Cloud Base addict

Great picture by Sam as he PG’d by with camera firing away.

We had 2 or 3 days of 70 degree weather (almost breaking record highs) before a cold front plunged the front range (Denver area) into freezing temps.  The consensus was that the ground had gotten a good deep heating and even though our cold front came before daylight, the ground had enough residual heat to cook the cold air into weak but fat columns of rising air.  This is all in spite of 100% cloud cover.  Cool.

Above:  Sam’s pic of me and Kiernan.  See the red windsock above the nose of my glider in the above picture?

It bends my mind over a bit to see how much influence the heat in the ground can have.  Just another priceless lesson from Lookout for the ol’ gray matter to hold onto.

The PG’s were soaring around 10:30 am!  My first flight was 50 minutes.  For a change, the thermals were wide enough for me to make big flat turns in them.  I’m guessing I averaged 10-15 degree bank angles.

Either way, flatter turns, better sink rate and I was able to get above the PG’s and fly over to Mt Zion and over Buffalo Bill’s parking lot (Above).  The Top of the towers disappeared into the clouds like a beanstalk.

I came back to our hill and I burned altitude to attempt a top landing which I missed and landed below.

That was a bummer, but I was going for a hail Mary type of top landing.  😉  Above picture, I’m probably 3 ft too high to flare and land…

After landing below and getting back up to launch, I set up again and got 43 minutes more airtime and all of it was below the PG’s and most of it was below launch.  The thermals had gotten smaller I think too.  For some reason, I wasn’t breathing much and I got too cold also.  Even one of my feet went numb and that NEVER happens.

My fingernails hurt that night.  Does someone know why that happens when your hands get so cold?  I also could use some tips on how to keep my visor from fogging over when I close it.  I get about 2 breathes before it fogs and I have to keep it up when it’s 23 degrees out!  Now that I think of it, it’s usually only a problem as I get closer to the dew point, but that’s cloudbase.  Huh.  smart.  But cloudbase is the goal so maybe I’ll try some scuba anti-fog stuff?

Another cool thing to do from these low altitude flights is to watch the streamers and windsocks scattered everywhere.  It was easy to see them with a standard wind out of the ENE.  Then, when the lower rock pile sock would change to indicate SE wind, it was cool to try running downwind of that sock to find the thermal that was sucking the air in.  It sure worked well.  I usually don’t have enough time at the same altitude to use all that data, but I think the super mellow lift and sink, as well as the Red Bull were helping.

So, real quick, I put together some HD snips from the first flight.  But, youtube took my music out right away.  So, here’s a silent film instead…

Airtime:  1:34

Flights:  2

Max Alt: 8kft

Its a “Dry” cold!  LOL

Above, a picture to prove Gertrude (my truck) really still works when the -22 temp as we cross Vail pass summit at 10,600ft.

The storms had lined up well and there had been lots of fresh snow when we got to Vail 12/27/08.  That morning’s report said 7″ new snow in 24hrs so Jason, his Dad Paul, and I headed out.  My limit these days is about 1/2foot and on Christmas Eve, they reported 5″ so we called off the trip at 5AM that day.  My younger self would slap me silly for such a ridiculous rule.

Going thru Eisenhower tunnel put us in a colder airmass and we got a kick watching the temp readout plummet mile after mile.  We thought -12 looked brutal and had no idea it would keep going?!  The forecast for 10-20mph winds and gusts to 40 made these temps scary.  20mph wind at -22 degrees F meant a wind chill of about -70… DUDE?  Only once in Jackson Hole had I been in colder conditions.  They closed Jackson Hole to skiing one day at 40 below!  Anyway, luckily we were prepared and the winds never blew over 15mph so we were fine.  All skin covered.

Above: Left: Captain knuckle-dragger  Right: Proof of my big head.

You can’t really see, but in the above pictures, there’s a cloudbank below us that shows up as more white to the left of our heads.  It was cool to be above cloudbase and on the ground at the same time.  🙂

Wish I had video of these cold adventures but my video camera won’t cooperate in sub freezing weather.  And my hands aren’t all that keen on it either.  🙂  I haven’t gotten a season pass anywhere for years, but somehow, the daily price to ski Vail was hard to accept.  97 bucks?  I’m thinking more back country skiing for me… 

Ferocious dog in her “Christmas Sweater”

We met up with a local friend, Matt, who always knows where the untouched powder hides.  The trees were tight but we got some knee high snow here and there.  The snow was very slow b/c of the cold.  Kinda like sandpaper.  Maybe because of the deep chill, or because of the misty ice crystal layer that had settled on top, but it was noticeably “sticky” on all the flatter areas.  So Jason, the knuckle-dragger kept badgering me for my poles.  I had to break trail for him once after we dropped into a flat meadow that hadn’t been touched yet. 

We did the mile long bump run (always forget the name) but the lines and fresh powder over them made for the perfect run.  The kind where snow flies up into your chest once in a while.  Jason smokes the bumps on his snowboard and it’s cool to watch. 

