Dynamic Soaring

[DJ]

Maybe there is something to the downwind turn

 

[DENNY]

There ya go, throwing science and fact into the face of age old flying dogma!! It was a excellent presentation.
DENNY

 

[mvivion]

That was a most excellent discussion of aerodynamics and structures…thanks!

 

[JimC]

It's not the downwind turn - it's the shear penetration.
Many pterosaur species (the piscivores) also depended heavily on this sequence.
It's a fascinating way of extracting energy from the atmosphere.
Colin Pennycuick did a superb job of describing it in birds many years ago.
As an aside, using a bell lift distribution rather than elliptical can facilitate it, but that was more common in pterosaurs.