Best Storm Stories

Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 1:58:46 PM UTC-8, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

Actually, one year I had much time to go gliding and I made it a point to launch whatever the weather. I learned a lot about flying. I even had one rainy day with lots of lift (not sure how that happened) and enough rain to be running through the rotor side wall vent. Had another great flight were I rode the front of a T-Storm for 150 miles. We fly on the power of weather, not all "bad" weather is bad.

OK...

Enjoying the smooth lift under the leading edge of a thunderstorm along
the ramparts of the Rockies until the static of lightening came across
the radio. I decided that sitting in the center of a carbon lightning
rod was not the best place to be so I headed back to Black Forest.
While enroute, I saw the dust front from the downburst which had begun
so I sped up to get home before the storm.

Too high and fast, I overflew the airport and turned back for a right
base entry but the gust was upon the airport. I kept speeding up until
reaching the top of the white arc (84 KIAS, IIRC for the LS-6a), maximum
airspeed with gear and flaps extended. My ground speed was extremely
low but I had no GPS to get an exact number and, due to the high wind, I
elected to land across the 36 foot wide runway. I touched down on the
runway, crossed it, the grass, the gravel taxiway, the grass, and rolled
to a stop 10 feet outside the gaping hangar door where a dozen or so
members were standing out of the rain and watching.

I flew the glider on the ground until the wind and rain let up and got
out to get help moving the ship into the hangar to wait for the storm to
end. Someone said that he didn't think I'd make it to the airport
because I was flying so slowly on base. Eighty-four knots! Yup, slow...

On 3/9/2015 8:40 PM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 1:58:46 PM UTC-8, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.
Actually, one year I had much time to go gliding and I made it a point to launch whatever the weather. I learned a lot about flying. I even had one rainy day with lots of lift (not sure how that happened) and enough rain to be running through the rotor side wall vent. Had another great flight were I rode the front of a T-Storm for 150 miles. We fly on the power of weather, not all "bad" weather is bad.

--
Dan Marotta

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 4:58:46 PM UTC-5, Tom (2NO) wrote:
Best storm story:
The forecast was terrible and when I got to the gliderport it really looked bad so I went home.

you're awesome.

This is not a storm story :-)

Once at my home airfield (Hammer) in Denmark we had a very strong increase in the wind at about 150 meters - 500 feet. We still had an old Ka-8B and a Bergfalke (still flying) back then, so we figured out that when we took a winch launch, it was possible to fly so slowly that we went backwards. So we managed to fly a whole flight without turning. A winch launch, slow down, fly backwards until you were behind the airfield and then speed up and go down to land.

The funny thing was that when you were standing at the start point at the airfield, there were not much wind. So we stood there in almost calm and looked up at our Bergfalke and Ka-8B flying backward over our heads. Very strange view.

Best regards Mads, Denmark.

I had a windshear close encounter. As I taxied a Cessna 340 (big twin) out to the active at North Las Vegas, ATIS made slight mention of possible windshear. When I departed, I pulled the gear up early and stayed in ground effect as long as I could to build speed. pulled up and immediately lost 30 knots! If I had not paid attention to just a mention of possible windshear nor had I formulated a plan before hand I could have been in deep trouble. My home glider port in Southern Cal is known have a wind gradient due to trees on the approach end, I always come in with 10 knots more airspeed and bleed it off after the trees. Plan ahead, think ahead and stay safe.


On Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 12:32:56 PM UTC-7, Mads wrote:
This is not a storm story :-)

Once at my home airfield (Hammer) in Denmark we had a very strong increase in the wind at about 150 meters - 500 feet. We still had an old Ka-8B and a Bergfalke (still flying) back then, so we figured out that when we took a winch launch, it was possible to fly so slowly that we went backwards. So we managed to fly a whole flight without turning. A winch launch, slow down, fly backwards until you were behind the airfield and then speed up and go down to land.

The funny thing was that when you were standing at the start point at the airfield, there were not much wind. So we stood there in almost calm and looked up at our Bergfalke and Ka-8B flying backward over our heads. Very strange view.

Best regards Mads, Denmark.