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Posted by Mark Wass....
on 4/20/2009, 12:34 pm, in reply to "Weekend Review, 04/19/09"
64.80.107.66
Hi Ray,
I may have given you an incorrect impression that I disagree with this late afternoon flying. I don’t, my time was wasted in that by the time I figured out what was going on, I did not have a chance to join you, all I could do was watch while wondering when I would be able to go home.
Since you made no prior arrangements with anyone, combined with no operations manager, perhaps a call to the field was in order to confirm that there was a ‘party’ actually taking place. That call should have taken place long prior to being an hour overdue. Once you received the message that there was no party and everyone on the ground was ready to leave, I would like to think your priority would have been to land as-soon-as possible, rather than mill around for an additional 30 minutes.
All that was really missing was communication. How can we communicate better? What are we missing? Ask yourself these questions; Do I have a way to communicate with the field if I am overdue with this club plane? If I am waiting for a club plane that is overdue, would I know if they are attempting communication?
If we communicate, we call all get what we want out of this.
--Previous Message--
: Since anyone watching the weather knew this
: past weekend would be good, I didn't bother
: stating the obvious. Sometimes however I'll
: post a post-weekend review when something
: unusual occures, the case here.
:
: The lack of rain hereabouts in April so far
: has led to excellent (except for farmers)
: semi-arid conditions conducive to soaring.
: Although we didn't fly, Friday was surely a
: diamond-task day, what with a good lapse
: rate, high sun angle, and a very transparent
: ("cobalt blue" sky clearly seen on
: the water-vapor satellite imagery. On
: Saturday, the high cirrus had come into the
: upper troposphere and it was hazy with
: diminished visibility. But the PBL
: (meteorolist's term for the layer we thermal
: in, the "planetary boundary layer"
: , was already well-mixed (or equivalently, a
: deep dry-adiabatic layer had become well
: established), so once the sun heated the
: surface sufficently to produce a shallow
: super-adiabatic layer there (one of only two
: ways to get soarable thermals going), things
: were cranking. I got to the airport too
: late to fly (most ships were airborne and
: visible, according to Rick Roman, only as
: "tiny little dots" , but not too
: late to help retrieve the Bergfalke, which
: had landed at Hanna Acres in an introductory
: cross-country lesson for Junior Member Alex.
: The fact that that ship (which doesn't
: penetrate anything like the 21) scooted up
: there against a significant headwind
: component so readily (and surely could have
: gone further) is indicative of the superb
: thermalling conditions. Not to mention there
: was obvious wave evidence all over the sky,
: although no one was lucky enough to contact.
:
: Sunday was even more interesting. The upper
: level flow had changed (I'll skip the
: synoptic analysis), sweeping out the
: upper-level cirrus haze and bringing in
: clear air aloft, but not sweeping out the
: PBL, which as stated was already well-primed
: for convection. The winds at 6000' were
: forecast
: (http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/Aloft.cgi?location=BUF&Submit=Get+Forecast&hour=06&course=azimuth
: to be 340 @ 20 mph till 10AM, switching to
: 090 @ 9 mph the rest of the day. Surface
: winds generally NE all day. This information
: immediately excited me...why? Normally,
: either a NW or NE wind coming across
: relatively cold Lake Ontario this time of
: year spells death for strong thermals. But,
: with the PBL afternoon winds more or less
: easterly, there is no longer a lake-water
: fetch for Dansville. Rather, the fetch is
: across the almost lake-free center
: (lattitudinaly) of NY State, which has been
: dry and previously well-mixed. Which
: suggests good soaring from Dansville to
: someplace far to the west. I really think
: one could have flown to Columbus Ohio
: yesterday. At 3:30 I saw the poor, neglected
: Bergefalke sitting forlornly on the ground,
: unwanted, and wistfully waiting for someone
: to take her up. After verifying that no one
: else wanted the ship, I took off and found
: good lift (in spite of no yaw string),
: especially of course on the East side of the
: valley. Now normally, as I discovered from
: my Master's thesis, when the surface
: temperature drops by only a few degees, the
: roots of the thermals are cut off and the
: convective field collapses. But as stated
: above, there's one other way to get an
: adiabatic layer going, since
: thermodynamically it is actually neutrally
: stable, not intrinsicaly unstable. The
: latter occurs when you heat the surface and
: form a superadiabatic layer (which IS
: intrinsically unstable), OR, of course, when
: you mechanically lift a parcel. Having
: forgotten this, by around 5 PM I expected
: things to fall apart and have to land. But
: the west side of the valley provided some
: upward push, augmented no doubt by the
: vehicle traffic on 390. At about this time I
: saw Doug Cline bravely exploring the east
: side, where I was loath to go with the
: Bergfalke. Later he told me he saw the
: Pegasus vario firmly pegged on down while
: there. AT ~ 5:45 I called the field to see
: if people were still partying, as is the
: general mode in our social club, only to
: find them anxious to put the ugly duckling
: away and go home, so I landed (I owe all of
: them lunch or dinner, they can collect
: whenever). When I had to land, I was near
: Sonyea, and flew an exploratory all down the
: west ridge till well south of Dansville, to
: find nearly continuous lift or zero. So I
: suspect the valley effect was getting
: organized, the conditions were surely
: conducive. We need to get position lights on
: at least one ship, you could probably have
: stayed up untill midnight.
:
: P.S. Will someone please correct my phone
: number on the membership list? I've been
: trying to get this changed for two years. My
: cell is 716-560-2059, NOT what's now listed!
:
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