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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal
index for the day, by typing in info for an individual's area. I can no longer find it. I've recently been reading my old soaring magazines from the '80's and saw an article by Senn on the SOAR thermal forcast program. Are either of these still in use? I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level of lift I could expect for any flying day. Most of my flying is done below 600 feet from a small local park. I realize that the ROAB balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. What would be involved in getting my own sounding? I'm thinking of using an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. Is there a small device that would record the soundings? thanks, John |
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
Here is the url: http://www.soarforecast.com/
On 11/26/2010 11:25 AM, gldrgidr wrote: Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal index for the day, by typing in info for an individual's area. I can no longer find it. Pete Brown Anchorage Alaska Going home after a long day http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1415/...22928754_b.jpg The fleet at Summit. Mt. McKinley is about 45nm away at 20,320 msl. http://farm1.static.flickr.com/187/4...cb8d2482_b.jpg The 170B at Bold near Eklutna Glacier http://farm1.static.flickr.com/168/4...a216d7bb75.jpg |
#3
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
On Nov 26, 1:25*pm, gldrgidr wrote:
Years ago there used to be a website that would provide a thermal index for the day, by typing in *info for an individual's area. *I can no longer find it. I've recently been reading my old soaring magazines from the '80's and saw an article by Senn on the SOAR thermal forcast program. Are either of these still in use? I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been flying R/C gliders. *It would be great if I could determine what level of lift I could expect for any flying day. *Most of my flying is done below 600 feet from a small local park. *I realize that the ROAB balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. *What would be involved in getting my own sounding? *I'm thinking of using an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. *Is there a small device that would record the soundings? thanks, John http://www.soarforecast.com/ |
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
That is it!
Thanks Pete and Tim. Still wonder if anyone has done soundings. |
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 12:25:48 -0800, gldrgidr wrote:
I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level of lift I could expect for any flying day. Look at BlipMap if you're in the USA or RASP in Britain. There are sites elsewhere too, which provide very detailed hour by hour soaring predictions for up to 5 days ahead. A description is he http://drjack.info/BLIP/INFO/ARTICLE...g_article.html Home websites for BlipMap and RASP: BlipMap: http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/ RASP: http://rasp.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/ Most of my flying is done below 600 feet from a small local park. BlipMaps are useful predictors of when to go fly, but do you know what the Free Flight fraternity use for thermal detection? I've built and used inexpensive electronic devices that register where a thermal is in relation to where you're waiting to launch: http://www.gregorie.org/freeflight/t..._detector.html If you fly F3K these techniques would be a good match, but if you're using gorilla winches and/or flying bigger/heaver/faster models a downlinked variometer may be more useful: http://www.eagletreesystems.com/Plane/plane.html -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org | |
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
On 11/26/2010 12:25 PM, gldrgidr wrote:
I have not been flying sailplanes for the last decade but I have been flying R/C gliders. It would be great if I could determine what level of lift I could expect for any flying day. Most of my flying is done below 600 feet from a small local park. I realize that the ROAB balloon soundings are only done for altitudes in 1000' increments so they might not work for those of us who fly close to the ground. What would be involved in getting my own sounding? I'm thinking of using an electric powered plane in place of a balloon. Is there a small device that would record the soundings? If you are only interested in the first 1000', I suspect a soaring forecast won't help very much. I'm guessing you want a lot sun and an inversion at 1000' (or fly early, before the convection gets above 1000'), so there are plenty of thermals per square mile. Try this tool for a forecast sounding that can show the lower level details: http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/ -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me) |
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Thermal Forcasting -Thermal index
If you are only interested in the first 1000', I suspect a soaring
forecast won't help very much. I'm guessing you want a lot sun and an inversion at 1000' (or fly early, before the convection gets above 1000'), so there are plenty of thermals per square mile. Try this tool for a forecast sounding that can show the lower level details: http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/ -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me) Great Info. Thanks to all who replied. I'm actually flying hand launch (DLG) and a small 1.5 meter electric powered glider. |
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