Author Topic: Where Eagles fly... revisited  (Read 2654 times)

One-Eye

  • Misty Moorings Team
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 573
Where Eagles fly... revisited
« on: February 11, 2011, 08:26:48 AM »
One pretty extra with CumulusX - FSX reads the ridge lift and places eagles in that lift too, so as well as the two or three over the "natural" thermal in front of Daredevils' Roost, that strong ridge lift causedby today's RW Weather at Ketchikan added 7 more eagles to my airspace over the Roost just now. Talk about busy!

I've been in "avian occupied" thermals before and believe me, birds do not oblige by gliding rules and fly the same way round "your" thermal. Was never hit by a bird, but swallows and the like whizzing past just by your canopy is eerie. It was no different in-sim just now.

By the way - looking at the clag in that direction, I'd say there's not much chance of gliding at Misty's today... (third pic)

Looksee:



[attachment deleted by admin (old)]
All the best,
Chris "One-Eye" Brisland aka EagleSkinner aka "Dances with paintbrushes"
Check out my msfs 2020 videos on YouTube (Christopher Brisland)

One-Eye

  • Misty Moorings Team
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 573
Re: Where Eagles fly... revisited
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2011, 10:31:03 AM »
I soared with the eagles again a bit later and promptly got blown over the back of the Roost and DOWN into the next valley. The beauty and the beast of Cumulus X is that as well as fantastic ridge lift when there's a good 20 Kts wind straight on, you also get the meanest rotors and downdrafts if your glider can't penetrate faster than the wind.

In these two analysis shots you can see a storyline of 47 minutes of the most harrowing flight conditions you can imagine. 17 knots from 120 at launch. Wind speed increased with altitude - at 3500 I was battling a 47 Kt headwind in a hangglider (at 27 knots...) - whoosh... and down I went to the valley behind the launch site. at around 1200 I was looking for an out-landing site when I found the ridge lift on the opposit side of the Valley.

That's more or less where the PlanG map track starts.

Tacking along that ridg, I spent the next ten minutes climbing up the ridge until I found the express elevator again. (11 KM into the trip - you can see the "baro trace" show me up at 3000+. That was a safe enough height to risk a dash round the edge of that line of mountains where the launch point is, so I started a swooping dash across the valley through some real grotty weather.

Once round the "corner" I had enough height spare to have a go at finding some more ridge lift to get up in front of the launch site. The ridge lift was better this side and you can see from the trace, that I regained a respectable amount of height up Ward Cove and over Ward Lake. I now had enough to attempt a return to Totem Bight and as you can see, I made it to the gravel bar in front of the clubhouse.

Folks, it ain't real with a motor - it's cheating ;) I could even have made a longer flight, but almost an hour in an hang glider under those conditions... Well, if you'da sent your dog out, the RSPCA (NSPCA) would have had you locked away.



[attachment deleted by admin (old)]
All the best,
Chris "One-Eye" Brisland aka EagleSkinner aka "Dances with paintbrushes"
Check out my msfs 2020 videos on YouTube (Christopher Brisland)