Nice Blue-Sky wave over Minden 2/24/09

We had absolutely clear, blue skies over Minden yesterday, but that
west wind kicked in and did its thing from mid-morning, tumbling down
the Sierra escarpment and creating the standing wave for which Minden
is so well known. Two pilots flying with SoaringNV launched around
11:30, got off tow at 7,900' MSL (3,200" AGL) and were at 18,000'
within minutes. We opened the Minden West Wave Window using the new
protocols (an involved process that is described on the Pacific Area
Soaring Council web site with copies of a Power Point presentation I
made to them last November 1) and up they went.

Henry Retting, a pilot out of Florida, turned around at 25,555' MSL
while Matt Herron pushed on to 27,400' MSL, so both earned their
diamond altitude badge and lennie pin once we get the files downloaded
from the flight recorders and sent off to The Badge Lady.

Later in the day Hugh Milne, who usually flies his 26E but instead
opted for our ASK-21 so he could take a friend up with him, climbed in
the window to 24,000' MSL.

All in all it was a beautiful day with outstanding visibility.
Looking ahead there's more wave coming this way, although some of it
will arrive with enough moisture that it might not be flyable. The
wave that's coming is good news following the paucity of wave we saw
in January, and we're excited by the forecast conditions we're seeing
out for the coming fortnight.

Fred LaSor
SoaringNV
Minden, NV

On Feb 25, 7:55*am, wrote:
We had absolutely clear, blue skies over Minden yesterday, but that
west wind kicked in and did its thing from mid-morning, tumbling down
the Sierra escarpment and creating the standing wave for which Minden
is so well known. *Two pilots flying with SoaringNV launched around
11:30, got off tow at 7,900' MSL (3,200" AGL) and were at 18,000'
within minutes. *We opened the Minden West Wave Window using the new
protocols (an involved process that is described on the Pacific Area
Soaring Council web site with copies of a Power Point presentation I
made to them last November 1) and up they went.

Henry Retting, a pilot out of Florida, turned around at 25,555' MSL
while Matt Herron pushed on to 27,400' MSL, so both earned their
diamond altitude badge and lennie pin once we get the files downloaded
from the flight recorders and sent off to The Badge Lady.

Later in the day Hugh Milne, who usually flies his 26E but instead
opted for our ASK-21 so he could take a friend up with him, climbed in
the window to 24,000' MSL.

All in all it was a beautiful day with outstanding visibility.
Looking ahead there's more wave coming this way, although some of it
will arrive with enough moisture that it might not be flyable. *The
wave that's coming is good news following the paucity of wave we saw
in January, and we're excited by the forecast conditions we're seeing
out for the coming fortnight.

Fred LaSor
SoaringNV
Minden, NV

Fred,

I flew home to Seattle today, departing from Reno airport. You guys
must have had great wave today, there were lennies stretched out as
far to the north and south as we climbed to cruising altitude and
headed North, and some were really high!

I did see an interesting phenomema about 20 minutes into the climb:
there was a huge area of dust that either was wind driven or maybe it
was a rotor touch down, but there was a huge area that was nothing but
dust that was being stirred up North-East of Reno that was quite
visible from about 20K feet.................. I was in a Dash-8.

Brad

"Brad" wrote in message news:342f7ed4-dc20-405b-
huge area that was nothing but
dust that was being stirred up North-East of Reno that was quite
visible from about 20K feet.................. I was in a Dash-8.

Brad


About two years ago, I was flying my Husky back from Oregon enroute Minden.
As I approached the Black Rock desert, there was a huge plume of dust coming
off the desert floor and extending up to over 18K. We flew to the upwind
side to get by it when we realized it was too high to fly over without O2.

Looking down, it was like an invisible claw was scraping and churning the
desert surface. Appeared to be strong rotor touching down at that point, but
nowhere else in the northern half of the desert. There was a less cohesive
dust plume towards the southern end though.

bumper
zz
QV and MKIII

I did see an interesting phenomema about 20 minutes into the climb:
there was a huge area of dust that either was wind driven or maybe it
was a rotor touch down, but there was a huge area that was nothing but
dust that was being stirred up North-East of Reno that was quite
visible from about 20K feet.................. I was in a Dash-8.

At a presentation at the 2008 Experimental Sailplane Association
(western) meet, met man Scott Willey gave a blow by blow presentation
on the lead up to and the flight itself from Bob Harris record wave
flight (February 17th, 1986, 49,009'). One of the key characteristic
features considered to be a req for any type of record wave flying was
the telltale dust plume you observed.

-Paul
-Paul

On Feb 25, 4:28*pm, Brad wrote:
On Feb 25, 7:55*am, wrote:



We had absolutely clear, blue skies over Minden yesterday, but that
west wind kicked in and did its thing from mid-morning, tumbling down
the Sierra escarpment and creating the standing wave for which Minden
is so well known. *Two pilots flying with SoaringNV launched around
11:30, got off tow at 7,900' MSL (3,200" AGL) and were at 18,000'
within minutes. *We opened the Minden West Wave Window using the new
protocols (an involved process that is described on the Pacific Area
Soaring Council web site with copies of a Power Point presentation I
made to them last November 1) and up they went.

