Friday, July 15, 2011

Today's word of the day: Liftless

The soaring conditions yesterday were definitely not as good as they looked from the ground. Moshe sent in this report:
It was supposed to be a good soaring day, but the wind was blowing and the lift was shifty, and the thermals seemed to evaporate at 4000 feet. The sink was stronger than the lift for a while. It took me 90 minutes to break through the 4000MSL barrier. Then, with good cu bringing me up to almost 7000 feet, I got suckered away from the airport. On the way back I ran into a big liftless hole. Landed out on a cut hayfield outside of Hardwick.
Here's a view of the last couple of minutes of his flight. It shows what a nice hayfield looks like from the air:


and here's a closeup view:

6 comments:

Andy Lumley said...

One picture can be worth a thousand words.

JS said...

And that looks like the only nice hayfield around, too...

Anonymous said...

Did you disassemble it and trailer it home or just wait for the farmer to bail it up for you?

Tim said...

I think the word for the day should be PROBLEMATIC. There seem to be a level where the thermals weakened around 4,500'. If you found one that took you up to 5,000' it would often go up over 7,000'. Getting and staying above 5,000' was PROBLEMATIC.

Anonymous said...

As we were taking the glider apart, the full moon was rising over the Eastern horizon (and the sun was setting on the opposite side). See picture here:
http://n599rh.nospammail.net/moon_over_glider.jpg

Anonymous said...

What a *nice* field.

Well done.

-T8