Comments and visitors

Comments: I've always encouraged comments from readers of my blog. Unfortunately the "blog spammers" eventually found me and I had to turn on "comment moderation" some years ago. That added a bit of delay - comments don't show up until I approve them. Annoying, but no big deal.

Well, the spammers are attacking me again, this time with comments that almost look human-created, but upon a second look are so generic that they're useless. It's become a daily occurrence. So now I'm trying another method: "word verification". If you add a comment, you will have to read a word graphic and enter the word. An annoying step, I know, but I'm sure you've see it in use on other systems. On the plus side, I'll turn off comment moderation, so your comment will show up immediately.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Please keep the comments coming! If there's an aspect of soaring that I haven't written about yet, feel free to send me topic suggestions.

Visitors: In case you're curious:

• About 175 to 240 individuals visit my blog in a typical month.
  
• Over the last year, over 1,900 individuals visited at least once.
  
• Usually the day after I post an article, about 20 people visit, and then fewer each day in between posts.
  
• The average visitor reads 1.4 pages, which means most visitors only read one page, the most recent post.
• The most popular posts for returning visitors have been Weather and planning for soaring and Class on PDA, SeeYou Mobile, and Volkslogger.

Thank you all for your interest!

Clear weather - new terrain - but no lift

We're experiencing some gusty winds from the north as a result of high pressure building up after a front went through a few days ago. The direction looked good for producing ridge lift in the "bowl" near Lake Elsinore. And the ADDS wind forecast predicted about 15 knots at the altitude of the top of the ridge. If the orographic lift didn't materialize, there was still the chance of thermal lift. The calculated trigger temperature was 74F. The maximum ground temperature forecasts were all over the place, from 67F to 80F. But at Lake Elsinore, the wind ranged from zero to about 5 knots - usually about zero. It started to heat up fairly well, probably to the mid-70's. (I don't think there's a thermometer out near the flight line - maybe I'll bring one out.)

The local club pilots know that we're new at this location, so they kindly offer suggestions. Several pointed out that it would be better to head for the "Sedco Hills" to the east because of the sun heating up their west-facing slopes. They also pointed out landmarks where thermals can sometimes be found.


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This sounded like a good idea. I had not flown that direction yet, and one concern was that it's a bit further away from the Initial Point for the landing pattern. There are some restrictions at this site about where you can and can't fly, and returning from the Sedcos means you have to traverse more of the no-thermaling area. That means leaving yourself more altitude for the return flight - which means less altitude for hunting for thermals. One pilot suggested that, depending on the wind direction, one could need 800 to 1000 feet to get from the hills to the IP, so that's what I planned on doing.

I let off at 3200' AGL and flew back and forth over the hills a few times. Due to the clear air, the views were terrific, but the lift was nonexistent. I did have time to take a few pictures.

"blip"... finally my audio vario came to life indicating some weak lift. But it died after a half turn. I could find a few blips every time I went around, but not enough to take me upward. Unfortunately it was right over the I-15 freeway, which is the border of the no-thermaling skydiving drop zone. So I could not explore over the flatlands to see if the lift would pick up. Too soon, it was time to head west to the IP.












Well... I could tell visually that it was not as far from the Sedco Hills to the Initial Point as I had thought. I consumed only about 400 feet of altitude getting across the valley. I can see how if the coastal wind is coming from the west it could take more altitude, but for normal flying I don't think it will be a big deal. I got back over near the IP with about 600-700 feet to hunt for more lift. I found a few more blips but nothing strong enough to work.

My pattern and landing were very good. I'm learning to do a "wheel landing" in the Blanik, because of the long, soft dirt runway. That means keeping the glider level on the main wheel after touchdown so the tailwheel doesn't dig in and stop the rollout right away. Quite a contrast from the extreme short stops that we always performed at Hemet. My rollout was nearly all the way back to the taxiway... I just forgot about the light crosswind at the last minute, so I wasn't perfectly straight.

Now the problems began. We're having a problem with the tailwheel on the ship I was flying. It digs into the soft dirt and doesn't roll! I don't think it's the bearing - the wheel rolls fine if you pick up the tail and spin it. And it casters (turns side to side) OK. We think the problem is that the rod it's mounted on is able to twist, so the wheel lays over on its side a few degrees instead of castering into the direction of the turn.






This makes it nearly impossible for two people to push the glider around. It's constantly digging in, and it's as if the brake is being applied.

A Thermal Made Visible

For as long as I can remember I have occasionally seen flocks of seagulls gathering over our town - up to about 200 at a time, wheeling in circles in a group a few hundred feet tall. Later on I remember seeing the ones at the top heading out in a line, usually toward the ocean. I thought it looked like a thread being pulled from a spool - the flock eventually turned into a long line of gulls and disappeared. I never really noticed that they entered at the bottom and left from the top - I just figured it was some sort of holding pattern as they arrived from feeding all over town.

That was before I knew about thermals.

After I learned to soar, I realized that the gulls in those flock never flap - they're soaring in some thermal over a parking lot or dark roof or something. They're obviously "tanking up" before heading out on a long flight. The dimensions of the flock - horizontal and vertical - probably define the size and shape of the thermal.