Henry Retting, a pilot out of Florida, turned around at 25,555' MSL
while Matt Herron pushed on to 27,400' MSL, so both earned their
diamond altitude badge and lennie pin once we get the files downloaded
from the flight recorders and sent off to The Badge Lady.

Later in the day Hugh Milne, who usually flies his 26E but instead
opted for our ASK-21 so he could take a friend up with him, climbed in
the window to 24,000' MSL.

All in all it was a beautiful day with outstanding visibility.
Looking ahead there's more wave coming this way, although some of it
will arrive with enough moisture that it might not be flyable. *The
wave that's coming is good news following the paucity of wave we saw
in January, and we're excited by the forecast conditions we're seeing
out for the coming fortnight.

Fred LaSor
SoaringNV
Minden, NV

Fred,

I flew home to Seattle today, departing from Reno airport. You guys
must have had great wave today, there were lennies stretched out as
far to the north and south as we climbed to cruising altitude and
headed North, and some were really high!

I did see an interesting phenomema about 20 minutes into the climb:
there was a huge area of dust that either was wind driven or maybe it
was a rotor touch down, but there was a huge area that was nothing but
dust that was being stirred up North-East of Reno that was quite
visible from about 20K feet.................. I was in a Dash-8.

Brad

Brad: I'd guess it was rotor touching down. But right after the two
nice diamond flights we were standing outside the hangar and saw a big
juicy dust devil take off about two miles south of the field. It was
visible at least 500' above ground, moving slowly with the westerly
wind. I'm always intrigues by thermals and dust devils (unstable air
phenomenon) occurring simultaneously with wave (stable air
phenomenon). It happens pretty regularly, and in fact once in
Virginia I flew in what was very obviously laminar lift while
surrounded by cumulus clouds -- in fact I believe the wave was
actually stimulated by the lift that was building a Cu.

Fred

On Feb 26, 9:11*pm, wrote:
On Feb 25, 4:28*pm, Brad wrote:





On Feb 25, 7:55*am, wrote:

We had absolutely clear, blue skies over Minden yesterday, but that
west wind kicked in and did its thing from mid-morning, tumbling down
the Sierra escarpment and creating the standing wave for which Minden
is so well known. *Two pilots flying with SoaringNV launched around
11:30, got off tow at 7,900' MSL (3,200" AGL) and were at 18,000'
within minutes. *We opened the Minden West Wave Window using the new
protocols (an involved process that is described on the Pacific Area
Soaring Council web site with copies of a Power Point presentation I
made to them last November 1) and up they went.

Henry Retting, a pilot out of Florida, turned around at 25,555' MSL
while Matt Herron pushed on to 27,400' MSL, so both earned their
diamond altitude badge and lennie pin once we get the files downloaded
from the flight recorders and sent off to The Badge Lady.

Later in the day Hugh Milne, who usually flies his 26E but instead
opted for our ASK-21 so he could take a friend up with him, climbed in
the window to 24,000' MSL.

All in all it was a beautiful day with outstanding visibility.
Looking ahead there's more wave coming this way, although some of it
will arrive with enough moisture that it might not be flyable. *The
wave that's coming is good news following the paucity of wave we saw
in January, and we're excited by the forecast conditions we're seeing
out for the coming fortnight.

Fred LaSor
SoaringNV
Minden, NV

Fred,

I flew home to Seattle today, departing from Reno airport. You guys
must have had great wave today, there were lennies stretched out as
far to the north and south as we climbed to cruising altitude and
headed North, and some were really high!

I did see an interesting phenomema about 20 minutes into the climb:
there was a huge area of dust that either was wind driven or maybe it
was a rotor touch down, but there was a huge area that was nothing but
dust that was being stirred up North-East of Reno that was quite
visible from about 20K feet.................. I was in a Dash-8.

Brad

Brad: *I'd guess it was rotor touching down. *But right after the two
nice diamond flights we were standing outside the hangar and saw a big
juicy dust devil take off about two miles south of the field. *It was
visible at least 500' above ground, moving slowly with the westerly
wind. *I'm always intrigues by thermals and dust devils (unstable air
phenomenon) occurring simultaneously with wave (stable air
phenomenon). *It happens pretty regularly, and in fact once in
Virginia I flew in what was very obviously laminar lift while
surrounded by cumulus clouds -- in fact I believe the wave was
actually stimulated by the lift that was building a Cu.

Fred- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi Fred,

That dust cloud was pretty much as Bumper described it, in that it
looked like a giant claw was torturing the ground. Dust was not going
very high, from what I could tell.

I've flown wave here in Western Washington many times with ebedded
thermals! It is was weird the first time it happened, totally
unexpected, but in looking back, there were a few Q present that day,
and we all thought that was a strange sight. Never the less, this
thermal was quite strong and actually seemed to defy the wind to some
extent, as I circled up I did not drift back as far as expected given
the wind speeds.

Check out this video I posted to youtube, it is from another wave
flight that was transitioned to from thermal flying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcWTfSYIklo

Cheers,
Brad