Wave Camp report October 11 - 13

Here's Rick Roelke's report, covering the last three days:

Tuesday was a washout, or should I say whiteout, as I awoke to 2in of snow. Although I knew it was coming, I was still not really prepared to face it…

Monday was an interesting day. Finally free of the excessive low level moisture, we had flights just shy of 18,000ft. There were good thermals, with cloud base above 7k late in the day. The winds were diminishing all day, and hence the wave started pretty good, then shut down, started up again, and finally left without a trace late in the day. We had impressive lennies at 13-15k, and at that alitude, not to be completely without our moisture problems, it decked over for a while. On my flight, I was just getting over the top of the 15k layer, only to be chased down by this solid deck. It dissipated and returned a few times.

The change in velocity from the previous two days was interesting to observe. Most notably, contacting any of the wave systems from low was MUCH more difficult this day. With the extremely high winds the previous days, the long wavelength moved the Presidential primary wave nearly back to the Carters, so it was in easy reach from that range. The Crescent wave system was stronger and closer to Mt. Hayes, my personal favorite low tow spot. In stark comparison to my 1hr diamond, it took nearly 3hrs to come in contact with the Washington wave. It was located nearly at the Horn, a bit closer to Madison. Winds were often below 20 at those altitudes.

Although there were no diamonds this day, there were several very enjoyable flights. I think the high flight was 18k, with several others above 15. We had a new to wave/Washington pilot come down with ear to ear smiles after climbing above 10k over this magnificent carpet of color. John Good, took advantage of the thermals and had a notable flight up to the NW. All in all, a good time.

A quick recall of the previous two days…

Both days were windy. It was never really bad on the ground. Noticeably windy, but mostly right down the runway. The real wind was aloft, with nearly 100kt winds at diamond height (20k). This called for vigilant position holding. On a day with this kind of wind, a wrong turn can result in thousands of feet in loss trying to work back upwind. Diamond climbs both days, with Lee Blair completing his diamond badge with a flight from a nice low start, so he could claim his diamond below 20k. Doing that was important because the winds were much stronger the closer you got to 25k.

Both days we had low (below peaks) solid overcast that broke in the afternoon. There was a "sucker hole" (it lasted perhaps too long to really fit in this category) on Sunday that ended with not only solid cover, but rain on the field. This caused a bit of a mass landing that went quite well. This has been our biggest operational concern at Gorham. With only one runway, you have to be sure you leave room for other landing pilots. This one was handled well with some pilots going quite long and all clearing the runway quickly, even if they could not pull off on the roll due to the inhospitality of the distant end of the runway. A good time had again, but perhaps not by all, as the advanced conditions did keep some wise (with the potential to grow old) pilots waiting for conditions within their comfort zones.

More flyable days to come, although it looks like the last chance for stratospheric flights will be limited to tomorrow and perhaps the next day as east winds are forecast for the weekend. Before you are discouraged, we have had lots of very interesting wave flights in east winds here. They tend to be lower, but still fun and educational (and upwind of the airport)...