This is a wonderful video. You don't have to understand the physics although it helps. Just to watch this unbelievably beautiful and skilled bird is to remember it forever. Einstein was in awe of nature's designs; here is one of the best examples.
I haven't seen to many videos that extensively cover the science behind the albatrosses dynamic soaring pattern, thank you for your detailed explanation. Pilots should be taught this in aviation school should the need arise in engine failure over open ocean take place, the knowledge could help extend fight time in a emergency.
it's amazing that evolution came up with this bird who can take advantage of this process. these birds can fly for weeks without barely flapping their wings.
At HDH Dillingham on the north shore of the island of Oahu is a glider port where every winter the Laysan albatross come to bear their young.The runway, almost a mile long and is bordered on each side by a wide grassy verge, is an ideal flight school for both two-legged and winged pilots. In the late afternoons, as if to demonstrate to us the true art of soaring, the young sweep up and down the runway practicing dynamic soaring in the prevailing trade winds while the older birds carry out their mating rituals on the grass.
Great explanation, I have been trying to wrap my mind around the mechanics of DS for a while and am thinking if practiced enough one cold fly something like a swift in the lee side of hilly landscape using DS as a alternative to ridge-soaring if the landscape permitted. probably something one need to practice a lot in a sim first.
Watching various sea birds actually Dynamic Soaring in a limited area (Albatross pair bonding flights, and Wedgetail sheerwater 'play' over their nesting area, both over a bird favored sea side golf course after returning from the day's fishing.) clearly shows the vast predominance of forces they are exploiting being the vertical velocity gradient, this over mostly flat ground. Calmer lees of bushes and trees clearly extend low speed upwind legs. These DS speeds vastly exceed typical DS flying over the ocean, presumably due to a lower vertical velocity gradient at sea. Other analyses of dynamic soaring over largely uneven (waves) sea surfaces indicate the major energy source is using the low velocity air behind waves to exploit the delta of velocity of the air mass passing above the waves, exactly like current dynamic soaring radio control sailplanes using the lee of ridges. Which previously only were used for ridge lift on the windward side. DS RC sailplanes have now achieved radar observed speeds of over 500 MPH (.71 mach). Along coastlines with onshore winds, primarily beach dune or vegetation ridge lift is used. Or various sea birds may use interior hill and mountains with onshore wind for ridge lift. We often shared one RC sailplane hill with traveling Iwa birds (Frigate Birds) carrying food back to their nests. Not the soaring champions Albatross are, but easily the most maneuverable of sea birds. No other sea bird can escape once a Frigate bird focuses on stealing their catch, which is always caught before it hits the ocean surface. Along coastlines with offshore winds, the sea birds prefer ridge soaring on waves at some angle of attack to the prevailing winds, close to shore where waves are slowing and steepening when available, widely seen along mainland coasts where pelicans utilize this regularly. When only locally generated wind chop is present, numbers of sea birds returning upwind from feeding areas off shore, are observed using combinations of 'ridge soaring' and Dynamic Soaring at closer angles to the wind than this analysis seems to support. My opinion from time at sea windsurfing, and shore observations, is that wind disturbed sea surfaces are too chaotic for any single analytical concept to actually be all that the birds use.
To be clear: the forces affecting the bird are aerodynamic force caused by air-velocity, plus gravity. The effect of the wind is to generate an angle of drift which allows acceleration in two different tangential directions. This is the only way to explain how the albatrosses air-velocity and ground-velocity changes.
I would describe it like this and there appears to be some things missing in the video -- Breaking it down: All of the energy the albatross gains is from the wind gradient. The trick is how it does it. The airspeed of the bird changes as it moves through the wind gradient. Its KE is conserved and if there is sufficient gradient and the correct flight path then enough energy is gained in each cycle to maintain flight indefinately. starting at steady state in ground effect the bird initiates a turn gaining altitude exchanging KE for altitude. This is the highest CL turn but induced drag is low due to ground effect and is a "cheap" way to exchange energy for momentum in the vertical direction. The bird transits to fully developed flow aimed slightly into the wind and rises and heads "upwind" and gains altitude. The bird initiates a low g wingover and tries to keep CL as low as possible to minimize induced drag loss. Now slightly downwind and downhill the bird gains momentum / KE. The bird executes a roll out and pitch up that are not constant. They are tailored to optimize energy gain. Aispeed however does not increase at the the same rate proportional to the birds velocity. the bird rides into a lower velocity boundary layer near the sea surface. Bird initiates a bottom turn, again using ground effect for efficiency gain glides as long as possible in ground effect and in the low velocity flow field until airspeed reaches a point where the cycle must be repeated. They trick is surfing that velocity gradient. Capturing the energy available between the velocity differences in the surface boundary layer and free stream. Its a different type of dynamic soaring than on slopes but sames principles. Just using two different air mass velocities. Look up videos regarding Dynamic Soaring, Joe Wurts, and Spencer Lisenby. The free body diagrams here are maybe not as helpful because they need to also include the drag and airspeed at any given moment for it to make sense. It really is quite similar to surfing a ocean wave. Hope that helps someone visualize whats going on.
