Wave Alert and record holder caught cheating?

Hi all,

Below is a copy of SoaringNV's (glider FBO at Minden, NV) most recent wave
alert email. Towards the bottom is a shameless account of what some may
construe as flagrant cheating by pilot Gordo Boettger in a not so obvious
attempt at cornering a world record in the new 52 meter open class,
multi-turbo self-launch category. bumper zz

****************

Wave Alert - March 10

We've had some nice wave flights in the past fortnight (see below) and it's
time to look ahead and see what might be in store for us in the next few
weeks.

The winds forecast at the 250 Mb level are very encouraging starting around
the Ides of March. And from what I'm seeing right now I think we'll see
some wave this Saturday (3/14). But the coming week does not otherwise look
promising.

After Saturday it looks like March 21 might give us some pre-frontal wave
activity, then we're probably looking at March 23-25 before the lower level
winds forecast makes wave look likely. We might be getting some moisture on
the 24th too, so that might not be a great wave day, although the Carson
Valley is usually drier than the mountains to our west.

So putting it all together, I'd say there will be a chance of wave this
Saturday (the 14th), and after that the next ten days would be an excellent
time to come do a field and equipment check with us in preparation for a
wave flight on the 23rd or so. Give us a call if you want to get in some
spring recurrency flying in with Jeffrey, or want to learn your way around
the Carson Valley before setting off on a high altitude flight. We'd love
to see you here.

Oh, and bring your camera-the snow on the Sierras is just spectacular!


*********

Wave in a 500,000 Pound Aircraft

Gordo Boettger flies a MD-11 for Fedex when he's not flying gliders, and he
sent us an email describing a recent flight out of San Francisco during
which he found some nice wave at FL350 over our little patch of ground. I'm
passing it on for real wave enthusiasts. Fred

Gents,
Took off from SFO at 7 PM last night in the MD-11 headed for MEM. We hit
wave harmonics like I've never seen before southwest of ELY going east for
about 100 miles. Winds near TPH were about 320/90 at FL350. With the full
moon, I could visibly see rotor clouds lined up running E/W near TPH. Yes,
E/W. As we headed further east towards ELY, the winds shifted to pretty
much a westerly flow at about 80 kts. That's when we hit the harmonics.
The throttles would go to idle, nose pitch over, and the speed clacker was
going off due to overspeed. On one occasion, the autopilot couldn't hold
altitude and we gained about 150 feet. Then we'd hit the down part, with
speed getting really slow and throttles at MCT. We hit about 7 consecutive
harmonics. UNREAL strength to the wave. On one occasion south of ELY, the
wave was marked with a nice rotor cloud. As we approached it from the west,
I told the copilot to watch the instruments as we hit the up part of the
wave. Sure enough, throttles idle, nose pitch over and speed clacker going
off.
All I could imagine was heading downwind in a sailplane. Here we were in a
500K pound airplane going up. East of the Wasatch we ran into what appeared
by the looks of the clouds as a very unstable layer. No more harmonics.
Very interesting last night. I've hit wave before, but NEVER so many
harmonics at that altitude. Pass on to others if you wish.


*********

Another Altitude Diamond

Morteza Ansari earned his diamond altitude and Lenny pin (subject, of course
to the Badge Lady's review) on Sunday, March 8. He was flying SoaringNV's
LS-4 on a nice wave day with a little cloud cover but generally excellent
visibility over the Carson Valley. On the right is a very happy Morteza
watching Fred review the flight trace from the flight recorder.

Morteza towed out around 2:30 in a strong crosswind, but got into decent
rotor lift around 7,500' MSL and released just a few hundred feet higher.
He had to work rotor for the first couple thousand feet but broke into
laminar flow just east of Genoa Peak and worked his way up to 26,000' MSL
pretty quickly.

*********

Time to sign up for the Minden Wave Camp

We're hearing lots of interest in our wave camp, so if you're planning to
attend please confirm your participation as soon as possible. Dates are
April 8-12 and we have some very experienced wave pilots on the list of
presenters. Call SoaringNV (877) 2-SoarNV or email us info at SoaringNV
for more information or to hold a place. We look forward to having you fly
with us.

Laurie & Fred

**********

SoaringNV is happy to provide subscribers with information about soaring
conditions through this occasional newsletter. But if you don't want to
receive these emails you can have your name removed from the list by
clicking the opt-out button. And we really mean it-we won't try to persuade
you to stay on the list, just as we'll never give anyone our email list.

On the other hand, if you know other soaring pilots who might like to hear
from us, please refer them. If this is not for them, they can opt out at
any time.

Sincerely,




Laurie Harden and Fred LaSor
SoaringNV, LLC

**********

There is a prior claim - a few decades ago an RAF Victor pilot waiting
around over Scotland to refuel a bunch of fighters had a plaintive call
from one of the guys in the hole in the back:

"Captain, the engines are back at 60% and we are climbing at 800 feet per
minute - can someone please tell me what's going on?"

You can't trust glider pilots, even when they are doing their day job.

At 03:56 12 March 2009, bumper wrote:
Hi all,

Below is a copy of SoaringNV's (glider FBO at Minden, NV) most recent
wave

alert email. Towards the bottom is a shameless account of what some may
construe as flagrant cheating by pilot Gordo Boettger in a not so obvious

attempt at cornering a world record in the new 52 meter open class,
multi-turbo self-launch category. bumper zz

****************

On Mar 11, 8:56*pm, "bumper" wrote:

Wave in a 500,000 Pound Aircraft

Gordo Boettger flies a MD-11 for Fedex

Gents,
Took off from SFO at 7 PM last night in the MD-11 headed for MEM. *
That's when we hit the harmonics.
The throttles would go to idle, nose pitch over, and the speed clacker was
going off due to overspeed. *

Pass on to others if you wish.

I wonder if Gordo can get his FOQA (Flight Ops Quality Assurance) or
ACARS data to substantiate his wave claims in his MD-11!

I used to test MD-11's, and had a wonderful time.

BTW, FOQA (pronounced FO-kwa) is "data loggers for airliners." At a
NASA Safety meeting back in '05, I admonished both NASA and the
airline industry for not keeping up with OLC using their FOQA data!
Such is life.

BTW, back in '01, Norm Howell (former C-17 test pilot, former
Tehachapi tug pilot, former X-48B pilot) established a C-17 altitude/
payload record by similarly cheating: he used the Sierra Wave to take
a ~500klb C-17 to about 44,000 feet...setting altitude records for
carrying a 40,000 kg (88,200 lb) payload. Next time I harass him,
I'll ask if he put in for the lennie pin.

-Pete
#309