Mountain wave

"Adam Aulick" wrote in message
om...
What is the black object that appears to be pasted to the outside of
the canopy in this image? Some kind of relative wind indicator?

Yes. "Yaw string".

About 30 years ago, when I was too young to know better, I went skiing in
temps of about 30 below. Now, at 51, there is nothing in the world that
could get me to go out in that weather - even gliding at FL300, as wonderful
as that seems.

Michael


"Thomas Borchert" wrote in message
...
Michael,

st have been pretty cold up there in a glider.


You bet! If you want, I'll e-mail a photo of the panel showing minus 40
degrees centigrade - and of me in a thermo suit with moon boots. It's
not that bad where the sun shines on you through that big canopy, but
my feet were nearly frozen after two hours of flying. Some people who
do this regularly have electric thermopads in their boots.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Adam Aulick wrote:

What is the black object that appears to be pasted to the outside of
the canopy in this image? Some kind of relative wind indicator?

Yes. A simple woolen string. It's the main instrument of a glider pilot.
You may ask why a string and not the ball? First, the string is *way*
more exact than the ball and second, it's a HUD (head up display).

Stefan

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 08:56:17 -0400, Todd Pattist
wrote:

IIRC, it's about 3x5 miles across.

Oh gosh, I'd assumed it was something that extended across New
Hampshire and maybe into Vermont and Maine!

If it's that small, it really is a box!

Did this box exist before GPS? Can you really locate yourself so
precisely at 20,000+ feet?

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Expedition sailboat charters www.expeditionsail.com

In article , Todd Pattist wrote:
It's quieter than flying has any right to be, and I can fly
by trimming my ship and then leaning to the sides or
front/back even though my cockpit only allows a few inches
of motion.

Now you'll probably laugh at me for this, but bear in mind you have an
enormous country to fly your glider in - mine is only 30nm by 15nm, and
our thermal conditions are so weak, last week I spent my entire flight
soaring at between 700 and 900 ft. AGL. The definition of a 'booming
day' is when we find 2-3 knots up and a 3000' cloud base. Such is island life.
This is why none of us fly glass - it's not worth it. A Ka-8 is a far
better glider here than a DG-505.

Earlier this year, we had a really booming day. I managed to get to
5,300 ft (which is a thermal soaring record here! - only to broken 2
hours later by someone who managed 5,500). The thermal activity was
fairly localised to the east coast. Since I was also the only tow pilot
for the day, and some people wanted towing (we also have a winch), I
regretfully had to go home. However, first, I decided I'd use all this
altitude well.

So I pointed the nose at the west coast, and was soon in still air. For
the next half hour or so, I was in no-lift air. I slowed the glider to
min sink (it's a Ka-8, so that's about walking pace), trimmed it and let
go of the controls. It was like a magic carpet ride. I slowly drifted
over the top of the mountain, and went all the way to the west coast,
then turned north towards the glider club. It's probably the most fun
glider flight I've had - just half an hour of almost silent and totally
effortless flight. It made a big change from my normal desperate
struggle to stay in feeble low level lift :-)

We do get wave from time to time, but it never seems to be where we can
take advantage of it :/

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Dylan Smith wrote:

Now you'll probably laugh at me for this,

On the contrary! Everybody can fly in booming conditions, but weak
thermals and low cloud base will sift the chaff from the wheat.

Stefan

"Stefan" wrote in message
...
Dylan Smith wrote:
Now you'll probably laugh at me for this,

On the contrary! Everybody can fly in booming conditions, but weak
thermals and low cloud base will sift the chaff from the wheat.

I wonder if Mr. Smith's island flying is actually tough flying. Ironically,
soaring conditions can be 'weak' with low cloudbases but amazingly
consistent and 'easy' to stay aloft. You just don't go anywhere.... but you
see a few things clearly and often.

Anyway, just reflecting on South Florida conditions where low, closely
spaced, consistently popping thermals can be common.

Sun helps.

"Stefan" wrote in message
...
Michael 182 wrote:

Must have been pretty cold up there in a glider.

There's no such thing as cold weather, there's only insufficient
clothing. Here's how it looks up there in a glider:


http://www.glidingbasel.ch/fotos_ber...s/images/05.jp
g

http://www.glidingbasel.ch/fotos_ber...s/images/06.jp
g

Stefan

In article , Maule Driver
wrote:
I wonder if Mr. Smith's island flying is actually tough flying. Ironically,
soaring conditions can be 'weak' with low cloudbases but amazingly
consistent and 'easy' to stay aloft.

Unfortunately, it's not normally like that. We do get some days where
it's about as difficult to stay up as falling off a log, but most the
time the conditions are at best 'scratchy' and it's not unusual to start
going somewhere and suddenly find all the lift's gone when you're just
about out of gliding range from the airfield and have a desperate time
getting back.

The most notable incident was when someone had to 'ridge soar' off some
60 ft cliffs to get back to the airfield after the thermals decided to
abandon him some miles from the airfield...

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Thinking at it ... those 5000 ft you mentioned in an earlier post
should have been enough to reach Scotland ... your once in a decade
chance to aquire silver distance! Nobody tried?

Stefan