No Whining Allowed This Weekend

[XCanytime]

Great pattern setting up for Friday thru Sunday. Large dome of high pressure bringing a NNW to W flow from Friday thru Sunday. Looks great for Woodstock Friday and High Rock and Pulpit Saturday and Pulpit Sunday.

Bacil

[RedBaron]

High Pressure? Ugh, that's gonna suck. Suppressed thermals and probably too light for WS and too strong for HR. Screw that!

[Danny Brotto]

TFR up Friday through Sunday noon:15 so ya better rethink HR Saturday... go ahead and whine a little.

Hyner should be very good this weekend. Ridgley looks very good Saturday through Monday too. Likely to fly Ridgley Saturday to get the gear ready for the ECC and then cross-train for the ECC Sunday and Monday in the sailplane.

Danny Brotto

[jimrooney]

High Pressure? Ugh, that's gonna suck.

What crack are you on?

Do me a favor... each time you fly, please grab the prog chart for the day. Collect these for a while. Guess what? You're going to find that nearly ALL of your "good days" are high pressure days.

Hell, have a look at any prog chart... look at each Low... they're where it's raining!!!!
Now have a look at the Highs... SUN!!!!!!!!

Take your "high pressure suppresses thermals" theory and chuck it out the window. See what you've got wrong here is long periods of high pressure suppress thermals... As does ANY long period of ANY pressure system.

Low's suck a$$. Rain and wind is what you find in lows... NOT THERMALS!
Ya know what they call big low pressure systems? Hurricanes.

Here's a much better rule of thumb for weather...
1st day post frontal = good mountain / XC flying (higher winds, good thermals)
2nd day post frontal = good flatland flying (lighter winds, good thermals)
3rd day post frontal, mellower typically... the strength of flying depends on the strength of the front that passed.

See, it's about frontal passage... NOT PRESSURE SYSTEMS.

[RedBaron]

Geee, no need to be rude...

[jimrooney]

Sorry man... didn't mean to be rude.

Jim

[RedBaron]

Don't worry about it. I have to learn to make clear when I'm joking and when I'm not, my very last post was a joke!
You are absolutely right, of course. I think I remember reading in Pagen's weather book that thermal size and behavior depends on the pressure system. Guess I took that out of context or something. My bad.

[brianvh]

Sure, the *number* of thermals may be the same in high pressure, but you don't get the cloud suck that creates those real boomers. Not being tongue in cheek: the best thermals are always under a developing cloud.

I prefer halfway between high and low.

[jimrooney]

I prefer halfway between high and low.

Amen brother!

I get frustrated when people talk about lows being "good". One look at a prog chart will fix that error of thought (the lows are where it's raining). We hate lows here at the airport because they always mean crap weather... always. Not even just some of the time, or most of the time... they always suck. They're windy and rainy.

Now the world between high and low (whatever you want to call it) is where the happiness is.
Unfortunately people latch onto Pagan's description of "stability" and assign (incorrectly) that lows are good.
It makes me sad.

Jim

[RedBaron]

That makes him quite a "Pagan", doesn't it?

[Matthew]

Matthew's theory--

It there's sunshine, there are thermals. I may not be good enough to get up in them or I may launch at the wrong time and find a sinkhole-- but it's worth a shot and I'll be outside.

[RedBaron]

Just found out why I don't like H's! They come with light winds, bad for the mountains!

[lbunner]

High pressure is almost always good out east but not so good in the mountains out west. I'll fly any high pressure day I can here and don't always assume there will be no wind. As Jim pointed out the first day after the frontal passage usually has plenty of winds for the mountains. Often the second day has good wind too. Can't wait to get my glider so I can demonstrate what I'm talking about!!

[davidtheamazing1]

I'm not going to be up for a multiple-day Hyner trip, but current forecast as of this hour is showing ideal conditions for Saturday at Sacramento. I've never flown there so I'm hoping to meet up with someone who lands there in their sleep... possibly due to the combination of excessively long flights and waking up too early with Bacil

[jimrooney]

Ridiculously good day at Highland today.
Strong thermals, very high cloudbase.
Our crew guy Bob headed out on his first XC flight... he left the field at 6&1/2 grand.
Forty some odd miles later he landed.

Jim

[Batman]

Hopefully the conditions are repetitive ... I'll be at Ridgely early tomorrow for the long haul. Hopefully to somewhere with sand and waves!