Post by thevon on Jun 30, 2007 8:39:00 GMT 10
I reckon westerlies are just a crazy wind to fly in. When I used to be a sailboarder we used to get desperate in winter and sail in the westerlies but it was always frustrating. One minute you’re becalmed, then you get totally overpowered and flattened, then you get up and get knocked over by the wind coming from a different direction. Compared to a seabreeze they’re just terrible!
I’ve been contacting farmers to try to get permission to fly on various ridges. Yesterday Gerard Nick and I visited several farmers trying to find a spot that would work in the strong westerly. The problem with most of these places is that they’re very much private property … you have to actually go thru the farmer’s yard past his house to get there, so they’re not the sort of place you can advertise on the Windsock site for all and sundry. The only way you’re going to be allowed up there is to meet the owners personally and get their permission.
We went to one spot first but it looks south, and the wind was coming across the slope. Nick and Gerard had a go, but it was pretty lethal with huge windswirls and dead spots. Lots of walking down hill.
So I followed up another farmer contact and managed to convince him to let us come and have a look. When we turned up they were very friendly and helpful and he even piled us and all our gear in his old '79 Toyota and took us up to the top of the knobby hill on his place. We tried flying there and another spot too, which had insane lift but wild dangerous turbulence trying to land.
But it turned out that the ridge we really wanted to get to was on his neighbor’s farm, so we headed off to find the neighbor. He was fortunately home and friendly and said “go your hardest!”. So we went back to the previous farm, bounced the van around the tracks and scraped it thru some trees to reach the spot where we could walk up to the “target” ridge.
Gerard trying to launch into a gale while Nick just hangs onto his beanie!
The wind was honestly, no exaggeration, just insane. We had trouble carrying the gliders along the ridgetop - they were getting torn out of our hands! I reckon it must have been hitting 40 kts on the ridge. We could hardly hear each other shouting when standing a few feet away from each other. Total madness. You could lean into the wind and it held you up on an angle! You know how you can’t wear a hat flying on a windy day … well, we couldn’t keep our beanies on our heads! The weirdest thing was when you went a few metres down the backside of the hill into the dead air and sat down, it felt calm and quiet but you could hear the trees really roaring with the wind. I tried calling out to Nick and Gerard who were quite close on the top of the ridge but they couldn’t hear me at all!
It was just survival mode! There was good lift but the dives back across the slope were scary – if you misjudged the pullout you could hit the hill at warp speed (we didn’t). If you dived and banked hard on the ridge to turn back into the wind the plane just stopped dead and mostly you could hover it to the grass! Funny enough when the wind got berserk the lift seemed to get less. At times the planes wouldn't go up or forward - just sat out 50m or so in front and couldn't penetrate! This ridge had definite DS potential, but the wind was just far too strong to DS, for me anyway.
It was great. But it would have been better with half the windspeed! Don't worry, we'll be back! We wonder if it will be OK in SE too, but perhaps a bit disturbed by a range in front - we'll see in summer.
I’ve been contacting farmers to try to get permission to fly on various ridges. Yesterday Gerard Nick and I visited several farmers trying to find a spot that would work in the strong westerly. The problem with most of these places is that they’re very much private property … you have to actually go thru the farmer’s yard past his house to get there, so they’re not the sort of place you can advertise on the Windsock site for all and sundry. The only way you’re going to be allowed up there is to meet the owners personally and get their permission.
We went to one spot first but it looks south, and the wind was coming across the slope. Nick and Gerard had a go, but it was pretty lethal with huge windswirls and dead spots. Lots of walking down hill.
So I followed up another farmer contact and managed to convince him to let us come and have a look. When we turned up they were very friendly and helpful and he even piled us and all our gear in his old '79 Toyota and took us up to the top of the knobby hill on his place. We tried flying there and another spot too, which had insane lift but wild dangerous turbulence trying to land.
But it turned out that the ridge we really wanted to get to was on his neighbor’s farm, so we headed off to find the neighbor. He was fortunately home and friendly and said “go your hardest!”. So we went back to the previous farm, bounced the van around the tracks and scraped it thru some trees to reach the spot where we could walk up to the “target” ridge.
Gerard trying to launch into a gale while Nick just hangs onto his beanie!
The wind was honestly, no exaggeration, just insane. We had trouble carrying the gliders along the ridgetop - they were getting torn out of our hands! I reckon it must have been hitting 40 kts on the ridge. We could hardly hear each other shouting when standing a few feet away from each other. Total madness. You could lean into the wind and it held you up on an angle! You know how you can’t wear a hat flying on a windy day … well, we couldn’t keep our beanies on our heads! The weirdest thing was when you went a few metres down the backside of the hill into the dead air and sat down, it felt calm and quiet but you could hear the trees really roaring with the wind. I tried calling out to Nick and Gerard who were quite close on the top of the ridge but they couldn’t hear me at all!
It was just survival mode! There was good lift but the dives back across the slope were scary – if you misjudged the pullout you could hit the hill at warp speed (we didn’t). If you dived and banked hard on the ridge to turn back into the wind the plane just stopped dead and mostly you could hover it to the grass! Funny enough when the wind got berserk the lift seemed to get less. At times the planes wouldn't go up or forward - just sat out 50m or so in front and couldn't penetrate! This ridge had definite DS potential, but the wind was just far too strong to DS, for me anyway.
It was great. But it would have been better with half the windspeed! Don't worry, we'll be back! We wonder if it will be OK in SE too, but perhaps a bit disturbed by a range in front - we'll see in summer.
She dropped on the bottom turn, but still managed to go into the grass pretty flat. Unfortunately snapped the fuse spar, right on the leading edge of the tail. The rest of the plane survive fine though. Snapped the balsa tail off in an earlier crash, but just dug out the broken piece and ca'ed what was left back in! Everytime she went in it sounded horrible and I was sure it was the end of the old battle axe. She will get a little TLC and be ready for more abuse soon. If nothing else, I have some more crash footage! 
