Kansas Wave Flight

Yes, we had a wave day in Kansas on Sunday. Only one person was able
to connect and get any significant altitude. For those seriously
interested in wave not generated by mountains, you might want to get
all the data you can from near Hutchinson, Kansas on May 2, 2004,
between about 1:30 PM CDST and 6:30 PM CDST. The climb to highest
altitude was made at about 4:30 to 5:00.

Conditions were post frontal, with a strong North-Northwesterly flow.
Cloud base was about 9,000 MSL (1500 foot field elevation), and the
tops of the cu were between 10K and 11K. Peak altitude obtained in
this wave was about 16,000 MSL. I have not heard of many wave flights
over cumulous getting the pilot to 5-6K above the tops of the clouds.
I have been to about 1K over the tops before. And several times to
just about even with, but never that high.

I am going to try and get the pilot to post the .igc file somewhere
that it can be reviewed by those with more experience in this sort of
atmoshperic behavior. The closest mountains upwind are well over 400
miles away, so I doubt it was any harmonic from them. Hopefully, we
can get some wind speed and direction info to help figure out what
caused this. I just wish I had been able to get up there with him.

Steve Leonard
Wave-envious in Wichita