Dynamic soaring is a flying technique used to gain kinetic energy without effort by repeatedly crossing the boundary between air masses of significantly different horizontal velocity. Such zones of high wind gradient are generally found close to obstacles and close to the ground, so the technique is mainly used by birds, but glider pilots have occasionally been able to soar dynamically in meteorological wind shears at higher altitudes. A Blanik L-23. ... Kinetic energy is the energy that a body possesses as a result of its motion. ... The velocity of an object is simply its speed in a particular direction. ... A wind gradient describes the change in velocity and/or direction of the wind in a certain direction. ... Orders Many - see section below. ... A modern glider crossing the finish line of a competition at high speed. ... Wind shear is a difference in wind speed or direction between two points in the atmosphere. ...

Some seabirds dynamically soar by repeatedly diving into the valleys of ocean waves, and then wheeling back up into the air. Albatrosses are particularly adept at exploiting the technique and they use it to travel many thousands of miles using hardly any energy. When the bird pulls up into the wind out of the still air in the lee of a wave, it suddenly becomes exposed to a head wind, so the speed of the air over its wings increases. It then turns in the other direction and, with the wind behind it, dives back into the shelter of a wave. This also results in an increase in its air-speed. So by repeating this "wheeling" pattern, the bird can continue flying indefinitely without having to put in any effort. In effect it is harvesting energy from the wind gradient. Seabirds are birds that spend much of their lives, outside the breeding season at least, at sea. ... The worlds oceans as seen from the South Pacific Ocean, before the definition of the Southern Ocean in 2000 Oceans (from Okeanos in Greek, the ancient Greeks noticing the strong current that flowed off Gibraltar and assuming it was a great river) cover almost three quarters (71%) of the... A WAVES Photographer 3rd Class The WAVES were a World War II era division of the U.S. Navy that consisted entirely of women. ... Genera Diomedea Thalassarche Phoebastria Phoebetria Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellarids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). ...

In his 1978 book Streckensegelflug (lit. "distance sail flight". Cross-Country or Long-Distance Soaring), Helmut Reichmann describes a flight made by Ingo Renner in a Libelle sailplane over Tocumwal in Australia on 24 October 1974. On that day there was no wind at the surface, but above an inversion at 300 metres there was a strong wind of about 70 km/h (40 knots). Renner took a tow up to about 350 m from where he dived steeply downwind until he entered the still air; he then pulled a sharp 180-degree turn (with very high g) and climbed steeply back up again. On passing though the inversion he re-encountered the 70 km/h wind, this time as a head-wind. The additional air-speed that this provided enabled him to recover his original height. By repeating this manoeuvre he successfully maintained his height for around 20 minutes without the existence of ascending air, although he was drifting rapidly downwind. In later flights in a Pik 20 sailplane, he refined the technique so that he was able to eliminate the downwind drift and even make headway into the wind. Austrian threewheeler microcar built in Innsbruck in the beginning of the 1950s, about 50 pieces said to be built. ... Tocumwal is an Australian town located on the New South Wales side of the N.S.W./Victorian border. ... October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 68 days remaining. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Smoke rising in Lochcarron is stopped by an overlying layer of warmer air. ... A knot is a unit of speed, abbreviated kt or kn. ... The acceleration due to gravity denoted g (also gee, g-force or g-load) is a non-SI unit of acceleration defined as exactly 9. ... The PIK-20 is a Standard Class sailplane designed at the Helsinki University of Technology by Pekka Tammi, with advice from Ilkka Rantasalo and Raimo Nurminen. ...

In the late 1990s, radio-controlled gliding awakened to the idea of dynamic soaring (a "discovery" largely credited to RC soaring luminary Joe Wurts). With the aid of current composite materials, model ships have grown stronger and their ability to utilize dynamic soaring have increased dramatically. As of September 2005, the current speed record for a 3-meter wingspan gliding model is 300+ miles per hour, set by Kyle Paulson. See also 1990s, the band Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ... A radio-controlled glider is a type of radio-controlled airplane that normally does not have any form of propulsion. ... Composite materials (or composites for short) are engineering materials made from two or more components. ...

External links

• Dynamic Soaring 101, How to guide!
• Kyle Paulson's 262 MPH Run (WMV video)
• 207 MPH foamy run by Norman Mertke, First foamy to exceed 200 mph!
• How the Albatross Dynamically Soars
• Dynamic Soaring (DS) -- the hottest development in R/C soaring in many years!