On 2/24/2013 3:58 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Sunday, February 24, 2013 5:06:33 PM UTC-5, wrote:

US gliders do not frequently put themselves in a position where they
might need to descend through clouds! The first lesson you learn when
wave flying is absolutely not to let this happen.

How does a pilot gain the power to "absolutely not let this happen"?
Knowledge and experience do not control the weather.

And of course it all depends on how you define the word "frequently". I've
heard pilots recall the blue hole closing up and then "luckily" reopening
somewhere else within reach. My impression is that every time people fly
wave on the east coast, it is a roll of the dice whether they will get
stuck above the cloud deck...
Snipperoo...

FWIW, I took my training in Cumberland, MD, in the early '70's, at which point
& location my wave education began...regrettably (or perhaps luckily!) without
my gaining any first-hand wave experience there. That didn't happen until I'd
moved to Colorado...where in the 3 decades since I have trouble recalling ANY
"solidly overcast" waves.

I've no doubt they occur here, but either the frequency of occurrence is so
infrequent or "something else" applies (e.g. those wavish, solid cloud decks I
can recall have always had bases well above the rocks; moisture also arrives
quite slowly in these parts). In any event, out here, "my eastern concern"
about getting caught atop a solid cloud deck while wave flying quickly went
into the dustbin of history...whereas it very definitely *was* (and would be
if I flew wave there) a concern of mine "back east."

IOW, my sense remains your sense of "eastern cloud deck" wave possibilities is
quite prudent...

Bob W.