Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index

[gldrgidr]

Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal
index for the day, by typing in info for an individual's area. I can
no longer find it.
I've recently been reading my old soaring magazines from the '80's and
saw an article by Senn on the SOAR thermal forcast program.
Are either of these still in use?

I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been
flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level
of lift I could expect for any flying day. Most of my flying is done
below 600 feet from a small local park. I realize that the ROAB
balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so
they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. What
would be involved in getting my own sounding? I'm thinking of using
an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. Is there a small
device that would record the soundings?

thanks,
John

[Pete Brown]

Here is the url: http://www.soarforecast.com/


On 11/26/2010 11:25 AM, gldrgidr wrote:
> Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal
> index for the day, by typing in info for an individual's area. I can
> no longer find it.


Pete Brown
Anchorage Alaska

Going home after a long day
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1415/1325102827_f322928754_b.jpg

The fleet at Summit. Mt. McKinley is about 45nm away at 20,320 msl.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/437346531_a9cb8d2482_b.jpg

The 170B at Bold near Eklutna Glacier
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/168/437324742_a216d7bb75.jpg

[Tim Taylor]

On Nov 26, 1:25*pm, gldrgidr > wrote:
> Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal
> index for the day, by typing in *info for an individual's area. *I can
> no longer find it.
> I've recently been reading my old soaring magazines from the '80's and
> saw an article by Senn on the SOAR thermal forcast program.
> Are either of these still in use?
>
> I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been
> flying R/C gliders. *It would be great if I could determine what level
> of lift I could expect for any flying day. *Most of my flying is done
> below 600 feet from a small local park. *I realize that the ROAB
> balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so
> they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. *What
> would be involved in getting my own sounding? *I'm thinking of using
> an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. *Is there a small
> device that would record the soundings?
>
> thanks,
> John

http://www.soarforecast.com/

[gldrgidr]

That is it!
Thanks Pete and Tim.

Still wonder if anyone has done soundings.

[Martin Gregorie[_5_]]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 12:25:48 -0800, gldrgidr wrote:

> I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been
> flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level
> of lift I could expect for any flying day.
>
Look at BlipMap if you're in the USA or RASP in Britain. There are sites
elsewhere too, which provide very detailed hour by hour soaring
predictions for up to 5 days ahead. A description is here:

http://drjack.info/BLIP/INFO/ARTICLE/blipmap_soaring_article.html

Home websites for BlipMap and RASP:

BlipMap: http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/
RASP: http://rasp.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/

> Most of my flying is done below 600 feet from a small local park.
>
BlipMaps are useful predictors of when to go fly, but do you know what
the Free Flight fraternity use for thermal detection? I've built and used
inexpensive electronic devices that register where a thermal is in
relation to where you're waiting to launch:

http://www.gregorie.org/freeflight/thermal_detector/thermal_detector.html

If you fly F3K these techniques would be a good match, but if you're
using gorilla winches and/or flying bigger/heaver/faster models a
downlinked variometer may be more useful:

http://www.eagletreesystems.com/Plane/plane.html


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

[Eric Greenwell[_4_]]

On 11/26/2010 12:25 PM, gldrgidr wrote:

>
> I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been
> flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level
> of lift I could expect for any flying day. Most of my flying is done
> below 600 feet from a small local park. I realize that the ROAB
> balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so
> they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. What
> would be involved in getting my own sounding? I'm thinking of using
> an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. Is there a small
> device that would record the soundings?

If you are only interested in the first 1000', I suspect a soaring
forecast won't help very much. I'm guessing you want a lot sun and an
inversion at 1000' (or fly early, before the convection gets above
1000'), so there are plenty of thermals per square mile. Try this tool
for a forecast sounding that can show the lower level details:

http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

[gldrgidr]

> If you are only interested in the first 1000', I suspect a soaring
> forecast won't help very much. I'm guessing you want a lot sun and an
> inversion at 1000' (or fly early, before the convection gets above
> 1000'), so there are plenty of thermals per square mile. Try this tool
> for a forecast sounding that can show the lower level details:
>
> http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/
>
> --
> Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
> email me)

Great Info. Thanks to all who replied.

I'm actually flying hand launch (DLG) and a small 1.5 meter electric
powered glider.