How about some talk about flying?

On Nov 7, 1:23*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,

*george wrote:
Remembering the XCSkies forecast, I fell back to the Blue Ridge. Lift
was consistent enough that I got there at around 3,200ft still, and hit
solid lift again. A few minutes later I banged into cloudbase and
checked the altimeter... 6,200ft.

Now THAT is incredible weather forecasting precision. An XCSkies
subscription is worth every penny in my view.

Sounds like there might be decent wave in that area..

I had similar thoughts. The satellite picture showed unmistakable signs
of wave farther south, terminating about 30 miles or so south of my
airport. The clouds in the area weren't classic wave formations, but I
thought they looked promising. However, no matter how hard I searched, I
never found wave. The area where I was flying was very rotor-like, with
strong turbulence everywhere, decreasing slowly with altitude, but I
only ever found very bumpy lift under the clouds, never anything away
from them, and never anything smooth.

Get a tow into the 30 mile south area and do an orbit on tow.
If theres anything you'll feel it.
It may be that the areas pretty dry and lenticular won't form.
Was the rotor visible?

In article
,
george wrote:

On Nov 7, 1:23*pm, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,

*george wrote:
Remembering the XCSkies forecast, I fell back to the Blue Ridge. Lift
was consistent enough that I got there at around 3,200ft still, and hit
solid lift again. A few minutes later I banged into cloudbase and
checked the altimeter... 6,200ft.

Now THAT is incredible weather forecasting precision. An XCSkies
subscription is worth every penny in my view.

Sounds like there might be decent wave in that area..

I had similar thoughts. The satellite picture showed unmistakable signs
of wave farther south, terminating about 30 miles or so south of my
airport. The clouds in the area weren't classic wave formations, but I
thought they looked promising. However, no matter how hard I searched, I
never found wave. The area where I was flying was very rotor-like, with
strong turbulence everywhere, decreasing slowly with altitude, but I
only ever found very bumpy lift under the clouds, never anything away
from them, and never anything smooth.

Get a tow into the 30 mile south area and do an orbit on tow.
If theres anything you'll feel it.
It may be that the areas pretty dry and lenticular won't form.

Well, there were lenticular-looking things on the satellite photo. I
wasn't up to doing such a long tow, though, especially since the 30
miles was just a rough estimate.

Was the rotor visible?

There were a couple of lower-level clouds that looked like they may have
been rotor clouds, but for the most part no.

Another interesting part to this day. It had been mostly calm all day.
The report came in from another fellow that there was lift, so I started
getting ready for takeoff. As I was standing next to my glider getting
the cockpit prepped, there was this sudden WOOSH as the wind went from 0
to 10+kts instantaneously, and just stayed there for the rest of the
day. Really odd stuff!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Nov 7, 6:35*pm, Mike Ash wrote:

Well, there were lenticular-looking things on the satellite photo. I
wasn't up to doing such a long tow, though, especially since the 30
miles was just a rough estimate.

You -could- always go slumming and get a ride with a friendly power
pilot in the general direction :-)
If its wave it'll be there :-)
What, might I ask, are you flying?

In article
,
george wrote:

On Nov 7, 6:35*pm, Mike Ash wrote:

Well, there were lenticular-looking things on the satellite photo. I
wasn't up to doing such a long tow, though, especially since the 30
miles was just a rough estimate.

You -could- always go slumming and get a ride with a friendly power
pilot in the general direction :-)
If its wave it'll be there :-)

Funny idea. Alas, that day we had virtually no traffic at the field
other than that related to gliders, and the tow plane we had out that
day only takes one person. There was a Cherokee who came in briefly
while I was airborne, but that was it.

What, might I ask, are you flying?

I'm part owner of an ASW-20. It's an incredibly wonderful machine.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
george wrote:
What, might I ask, are you flying?

I'm part owner of an ASW-20. It's an incredibly wonderful machine.

You should point him to your web site Mike! I.e.:

http://www.mikeash.com/?page=my_glider.html

On Nov 7, 8:00*pm, Jim Logajan wrote:
Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*george wrote:
What, might I ask, are you flying?

I'm part owner of an ASW-20. It's an incredibly wonderful machine.

You should point him to your web site Mike! I.e.:

http://www.mikeash.com/?page=my_glider.html

I am officially green with envy. My M20J is fun to fly, but it's
mostly a point to point business machine for me. VFR for fun? What a
neat idea. I'll have to start thinking of it having 66 gallons of
lift.

One guy I know who owns a Mooney does shut it down when he is playing
and there's lift around, but the only time I don't want to hear the
engine run is when the hull is parked.

NIce photo on the web site, thanks for the link.

In article ,
Jim Logajan wrote:

Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
george wrote:
What, might I ask, are you flying?

I'm part owner of an ASW-20. It's an incredibly wonderful machine.

You should point him to your web site Mike! I.e.:

http://www.mikeash.com/?page=my_glider.html

Heh, duh.... I completely forgot I even had that page. Thanks for the
reminder.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

On Nov 8, 12:27*am, Mike Ash wrote:
In article ,
*Jim Logajan wrote:

Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*george wrote:
What, might I ask, are you flying?

I'm part owner of an ASW-20. It's an incredibly wonderful machine.

You should point him to your web site Mike! I.e.:

http://www.mikeash.com/?page=my_glider.html

Heh, duh.... I completely forgot I even had that page. Thanks for the
reminder.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

I had one flight in a glider, decades ago. Not that I overcontrolled
or anything, but the instructor had bruises on his thighs from the
stick banging from side to side. Control pressures with a yoke vs a
stick were an adventure and keeping the piece of yarn pointing
straight back . . . well, it did that when passing from left to right
to left. . . The Mooney's controls are responsive, it's like
thinking the change in attitude and the airplane does it. That glider
however was a mind reader -- and it was hardly a high performance
machine.

For now, it'll be point to point SEL, hoping for solid IMC, where I
use 9 gallons of lift an hour.

I did get lots of the other kind of lift once, flew into an embedded
thunderstorm in CO: got to 22,000 feet with a pegged rate of climb.
Center assured me I had clearance for unrestricted climb when I told
them what happened, and later, unrestricted descent when the downdraft
took over. When it was all over the controller told me to resume
normal nav, and thanked me for not crashing because "there's so much
paperwork to fill out at this end. . .".