The Soaring Engine volume 1 and 2 explain how the sun, wind and terrain combine to produce rising air for the soaring pilots to exploit.

In this volume, you will see how the wind flows over and around hills, ridges and mountains, how thermals form and evolve, the patterns that ridge and thermal activity create in the air and how to use the lift produced both in flat terrain and in mountains.

Illustrated with clear simple diagrams, this book is a primer for soaring pilots flying anything from a paraglider to high performance sailplanes.

There are many books on soaring, plenty on "how to fly gliders" and even some on flying across country or racing - but few on this specific subject of where lift comes from. G wanted to engage those people who are passionately interested in the way sun, wind, terrain and the air-mass combine to create all the varied patterns of air movement that we collectively call "lift". Ridge, thermal, wave and convergence lift are all familiar to soaring pilots, but to look ahead at the sky and predict what will happen as you fly through it has always been a hard skill to acquire.

Fear not, it isn't a black art and no talent is required - except for a hunger to know what is going on. There is a solid, well understood body of knowledge and a set of well proven techniques that you can employ to play the great game of soaring successfully and safely, in all kinds of terrain, and in all types of lift. Unfortunately although this knowledge exists, it isn't widely disseminated. Yes, there are books, videos and magazine articles, and plenty of stuff on the internet. But it is difficult to dig out the information in any coherent way that hangs together as a set of lessons. This book does exactly that, busts myths, and unravels the black art of knowing where to look for lift, find it and then make the best of it. This is simply a must have book and one every soaring pilot will want to have.

• Edition: Second
• Copyright: 2016 by G Dale
• Illustrations: by G Dale
• Published by: The Soaring Engine
• First printing: October 2016
• ISBN 978-0992827014
• Softcover:142 pages