Time to Tighten the Seat Belt a Notch or Two

wanttaja

wanttaja

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Ron Wanttaja
lennie4.jpg


Ron Wanttaja
 
Those are some sweet Lennies! Grab some O2 and set a new Fly-Baby altitude record. Just aim for the wave, and stay out of the rotor.
 
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! :yikes:

Nature is pretty awesome.
 
Truly magnificent. Thanks for sharing those photos and links...
 
vontresc said:
Those are some sweet Lennies! Grab some O2 and set a new Fly-Baby altitude record. Just aim for the wave, and stay out of the rotor.
Click to expand...
When you guys do use these waves and huge updraft for your glider flying is it as bumpy as us powered guys who are trying to stay at an altitude or is it smoother because you are riding the lift?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Taken when, from where?
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Friday, December 5th, about 4 PM. It's Washington State's Mount Rainier, taken from the window of my computer room at home in Auburn, Washington (~60 miles away), with the camera pointed approximately south-southwest. Camera was a 10 megapixel Canon Rebel XTI, with a 35-200 mm zoom lens.

As you can tell from the link Mike posted, it was pretty well covered in the local media. As the sun was going down about twenty minutes later I shot this wider-angle image that shows additional lenticular clouds on the far right...I think these are forming to the lee side of Mt. St. Helens.

lennie3.jpg


I live about two miles west and 300 feet above Auburn Airport (S50), and, as you can tell, I've got a pretty good view of Mount Rainier. Here are links to some of my other shots:

http://www.wanttaja.com/fog.jpg

http://www.wanttaja.com/sunrise.JPG

http://www.wanttaja.com/sunrise_shadow.jpg

The last shows the shadow of the top of the mountain being cast on a very thin layer of clouds....

Ron Wanttaja
 
I've never had the chance to soar the wave, but from what I understand the actual updraft in the wave is incredibly smooth. The flow in the wave is nearly laminar so once you are in you are good. The one place you don't want to be is in the rotor under the wave.

For some additional reading check out the FAA Glider Pilots Handbook chapter 10 and Exploring The Monster.
 
ha! first thing i thought was setting the flybaby altitude record, but Pete beat me to it!
 
vontresc said:
Scott, get off the internet, and READ :-)
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Shoot all I do is read. I had 16 technical papers to read this week and had to comment on 4 of them. Plus I had a ton of articles to get through and wrote two reports for a team I am on. SIGH! I jsut want to read something fun.
 
We here in the seattle area are used to scenes like that. We just tell the rest of you that it rains 24/7 to keep you away. DaveR
 
wanttaja said:
Friday, December 5th, about 4 PM. It's Washington State's Mount Rainier, taken from the window of my computer room at home in Auburn, Washington (~60 miles away),
Click to expand...
Stunning photo, Ron. I was flying about 20 north of Portland over the Columbia River about that time, and the view toward the area of those lennies from this direction was nowhere near as spectacular as it was for you.

We did have a nice sunset here today, though!

DSC05716.JPG
 
vontresc said:
Those are some sweet Lennies! Grab some O2 and set a new Fly-Baby altitude record. Just aim for the wave, and stay out of the rotor.
Click to expand...

Excellent Ron, Thanks.
My first mountainflying CFI used to go with a buddy in his C120 & Cub (his other plane was an SR71 Blackbird) off the Willis Wall on the north face of Rainier, plainly visible in your unique photos. They used the little planes as gliders there, and also dived in the downdrafts off the mountain wall.
 
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