ORIGINAL: frankflyboy1
Something I don't understand, I've heard of gliders exceeding 200 mph, I don't know how that can be? Aren't they relying on just gravity to reach these speeds? and gravity falls at 32ft per second, per second. I don't know how to calculate this speed, but skydivers fall at an airspeed somewhere around 150mph, but I know they spread themselves to slow the decent. Not sure where I'm going with this at this point.
Frank, do a search for "Dynamic Soaring" I think is the term. They make repeated looping dives through a wind eddy off the back side of a hill to continually build speed. I might not have all the particulars just so, but it will turn up in a search.