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Old December 26th 15, 03:43 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Gordon Boettger
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Posts: 14
Default Riding the wave in an MD-11

On a recent leg from the west coast to Memphis (at night of course) playing Santa in a Fedex MD-11, we encountered a nice bounce in the wave crossing the Sangre De Cristo range at FL350. Wave was in the forecast so I got the camera ready as we approached the range. Pretty cool how much energy is out there pushing a 500K lb machine around. It's fun explaining this to the copilot during these encounters. Good way to get someone excited about soaring.
Note how the power comes back (see fuel flow decrease) and autopilots works to keep on speed and altitude and opposite in the sink.
Hope to find that going downwind someday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjXGD10Je-s

Cheers,
Gordon Boettger