Definition of a gaggle

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smithcorp
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Definition of a gaggle

Post by smithcorp »

The FAI Sailplane Grand Prix is on in Russia at the moment and you can follow the races on a replay site. From start to about 6 minutes in (12.04 local), you can see a classic gaggle as all the 14 competitors sit in a fairly modest thermal gaining height before striking off north on the task. Pretty cool and you can imagine the stress of having all those gliders circling in the same immediate area within about 1,000 metres altitude of reach other.

https://airtribune.com/play/1378/2d

If you're patient you can watch the race play out including dramas of landouts, blokes getting caught low miles off-track (I'm looking at you, Khamitova), and the genius of Sebastian Kawa who works out he has final glide a long way out, puts his nose down and goes for it, topping up with a few turns in a string thermal near the finish and then powers off. Cool.
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