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Posted by Ray
on 4/12/2012, 12:10 pm, in reply to "Sunday flight report, Kai is correct again."
74.65.47.166
"Kai told me once that he fly Gold distance, 100 miles out and back, in a completely overcast sky."
Today is probably one of those days.
Nice report Mark. Wish people would do that more often. In the met lingo, that is called verification.
--Previous Message--
: What I learned from flying on Sunday
:
: Lesson 1: Do not assume the conditions are
: bad by the appearance of the sky.
:
: Lesson 2: Do not assume the conditions are
: good by the appearance of the sky.
:
: Kai always said that the only way to assess
: the flying conditions was to get in your
: plane and take a launch. I am slowly
: learning that all the ‘hard to believe’
: things that he said are absolutely the
: truth. Sunday was one of those days.
:
: Under a cold and miserable looking sky, Rick
: Lafford towed me to 3600 MSL, I could have,
: should have, released earlier but the look
: of the sky was telling me that this bump
: wasn’t much and would be hard to work it to
: any altitude. I was suffering from a
: predisposed attitude that this was likely to
: be a short flight and wanted a least a few
: minutes flying.
:
: After release I found what I think was that
: same lift and averaged 4-5 Knots to 5500ft
: where I ran into Jake and Jim flying the 21
: in what Jim announced as Wave. I jumped in
: with both “wings”, turned into the wind,
: slowed down to 40knots with flaps +1, and
: the average went to 6.5knots, then 8knots
: and lasted well above 7000 ft. Wings level,
: lift strong and smooth, I could get used to
: that. I had to move around a bit to keep it
: optimized and eventually had to work to get
: to 8400 ft. The first thing I had to do was
: close the air vents. It was very cold up
: there.
:
: A band of rain looked like it was
: approaching from the North West and I did
: not like the idea of packing my plane wet,
: so I decided to burn some altitude with a
: fast lap to Seven Gullies and back. Beyond
: a few miles north of the field I did not
: find anything workable, and when I got back
: to Dansville I found the lift, wave, was
: still there, but perhaps considerably
: weaker. I tested the conditions and found
: moving from SE over the east hill, to NW I
: found solid sink, then reasonably heavy
: turbulence, then that nice smooth lift.
: Weak wave I suppose. It was late on a Sunday
: and I could see planes going into the hanger
: so I decided to just make it an hour, and in
: addition to that, the wind had changed from
: 300 to 270, and was now crossing runway 320
: with some gusto.
:
: ASOS reporting wind 270 @ 15 gusting 25. I
: entered the pattern about a mile north of
: the field in what I can only describe as
: weak rotor turbulence. I considered landing
: without flaps but pulled them on anyway. I
: enter a mental note: airspeed will be very
: important. Started downwind very high and
: lost a great deal of altitude without
: spoilers before turning base. I really
: dislike that feeling of turning from
: downwind to up wind, that moment of pause
: just before the wing seem to reconnect with
: the wind. Viewing rooftops off my right
: wing I was glad for the extra airspeed.
: Final was interesting, rocking, pitching,
: yawing with crosswind, indicating 65knots,
: managed to hit my target, and contacted the
: field considerably harder that I like, but
: everything in one piece. Carrying all that
: airspeed, maybe +1 flaps next time rather
: than full. My first landing of the year in
: VNE and hopeful the worst one.
:
: I never saw the sun the entire flight, solid
: cloud deck but at high altitude, and very
: cold air. Kai told me once that he fly Gold
: distance, 100 miles out and back, in a
: completely overcast sky. I am beginning to
: understand this.
:
: Mark VNE
:
:
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