The animation includes the wind-gradient effect - explained at 11:00. It is a very small effect compared to the effect of turning relative to the wind.
I think storks crossing the pass of Gibraltar could learn a thing or two from the albatross genious way of dynamic soaring. In return storks could show the albatrosses how to use hot air collums on dry lands. Different birds with different ways to achieve effortless soarings...
It gains height towards stronger wind and glides down towards weaker wind, as long as there is wind and waves. I wish this could be done automatically in modern glider drones - carrying cargo for free at 30 knots across the ocean
It's an interesting concept, but I don't know how useful it would be for transporting cargo since this airspeed gradient occurs over a relatively short distance meaning a larger airplane wouldn't be able to take advantage of it as much if at all. There are also practical concerns of flying close to the water. This technique could, however, seem to be good for ocean-monitoring drones.
Excellent display of DS and the flight of the albatross is amazing! In RC gliders there is a type of slope soaring called Dynamic soaring. The gliders are very large, heavy made of exotic material and are very strong. In DS there are no motors to assist the gliders and by using the same principle you described they have reached speeds over 500 mph in fact the record is 548mph from the power of the wind alone and some other forces as well lol!. Impressive!!! Now in terms of actual bird speed can the albatross go faster when the wind speed is higher? Great video... Thanks!
I think the albatross does fly faster in stronger winds but is physiologically limited to approximately 1G flight. Whereas in RC DS there is no limit to how much G we can pull. The physics is the same but the application is different. See how RC DS works at this link: dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/rc_gliders_lee-soaring.html
Looking at the problem from a ground-based reference frame, the bird can obviously go faster (downwind) the faster the wind is. The relative AIRspeed that can be achieved is based on the airspeed _gradient._ Assuming the gradient is enough such that the speed gained from the high-altitude turn and dive overcomes drag, you could even use this technique to travel upwind via tacking like a sailboat. I can't say whether the gradient and efficiency of the albatross is enough to accomplish this, however.
@@sciencecompliance235 Upwind and downwind dynamic soaring is explained in the website at this link: dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/upwind_dynamic_soaring.html and in my book, Dynamic Soaring Dissected. Upwind dynamic soaring does depend to some extent on the wind gradient but is mainly to do with the forces acting on the glider and on the drift angle.
Now it makes sense why it's sometimes possible to do aggresive wing-overs when ridge soaring and have a net gain in height, even if the ridge lift itself isn't strong enough top overcome the loss from the aggresive manouver!
This film explains how albatrosses dynamic soar cross-wind at low-G with minimum effort - the wing-over is probably at 1G. Aggressive wing-overs are more like the RC glider manoeuvre consisting of high-G circling - this is explained in the website.
@@colingtaylor2158 The principle is the same though... isn't it? When ridge soaring I'll fly figure of eights (like the albatross path but going back on itself) and will sometimes be surprised to have a net gain of height when only half of the WO is actually in lift.
@@parapentefun Yes, it sounds like you are on to something - but in real flying it is difficult to know where the hill lift ends and the dynamic soaring begins. In my theoretical calculations I use only a horizontal wind, with or without a wind gradient to illustrate the effects
A solitary Albatross named J. Lennon …”Imagine there’s no possessions, no greed or hunger, Imagine there's no countries , It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for , And no religion, too…he is at one with Nature…soaring w/ the wind , then gliding toward the ocean, …he find pieces of squid…”You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one”
Many years ago I was stationed in the Navy on Midway Island.. We had thousands of Gooney Birds.. They were spectacular to watch them fly.. But landing..Another story.. Once they were on there glide slope if you, a truck, bicycle came in there path you were hit..Just like any other flying machine on final.There take off was the best .. Big web feet running..If you saw one take off odds are you would bet they would crash, but once in the air..They were King of the "Knife Edge".. NASA is using this in experimental wings now..There wing design..Is shaped like the Gooney bird with the twist..
The question is, "Where do albatross learn all that stuff before they start flying?". Do they get lessons from parents, or do they have special flying schools?
www.dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/laysan_albatross_tracking_data.html This link shows you GPS tracking of a Laysan albatross. Charts 9, 10 and 11 show the take off and subsequent charts show the bird gaining expertise in dynamic soaring.
