[RCSE] soaring weather question
Hello, Thank you to those who replied about my subscribe questions. In the end Lex added me to the list. I'm looking for articles about determining or forecasting good soaring weather. I'm a beginning glider pilot (and experienced power) but I have a number of 30min+ flights under my belt. I live in a city and can't verify that there are good thermal conditions based on hawks (there aren't any), wind shifts (tall buildings), etc. How can one tell that there is an inversion? Are certain air pressure trends and day/night temperature or humidity patterns indicative of an inversion? I would like to be able with fair certainty to determine if sufficient soaring conditions exist before driving out of the city. I'm in Chicago BTW. Thanks, Michal -- Michal Sabala - rc aircraft builder and pilot sailplanes, airplanes and helis RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
Michal, First and foremost you need to hook up with the great guys of the SOAR Club there in Chicago. I am sure someone from that group will be contacting you anyway. As for a good rule of thumb on what makes a good thermal day, look for days that have a large differential between the overnite low temperature and the forecast high temperature for the day you are planning to go out. Any day there is going to be a 20-30 deg differential, you should see some good activity. Another good old standby is to look to the sky, if you see the white puffy cumulus clouds forming, there will be thermals that are generating them. Lower wind days are better for working the thermals but there can be some really nice lift out there even on the windiest of days as well. Hope this info has been of some help. See Ya, Pat McCleave Wichita, KS From: Michal Sabala [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2005/07/12 Tue AM 11:20:28 EDT To: soaring@airage.com Subject: [RCSE] soaring weather question Hello, Thank you to those who replied about my subscribe questions. In the end Lex added me to the list. I'm looking for articles about determining or forecasting good soaring weather. I'm a beginning glider pilot (and experienced power) but I have a number of 30min+ flights under my belt. I live in a city and can't verify that there are good thermal conditions based on hawks (there aren't any), wind shifts (tall buildings), etc. How can one tell that there is an inversion? Are certain air pressure trends and day/night temperature or humidity patterns indicative of an inversion? I would like to be able with fair certainty to determine if sufficient soaring conditions exist before driving out of the city. I'm in Chicago BTW. Thanks, Michal -- Michal Sabala - rc aircraft builder and pilot sailplanes, airplanes and helis RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
I think Pat answered the question as well as can be answered. I would like to say that to advance as a pilot you need to go out on days where there aren't alot of thermals... and nights where it is changing to bouyant air. Why??? because you will learn more about your plane and how to just eak out a turn without stalling, and work light stuff. you will learn to recognize air pushing you away from it. you will learn that certain tactics (hint ) work better at this hour than at others. And it can be a good time. Hopefully you will find some friends who like this time of day as I did when I was starting out. Some of those 3-5 minute flights can be more rewarding than the 30... I got bitten by the bug big time from those nights I went out on windy days and low lift days ... just to get some stick time It's all good. Michal Sabala wrote: Hello, Thank you to those who replied about my subscribe questions. In the end Lex added me to the list. I'm looking for articles about determining or forecasting good soaring weather. I'm a beginning glider pilot (and experienced power) but I have a number of 30min+ flights under my belt. I live in a city and can't verify that there are good thermal conditions based on hawks (there aren't any), wind shifts (tall buildings), etc. How can one tell that there is an inversion? Are certain air pressure trends and day/night temperature or humidity patterns indicative of an inversion? I would like to be able with fair certainty to determine if sufficient soaring conditions exist before driving out of the city. I'm in Chicago BTW. Thanks, Michal -- Jeff Steifel RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
