What is soaring?
> return to questions Soaring and gliding are used to describe the same thing. To soar means that the aircraft (or bird) is able to use naturally occurring air currents to maintain or gain height. All gliders gently descend through the air – if a glider is ‘falling’ through the air at a rate of 0.5 metres per second, then it only has to encounter an air mass rising at the same rate in order to maintain height. A strong thermal may be rising at 5 metres per second or more, so the net result will be a gain in height.
