In recent years, cross-country gliding has experienced an increase in performance that was considered impossible just a few decades ago. This is not only due to the better handling and higher glide ratios of modern high-performance aircraft. Rather, clever tactical decisions and reliable weather data have allowed records to soar to their current level. Never before have modern gliders been flown by such well-trained and experienced pilots as today.

The various sections of this book describe in a very easy-to-understand manner and with clear illustrations what glider pilots need to know to optimize their performance. Some types of updrafts are large and weak, while others are strong and turbulent. Many a record-breaking flight has started early in the morning by entering a wave and then flying a long distance at high altitude. Late final approaches until sunset from industrial thermals or from a high cloud base in the high mountains are also unforgettable. Updrafts can occur both sporadically and in long lines, but if glider pilots know how to master the magnificent forces of nature with skill and perseverance, they can often combine different types of updrafts and enjoy exciting cross-country flying all day long. There are hardly any limits to the imagination, but isn't that what makes the sport so enormously appealing?

In this book, the author not only provides a complete overview of meteorological processes, but also describes exactly how to make the best use of them. Nothing has been left out or neglected. Two further sections deal with flight planning and the careful preparation of the glider and the pilot - a task without which success in gliding is very much in doubt. Even the topics of outlanding, competition flying, slope flying, wave flying and the all-important mental aspects are described in detail.

Information about the author: Bernhard Eckey's love of flying, which has now lasted over 40 years, began when he visited a model airfield as a schoolboy. After about 15 years of intensive model flying, he switched to gliding in 1982 and soon after acquired his flying license. His professional career took him to Australia as early as 1983. The great gliding conditions allowed him to purchase a PIK 20 D in 1985, so that from then on, gliding became the dominant leisure activity. Voluntary work at club board level as president, flight instructor and association representative still gave him time to obtain his examiner's license and his private pilot's license.The Australian Gliding Federation appointed him as a coach in 1995, but upgraded him to Level 2 coach in 2002 and appointed him head coach for South Australia the following year. Since then, his technical articles have appeared regularly in many of the world's leading gliding magazines. Despite more than 500 hours of powered flight and 3,500 hours of gliding, Bernhard Eckey's passion for the sport continues to grow. Annual gliding expeditions to New Zealand and his efforts to elicit the maximum distance from each day have led to an estimated 350,000 kilometers of distance flown. He holds all GFA distance badges, has completed over fifty 750 km flights and seven flights over 1,000 km, setting an Australian speed record in the process. He also has a 1,116 km FAI triangle in his logbook.

German edition, 2nd edition, over 400 pages, softcover.