Waaaaaaaaaaaave!

Tonight, we fly in wave! Nick Oakley (OWN), a young New Zealand pilot set up a wave task in New Zealand 0.8; really exciting!

Condor 2 does a pretty good job modeling wave. It sets up rotor-lines and lenticular clouds, both which will apply tonight.

For folks who haven’t flown wave, this will be a really cool experience! Note that wave soaring is very different from thermal flying; the lift remains stationary and goes HIGH! The big challenge is connecting with the wave and getting in that gorgeous silky smooth air.

While neither Nick or I flew the task, I tested the conditions briefly in the start area and found there is indeed wave. Since many folks do not have wave experience, I figured it would be best to make a briefing so folks have a reasonable chance of connecting in it.

After you enter the game, head NW into the start sector. Find a thermal and climb up to cloudbase.

Note that these are “rotor thermals”. They are strong, violent and disorgnized. It’s no fun being in the boundary layer on a wave day. You will have to work hard to climb in these buggers. If you’re a beginner, you may find it easier to dump the water to have a smaller circle and a faster climb rate.

Climb right up to cloudbase. And I mean *right* up to cloudbase, into the wispies. If Condor momentarily says, “D.Sazhin entered cloud”, that’s a good thing for the transition!

Turn into the wind and slow down to best glide speed. Wait until the variometer goes up to 2 knots. Then turn 90 degrees.

Remember wave lift is stationary, like a ridge. You will beat back and forth in the lift; don’t drift downwind because it will get weaker! Look at the PDA… see the thermal trace on the right side. And see when I connected with the lift how I am doing laps?

When you connect with the lift, stay with it for a while. Plan to climb to 10-12,000ft so you’re comfortably established in the lift.

At that point, head along courseline. Stay on the upwind side of the lenticular clouds… the NW side is where the lift is building.

For a more extensive briefing on wave theory, see here and Clemens’ resources.

Good luck and see you tonight!

• Teamspeak: channel: ts3.virtualsoaring.eu:9982 | password: ask13 | Channel- MNS/USNS. (Note, please go to Settings and set up “Push-to-talk” for your mic.)
• Register (for free) here to receive briefings one hour before the race and to submit your log for scoring.
• Scenery Download: Use Condor Updater. (Best to subscribe for more bandwidth!)
• Find “US Nightly Soaring” at 9pm Eastern (0100 UTC) here or here.

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Next week, we will add Arc Alpin 2, Southern Norway 4, [4.01] Cascade Range [2.0] to our suite of MNS/USNS sceneries. Be sure to download them in advance of the races!

All the best,
Daniel