Mountain Waves

[Swass]

Tell us your mountain wave stories, first hand or otherwise. I'm not a glider pilot but find soaring very interesting, especially mountain wave soaring.

 

[tonycondon]

my only mountain wave stories have been in my dreams Its powerful stuff though.

check out www.mindensoaringclub.com there is a bunch of cool wave stuff there. and you have got to listen to the podcast about gordon boettger's 2000 km cross country in may of 05.

 

[pilotguy143]

I too, have had vivid dreams about flying in waves... unfortunaly, none have come true :-(


The closest I have come to getting into a wave was in the middle of july over sugarbush, vt. We made a special trip out there just to try and hit the wave. As we got closer and closer, we started to see cumulous clouds building below the lenticulars (never a good sign). By the time we got to where the wave should have been, the cumulus clouds were probally 10, 15k and the wave was rapidly disipating. However, I can say that I have been under a lenticular cloud with cumulus clound developing

 

[727gm]

A fascinating book on the subject is "Exploring the Monster", by Robert F. Whelan. It's the story of the Mountain Wave Project of the early Fifties. I've seen Larry Edgar's slideshow/talk at the Cal City Wave Camp(He was a participant as mechanic/tow pilot/glider pilot/world record holder).

My first wave experience was at Warner Springs late in a windy November day with a 2-33. Towed to ~3000 ft and climbed very quickly to 10400 for a memorable cold 30-minute flight.

At Calif. City at wave camp later (Late 80's) climbed to ~14000 ft in a 1-26D. After hunting around for close to 45 minutes, made it to 15000, followed by a climb to 19000 in a little over a minute, followed by a slower climb to 25300. I held there, not wanting to go higher without a secondary O2 bottle/regulator. Others climbed into the low-to-middle Thirties that day. Could see the rotor touching down a few miles to the north on a sand/drylake area, and pitching dust up two or three thousand feet into the air. The wind on the field is often light during wave, but on returning was very windy. (The nature of the wave changes throughout the day) First(!) approach was drifting too much in x-wind, and climbing too much(from 500 AGL) with nose-low and speed-brakes open, so shut them, climbed to 1500 AGL,turned downwind again and came in again, increasing crab as the ground effect was approached, and landed roughly 60deg the the runway, landing at a high airspeed(but roughly walking-groundspeed[better to land creeping forward that drifting backward]). Remained in the aircraft until handlers had walked A/C to a parking and tied it down. Temp at altitude ~0 F. Actually pretty warm wherever the sun was hitting, toes COLD in shade and the inevitable Schweizer "drafts". Hand cold, too, form holding the stick.

Another flight in the 1-26, climbed to 25600, held there with speedbrakes, same reason. Temp at altitude ~-10F.

Third time, actually carried a barograph, took a high tow(~8000ft)but a much slower climb, soooo cold(-19F), finally made it to 24500, enough for Diamond Altitude, but had no feeling in my toes for probably twenty minutes after landing. Also a pain-in-the-ass having to radio report 180, 200, 250, 300, etc., (and vacating same) added to wave-window requirements, where before it was no radio, just "Open to 37000 ft 'til sunset".

The next year a transponder requirement was added, and the only available at the time were quite large klugey setups. Barely room in the old 1-26 for the O2 bottle/A-14 regulator, ski clothes, large radio/battery/water bottle/parachute...

This all occurred in the Edwards AFB Wave Window(a roughly 5 by 10 mile block of airspace) in the Restricted Area. It may not sound very large, but when you're VMC with basically zero groundspeed, it's plenty of room.

 

[727C47]

I have felt the wave many times flying everything from DC-3s to 727s, I can only imagine how cool,how wonderful it must be to soar in it,you guys are blessed !

 

[tonycondon]

ive yet to read exploring the monster but hear that it is fantastic. those guys were pioneers.

 

[Bank-n-Yank]

Every fall our glider club brings the tow planes and sailplanes up to Gorham, NH where we hold a wave came for about two weeks. Lot's of great wave conditions to be had just east of Mt. Washington. A few years ago I flew a SGS 1-34 up to ~FL240 in smooth wave lift. The club has a letter of agreement with BOS center for coordination with class A operations.
Lot's of fun.

 

[crash-proof]

I have felt the wave many times flying everything from DC-3s to 727s, I can only imagine how cool,how wonderful it must be to soar in it,you guys are blessed !

This 707 pilot also felt the wave - albeit only once, and much to the chagrin of his pax!

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/...6&reg=G-APFE&airline=British+Overseas+Airways

Thought the link included famous accompanying photo of 707 floating to earth, guess not.

 

[Gofish]

Mountain wave phenomena has been detected as high as FL600.

 

[tonycondon]

check out steve faucetts (sp) project Perlan. Evidence of wave has been observed higher than FL600. The real limiting factors to demolishing world glider altitude records are availablitiy and evironmental. This is why faucett gets to ride along on the flights. He has the dough to buy space suits. When Bob Harris broke the record in the early 80's he had a military surplus pressure demand mask. he was climbing through 49,000ish when he didnt feel like risking it any more.