So far, so obvious.

This is one of the few times that a thermal is actually visible. The other time that thermals are visible is when they're filled with dust and we call them a "dust devil". Usually those are tall and thin and often moving laterally, but are pretty much vertical columns of dust.

Yesterday I saw another seagull-filled thermal as I was driving on the freeway. The day before we had had "Santa Ana winds" - a local name for a foehn wind. This day the wind had settled down to a breeze - but was still probably between 5 and 10 knots. As I passed by the flock, I could see that the column of gulls was skewed at a 45-degree angle to the vertical. They were still thermaling, but were being carried downwind at the same rate they were rising.

We glider pilots all know that thermals are skewed by the wind - but we very rarely get to see it. The hundreds of gulls made the distortion perfectly clear. What a great teaching tool that would be. Now if only we can arrange for flock of seagulls during ground school...

A short flight under lowering skies

Last Saturday, the weather looked there might be a bit of an opportunity to soar. A cold front was moving in but was well to the north. We could see some lenticular clouds about 15-20 miles away that indicated winds coming our way. If the winds ahead of the front were strong enough, ridge soaring might work. If the sky remained clear, and the wind was NOT strong, some thermal soaring might be possible. A special event going on at the airport meant that we couldn't launch until about 1:00, and this time of the year the sun goes behind the hills about 3:00, so the window would be narrow.

In the morning some of us spent some time talking with a pilot who's flown at Elsinore quite a bit, and observing the sky. The wind was coming in from the ocean side, causing some cumulus clouds to build on the west side of the coastal hills. If they came far enough east we might be able to get up underneath them. As the first launch time approached, they were getting closer and some had concave bottoms indicating lift.

I was about third in line to launch. As we got up to 3000' AGL over the hills, about the typical altitude to release, we were nearly up to the base of the clouds, and the clouds were much grayer and more widespread than they had been just a half hour before. I found a little lift as I released, and a little zero-sink for a while. But the clouds were within about 1000' of the top of the ridge, which left little room for hunting for any lift. Before long I had to drop off the ridge onto the side of the hill, and from the on found nothing but moderate sink. I knew that was a possibility, because if the wind was still coming over the hills from the ocean, it'd be spilling down into the valley.

With a few minutes of slight lift and zero-sink, and then some moderate sink, I ended up with just an 18-minute flight. When I got out of the cockpit after landing, the cloud cover was about 65-75% and the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees. If there was a window of usable lift, I had missed it. The only other private pilot who took off that day got skunked too.

That's OK - I was glad to fly for even a short time, as I'm still focusing on learning the area, getting used to the runways and operations, so I can start planning to take my Commercial practical test at this location.

Weather and planning for soaring

I wrote about this four years ago. I've changed my weather and planning routine, so here's an updated version.

For every day when I plan local soaring, I prepare by getting as much info as I can about the conditions. Here's what I usually look at. One or two days before:

• If I am able to plan ahead, I check out general pressure patterns at the National Hydrometeorological Prediction Center at http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_wbg.php. Roll your mouse over each tab to get a decent moving display of the fronts. Otherwise I just keep an eye on the fronts and pressures from the TV news.
  

On the morning I'm planning to fly:

• I start by looking at AOPA's Temporary Flight Restrictions and NOTAM page at http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html. If there's a TFR due to firefighting or presidential movement, that's a show-stopper.
  
  
• Weather Underground at http://www.wunderground.com/ includes a forecast of temps and winds by hour for the day. I write down the maximum forecast temperature for later use in my Thermal Forecast spreadsheet. This max temperature is usually the same as forecast by the National Weather Service.
  
  
• Look again at the pressure patterns at the NCEP to see if anything's changed.
  
  
• DUATS at http://www.duats.com/ to get several pieces of information: 1) synopsis for my region of the state, including forecast sky conditions for the day, 2) terminal forecasts for the two biggest fields closest to my home field, 3) look for any severe weather forecast, 4) temperatures aloft (which I write down for my Thermal Forecast spreadsheet), and 5) NOTAMs. Another major reason for using DUATS is that you have to log in with your Pilot's Certificate number, and they keep a record of it. If anything were to happen, I could prove that I got a DUATS weather briefing that day.
  
  
• Get a SKEW-T plot from NOAA's RUC Analyses/Forecasts site. I use this to look for inversions and how they might change through the day. You can create bookmarks for the forecast for your favorite airports.
  
  
• Next I plug the temperatures into my Thermal Forecast spreadsheet and print it one or more of the charts.
  
  
• Finally, I look at the NWS's local soaring forecast at http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sgx/data/aviation/soar.htm. I look at it last because I like to form my own opinion of the thermal tops and strengths, and then see if it agrees with this popular forecast. I print this and take it to the field to share.

This sounds like a lot, but it doesn't really take that long.

I used to look at the wind forecast using the ADDS Flight Path Tool from http://adds.aviationweather.gov but have got out of that habit. Now that I'll be flying at a site that can take advantage of ridge soaring, I might start checking it again.