I thought this was a SOP ..."clearing turn" ..... so by presenting a slight side-on view any napping spam-can pilot ...might just notice the hard-to see gyro ahead....AND give you a chance to peek behind & see what's sneaking up on your six ... BEFORE you go do a radical direction change!!!

I LOVE PICTURES ... being a VERY visual learner!!!

GOOD JOB GABs!

Crackhoes ????? ... spect he's been talk'n with Jake!!!! ( Onna mission ... after the current misson!)

No , I got the idea from Gabs He is the one leading me astray

The only problem with all this is that you really have no way of knowing which way the gradient is going to go, so essentially you have to set up for whatever is happening at the moment and then adjust accordingly. I was in the exact same situation with Des in Houston, where we had the opposite, a strong wind shear on final close to the runway where Des had to actually take over and we had to add power to get out. So Birdy's point is well taken, be ready for decreasing headwind / tailwind, but really one has no way of accurately predicting how much of a gradient one will encounter, and even whether it will extend or decrease your glide. Up high, it mat]y even be difficult to be sure as to the actual strength of the headwind or tailwind in the absence of ground indicators. Just be ready. It would seem to me that it's easier to pull up and shorten the glide than it is to extend it, so it would be better to err on the side of overshooting initially rather than undershoot, and compensate accordingly closer to the ground when one encounters the gradient, or not.

But from my experience flying since 1983....the wind gradient almost ALWAYS lessens the headwind or tailwind as you approach the ground.

Point taken, but the degree to which there is a gradient is unknowable and it would appear it's better to overshoot and pull back then undershoot for which there is no way out.

But what I want to know, is, does the crack ho's tail wind gradient change as it gets close to the ground or does it stay constant I have always wondered about that

I don't know about crack whores, but my tail wind gradient increases when I am laying flat at 3 am in the morning and my wife experiences a sudden simultaneous increase in headwind.

Can't beat the old 3am headwind, I always say