The Weather Notebook: Wave Flying 2

Wave Flying 2
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Hi, I'm Bryan yeaton for The Weather Notebook. What does it feel like to explore the skies above like a soaring hawk. The Weather Notebook's assistant producer, Doug Sanborn, recently took a ride in a sailplane with Post Mills Soaring Club member, Kevin Brooker to find out.

Assistant Producer, Doug Sanborn flying at 14,000 feet.
The go signal had been given and the tow-plane roared to life, accelerating for take-off. Our glider is tethered to the engine powered plane by a rope. It's aluminum frame shakes like a tin can being kicked around. Suddenly the shaking gives way to the sound of air passing around us. We were in flight.

We were heading out to ride the wave above Mount Washington, an event that each fall draws sailplane pilots from all over the country. The mass of rising air created by the mountains below it provide sailplane pilots with hours of lift and altitude creating some of the best gliding in the world. Kevin, my pilot, talked about how the mountains helped create the wave.

KB: If you look over to where the great gulf is between Jefferson and the peak of mount Washington there's that pseudo-summit, what is that Clinton? You see how precipitous that drops off? The wind is coming over that and the wind is actually getting bent downwards and that's what's generating the wave. And you can see the way the mountains are to the south and there's that gap, that funneling effect, that really rips the winds through and gives mount washington such strong winds. It's funneling it right in the direction and you can see we're pointed straight into the wind and climbing.

We continue to ride the wave for the next hour, topping off at 14,000 feet, until the cold atmosphere and the lack of oxygen forces us back to Earth.