waves

[tomceunen]

I posted a message on a PG forum about waves, see below.
My questions to the experienced local guys, do you ever experienced the light wave phenonemom in VA as described below?

QUESTION was :

Date: October 31, 2005 01:50 PM
Author: East coast flyer
Subject: Waves

Last Saturday we had wave conditions in Virginia,USA. Too strong launching conditions for PG but the HG had lot's of fun and flew in magic lift for hours and also very far. I know these are pretty strong conditions but I was wondering if a PG ever flew in a wave and let's say had fun. Anyone knows?

(http://ww4.web-partners.com/forums/Inde ... e_ID=92140)

ANSWER was
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Date: October 31, 2005 06:36 PM
Author: TomP

Paragliders are very slow, but...

Wave lift is fairly common in certain parts of the UK, namely Wales, the Yorkshire Dales, and Scotland. You get paraglider-exploitable wave lift in other parts of the UK too, but it is less common than in these three areas.

Personally, I've only flown in proper wave lift once. You know how it forms, so I'll just tell you how it felt: I was flying late evening at a great ridge site (Fforest Farm). We were exploring the lift band. I found that the lift band continued in the direction of the ridge, 1km beyond the end of the ridge, then 2km beyond, then 5km... The lift was very weak but incredibly smooth: I was going up at <1m/s but in total silence (everything was totally still). It was as if the ridge was infinitely long; you just kept flying perpendicular to the wind direction and kept going up, slowly but smoothly. Eventually I turned around to fly back to take off but flew out of the wave bar and landed shortly afterwards.

Friends have reported magic wave experiences, sometimes climbing to >6,000 feet (rare in the UK). flying in super-smooth lift.

So, in the UK it happens. It's rare but it's magic when it does. Another magic wave site is Weather Fell in the Yorkshire Dales. Do some Googling...


(http://ww4.web-partners.com/forums/Inde ... e_ID=92146

[MikeBalk]

Yes it happens. I've been in light wave at WS. Flying min sink, and slowly
climbing ~ 100 fpm. We had to thermal up to get to the wave. If I
remember, the winds weren't too strong (I was flying as slow as possible
without worrying about being pushed back). When it is gentle, it doesn't go
as high, nor as fast. But it was wave.


-Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: tomceunen [mailto:tomceunen@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 9:04 AM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: waves


I posted a message on a PG forum about waves, see below.
My questions to the experienced local guys, do you ever experienced the
light wave phenonemom in VA as described below?

[Marcel Dettling]

I very well remember the totally excited report of our Swiss national hero Chrigel Maurer (PWC-, OLC-Winner, European Champion, XC distance record holder) who flew in a wave over Switzerland.

He launched his glider in the pre-alps, thermalled up and then got into the wave. He also reported very smooth and fairly weak lift. He was finally flying at 4300msl over the flatlands, 4000m above ground level. His groundspeed when going downwind was 120km/h (75mph). When going upwind (what he did in lift), he was actually going backwards with approximately 50km/h (30mph)! He safely landed after 75kms of flight.

Here's a link to the article describing the flight and some explanation of the wave phenomenon. It's in German, though.

http://www.shv-fsvl.ch/d/wetter/archiv/0703.htm

Cheers,

Marcel

[CraginS]

It is not perfect, but you can get most of the referenced web page readable in English by webbing to
http://babelfish.altavista.com
and pasting Marcel's web link into the web translaiton block. Select the language translation (German to English for me) and click on Translate.

Cragin


[quote="Marcel Dettling"]I very well remember the totally excited report of our Swiss national hero Chrigel Maurer (PWC-, OLC-Winner, European Champion, XC distance record holder) who flew in a wave over Switzerland.

He launched his glider in the pre-alps, thermalled up and then got into the wave. He also reported very smooth and fairly weak lift. He was finally flying at 4300msl over the flatlands, 4000m above ground level. His groundspeed when going downwind was 120km/h (75mph). When going upwind (what he did in lift), he was actually going backwards with approximately 50km/h (30mph)! He safely landed after 75kms of flight.