@ Colin Taylor. Have you read the wikipedia page on dynamic soaring? Are you aware that there has to be higher wind speed at elevation that at low level for dynamic soaring to happen?
5:00 As far as I know, the magnitude of lift vector is constant as long as your airspeed is the same. But in your video magnitude of lift vector is increased when the bird is in the bank. How does it do so? Glider in a bank should lose its height otherwise it is propelled by a propeller. I believe it is just a minor graphical error but I'm not sure.
In level flight the vertical component of lift must equal the weight. Therefore, when turning, as the aircraft banks the lift vector is increased by pitching up to increase the angle of attack. The vertical component is then equal to the weight.
The short answer is 'Natural selection'. The albatross does not need the strongest wind, it only needs sufficient wind to stay airborne with the least effort.
That is probably related to the maximum forward speed an albatross can achieve in its neutral (non flapping) form. Once the headwind reaches a certain threshold the albatross will start to be pushed backwards so it will need to flap wings to overcome that which will cost energy.
You could have saved yourself a lot of time making this video. The piano in the background is soooooooo damn loud, that it is difficult to understand your explanations. So you could have also remained silent and let the stupid piano play the whole time, the result would have been the same. I hope you consider the priorities in your future videos, this one sucks.
Thanks for that detailed analysis of the forces. For something that seems so simple, there's a lot there to unpack and every nuance is fascinating.
This is a wonderful video. You don't have to understand the physics although it helps. Just to watch this unbelievably beautiful and skilled bird is to remember it forever. Einstein was in awe of nature's designs; here is one of the best examples.
I haven't seen to many videos that extensively cover the science behind the albatrosses dynamic soaring pattern, thank you for your detailed explanation. Pilots should be taught this in aviation school should the need arise in engine failure over open ocean take place, the knowledge could help extend fight time in a emergency.
This is wonderful, but the music is louder than the commentary. Either comment OR music - not both
it's amazing that evolution came up with this bird who can take advantage of this process.
these birds can fly for weeks without barely flapping their wings.
At HDH Dillingham on the north shore of the island of Oahu is a glider port where every winter the Laysan albatross come to bear their young.The runway, almost a mile long and is bordered on each side by a wide grassy verge, is an ideal flight school for both two-legged and winged pilots. In the late afternoons, as if to demonstrate to us the true art of soaring, the young sweep up and down the runway practicing dynamic soaring in the prevailing trade winds while the older birds carry out their mating rituals on the grass.
wow thank U very much. Fantastic informations with very fine visualisation. merci ...
Beautiful. Interesting. Thanks!
Great explanation, I have been trying to wrap my mind around the mechanics of DS for a while and am thinking if practiced enough one cold fly something like a swift in the lee side of hilly landscape using DS as a alternative to ridge-soaring if the landscape permitted. probably something one need to practice a lot in a sim first.
Watching various sea birds actually Dynamic Soaring in a limited area (Albatross pair bonding flights, and Wedgetail sheerwater 'play' over their nesting area, both over a bird favored sea side golf course after returning from the day's fishing.) clearly shows the vast predominance of forces they are exploiting being the vertical velocity gradient, this over mostly flat ground. Calmer lees of bushes and trees clearly extend low speed upwind legs. These DS speeds vastly exceed typical DS flying over the ocean, presumably due to a lower vertical velocity gradient at sea. Other analyses of dynamic soaring over largely uneven (waves) sea surfaces indicate the major energy source is using the low velocity air behind waves to exploit the delta of velocity of the air mass passing above the waves, exactly like current dynamic soaring radio control sailplanes using the lee of ridges. Which previously only were used for ridge lift on the windward side. DS RC sailplanes have now achieved radar observed speeds of over 500 MPH (.71 mach).
Along coastlines with onshore winds, primarily beach dune or vegetation ridge lift is used. Or various sea birds may use interior hill and mountains with onshore wind for ridge lift. We often shared one RC sailplane hill with traveling Iwa birds (Frigate Birds) carrying food back to their nests. Not the soaring champions Albatross are, but easily the most maneuverable of sea birds. No other sea bird can escape once a Frigate bird focuses on stealing their catch, which is always caught before it hits the ocean surface. Along coastlines with offshore winds, the sea birds prefer ridge soaring on waves at some angle of attack to the prevailing winds, close to shore where waves are slowing and steepening when available, widely seen along mainland coasts where pelicans utilize this regularly. When only locally generated wind chop is present, numbers of sea birds returning upwind from feeding areas off shore, are observed using combinations of 'ridge soaring' and Dynamic Soaring at closer angles to the wind than this analysis seems to support. My opinion from time at sea windsurfing, and shore observations, is that wind disturbed sea surfaces are too chaotic for any single analytical concept to actually be all that the birds use.
