Mountain wave flying blimpie YYY's break
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https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Mountain_Waves
XXX's shift was almost done and he wasn't sure what he was seeing was possible, it looked like a lenticular cloud. Looking for Mt. Ranier are you? Hey, YYY, have a look at this.
YYY's eyes widened, lenticular, there is no mountain. Set the LIDAR to weather, check the cabin for anything loose and then buckle up tight; we may encounter some turbulence. XXX wasn't sure what YYY was thinking, but he could certainly help prepare the craft.
I think we are about to experience what they call a mountain wave, in this case, sans mountain. I have no idea what set up the condition, but it tends to be a roller coaster effect with ups and downs, though the latter can be catastrophic. However, for a blimp that can't go into the wind, it can be a free pass up to about 30º out of pure downwind, feel her going up?
XXX nodded. Well you know the rule about what goes up. Get ready to pull some helium back in the tanks, when it goes down, we don't want to pop off the wave. This may be the fastest this baby has ever gone, but it can be wild.
Going up the blimpie only picked up a couple klicks speed, but that is a speed increase going up. At 3km we put on oxygen face masks. Too bad, YYY remarked, I can't find the edge of the wave by radar, we will have to do this by hand and guesswork. And it we fall off the wave? Right at the edge it can get a bit crazy, but then back to normal. That would mean losing our ride, let's not do that.
You didn't need instruments of any sort to tell we had hit the peak, the sounds on the blimpie were changing. 5º negative trim, directed YYY. 5 aye. Navigating a mountain wave was an exercise in three dimensions, you wanted to cheat towards your destination more than you normally could. Staying on the wave meant not being to high, or low and YYY was clear that it would not be wise to fall out the bottom. So you estimate the slope.
Each wave was a bit less powerful, but it was worth the pilot effort. When the ride was over, when we could not find any more wave to surf, we had covered over 480km in under 5 hours.
Later they would learn these waves were fairly common even though the closest mountains were XXX km away. Blimpie pilots and wind surfers called it YYY's break.
https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Mountain_Waves
XXX's shift was almost done and he wasn't sure what he was seeing was possible, it looked like a lenticular cloud. Looking for Mt. Ranier are you? Hey, YYY, have a look at this.
YYY's eyes widened, lenticular, there is no mountain. Set the LIDAR to weather, check the cabin for anything loose and then buckle up tight; we may encounter some turbulence. XXX wasn't sure what YYY was thinking, but he could certainly help prepare the craft.
I think we are about to experience what they call a mountain wave, in this case, sans mountain. I have no idea what set up the condition, but it tends to be a roller coaster effect with ups and downs, though the latter can be catastrophic. However, for a blimp that can't go into the wind, it can be a free pass up to about 30º out of pure downwind, feel her going up?
XXX nodded. Well you know the rule about what goes up. Get ready to pull some helium back in the tanks, when it goes down, we don't want to pop off the wave. This may be the fastest this baby has ever gone, but it can be wild.
Going up the blimpie only picked up a couple klicks speed, but that is a speed increase going up. At 3km we put on oxygen face masks. Too bad, YYY remarked, I can't find the edge of the wave by radar, we will have to do this by hand and guesswork. And it we fall off the wave? Right at the edge it can get a bit crazy, but then back to normal. That would mean losing our ride, let's not do that.
You didn't need instruments of any sort to tell we had hit the peak, the sounds on the blimpie were changing. 5º negative trim, directed YYY. 5 aye. Navigating a mountain wave was an exercise in three dimensions, you wanted to cheat towards your destination more than you normally could. Staying on the wave meant not being to high, or low and YYY was clear that it would not be wise to fall out the bottom. So you estimate the slope.
Each wave was a bit less powerful, but it was worth the pilot effort. When the ride was over, when we could not find any more wave to surf, we had covered over 480km in under 5 hours.
Later they would learn these waves were fairly common even though the closest mountains were XXX km away. Blimpie pilots and wind surfers called it YYY's break.
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