Cold air inversion, 3/11

[andy]

So there we were looking over the edge of eliminator like some homesick Eskimos, but what to are amazement a bird climbing in the ever growing grey in the sky.
Meeting at 9 for the arctic excursion were Greg, Jim, James, Skippy, Tony and I for what looked like a decent day. The skies were scattered to broken with cloud base above the ridge with little to no wind on the deck as we left Parma. After a ride made shorter by brokeback humor we unloaded and checked things out. It was cold with cycles coming up, but the blue was mostly gone from the sky and cloud base was lowering.
We all started setting up with cycles continuing regularly, and birds working it around the canyon ridges. When we were ready to launch a large rain cell was working its way down the coast from Goleta so we waited for it to pass. As it did we recieved a little hail. Still no wind.
James was first off and climbed a bit over launch then headed out. I lauched and maintained at launch for a couple of turns then left for the by-pass. The air was unsettled with no real direction of flow, but with what seemed like a lot of mixing and areas of big sink. Somewhere over the roundhouse spine it warmed quickly but still sinky. We made the glide into Parma with only 300 to spare.
Shortly after landing it started to rain then it started snowing on launch. Not a great day, but no worse than the tows I took up at Enlau's on Friday morning. We had forty degree temps, 15mph SE wind and lots of thermic areas. Needless to say throwing down was challenging but fun. Finally we got blown/rained out and decided to wait and see what Sat. would have for us. Turned out to be 4-6 inches of snow at the lake so I headed back here hoping for some love. Oh well maybe tomorrow. See you at 9 Dean.
Andy

[Tony de Groot]

But wait Andy. The day was not over!! Oh far from it. You missed us waiting on launch as it started to snow, that was o.k. as long as it doesn't rain. Ugghh, now it's raining, wait it's snowing now more rain. People driving down the mountain in their heated cars looking at us like we're the biggest kooks on the planet. Yeah! Yeah! You think you know better, we'll see. And then..... a break in the rain. There was frozen rain on our wings. So what do you think Toonnnnneeyyy... Yehaa as I dove into who knows what kinda air!!! There was some lift at the Antenae farm and worked it up to cloudbase and over to Parkers then back to the base of Thermal factory in zero. Bob Ramey flew by me and I saw him later working it up over the Monastary. Greg flew by and later was off to the beach and I tried to follow. Greg hit a lot of sink and had to turn back and go to Parma. Ramey made the glide to the beach and I stretched back low at the monastary and was hanging around 1500 feet in sprinkling rain. After struggling for some time decided to just stop trying to climb out and just let the glider go. Basically having my hands lightly touching my control bar and letting the gider fly itself. I've had luck doing this in the past and sure enough the darn thing starts flying far better than I could. I don't understand it at all. It climbs, flattens out it's turns and goes in strange directions and finds stronger cores near by. I think it's possessed. Eventually it drifts me up over the Antenae farm as a nice wall of rain approaches. Yep, it looks pretty solid. I think we're in for the rinse cycle. JR who launched earlier and is above me glides into the rain and I follow. I've never flown in the rain and, well, it didn't seem to affect much, and in fact where there was rain there was lift. I left the Antane farm at 2400 and arrived at the Riviera with 2400 with no turns but was soaked. JR landed at Parma and I followed the lift line to SB high school, in solid rain. It was dripping from my gloves arms, I could feel it penetrating my harness and was getting me feet wet. A real fly and wash kinda day. Flew over toward the Mission but cloudbase kept getting lower and I had to fly down to keep going. Then it all started breaking up and I stretched back to the Monastary but couldn't get up again. It was wet, wild and really fun in buttermilk lift for an hour and a half. Tomorrow though.... ohhhhhh.

[Guest]

Hah, I knew it wasn't that hard to fly a hang glider. So who will teach me this no hands technique? James is that one of your lessons?
Good flight Tony, et al. I guess patience is a virtue after all.
Andy

[Tony de Groot]

Andy, sorry for the late reply. You probably won't even read this. I don't think this technique will work well on a paraglider. I think paragliders are too stable(but I've been wrong before!). I think high end hang gliders tuned with too much diehedral will want to turn in too much and will core down but a hang glider tuned just right will probably work fine. It definitely works well on a trainer hang glider. I think what is happening is that for one the glider is more sensitive to lift and climbs better as the pilot doesn't pull in and fight the air when the wing hits the lift. The next thing is that the glider seems to be pulled into better lift nearby. The strange thing is the glider will core a thermal tight on it's own if the thermal is small and will flatten out more than I would if the thermal is larger. Sometimes I'll be with a group of people and no lift will be found and everyone starts heading for the LZ and in desperation I will just let the glider go and pray it finds lift on it's own. The one time I tried it the glider made a 180 degree turn and started flying away from the LZ. I thought oh man I knew you'd do something like this. Then it found a good thermal and climbed out of there. I actually don't use this technique much. Usually only when I'm desperate or can't figure the air out. It makes me realize that I have a long way to go and it's kind of boring. More like being a passenger than a pilot but it definitely does work.

Talk with you later.