Here's a link to the article describing the flight and some explanation of the wave phenomenon. It's in German, though.

http://www.shv-fsvl.ch/d/wetter/archiv/0703.htm

Cheers,

Marcel[/quote]

[tomceunen]

So Mike and the others, which season will we got those conditions and how do you recognize them in VA looking at the weather report.

You understand that also I want to fly once in that magic lift.
In Belgium it never happened as far as I now.

By the way the Craigel Maurer report is awsom.
cheers

[MikeBalk]

Others know more than me about wave, but my observations are that fall and
winter seem to have more of it. It is usually at Woodstock on stronger
days, and often early in the day before heating mixes the air. On a true NW
day it probably happens more than we think - it is often there without the
tell tale lenticular clouds.

Bacil, and Nelson Lewis would know more about what forecast lends itself to
wave.


-Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: tomceunen [mailto:tomceunen@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 9:32 PM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: waves


So Mike and the others, which season will we got those conditions and how do
you recognize them in VA looking at the weather report.

[TQ]

So Mike and the others, which season will we got those conditions and how do you recognize them in VA looking at the weather report.

You understand that also I want to fly once in that magic lift.
In Belgium it never happened as far as I now.

By the way the Craigel Maurer report is awsom.
cheers

Here's the 5 PM model sounding for the 10/29/05 wave event...
[/img]http://users.adelphia.net/~toweringqs/w ... 05.gif[img]

Note the strong inversion capping the deep, unstable boundary layer and the strong winds aloft.[/img]

[TQ]

Second try...

Here's the 5 PM model sounding for the 10/29/05 wave event...


http://users.adelphia.net/~toweringqs/wave_102905.gif


Note the strong inversion capping the deep, unstable boundary layer and the strong winds aloft.

[Danny Brotto]

Here is a link to a great treatise on mountain wave.

http://meted.ucar.edu/mesoprim/mtnwave/print.htm

As Mike Balk observes, wave can form w/o the strong winds normally associated with it. Lenticulars are a good sign that wave is about but wave also often forms without the tell-tale sign of lennies.

I have flown hang gliders in wave forming during moderate wind conditions at HR, Pulpit, Jacks, Woodstock, and the old South Site (Tower city.) I don't recall seiing lennies during those flight. When I see lenticulars, I usually strap into the sailplane

Danny Brotto

[breezyk1d]

Wow. Incredible write up on wave. Would prefer not to encounter wave in a hang glider!

The wave in the write up is downwind/downslope of the mountain.

How are folk running into wave on the upwind side of the mountain ridge? Is it the downwind side of the ridge in front? -Linda

[kolielombard]

I had a good wave experience again at Woodstock on Veteran's Day (11/11/05). Got a late start - launched after 2:30pm. I thought I was only going to have a 20 min checkride with an instructor in the 2-seater sailplane out of Front Royal. The thermal forecast indicated stable air, and I did not expect any ridge or wave because the winds lower down were too SW. Well - we had to land after more than 2.5 hours because the sun was setting. The lift lower down was definitely rotor (not thermal) - very rough and broken up. We were able to play around at will in a large area between Skyline Drive and rt 81. There were very large areas where we just kept flying straight, maintaining or climbing slowly. We then focused on the area just east of the easterly ridge near Signal Knob, working our way up to about 5,500ft. All of a sudden everything went quiet - except for the vario! We went up to 8,000ft at 400fpm and were then able to jump upwind and downwind between the harmonics. It was a stunning Fall day in the Shenandoah - unlimited visiblity and beautiful colors on the trees. I was thinking of you HG guys during my flight because the winds aloft were so low that a HG could have easily maintained position. - K

[mcelrah]

Is it the downwind side of the ridge in front? -Linda

Yup. - Hugh