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Wed 4th – Ridge soaring, but not as we know it

It seems an age since the ridge worked all the way to Kingsclere, but maybe the same rare conditions present on that freezing snowy day repeated themselves on Wednesday.

Here are the Larkhill sounding forecasts for 10:00 hrs and 14:00 hrs:

10am

2pm

The gradient of the environmental lapse rate ended up inclining between the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the saturated adiabatic lapse rate, indicating that the air mass was ‘conditionally unstable’. So with the upward impetus of the ridge, the air on the valley floor, too cool to rise with its own buoyancy, became just sufficiently unstable to sustain flight.

See Tom Bradbury’s ‘Meteorology and Flight’ page 40 and http://www.ddsc.org.au/documents/weather/DDSC%20Meteorology%20Basics%20Rev%201.pdf page 50.

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Shalbourne’s Guardian Angel

santa

Returning home in the gloaming this evening I experienced a sudden deflation of my offside front tyre. I managed to creep around the corner onto the verge in Ham Road and, there being no cell phone signal, had no option but to set about changing the wheel in a vulnerable spot and in pitch darkness.

Many vehicles squeezed through the gap alongside, forcing me to step aside; their occupants peering at me in curiosity, annoyance, or just plain pity, but all passed by ‘on the other side’. UNTIL – a car stopped, turned around and parked so as to guard my rear and illuminate my work space. From the vehicle emerged a gentleman asking if he could help in any way. Having parked with my nearside wheels on a grass bank, I was concerned that the car could slip sideways off the jack, so, more in hope than in expectation, I said that a large block of wood for safety might be helpful. He nodded sagely and strolled off, reappearing three minutes later carrying a foot cube of wood! He then stood by until I had safely completed the job.

It emerged that I had been in the illustrious company of the 86 year-old Revd Canon Stephen Trapnell, who lives opposite the church. It was inspirational to meet someone of such advanced years still practicing what he had been preaching for a lifetime.

You may see him on the airfield sometime and if you do, please charge his flight to my account.

Merry Christmas all!

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Windy Wednesday

Wouldn’t you know it – soaring into October and I’m reduced to ‘Spotting the gliders’. Nothing seen at Rivar yesterday, so assume x wind was out of limits. However, there were some brave souls about, most particularly a Twin Astir apparently having a whale of a time on the ridge at the East end of the South Downs.

However, I was particularly impressed with this guy’s navigation.

tracking

I watched him on and off for over and hour trudging along in a motor glider in a 30kt xwind and apart from the odd course correction, tracking straight as a die in what must have been uncomfotable turbulence. Textbook flying. And from experience I can affirm that it’s exhausting and sick making, often with the compass swinging all over the place.

So here’s an exercise for a rainy day – if the wind was 30kt from the East, his track (at the time of the snapshot) was 146 degrees and his ground speed was 51 kt, what was his compass heading and airspeed?

 

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Strangest Aerotow?

This early afternoon I witnessed a C130 orbiting Newbury below 2000 ft and towing a small delta winged craft at at a speed fast enough to drag adiabatic condensation off its turned up winglets. I saw it twice so not delusional.

Anything known?