Later, it warmed up to 12 degrees at the lower lifts and that felt warmish in comparison.

At Mid-Vail, Paul and I talked Hang Gliding and Experimental planes over whiskey and coffee.  Can’t think of a better place to swap stories about aviation!  That was a highlight of the day.  And the sub zero part was fun too! 

Above:  This kid has serious thrill issues.  I need eyes in the back of my head.

These cold fronts have been great this year… There’s another one coming this week and the flying community is eagerly watching each new NOAA forecast!!!  FLY FLY FLY!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Here’s to ’09!

Cheers,
BJ

2 cold blasts lately brought a chance to experience familiar places for the first time. 

12/14/08, a group of ‘adventurous’ HG/PG pilots met in the Lookout LZ in a frigid 2 degrees F.  There was potential for the wind to pick up enough for some ridge lift.  But how much did we need?

I was curious to see how much extra punch the phat air would have.  Since we’re used to 75 degree air, this subzero air must have more mass (per volume) and take less velocity to keep us aloft.  At least I was hoping that this extreme temp would make it more noticeable.  See reference at bottom, but landing at 5,600 ft, at -6 degrees F means the adjusted altitude density is about 2,400 ft!  That’s like landing in Big Spring, TX.  75 degree air at 5,600ft has an alt density of about 8,200ft.  So, comparing this cold flying to “usual” flying here, we’re at air densities roughly one mile lower!  “Relatively”, we were landing in sea level style air, a nice treat.   But the interesting part would be whether or not there’s a noticeable difference in wind velocity necessary to keep us up flying…   The below picture is my battons several inches below the surface.

The roads were snowpacked and I remember doing a perfect powerslide from the highway and off to the parking lot backwards. 

We were out there in that cold for a good 5 hours and the cold air coming in didn’t warm up past 5 degrees all day. 

Kiernan launching (above pic) 

A true sledder is probably 4 minutes or less, but my flight was 11 minutes, along with probably most of us.  Then there was Andy in his Poison (PG) who taunted us, staying up for 1.5 hours in what he thought might be heat coming off Clear Creek.  Never above launch really, but he was in the zone.  Bad Ass flight Andy.. In his tracklog (below), look how each pass is just BARELY above the previous… that’s light lift!  That’s where he was the entire flight!

My face was feeling strange in the 11 minutes at 23mph.  The 6030 had to be turned on for a while before it did anything but beep, but eventually it’s screen readout came to life, which is impressive!  Another push of cold had just come in when I launched and clouds started forming above me and around and the Coors plant’s steam went from a normal plume to creating it’s own cloud that engulfed launch with the smell of cooking barley or hops…mmm 

My tracklog below is showing 200ft too high:

The ice-crystals sparkled in the sun and reminded me of being at cloudbase in the summer at 17,999ft flying from Dinosaur.  I think I might have soared if I was on that 225 falcon I used to have. 

Kiernan launching from virgin powder…  My launch was SHIITY.  I didn’t realize the snow had drifted below me and as I took the first few steps, the transition from jog to run never happened b/c the snow got too deep and I pretty much fell and pushed out so the glider would do the work.  Phat air might have saved me there!  The Sport 2 took me out of the snow but as I got 4-6 feet up and away she reminded me gently with a good amount of bar pressure that she needed airspeed or else.  So she kinda took a little dive w/o my consent and we were even.  The back of my harness filled up with enough snow for Frosty’s head so I shook it out in the air.

Above, the Coors plant is working on my beer.  This is before that steam turned into a cloud that engulfed us!  I broke down in the cold and realized I was getting pretty tired.  And subsequently cold.  But I went back up for another go potentially.  Since the HG took so long to hike up in the snow again and the set up is kinda hard with things disappearing in the snow, I got ready to go and it started blowing down the hill and the day was over.  Dude, so it’s about 5 below zero and I’ve just set up my glider, gotten tired and cold and the wind’s blowing more and more down the hill.  That was bummerish.  I owe Kiernan big time for waiting and helping me walk my glider down the snowy hill. 

It was -8 degrees when I got in the truck to leave (above pic).  The haze in the background is visible moisture coming off a reservoir several miles NE. 

Below Picture, notice how the Coors Plant steam is way more pronounced at -8 degrees, than the earlier picture:

In the severe cold, the different smoke stacks around created their own low clouds that would make a bump in the strong inversion.  Also, we talked about how the Coors plant looked like ample lift to soar in, but we couldn’t glide that far.  The soaring that Andy did was in light wind(2-5?).  He used every bit of the bubbles coming up the windward hill, just enough to keep it up.  It’s hard to say how much of our flights were extended by heavy air ridge lift, or the bubbles of instability that would come thru.  I’ll just rest my case for now, until we get another cold event.  Need a smidge more wind. 

It took a couple hours at home by the fire before my bones stopped radiating cold!

Reference:

JJ pointed out this website to calculate ‘altitude’ density:  http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_da.htm

Local discussion here:  http://rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=2240