Description
Thermal Flying Includes comprehensive instructions on:
How to predict and find thermals
How and where thermals form – sources and triggers
Different types of thermal models
Windward and lee-side thermals
The theory of temperature gradients
Vortex ring structure and lift distribution in thermals
How to read clouds and weather
Plus hundreds of helpful tips on:
Soaring, staying up and top-landing
Coastal flying and sea breezes
How to core thermals and get to cloudbase
Valley winds, mountain flying and magic air
Flying the flatlands
XC tactics from first flights to 100km
“I love the style of this book – you can jump around and learn loads. It deals with both the science of how thermals are formed and also the art of how to ride them – plus what to do in between. Brilliant!” – Pete Logan
The author, Burkhard Martens flies 411 km au Quixada on November 2016
Burkhard Martens was born in 1962 in Lower Saxony, Germany. After studies, he moved to the south of Germany and took up paragliding. For several years, he managed to work as an environmental engineer and be a very passionate pilot, but from 1994, his life has been inseparable from flying (worked for paraglider manufacturers, owned and ran a paragliding school, worked freelance as a paragliding instructor, journalist and author).
Burkhard did the comp thing, flew in the German league, the Nationals and in the World Cup. He bagged several national and international records during this time, and some of them still stand. His most recent record was a 411 km at Quixada (Brasil).
Burkhard’s passion is cross-country flying, and after flying in the German XC League for twenty years, he finally managed to win the Sports Class in 2004 and the Open Class in 2008. This success was followed by the publication of the book “Thermal Flying“ in German in 2005. This book has since been translated into 9 languages.
