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Posted by Mark
on 4/23/2009, 6:36 am, in reply to "Afternoon Recreation"
64.80.107.66
I appologize Ray, I should not have brought up the details here. All I really wanted to point out is that better commuication is perhaps needed. And that in a situation like this one, the lions share of the responsiblity for that communication resides with the pilot.
This is the perfect forum for point this out. As a club, we may even decide that policy is in order.
--Previous Message--
:
: Hi Mark,
:
: Thanks for your conciliatory, candid, and
: fence-mending note. You are absolutely
: correct that communication is key here. I
: know you realize by now I didn't stay up
: there out of some perverse desire to
: aggravate people waiting to go home. For
: decades, the "modus operandi" of
: our club was to fly till the lift quit. Even
: then, those "late day flyers" were
: always responsible for putting the ship(s)
: away themselves. Back then, the process was
: simpler, as they were tied out. Since
: getting our hanger, the packing, which can
: be done by two or three competent people, in
: fairness should involve the participation of
: the entire afternoon "flying
: crew".
:
: Your note only requires two clarifications.
: Although there was no OPS manager, I did
: check with Rick Roman as to whether anyone
: wanted the Bergefalke, he said no, and no
: doubt it would have been put away if I
: hadn't taken it. I did request a call if
: anyone wanted to reach me "for any
: reason". Rick did call well before my
: call, but unfortunately he used the # on the
: website, which is defunct, and which I have
: been trying to change for two years (the
: correct # is 716.560.2059). Communication.
: Eventually everyone else had landed, no one
: took another tow to join me, so I suspected
: the usual "after flying refreshment
: party" was ongoing. To make sure, I
: placed a call at 5:47, only to find people
: were waiting to go home. Being "an hour
: overdue" generally implies someone is
: waiting for the ship, which was definitely
: not the case. If being "an hour
: overdue" means all ships are supposed
: to land by 5 PM, I was not aware of this. I
: have been told the day officially ends at 5,
: and of course am more than willing to abide
: by this, but...nowhere in the OPS Rules or
: Club Bylaws could I find this dictum.
:
: It's unfortunate the thread I initiated has
: morphed from meteorology to manners. I'm
: getting no feedback whatsoever re the met
: discussions. Is anyone out there even
: reading them? If not, I'm wasting my time.
: Also, I suggest we terminate the
: "manners" discussion, the Message
: Board isn't the right forum.
:
: Oh yes, the other clarification. My call was
: initiated at 5:47, duration 47 seconds. I
: landed at 6 PM (+/- 20 sec). So, from ~
: 3,400' AGL, I was on the ground in ~12
: minutes. Not "mill around for an
: additional 30 minutes". You are no
: doubt familiar, Mark, with the well-known
: phenomenon of time-distortion as a function
: of mental state. The al-Qaida beheading of
: Eugene Armstrong took about 36 seconds (the
: spine is, as anyone familiar with butchering
: knows, difficult to saw through with a
: knife), yet to that poor soul it must have
: been an eternity.
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: 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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