On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:58:55 -0800 (PST), GARY BOGGS
wrote:

I have seen many photos and videos of pilots soaring the Glory down
under, but have any of you guys in Texas used this traveling wave?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXnkzeCU3bE


Boggs

Only once in 40+ years. We were operating an autotow only operation
about 30 miles east of Dallas, TX in the mid 70's. There had been
significant thunderstorms in Oklahoma the night before. About 10am
just as we were setting up the operation, we could see a long train of
what we now know as gravity wave (I assume from the collaping storms)
coming in from the northwest, moving to the southeast at about 30 mph.
Winds were very light on the ground during the entire time, just the
wave bar was moving.

We towed our 2-33 up and contacted the 1st wave bar. Base was about
1500ft AGL, just a little above our 1200ft release altitude. There was
1-2 knots of lift under the leading edge of the cloud. We tacked back
and forth along the wave bar for about 5 minutes until it was taking
us too far away, all the time remaining under clouidbase. There were
additional wave in trail, but we were able to jump back to the
secondaries at our low altitude.

I've seen similar situations a few times since, almost always in the
morning hours after late night thunderstorms, but never when I was in
a position to fly.

Bob