I am painting a series of these extraordinary birds. This video is a wonderful explication of their flight. Many thanks
give us a link to your work
Outstanding presentation! Thanks for the upload. New sub...
I’m curious as to how and what the bird senses that triggers it to make these maneuvers.
To be clear: the forces affecting the bird are aerodynamic force caused by air-velocity, plus gravity. The effect of the wind is to generate an angle of drift which allows acceleration in two different tangential directions. This is the only way to explain how the albatrosses air-velocity and ground-velocity changes.
I would describe it like this and there appears to be some things missing in the video -- Breaking it down:
All of the energy the albatross gains is from the wind gradient.
The trick is how it does it.
The airspeed of the bird changes as it moves through the wind gradient.
Its KE is conserved and if there is sufficient gradient and the correct flight path then enough energy is gained in each cycle to maintain flight indefinately.
starting at steady state in ground effect the bird initiates a turn gaining altitude exchanging KE for altitude. This is the highest CL turn but induced drag is low due to ground effect and is a "cheap" way to exchange energy for momentum in the vertical direction.
The bird transits to fully developed flow aimed slightly into the wind and rises and heads "upwind" and gains altitude.
The bird initiates a low g wingover and tries to keep CL as low as possible to minimize induced drag loss.
Now slightly downwind and downhill the bird gains momentum / KE.
The bird executes a roll out and pitch up that are not constant. They are tailored to optimize energy gain.
Aispeed however does not increase at the the same rate proportional to the birds velocity. the bird rides into a lower velocity boundary layer near the sea surface.
Bird initiates a bottom turn, again using ground effect for efficiency gain glides as long as possible in ground effect and in the low velocity flow field until airspeed reaches a point where the cycle must be repeated.
They trick is surfing that velocity gradient. Capturing the energy available between the velocity differences in the surface boundary layer and free stream.
Its a different type of dynamic soaring than on slopes but sames principles. Just using two different air mass velocities.
Look up videos regarding Dynamic Soaring, Joe Wurts, and Spencer Lisenby.
The free body diagrams here are maybe not as helpful because they need to also include the drag and airspeed at any given moment for it to make sense. It really is quite similar to surfing a ocean wave.
Hope that helps someone visualize whats going on.
thanks for the excellent analysis. i've flown sailplanes but never in the lee of ridges or mountains.
The animation includes the wind-gradient effect - explained at 11:00. It is a very small effect compared to the effect of turning relative to the wind.
I think storks crossing the pass of Gibraltar could learn a thing or two from the albatross genious way of dynamic soaring. In return storks could show the albatrosses how to use hot air collums on dry lands. Different birds with different ways to achieve effortless soarings...
thank you excellent description
It gains height towards stronger wind and glides down towards weaker wind, as long as there is wind and waves. I wish this could be done automatically in modern glider drones - carrying cargo for free at 30 knots across the ocean
It's an interesting concept, but I don't know how useful it would be for transporting cargo since this airspeed gradient occurs over a relatively short distance meaning a larger airplane wouldn't be able to take advantage of it as much if at all. There are also practical concerns of flying close to the water. This technique could, however, seem to be good for ocean-monitoring drones.
Excellent display of DS and the flight of the albatross is amazing! In RC gliders there is a type of slope soaring called Dynamic soaring. The gliders are very large, heavy made of exotic material and are very strong. In DS there are no motors to assist the gliders and by using the same principle you described they have reached speeds over 500 mph in fact the record is 548mph from the power of the wind alone and some other forces as well lol!. Impressive!!! Now in terms of actual bird speed can the albatross go faster when the wind speed is higher? Great video... Thanks!
I think the albatross does fly faster in stronger winds but is physiologically limited to approximately 1G flight.
Whereas in RC DS there is no limit to how much G we can pull. The physics is the same but the application is different. See how RC DS works at this link:
dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/rc_gliders_lee-soaring.html
Looking at the problem from a ground-based reference frame, the bird can obviously go faster (downwind) the faster the wind is. The relative AIRspeed that can be achieved is based on the airspeed _gradient._ Assuming the gradient is enough such that the speed gained from the high-altitude turn and dive overcomes drag, you could even use this technique to travel upwind via tacking like a sailboat. I can't say whether the gradient and efficiency of the albatross is enough to accomplish this, however.
