Glider pilots have done this for years. Beside thermals there is also ridge lift and wave lift. My best flight in a glider is about 500km and my highest altitude gained was just over 5000m in wave.
Long distance sailplane pilots have mastered this since the 70s. In a 10 hour cross country flight you could gain much data to machine learn the process. The human/animal element of lift source choice and energy line reading would be more difficult to mimick by a computer. Go soar and you will learn much.
I fly sailplanes and rc gliders. Often I look for birds to find the lift but with RC gliders sometimes birds join me when I find lift. It's cool to see who can utilize the lift better. Birds are much more skilled fliers but my RC gliders are much more efficient as they are very light.
I love the idea of programing gliders to thermal.
@@jboycs5483 I was thinking the same thing. As soon as I heard about "trained gliders", I thought how long is it going to take for science to ruin everything. I'm just starting out flying gliders and now they have an algorithm that can fly it 10 times better than I'll ever be able to? What's the point?
@@frogsoda Computers are far better than humans in chess for example, but people still play against each other.
Variometer on each wing tip.
When you go down, fly straight
When you go up and lift is getting stronger, fly straight
When you go up but lift is getting less strong, turn towards the stronger side of the lift
Simple algorithm that paragliders use. They don't have a vario on each tip but feel on which side the thermal is stronger through the break lines.
They also look at surroundings (clouds, slopes, ...) to have a bigger change of finding a thermal
How did you not seek out paraglider pilots for this bit. We've been known to thermal hundreds of miles in a day. I was out thermalling with birds this entire weekend!
wwo sthat is very imrpessive i want to go thermalling with virds some time
A few years ago ( I just realised it was in 2000, so more than a few) I was on the edge of the Grand Canyon, sat and watched for a long while. I saw a “Murder” of Crows or Ravens thermaling / soaring. Then, to my delight, I saw 3 crows thermal up from below the lip of the canyon, then when in a strong uplift, they’d flip over and soar on their backs, just for fun! I saw them do it for nearly 30 minutes, soar up, flip, soar, then descend, get into the lift again and do it again. I tried telling other people but they weren’t that interested?
I haven't thermalled my paraglider since three hours ago. I took off at 1900 feet MSL and at one point in my 55 minute flight was 4300 feet. One very basic 'algorithm' for thermaling is when lift is improving fly straighter; when lift is reducing turn tighter.
I've always thought that birds are looking for preys when they are flying in circles, but I was confused how they maintain altitude without flapping their wings, now I know what’s up. Thanks for sharing this video!
هي في الاخير شي معقد صعب انك تشرحه ولكن مع مثال الواقع تقدر توصل المعلومه بشكل أسرع
وكل العملية تعتمد على الرياح بشكل اساسي
وهي طريقتين
اوا شي عكس اتجاه التيار يزيد من السرعه ثم تغيير الاتجاه ومواجهة التيار واستغلال السرعه في الارتفاع
وعشان كذا تشوف النسور تدور وتدور إلى أن تصل للارتفاع المطلوب
While flying sailplanes with my instructor he always told me to "follow the birds"...I thought he was crazy until I learned.
they know what to do (but they can restart if they land in a tree)
I've been HabgGliding since 1988.Soring is really an easy thing to do. For Autonomous Soring You might want to put Temperature Sensors in the wing tips of the glider. program the glider to turn into the warmer air.
I agree with Sebastian, these guys could learn _a lot_ from paragliding instead of RC planes. Both birds and paraglider pilots look for thermals in a similar way and use similar techniques to stay in them. Many soaring birds (vultures, hawks) have trim speeds and sinking rates similar to that of paraglider so that's also an analogy worth looking into. The only thing that paragliders cannot do is flapping their wings if they need a lift apart from thermals or ridge lift.
While paragliders have a similar flight envelope and wing loading to birds, it's very difficult to put an autopilot on one and I don't think its been done. It's really easy on an RC plane. In the end it's all about the coding.
Furthermore, you could make an RC glider heavier and the same shape as a bird to closely replicate the sink rate and glide ratio.
I phrased it poorly. What I meant was not replacing RC planes with paragliders because of similar flight characteristics but because a paraglider would have a _human being right there in the air._ This is something one cannot gain from piloting an RC plane. Birds in flight have certain habits, quirks, mentality that differs between the species and this sort of thing can be only picked if one experiences the environment the same way as they. There was a very interesting thread on paraglidingforum.com recently where people shared their experiences of flying with birds and it's striking how _NONE_ of it is ever mentioned in books about birds, it's obviously the knowledge not accessible to researchers unless they _get there themselves._ Examples of such experiences: the nicest birds as flying companions are turkey vultures: polite, inquisitive, respecting "traffic rules" (e.g. they'll join you in a thermal in the correct direction) BUT they tend to space out in flight sometimes (take momentary naps) so it's recommended to carry a whistle when flying with them. They also hate to flap their wings. Falcons OTOH are tricky: if they want you out of their aerial territory, they'll pretend to guide you to a thermal while in fact they are guiding you to sinking air (many people reported this). Hawks are more interested in food than flying so they tend to leave thermals early (so not the best guides). Ravens like aerial acrobatics, barrel rolls, etc. Pelicans and storks are very patient: they'll work even a very weak lift forever until they get high. Cranes are the opposite: impatient, weaker lift and they're gone looking for something else.
@@JanPBtest Paragliders, hang gliders and last but not least soaring planes who perfectionize it in current human aviation.
Thanks for explaining i was watching these birds go up like how tf
nice pixhawk
I fly glider on Xplane 11 but I dont have any idea how the heck can I find a thermal. Their invisible. I tried doing some spirals but still loosing altitude slowly lol. So what I do every time I glide is just get towed released and slowly come back down to the airport. 🤣
xplane is shit for gliders, use condor, if you still want to do with xplane look under cumulus clouds or just turn on the thermal markers.
You ever heard of paragliding maybe you should give that a look
Oh I know that place, I fly my rc planes there!!
Birds are crazy lol
I have flown RC sailplanes for 45 years. Never spent much on high-end designs or ready to fly crap. Some of my best flight times have come from used, damaged and repaired planes from swap meets or give aways from someone at the club. Leaning to read your sailplane is the most important skill, the energy conserving flying techniques come with time. It is now rare I can't hook up a thermal and fly for 15-60 minutes or more one one launch. This was not always the case back in my early days. I don't need, want or would use a "taught" sailplane. Missed the whole point of being there to start with. Play video games if you want extra lives or time.
do birds use thermal currents generated from highways to glide?
Wow - go with the FLOW of the turbulence not against it🦅
I'm just tryna find bird references
Earth
The Egyptian pyramids lead me to this video
Where are the hang glider and Para glider pilots in this video...?
it's the same paraglider user
you did not say how birds detect thermals
scooby1961 brought me here lol
Or you could just interview a hang glider pilot, they will tell you how to soar!
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I used to make these vids now evryone is lol.
As a paraglider pilot, I can say it's such an impressive life up there with the birds. It's not like a wild fox in the forest. It's like playing with your domestic cat.
They have no fear of you and you don't have to worry about them. They'll join your thermal and you can join theirs. And together you can climb higher :) That's so awesome.
Airline pilot here. Birds are terrified of me. I just want to give them a little boop! :)
@witheringleaves5431 you scare us too