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Gliding saves much energy, and to make large distances using only this formof flight represents a great challenge for both birds and people. The solutionis to make use of the so-called thermals, which are localized, warmer regionsin the atmosphere moving upwards with a speed exceeding the descent rate ofbird and plane. Whereas birds use this technique mainly for foraging, humans doit as a sporting activity. Thermalling involves efficient optimizationincluding the skilful localization of thermals, trying to guess the mostfavorable route, estimating the best descending rate, etc. In this study, weaddress the question whether there are any analogies between the solutionsbirds and humans find to handle the above task. High-resolution track logs weretaken from thermalling falcons and paraglider pilots to determine the essentialparameters of the flight patterns. We find that there are relevant commonfeatures in the ways birds and humans use thermals. In particular, falcons seemto reproduce the MacCready formula widely used by gliders to calculate the bestslope to take before an upcoming thermal.

Comparing bird and human soaring strategies