I was just wondering after a week of playing how to lengthen the flight duration. I am flying the Fling (Not DLG) and Im slowly gaining confidence and skill with the control and I am getting better flights.

At the moment I usually launch by hand and get up to about 20 feet and turn and fly back towards me, usually by then its too late to get back upwind to do anything else. Would it be better to fly perpendicular to the wind and turn into the wind ? I have had difficulty finding thermals to get any duration and I cant use the Hi start as there is not much room to set it up.

Any tips you could share ?

Rich

Hoo boy, that is really the hard way to fly.

Most highstarts will put a glider up at least a couple of hundred feet. And it's not unusual to fly a couple of hours off a highstart and never find a thermal. Finding thermals is directly related to how far you can search for them which is directly related to how high you start the search. So when you start the search from a throw, you're really limiting the search.

I would suggest that what you really need to do is to find an area large enough to setup your highstart. The only successful gliders that have a hope of finding lift from a throw are the discus launched ones.

Are there no glider clubs around you? They would have a suitable site and would be glad to have you as a guest. And would help greatly to learn the sport.

Or find a slope.
Watch where the rooks soar.. that's a good sign of a good updraft.

If you want to continue with the hand launches then alter your flight path. Throw dead into the wind. At the top of the push to level turn the model gently to right or left so it crabs across the wind at an angle that let's it stay the same distance upwind or drift SLIGHTLY back to be in line with you. At the half way down point turn gently the other way so it crabs back to you. With only 20 feet or so you won't make it back to yourself and over to the other side.

Finding a thermal with only 20 feet to play with requires great skill or great luck. You can't launch and find. You need to KNOW there's one just ahead of you and launch into it. That is the same skills that free flighters use but we wait until it just passes and launch and the model turns downwind to catch up to the thermal.

Learn to feel the lulls and puffs. After a longer lull you'll feel a puff start to come. Launch then and try circling right away. The puff is the infill to the thermal that just passed over you. The lull is the general wind being slowed down by the upwind draw into the base of the thermal. At that point the thermal is still upwind but if you launch too soon you'll hit the sink that often preceeds the lift. That's why the FF guys wait for that infill, which is the general wind aided by the thermal's draw so it feels stronger.

Or if all else fails learn to think like a thermal.... Apparently it's a skill I've matered since folks are always saying that I spew a lot of hot air

Just like BMatthews said, but I will give you another way of thinking about it. Imagine the area you are flying in as a river. The wind is the water, and you want to swim upstream. You swim (launch) into the river and go from bank to bank always turning upstream. When you find that illusive thermal, you can fly it until you leave it, then start the process over. I will say, as you've already been told, a hi-start is the way to go. Where are you in the U.K? Find a club, or someone else to learn from.