List of Chapters:

Foreword

Section A: The sailplane in still air Chapter 1 Units, and Some Basic Ideas

Units, dimensionless coef� cients, Reynolds number, Mach number. True and equivalent speeds. Boundary layers: laminar and turbulent. Transition. Skin friction. Properties of two-dimensional wing sections. Effect of � aps.

Chapter 2 Wings and Winglets Wings of � nite span: downwash

and induced drag. Effects of span loading and aspect ratio, taper and twist. Non-planar lifting systems. Three dimensional lift curve slope. Drag of three dimensional wings. Winglets.

Chapter 3 The Drag of a Sailplane The total drag of a sailplane.

Simple case of a parabolic drag polar: minimum drag and minimum power. Actual polars: effects of Reynolds number, ballast and altitude.

Chapter 4 The Equations of Motion General equations of motion

for � ight in a vertical plane. Simpli� cations. Results for a parabolic polar. The dimensionless performance curve. Best speeds for motor sailplanes. Performance in turning � ight. Best gliding angle and minimum sink. Effect of ballast and � aps. Performance in turning � ight. Ground effect.

Section B: Instruments for soaring fl ight Chapter 5 Instruments for Soaring Flight

The measurement of vertical velocity. The concept of Total Energy. Methods of compensating variometers: Venturis, the Irving tube. Air mass-movement indicators. Electric variometers.

Chapter 6 Other Instruments Other instruments. The altimeter

and its calibration. The airspeed indicator: pitot and static sources, pressure errors and their effect on limitations and best speeds to � y; calibration; other errors. Reduction of never-exceed speed with height to avoid � utter.

Section C: The sailplane in the atmosphere Chapter 7 The Sailplane in the Atmosphere

Thermals: observations in the laboratory and in the atmosphere. Mathematical descriptions: power laws: spherical bubbles: general remarks. Cloud streets. Waves. The wind. The Standard Atmosphere.

Chapter 8 Flying in Thermals: the Classical Analysis

Flying in thermals. A little history. The classical analysis. Best speeds to � y and the effect of down-draughts. Average speed attained. The BGA handicapping system.

The Paths ofSoaring Flight

Chapter 9 Some Ideas on the Practice of Cross-Country Flying

The practice of cross-country � ying. The MacCready ring and its calibration. Tricks with variometers. Practical considerations and techniques. Use of � aps.

Chapter 10 More Advanced Ideas on Cross-Country Flying

More advanced ideas on cross-country � ying. Flight when the load factor is not unity. Computer calculations of sailplane performance. Use of water ballast and the effect of � ying at the non-optimum weight.

Chapter 11 Optimisations in General Generalised optimisation

calculations: the Calculus of Variations. Flight under a cloud street. A caution.

Chapter 12 The Effects of Wind Effect of wind. Wind components.

Flight between � xed points in a cross-wind. Triangular � ights in the presence of a wind. The � nal glide: height to leave the last thermal. Optimum glide angles. Use of lee waves.

Chapter 13 The Effect of Centre of Gravity Position

Effect of CG position on performance. Loss of energy height at low and high speeds: overall loss of energy height.

Chapter 14 A Brief Note on Computers, Flight Data Recorders, GPS, etc.

Appendices I. Some Useful General References II. Conversion Factors III. The Standard Atmosphere

Symbols

Index

List of Authors Quoted at the End of Each Chapter

The Paths of Soaring Flight