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NOVEMBER 30, 1997: WAVE OVER THE DORA VALLEY
Flying from the Dora launches has been very rewarding. The
North Launch is the most often flyable, turned on by the daily sea breezes that
waft up the valley. The bowl there is a great thermal collector as well. But on
this winter day the wind was blowing a cool northeasterly, directly over the back
at about 10 to 15 mph.
So after a brief consultation we decided to drive over and check out the West
Launch above the quarry. On the way we inspected conditions at the LZ and found
it was strangely calm down in the valley with occaisional gusts blowing through
the ravine from the east. Above us the sky was mostly blue but some pretty large
cumulus were forming over the next valley west, which the Salamiou Launch overlooked.
We didn't hold out much hope that Salamiou would be flyable because of the general
wind direction, though.
A short while later we were standing at the West Launch. Expecting a stiff breeze
in our faces we were shocked to find it was very light and coming from the west,
over the back! That made Salimiou a possibility again so we drove over there.
Nope. We found it light and cross from the south. None of our launches were working!
By this time the afternoon wasn't exactly young anymore. With winter shortening
our days things were beginning to look grim and we were pretty much resigned to
a no-fly day.
We passed the West Launch a half hour later on our way home and couldn't resist
one last look. To our great amazement things had changed yet again. Now the wind
was 10 mph straight into launch! Not only that, but some of the cumulus from the
Salamiou area were beginning to appear directly over our heads now and a wide
area of smooth stratus had positioned itself over Kidassi, to the south.
This was all pretty strange to us, and even stranger was that by the time we rigged
the wind had dropped to almost nothing, except for a gust or two, and got pretty
variable. All this meteorological confusion made us nervous. I, elected as wind
dummy, sat there at launch quite a while before a cycle came through that supressed
my butterflies.
I launched into trashy air in the bowl and found the flying very hard work. I
immediately lost two hundred feet trying to soar thermals at the ridge to the
left, almost got back to launch altitude and then sank further and decided to
head out to LZ. It was too tough to stay up.
I crossed the bowl to the south, sinking as I went, but over the knob that demarks
the south part of the bowl a whopping great thermal hit me and carried me to a
thousand feet above launch. That was the end of my troubles staying aloft. Up
there strong thermals were plowing through all over the place, better formed and
easier to stay in. I looked below and saw a rapid couple of launches and was really
looking forward to having the company. Unfortunately, they both got trashed, sank
out and landed. Another launch shortly afterwards ended with the same result.
The truck left for the retrieve and I knew that there wasn't enough time left
for them to have another go. Sigh, alone again!
After a while I began to experiment and decided to try to get over to Dora, if
possible. From a thousand feet over the West Launch I flew across the river just
downstream of where the road crossed it. As I approached the the west side of
the valley floor the air became very smooth and bouyant. The vario registered
zero sink and I lost virtually no altitude as I progressed. Then, as I passed
over the cliffs on the east side of the river and with the air still smooth as
cream, I began to sink pretty fast and that put an end to all hope of reaching
airspace over the North Launch.
So I turned around and flew back toward Kidassi, figuring that I could get back
to the west bowl and those thermals before I got too low. But as I passed back
over the river the air began to get lifty again and I started climbing at about
100 fpm. Then, as I got higher, the climb rate increased. Now I was under that
smooth stratus cloud and rising at 300 fpm steadily, and the lift seemed to be
everywhere. It finally dawned on me that I was in wave!
It was like flying in perfect soaring conditions at Kourion, only the lift band
was massive. I followed the road south toward Fasoula but a mile or so downstream,
over some unique rock formations, the lift suddenly went sinky and I aborted the
Fasoula run.
About this time I began to realize that the light was fading. Turning back toward
the quarry LZ area I found myself fighting a slight upwind component that slowed
my progress quite a lot. I had to pull an inch or two of speed to move forward,
and this did nothing to lessen my lift. The stratus was approaching too quickly
for my tender heart, it was getting cold and I was beginning to shiver. Also,
way down below, a car put on his headlights!
I pulled on maximum speed and moved upstream, managing at the same time to dampen
lift to just a bit above zero sink, and by the time I got over the quarry I was
tiring quite a lot. When I let the bar out the lift bounced back to 300 fpm so
I tried some spiral dives in both directions and got down a little, but when I
let up I was still in lift. Then, my brain actually begin to function and I remembered
the sink on the east side of the river.
That worked great and the emergency eased. Once lower, I went back over LZ and
the lift was now zero sink and I could get down. There was a shear at the bottom
of the wave where it hit the stable lower air and I got bounced around pretty
thoroughly as I sank through it (six hundred feet over the LZ), but after that
it became smooth and stable again and the landing approach was a piece of cake.
The flight ended in less than perfection though, for I was tired and I overshot
a bit, flared badly and put a slight bend in one upright. It was five p.m. and
all that happened in only one hour and twenty minutes. My maximum altitude, alas,
is unknown (I was paying attention to the cloud at the time) but I was about 3000
feet over the river the last time I remembered looking.
I've gotta tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed that flight! In retrospect, though,
I suppose that the entire day was a bit spooky and it occurs to me that I was
kind of pushing my envelope. I would suggest extreme caution on days like this.
There be dragons up there!
JANUARY 17 , 1998: WAVE AGAIN!
I had one other flight from the west launch in which I encountered
wave. This second time I found that the wave extended well downstream of the point
where the first one had ended. Earlier, the day was rougher with thermals well
over 1000 fpm. Later, the wave lift was stronger as well.
This wave also occured late in the day. It set up when the convection began to
shut down and intensified as the lower air became more stable. Both flights required
a rough struggle to get above launch, but on both flights it was easy to stay
aloft afterwards.
The air around launch was disorganized, particularly earlier in the day, and the
decision to fly was not a light one. On days when wave is suspected over Kidassi,
once you get good 1000 feet over the west launch, probe towards Kidasi and see
if you encounter smooth, lifty air. The time of day and the altitude you started
with may determine whether you hit zero sink or definite lift. If you get much
below 1000 feet over launch on the way, head back to launch and get a higher start
altitude. If you get below 500 feet above launch you may have trouble getting
back up. But if you find that smooth, bouyant zero sink you'll probably find the
wave and you'll love it!
Bill Hillman
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