@@sciencecompliance235
Upwind and downwind dynamic soaring is explained in the website at this link:
dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/upwind_dynamic_soaring.html
and in my book, Dynamic Soaring Dissected.
Upwind dynamic soaring does depend to some extent on the wind gradient but is mainly to do with the forces acting on the glider and on the drift angle.
Now it makes sense why it's sometimes possible to do aggresive wing-overs when ridge soaring and have a net gain in height, even if the ridge lift itself isn't strong enough top overcome the loss from the aggresive manouver!
This film explains how albatrosses dynamic soar cross-wind at low-G with minimum effort - the wing-over is probably at 1G. Aggressive wing-overs are more like the RC glider manoeuvre consisting of high-G circling - this is explained in the website.
@@colingtaylor2158 The principle is the same though... isn't it? When ridge soaring I'll fly figure of eights (like the albatross path but going back on itself) and will sometimes be surprised to have a net gain of height when only half of the WO is actually in lift.
@@parapentefun Yes, it sounds like you are on to something - but in real flying it is difficult to know where the hill lift ends and the dynamic soaring begins. In my theoretical calculations I use only a horizontal wind, with or without a wind gradient to illustrate the effects
A solitary Albatross named J. Lennon …”Imagine there’s no possessions, no greed or hunger, Imagine there's no countries , It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for , And no religion, too…he is at one with Nature…soaring w/ the wind , then gliding toward the ocean, …he find pieces of squid…”You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one”
Love! Thank you for sharing this!!!
Many years ago I was stationed in the Navy on Midway Island.. We had thousands of Gooney Birds.. They were spectacular to watch them fly.. But landing..Another story.. Once they were on there glide slope if you, a truck, bicycle came in there path you were hit..Just like any other flying machine on final.There take off was the best .. Big web feet running..If you saw one take off odds are you would bet they would crash, but once in the air..They were King of the "Knife Edge".. NASA is using this in experimental wings now..There wing design..Is shaped like the Gooney bird with the twist..
Question: can albatross also “slope soar” a singular wave? Or rear face of wave not steep enough?
Would've expected water waves to rate a mention. Dynamic Soaring glider fans spend lots of effort hunting up the best hilltop.
The question is, "Where do albatross learn all that stuff before they start flying?". Do they get lessons from parents, or do they have special flying schools?
learn from our GOD
www.dynamic-soaring-for-birds.co.uk/html/laysan_albatross_tracking_data.html This link shows you GPS tracking of a Laysan albatross. Charts 9, 10 and 11 show the take off and subsequent charts show the bird gaining expertise in dynamic soaring.
How long before commercial planes are able to achieve this ( Dynamic Soaring ) ?
@ Colin Taylor. Have you read the wikipedia page on dynamic soaring? Are you aware that there has to be higher wind speed at elevation that at low level for dynamic soaring to happen?
My analysis shows that there is more to dynamic soaring than just the wind gradient.
Thank you so much!
5:00 As far as I know, the magnitude of lift vector is constant as long as your airspeed is the same. But in your video magnitude of lift vector is increased when the bird is in the bank. How does it do so? Glider in a bank should lose its height otherwise it is propelled by a propeller. I believe it is just a minor graphical error but I'm not sure.
In level flight the vertical component of lift must equal the weight. Therefore, when turning, as the aircraft banks the lift vector is increased by pitching up to increase the angle of attack. The vertical component is then equal to the weight.
are we meant to understand this
There is an altitude where the air movement above the ocean where air is fastest. why then, is the albatross not always at this altitude
The short answer is 'Natural selection'. The albatross does not need the strongest wind, it only needs sufficient wind to stay airborne with the least effort.
That is probably related to the maximum forward speed an albatross can achieve in its neutral (non flapping) form. Once the headwind reaches a certain threshold the albatross will start to be pushed backwards so it will need to flap wings to overcome that which will cost energy.
Superb, thanks
helpful in flying a powered glider!
This video is so relaxing 😌🥰
....... I don't think he has any dihedral
bgm is too loud
Has anyone tried this ,on a sailplane?
Yes, the Windward Duckhawk was designed by Greg Cole to do this. It's not a very comfortable way to fly though
I just totally understand now!!! This video makes me feel dumb. Geez!
A UFO tu the aquatic life
VERY NICE W0RK🎉
You could have saved yourself a lot of time making this video. The piano in the background is soooooooo damn loud, that it is difficult to understand your explanations. So you could have also remained silent and let the stupid piano play the whole time, the result would have been the same.
I hope you consider the priorities in your future videos, this one sucks.
Do better then. Jak@$$