Speed-To-Fly

     There are three indisputable reasons to fly fast in sink:  you achieve a flatter glide, you spend less time suffering the disadvantage, and you maintain the inertia required to zoom up in lift when you reach it.  Here are three corresponding reasons to fly slow in lift:  you achieve a flatter glide (or climb faster), you spend more time enjoying the advantage, and in thermals you retain the ability to fly tight turns with flat bank angles, further reducing your sink rate and optimizing the climb.  

     Headwinds also call for more airspeed and therefore increased sink rate, but when confronted with both headwind and sink, or some combination of sink and a tailwind, how can we know what speed to fly?   Contrary to increasingly popular belief, you don't need a computer as pricey as a used car to tell you how to fly your ship.   A seat-of-the-pants, line-of-sight method of gliding judgment is far more important than any avionics,and is best developed through looking outside the cockpit, using all your senses, and THINKING!