Q: What’s better than one amazing soaring flight over the Sierras? A: Two of them. There is a spectacular video for those who read on. Gliding once over the Sierras in June is unexpected. After we did it a few days ago, a few of the Minden regulars remarked on how we were so lucky […]
Tag Archive for soaring
Day 2 at Minden: YouTube video!
by Bill Elliott •
At last—here is an overview video of Day 2 at Minden! We’ve been flying with a GoPro camera suction-cupped to the canopy, and occasionally it manages to work. On a four hour task, it can just barely capture the whole thing before we land. That’s a lot of video, so I wrote a program that […]
Leftovers from Day 2
by Bill Elliott •
A couple things from Day 2 that I didn’t fit into the earlier post:
Contest director John Godfrey is from Pittsburgh, and gave an introductory Pittsburghese lesson at the morning pilot’s meeting.
Later on, things got hot on the ramp. A s…
Day 3 at Minden
by Bill Elliott •
Report for today: better than expected. Strong north winds and high cirrus clouds left everyone wondering whether we would have a task at all today. After a number of pre-launch amendments—and finally the contestants’ discovery of better-than-expected lift in the Carson Valley—the contest director called the task out over the radio. A 2.5 hour-minimum modified […]
Flying with the Concordia
by SC Admin •
I had the extreme pleasure of flying with Dick Butler today along side his new Concordia. His new ship is absolutely gorgeous! The weather was fabulous with a 6,000′ cloudbase, 5 kt lift and nice streets. Ted Beckwith gave us a tow and we were off flying in the local area while DB flies off…
Flying Day 3, Thursday 11/24 (Thanksgiving)
by Bill Elliott •
The weather here changes so fast. Last night it was really windy and the morning was cold and blowing. But, by the 10 am pilots meeting it had died down and was looking like a pretty good day. We set a 410 km chevron shaped task with the first turn at Westpoint (where we clear…
Flying Day 2, Wednesday 11/23
by Bill Elliott •
Today looked promising for thermal strength but with a real risk that high winds would blow the thermals apart. I launched second in line and got off at 1.4 AGL into a great 7.7 kt thermal that took me to 10.5 K altitude. I set out on course – and that was the last good…
Soaring Cafe Just Got Better–We Now Have News From All Over the Web
by Bill Elliott •
Today we incorporated a new feature at the Cafe–posts from external sources. From the beginning, we have looked for interesting news on the web and posted excerpts for you to “get a sip” and then provided a link to the full post. We have discovered that we can automate that process! The Soaring Cafe home…
Introduction
by Bill Elliott •
Every year I try to take a gliding vacation and in 2005 I visited South Africa for the first time and just fell in love with flying here. This is my 7th trip and, like earlier years, I will try to send on daily “reports” to friends back home. These daily reports really began as…
[HD Video] Terry Delore Captures Interesting Funnel Cloud While Flying in the Wave in New Zealand
by Bill Elliott •
Terry Delore flying his ASH 25 Zulu Foxtrot with Yvonne Loader 29/4/12 in Haka valley over Ritchie McCaw country. Video taken at 12,000 feet, hook cloud develops quickly into a funnel cloud at cloud base, the cloud was spinning fast although the video quality does not show it. The funnel cloud was about 1000 ft…
