@benih: In real life a very good area for easy thermal flying is a south border of Alps. There is a large area of flat land and southerly exposed slopes, which together create a very nice mix of ridge and thermal lift. Expect strong windshear at approx 3000m though, where local area weather meets the regional wind (usualy northerly, while local breeze is from the south). Try the ridge between Bassano del Grappa (NW of Venezia) and Vittorio Veneto (N of Venezia). The neighbouring valley to the north (between Belluno and Feltre) is also very nice
@wkitty42: had this happen in real life in my earlier days of paragliding. I was trying to locate a core and did not have much luck, staying mostly in 'turbulent zeroes'. A hunting bird flew to me, did a half circle, like saying 'follow me' and when I did, led me to a nice wide thermal core. We did a couple of turns together, like wing to wing and then he flew away. One of the best memories of my life.
@Thorsten: Thank you for implementing this.
@D-ECHO: seems we were typing in parallel
- I found the glasses to be snake oil (iow they did not work for me), but some pilots swore by them. Go figure...
- Looking for Cumulus clouds needs a small clarifiction. What one should look for are _developing_ clouds, those are being fed by an active thermal. Once Cu cloud is developed there may be some residual inertial lift at the base, but 'the train is gone'.