Mountain wave

In article , Stefan wrote:
Thinking at it ... those 5000 ft you mentioned in an earlier post
should have been enough to reach Scotland ... your once in a decade
chance to aquire silver distance! Nobody tried?

Trouble is we have to know in advance. We're not part of the UK and we
need to inform Customs if we're going there! Unless you're flying to a
large airfield you need to give them 24 hrs notice.

It is actually possible to just about squeak out the Silver distance
here by going right to the Point of Ayre and down to Chicken Rock. We
have discussed the possibility of doing this. The main problem is
getting either a very high cloudbase to climb up and do it all as a
'final glide' or consistent conditions across the island (we have a very
varied microclimate - it can be socked in so bad all day at Ronaldsway
that the airliners aren't moving, and we can be soaring in reasonable
thermals in the north only 30nm away). On the day we got all that
altitude, the 'booming conditions' were in a region only a few miles
square (although I think that day I could have glided up to the Point of
Ayre, back to Maughold, where it was working, climbed back up to 5,300,
then gone to Chicken Rock and then land at Ronaldsway). We do need to do
a little preparation for this such as make sure the grass areas at
Ronaldsway airport are landable because I don't think they'll want us on
their runways because they have quite a bit of airline traffic.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Thanks for the additional information, Todd. Newsgroups are wonderful
(especially if there's no election going on). -- Dan

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 10:26:14 -0400, Todd Pattist
wrote:

Cub Driver wrote:

IIRC, it's about 3x5 miles across.

Oh gosh, I'd assumed it was something that extended across New
Hampshire and maybe into Vermont and Maine!

OK, you got me wondering, so I looked it up. It's about
20nm x 13 nm - only off by a factor of four in length and 16
in area :-) I knew I shouldn't have tried to remember.
Mt. Washington is on the western upwind edge and the
downwind corners are about 13 nm diagonally SSE and NNE

Did this box exist before GPS?

Yes.

Can you really locate yourself so
precisely at 20,000+ feet?

It's easier with GPS, but it's not too hard if you get
familiar with the box corners.

Once established in a wave, it feels like you're parked in
3-space, so there's lots of time to get oriented and get
into the right position before vertically entering Class A.
It's quieter than flying has any right to be, and I can fly
by trimming my ship and then leaning to the sides or
front/back even though my cockpit only allows a few inches
of motion. The altimeter is rolling up, but ground speed is
near zero. You are sitting in majestic silence, high and
mighty above a mountain landscape of ice, snow, rock and
cloud. It brings a smile to my face to recall.

"It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill."
Wilbur Wright

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Expedition sailboat charters www.expeditionsail.com

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 09:20:14 -0000, Dylan Smith
wrote:

Trouble is we have to know in advance. We're not part of the UK and we
need to inform Customs if we're going there!

Surely the Brits wouldn't torture you or anything? I mean, everyone
knows that a glider doesn't have an engine, so has to go where the
wind blows, just like a balloon.

If things got tough, couldn't you try the Corrigan Defense? "I was
trying to fly to Sweden but my compass was wrong."

Well, I suppose they could make you pay VAT on your illegal import....

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Expedition sailboat charters www.expeditionsail.com