Hi Maj.
I went for a TIF in a 'Demona H36' motor glider about three weeks ago out of Moura. What an experience, hit our first thermal on climb out about 400mtrs from liftoff, radio call and straight into a tight bank, (eng. still running but back to idle) the ASI or what they call the 'varier meter' (spelling)? which reads meters per second and it was showing 4mtr/sec up, first surprise was the lift we were getting at a bank angle of about 45*, he explained how to follow and stay in a thermal. Lost that one at 2500ft. so flew west towards a line of cloud. Hit a big load of lift over some tiger country (I was looking at the edge of the timber and mentally calculating the distance for my lightwing) when Steve said "this is a good one, we'll give it a go". so shut the engine down and thermald around there for one hour and ten minutes, Steve said we were in the right one because there was two wedges above us.
Took us over 1/2hr. to fly back to Moura. Shut the engine off again at 3000ft. and about 20klm. from the strip, had to pull the brakes on in the base leg or we would of over shot by a mile. Man, what an experience. I'm going to carry on with it. then I hopped in the trusty old lightwing and flew home, just that one flight has given me a different way of looking at flying and the clouds.
Cheers Davo.