ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Dynamic Soaring

The albatross swoops up and down.
The albatross moves left and right.
His feathers form a snowy down.
He is a most arresting sight.

He seeks the air that's moving fast
A little way above the waves.
It lifts him as it rushes past,
And gives him energy that paves

The way for him to turn and fall
To almost touch the heaving sea,
But then, before there's chance to stall,
He'll turn his back upon the lee,

And climb again to reach the air
That lifts him as it whistles by,
And thus, with grace, and poise, and flair,
With wings stock still, this bird can fly.

Stephen Whiteside 26.09.2013

I should explain this poem. I have long been puzzled as to how albatrosses spend so much time in the air without seeming to even flap their wings. Sure, their wings are extremely long, but that didn't seem to be enough.

A little bit of recent research has uncovered the mystery for me.

The key is what is called 'dynamic soaring', and relies on the principle that, due to friction, the wind speed close to the surface of the sea is extremely low.

The albatross makes use of this wind gradient as follows. An albatross flying just above the sea points its nose into the wind, and up, and begins to rise. As it does so, it encounters stronger headwinds which, while slowing it down, give it lift. The albatross rises higher and higher. Eventually, it turns away from the wind and drops back to the surface of the sea, gathering speed as it goes.

It then turns and repeats the process. This 'harvesting of the wind gradient' serves as a virtual perpetual motion machine, with only the occasional flap of the wings required to keep the whole thing moving along.

I think I could express the principle in a rather more interesting way than I have done in this poem, and will probably have another crack at it sometime over the next week or so.

..struth, their arms must get tired though..

I have read both poems Stephen, I like this one best and I believe it gets across what you wanted to say. (Although I do like the bit in the other one where you ask 'how cool is that?'...

Thanks, Ross.