Some good news

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 6:27:40 PM UTC+3, Dan Marotta wrote:
Rotor is the Boogie Man.



In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52
whose vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor.* I
feared rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time in a
glider with the airspeed well within the green arc.* Yes, it's
bumpy, but maintaining control is a non-event.* Using rotor to climb
into the wave is sometimes the only way to get there.* There's a
terrific mix of up and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of
the rotor, the net is up.* You climb in rough air and then, all of a
sudden, it becomes silky smooth and the rate of climb increases
rapidly.* What a treat!* Having said that, I still have enough sense
not to fly through rotor with the airspeed in the yellow!

I dunno.

If you stay in the green then, yeah, you won't break the glider. But I've been in Omarama rotor where it was so uncomfortable that I wanted the airspeed more like 50 or 55 knots. And then the problem was having enough aileron authority to say upright. And occasionally, less than stall speed on the clock, and all you can do is accept the low G and the nose dropping until the speed comes back a few seconds later.

Ain't it grand? Feeling Mother Nature's power. :-D

On 10/22/2015 10:08 AM, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 6:27:40 PM UTC+3, Dan Marotta wrote:
Rotor is the Boogie Man.



In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52
whose vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor. I
feared rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time in a
glider with the airspeed well within the green arc. Yes, it's
bumpy, but maintaining control is a non-event. Using rotor to climb
into the wave is sometimes the only way to get there. There's a
terrific mix of up and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of
the rotor, the net is up. You climb in rough air and then, all of a
sudden, it becomes silky smooth and the rate of climb increases
rapidly. What a treat! Having said that, I still have enough sense
not to fly through rotor with the airspeed in the yellow!
I dunno.

If you stay in the green then, yeah, you won't break the glider. But I've been in Omarama rotor where it was so uncomfortable that I wanted the airspeed more like 50 or 55 knots. And then the problem was having enough aileron authority to say upright. And occasionally, less than stall speed on the clock, and all you can do is accept the low G and the nose dropping until the speed comes back a few seconds later.

--
Dan, 5J