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From: mikel@codas.UUCP (Mikel Manitius)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: astronomers, flesh and blood gliders, out-of-context quotes
Message-ID: <139@codas.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 21:34:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: codas.139
Posted: Thu Oct  3 21:34:14 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 03:54:49 EDT
References: <395@imsvax.UUCP> <1683@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems (SDSS) - Orlando
Lines: 30

> >               2.   Any  creature  which  could  only  glide  would have no
> >                    home.  Its life would be a  continual migration  in the
> >                    direction of  the prevailing  winds.  How then would it
> >                    care for its young, back at the nest?
> 
> You seem to believe that gliders can only glide downwind.  Wrong.
> 
> The small airplanes I'm taking lessons on can glide when the engine
> fails.  The emergency procedure for dealing with engine failure (when
> they happen at a high enough altitude), involves picking a field to
> land on, gliding downwind past the field, and doing two 90 degree
> turns.  The second one, toward the field, is a turn directly into the
> wind.  I've actually practiced these, so I know they're possible.
> -- 
> David Canzi
> 
> ACCUSE, v. t. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as a
> justification of ourselves for having wronged him.  (Ambrose Bierce)

Gliding upwind is quite common, while in the Swiss Alps this summer, I
watched, on two occasions, a glider makeing it's way through a very high
pass (12000'+ | ~4km), and it was doing so upwind, circiling around down
wind until it could gain enough altitude to pass. Fascinating view!
-- 
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