Bug HLG

That's unreal, and congratulations.  I haven't finished my bug yet, 
but I do have other (poor) HLG experience flying a Candy HLG (ARF) in 
cold weather.  At least recently on an overcast day, I was getting 
very short flights with lots of sink crushing down on my glider.  I 
limped home and packed it in for the season, on the premise that cold 
air tends to fall and flying something that depended on rising 
columns of warm air was an exercize in futility.  I'm new to this, 
and your experience has sparked hope that I won't need to wait for an 
August scorcher to go out and at least get some good trimming and 
balancing flights in.  

So needless to say, I'm going to fire questions at you like a 4 year 
old.   ;->

I don't know much about thermals, but had always assumed (perhaps 
wrongly) that I needed a certain minimum air temperature to get any 
significant lift, and have hence written off flying before it warmed 
up a little more.  What was the air temperature approximately, and 
what kind of wind were you flying in? 

Were you side arm launching, using any pre-sets for the launch, and 
does your bug have a wing-tip peg? (If you download Al Wright's 
Gambler manual from his site, he gives what seems to be some nice 
tips on SAL'ing).  I've never actually launched side-arm, at least 
not yet.  Are pictures of your bug posted?  

What's the terrain where you were flying.   Could you have picked up 
any slope lift?

BTW, I find RadioCarbonArt videos to be excellent.  There's one 
called "Secrets of Thermals" which I may pick up as a result of your 
message, in order to learn more. 

Thanks again.   

--- In BugHLG@yahoogroups.com, "gldrgidr" <gldrgidr@m...> wrote:
> Two weeks ago, here in New Jersey, we had a good flying weekend.  I 
> got my longest thermal flight with the Bug.  It was 6 minutes and 
50 
> seconds.  Has anyone had longer thermal flights?  Maybe we should 
> have a running contest for longest Bug thermal flight.  
> What do you think?
> Of course this is the wrong time of year to expect long flights.  
As 
> soon as I'm finished with this post, I have to go shovel the snow 
out 
> of my driveway so I can get to work tomarrow.
> 
> John