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Posted by Mark Wass...
on 5/14/2009, 10:59 am, in reply to "Super Day"
64.80.107.66
Cy and myself were flying the 21. We got a later start than Chuck and Doug, and went N to Hannas, then south to Avoca staying almost exclusively to the east of the valley and above 6K msl.
Cloud base at Dansville at 3:00pm was easily 8500ft msl, perhaps even a bit higher. For the most part the upper level thermals were well organized on an individual basis. Some streeting where the lift streets were pockets of very strong lift separated by mild sink. The sink streets however were going down hard.
My sense was that thermals were weaker near the tops, but later, further south toward Avoca, they were strong, perhaps stronger near cloud base. I don't think we had trouble staying out of the clouds but I think others reported this difficulty.
When we made the turn south at Hannas, it seems the conditions N of the field had weakened, or cycled perhaps, we had a difficult time staying out of the strong sink and maintaining 6K msl. Once we got back the somewhere east of the field we were back to cloud base.
At about 4:00pm, SE looked fabulous. I would bet you could have gone all the way to Harris Hill without the necessity of turning. Once we got to the line of lift and clouds just south of Cohocton, we easily made it to Avoca, and probably could have put on some speed and gone to Corning and back in short order. Cloud base was about the same 8500ft.
As I would have expected with the NW wind, South and East, later in the day, almost as far as you could see from 7K, looked excellent. With an early enough start, one could have possibly made a Gold triangle task in the 1-26.
I am not sure if the trouble I was having with the thermals around Conesus was the thermals, or as Cy suggested, the compensation in the 21. I think we were seeing some stick indications that was causing me some confusion.
In general it was a exceptional day. Lift was strong, organized, high, and well marked. Sink was punishing and intimidating. Streets were somewhat organized but confusing at times. But all that was necessary was to follow the clouds and hurry through the sink.
Mark
--Previous Message--
: 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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