Michael, Pat described it well. I as well have to be sure I pick the good days for soaring. With a commute of over an hour I want to be sure the drive is worth it. In the Chicago area the weather can be quite different depending on where you are at. Closer to the lake there tends to be less lift due to lake cooling effect. A good indicator as mentioned by Pat are the cumulus clouds. Watch how they break up as they get closer to the lake. Sometimes many miles west. But that does not necessarily mean lift is not present. SOAR flies at mainly at two locations Plainfield and Hampshire. A good distance from Chicago, the lake does not have any effect there. I have left the field with 90+ degree weather to arrive home with mid 70's temp. And rain is a whole different story... One of the private weather stations I look at that is close to Hampshire, http://weather.lindsay.com/ I looked at your website, nice link for the satellite view of the old SOD farm location in Plainfield. For others who don't want to surf, http://maps.google.com/maps?q=plainfield,+il.ll=41.609827,-88.350602spn=0.007843,0.010825t=khl=en http://www.saahbs.net/rc.shtml Make sure you go to the new location, posted on the SOAR website. Steven Meyer SOAR LSF IV http://www.SOARchicago.com At 10:20 AM 7/12/2005, Michal Sabala wrote: Hello, Thank you to those who replied about my subscribe questions. In the end Lex added me to the list. I'm looking for articles about determining or forecasting good soaring weather. I'm a beginning glider pilot (and experienced power) but I have a number of 30min+ flights under my belt. I live in a city and can't verify that there are good thermal conditions based on hawks (there aren't any), wind shifts (tall buildings), etc. How can one tell that there is an inversion? Are certain air pressure trends and day/night temperature or humidity patterns indicative of an inversion? I would like to be able with fair certainty to determine if sufficient soaring conditions exist before driving out of the city. I'm in Chicago BTW. Thanks, Michal -- Michal Sabala - rc aircraft builder and pilot sailplanes, airplanes and helis RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
A good indicator as mentioned by Pat are the cumulus clouds. What about California where there is not any clouds for 6 -7 months straight? Sometimes only the smog coming over the hill from the Bay Area. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
I fly just a few miles from Lake Michigan and I get cool stable that I have to fly in 90% of the time, not much for lift. I can look just a couple miles further inland from me a see the sky piled up with cumulus clouds. Dave Hauch www.git-r-built.com - Original Message - From: Steve Meyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Michal Sabala [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: soaring@airage.com Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 4:20 PM Subject: Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question Michael, Pat described it well. I as well have to be sure I pick the good days for soaring. With a commute of over an hour I want to be sure the drive is worth it. In the Chicago area the weather can be quite different depending on where you are at. Closer to the lake there tends to be less lift due to lake cooling effect. A good indicator as mentioned by Pat are the cumulus clouds. Watch how they break up as they get closer to the lake. Sometimes many miles west. But that does not necessarily mean lift is not present. SOAR flies at mainly at two locations Plainfield and Hampshire. A good distance from Chicago, the lake does not have any effect there. I have left the field with 90+ degree weather to arrive home with mid 70's temp. And rain is a whole different story... One of the private weather stations I look at that is close to Hampshire, http://weather.lindsay.com/ I looked at your website, nice link for the satellite view of the old SOD farm location in Plainfield. For others who don't want to surf, http://maps.google.com/maps?q=plainfield,+il.ll=41.609827,-88.350602spn=0 .007843,0.010825t=khl=en http://www.saahbs.net/rc.shtml Make sure you go to the new location, posted on the SOAR website. Steven Meyer SOAR LSF IV http://www.SOARchicago.com At 10:20 AM 7/12/2005, Michal Sabala wrote: Hello, Thank you to those who replied about my subscribe questions. In the end Lex added me to the list. I'm looking for articles about determining or forecasting good soaring weather. I'm a beginning glider pilot (and experienced power) but I have a number of 30min+ flights under my belt. I live in a city and can't verify that there are good thermal conditions based on hawks (there aren't any), wind shifts (tall buildings), etc. How can one tell that there is an inversion? Are certain air pressure trends and day/night temperature or humidity patterns indicative of an inversion? I would like to be able with fair certainty to determine if sufficient soaring conditions exist before driving out of the city. I'm in Chicago BTW. Thanks, Michal -- Michal Sabala - rc aircraft builder and pilot sailplanes, airplanes and helis RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
Re: [RCSE] soaring weather question
Michal is not flying in CA, he is flying in the Midwest where cumi's are a readily available indicator most months out the year. Heck, I always thought the air was always going up out in CA. See Ya, Pat Yep, it's good here, just no tell, tell cumis to judge by. We just use birds dust devils. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
