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Posted by Ray
on 5/14/2009, 8:16 am, in reply to "Thank You Jim Rizzo"
69.205.81.50
Mark...glad you were able to stir the pot and finally get some weekday flying going, and kudos to Jim for making it happen and reminding everyone that we would be grounded most of the time without our unsung heros the towpilots.
I would love to have joined you but had a cancer seminar in Buffalo to attend. Nonetheless I did pay close attention to the sky all day. The cloud field extended to well north of Batavia, and well west of Alden, which is most unusual this time of year in view of the "shadows" of lakes Erie and especially Ontario since the northerly wind component was larger that the westerly. A major contributing factor of course is the relatively dry spring western NY has so far had. Obviously a diamond day, speaking of which....
As a student of the atmosphere who still has a lot to learn, how about some feedback from those who flew that day? Trying to forecast PBL convective strength is difficult due to the nonlinear interactions, and still largely an art which requires input from pilot observations, not just model output. Now, according to DSV and GVQ ASOS, CCL at 2 PM was ~ 9,000 and 8,500 respectively (you expect it to be higher further from the lakes). Can people verify? Did anyone go south? Would not be surprised if it went to 10,000 at Elmira or Wellsville. How about thermal strength? Was it stronger at cloud base, or tend to weaken? Also, mean sink between thermals, and thermal "quality"? Solid as a rock, or difficult to center? (suspect the former). How easy or difficult to judge whether a cloud you went to was forming or dissipating? If anyone got low (say, 3,000'), how were the thermals there? Any tendency for streeting? How late did people fly (at 7 PM, flat-bottomed cumuli were still clearly visible to the west from the UB south campus)? Anybody have any GPS traces?
Thanks in advance if anyone has any input!
PS Did anyone make a badge requirement?..hope so.
--Previous Message--
: What a guy that Jim Rizzo, driving all the way
: down to Dansville to tow a few of us into
: some fantastic soaring. There is no doubt
: in my mind that Jim loves this sport and
: this club. We perhaps could all learn a
: lesson about empathy from Jim.
:
: Thank you very much Jim.
:
: One humble weekday flyer.....
:
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