1800km Sierra Wave XC Flight Today

Eric, we see the same thing out here at the Colorado Front range.
Having the ability to go higher would be a great help with some of the
weak patches and discontinuities in our ranges. For a long (crosswind)
flight in our location those gaps can be significant. Even being able
to go up to 20-22K would be a big help, and you would not incur a big
TAS penalty.
Speaking of downwind wave dashes, Dr. Joachim Kuettner is sponsoring a
new prize for the first person to complete a 2000km downwind wave
flight. I believe details on this prize will be coming soon from the
SSA.
Nice to see these long flights being done without logging frequent
flyer miles on
Aerolineas Aregentina.
Bill Hoadley

Congratulations.

What a fantastic flight...!

Luke
U.K and Omarama

Anyone interested in plots showing model wave predictions for this day
for the northern half of Gordon's flight can check out the plan view
at 500 mb (around 18,000 ft MSL) for 1300 PST at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/p500.1600lst.d2.png

and a corresponding vertical cross-section along the diagonal dashed
line in the above plot (parallel to the wind) at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/b...1300lst.d2.png

These are for a horizontal resolution of 4km, about the largest
possible grid size to show such waves. Plots at other times, heights,
etc. -- including plots at 1.3km resolution over a smaller domain at
1300 PST -- can use links at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/index.html

(BTW the "RAS" in the RASP acronym has nothing to do with this
newsgroup!)

Jack

I've created an image loop (760KB) showing how the model thinks the
wave changed between 0800 and 1600 PST for this day, with images at 1
hour intervals (the first image is displayed for a longer interval to
indicate the start of the loop) at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/p500.loop.d2.gif

It shows the wave falling apart at the end of the day.

Jack

PS in my last post the first link given was actually for 1600 PST
not 1300 PST as stated, so showed the wave when it was less coherent
than earlier in the day

It looks like the secondary/tertiary/5th6thary waves got more organized as
the primary weakened. A flatlander asks "is this common?"

"Jack Glendening" wrote in message
ink.net...
I've created an image loop (760KB) showing how the model thinks the
wave changed between 0800 and 1600 PST for this day, with images at 1
hour intervals (the first image is displayed for a longer interval to
indicate the start of the loop) at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/p500.loop.d2.gif

It shows the wave falling apart at the end of the day.

Jack

PS in my last post the first link given was actually for 1600 PST
not 1300 PST as stated, so showed the wave when it was less coherent
than earlier in the day

"Jack Glendening" wrote in message
ink.net...

I've created an image loop (760KB) showing how the model thinks the
wave changed between 0800 and 1600 PST for this day, with images at 1
hour intervals (the first image is displayed for a longer interval to
indicate the start of the loop) at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/p500.loop.d2.gif

It shows the wave falling apart at the end of the day.

Jack

PS in my last post the first link given was actually for 1600 PST
not 1300 PST as stated, so showed the wave when it was less coherent
than earlier in the day

You can see a high resolution, true color image of the same area he

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/s...1.2005086.aqua

The 250 meter resolution image is large and may provide too much detail,
but the 1 km is about the same scale as the image Dr. Jack presents.
They look similar, but keep in mind the satellite image is a composite
using images spread over a couple hours.

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

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Actually the 2km satellite resolution is most comparable since model
resolution (for the loop at least) is 4km. BTW, one thing to note is
that with complex terrain wave updrafts are not always simple parallel
lines as in ideal cases - see for example the updraft "Y" near Lake
Tahoe (lat=39,lon=-120) at 0800 PST.

What a fantastic flight!
Way to go Gordon!

Mike Koerner

At 00:00 29 March 2005, Jack Glendening wrote:
Anyone interested in plots showing model wave predictions
for this day
for the northern half of Gordon's flight can check
out the plan view
at 500 mb (around 18,000 ft MSL) for 1300 PST at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/p500.1600lst.d2.png

and a corresponding vertical cross-section along the
diagonal dashed
line in the above plot (parallel to the wind) at

http://www.drjack.info/RASP/MINDEN/b...1300lst.d2.png


That is really cool!

9B

Has he posted on OLC?


Kemp wrote:
Today Gordon Boettger flew his Kestrel on a 3TP flight of about
1800km
out of Minden, Nevada. A sunrise takeoff lead to the first turn near
Chilcoot, then South to near Inyokern, back North to Susanville, then
down to Palmdale. This flight handily beats my flight of last year
on
a similar route. Gordon had clearances to 23,000 and sometimes
28,000
feet and was mostly screaming along. Ah, just another day in the
Sierra Nevada wave.....

Congrats to Gordon, more details to come soon.


Kemp