Soaring Composite Index

Papa3 wrote:



- In a practical sense, the SCI is really for those poor working
stiffs like myself who can only afford to take a very limited number of
"emergency days off" ("calling in soar" as one of the old-timers in our
club used to say). For me, I will only drop everything for an SCI of 4
or 5 (maybe a 3 if I haven't flown for a month).

- Really the only thing the SCI does is to try to put some rigor
around the statement that "it's going to be a really good day."

Perhaps the way to approach this is find out who wants it and what kind
of weather they think rates a 5, 4, 3, etc. If there is a lot of
agreement, then the weather guru has some hope of matching the weather
forecast with a number. I suspect there will be enough variation in
rating criteria between pilots that a single number will not be
generally useful except for days that are clearly so good or so bad,
everyone agrees.

Rather than a single number, perhaps the local guru could produce a few
charts so simple they could be comprehended by anyone in a minute. These
could similar to the Blipmaps, showing a "soarabilty index" in several
colors (such as red = bad, yellow=fair, green=GO!) on the map. Producing
a number for a single location (say, 30 km on a side) at a single time
would be simpler than coming up with a single number covering a 600 x
600 km area. Unfortunately, in this example, 400 numbers would have to
be produced!

It might be this could automated, using Blipmaps as the source.
Automation would give consistency to the results, and the rules could be
quite elaborate and easily changed. The weather guru would review the
output and make a few adjustments, if needed. Over time, routine
adjustments would be incorporated in the rules. Please don't ask Dr.
Jack to do any this: he has plenty on the table already!

A map for each time (18Z, 21Z, and 24Z) could be quickly scanned. By
knowing when and where the soaring was likely to be good, the pilot
could determine if the day was good enough to have a "soaring emergency"
and drive to the airport.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA