergence and wave: at the same time, I was able to fly in the French Alps, in the Pyrenees, and in the Sierras, so that gave me a wider perspective. Volume two is a bit of a specialist book, and a flatland pilot in a temperate task area might think it’s not relevant but the reality is that convergences and wave abound everywhere: they are just hard to recognise unless they are particularly strong and discrete. 

Volume Three

Volume three was born from coaching in Australia at Narromine and from flying international competitions. I’ve spent some time doing one-on-one coaching sessions, focussing on flatland speed flying skills: this was a good discipline for my competition flying. Of course, the heart of competition flying is not the soaring, believe it or not. Yes, you have to be a good soaring pilot to fly in a world gliding championship and get anywhere at all, but that’s just entry-level stuff. It is hard work to practise to get good at it but it is, in the end, just application. The key is strategic flying, gaggle flying, and team flying. In “Winning on the Wind” George Moffat says “alone is slow” and he’s right. Just remember this: it isn’t about being a great glider pilot, it’s about getting more points than everyone else at the moment the director ends the competition. This is hard to practise and to learn by yourself, easier to pick it up when you’re flying in the competitions for real, but you have to do a lot of them to get the message. Or, at least, I had to. This style of flying and level of commitment isn’t for everyone, but the knowledge and skills required trickle down into club-level flying if you’ll just take time to see what it’s all about. 

"The Art of Gliding" is a book about the love of silent flight.

"The Art of Gliding" is an enthralling book that delves deeply into the world of gliding. Simon Lemmerer, the author, shows readers a harmonious combination of exciting stories and breathtaking photographs documenting over ten years and a thousand hours of gliding in the Alps. 

Flying Skills for Mountain Pilots 

This book provides a comprehensive account of mountain flying techniques for mountain pilots in the eastern Alps, as well as the most comprehensive guide to flying in the southern foehn, with helpful fold-out general maps. Various eastern Alps flying areas, such as the Engadine and South Tyrol, are highlighted and described in detail.

Contributions from the Best Pilots 

"The Art of Gliding" is enhanced by contributions from notable glider pilots. Baptiste Innocent, who flew an FAI triangle over the Mediterranean to Corsica, and Gordon Boettger, who flew 3,059 km in the wave updrafts of North America's Sierra Nevada in 2023, are among them. In addition, Werner Luidolt's review of the last Barron Hilton Cup and Benni Bachmaier's eventful journey to the Matterhorn is included in the book, along with other exciting stories by Clemens Ceipek, Bert Schmelzer, Rudi Schlesinger, and Erich Lemmerer.

Outstanding and Comprehensive

The book stands out for its high-quality, environmentally friendly printing and paper selection - a graphically appealing and timeless design that is pleasing to the eye. It has 402 pages, is bilingual in German and English, and is published in a generous 225 by 310 mm format.

"The Art of Gliding" by Simon Lemmerer is a motivating read for glider pilots, mountain and aviation enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys the freedom and adventure of flying.

Hardfacts

• ISBN/EAN: 978-3-200-09220-4
• Cover type: Hardcover with print finishing
• Publisher: Studio Avión, VIENTO Publishing
• Year of publication: 2023
• 402 pages on Munken Polar
• Nine fold-out panoramic pages up to 900 mm wide
• 225 x 310 mm
• Language: English and German
•