Mountain wave sunset
- Thread starter ejensen
- Start date
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
wow eric, that is beautiful. I just finished "Exploring the Monster" by Robert Whelan. It is the story of the first wave soaring pioneers in Germany and most notable the Sierra Nevadas, flying out of Bishop, CA. Those guys were topping 40,000 feet in the early 50's. It was simply amazing!
Wave is amazingly powerful and beautiful.
Wave is amazingly powerful and beautiful.
Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
Thanks Eric.
"I just love staring at the sky."
"I just love staring at the sky."
fgcason
En-Route
Wasn't that beautiful last night?
The entire world here was flooded with that interesting golden color you sometimes get at sunset. I stepped outside and a minute later I was sitting on top of the RV with the camera.
A few sunset pictures from near Red Rocks:
The entire world here was flooded with that interesting golden color you sometimes get at sunset. I stepped outside and a minute later I was sitting on top of the RV with the camera.
A few sunset pictures from near Red Rocks:
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gkainz
Final Approach
It was an awesome site last night - I snapped a few shots with my phone, but the quality isn't worth posting, compared to Eric and Frank's pictures. About 5 pm, the clouds where illuminated from underneath as the sun set - looks very cool!
tonycondon said:
About a year ago I heard two gliders getting a clearance into the 'Salida Box' near Salida, CO. They were clear to 'maintain at or below FL32'
I heard one reporting mid 20s before we got out of range.
Frank you got some nice ones. The ACSLs were better from the office but the camera was home.
fgcason
En-Route
Anthony said:
Yes. I'm about 4 miles from there for a short while.
I'm thinking more along the lines of Celtic Woman there but I missed them by a few months. That looks like a fun place for a concert.
Anthony said:
Thanks!
fgcason
En-Route
ejensen said:
Thanks.
I'm to the point where I take the camera almost everywhere with me. You never know when you'll have that one off, will never happen again, 2 minute chance for a keeper photo.
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
ejensen said:About a year ago I heard two gliders getting a clearance into the 'Salida Box' near Salida, CO. They were clear to 'maintain at or below FL32'
Mid to high 20's is pretty common in the Rocky wave when it is working.
While reading through exploring the monster, Dr. Kuettner and the rest of the wave maestros of that time considered a 300 mile flight up to 30,000 feet to be routine. By the end the typical Sierra Wave project flight was a tow through the rotor (rough!) contact wave, release, climb to 40,000, explore the limits, find maximum strength, then get in the sink and come back down. This was just another day at work for these guys. The world altitude record got set during the project at 44000, they were still climbing 700 ft/min but the project had decided it was not worth the risk to go higher than that. without pressurization it was too dangerous. Not until 1981 when Bob Harris got to 49,009 feet in the same area did the record get challenged. Now Enevoldson and Fosset have set the multiplace absolute record at just over 50,000.
Like I said, powerful stuff.
Matt-I pretty much have been doing nothing up here except reading the book. Now im just going to resort to twiddling my thumbs I think.
I've heard the worst/best are in the Sierras. There was a glider and pilot at Boulder that used to fly into TS for NCAR. Specially reinforced. Don't have any detail on altitudes but must have been interesting rides.
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
that was a highly modified schweizer 2-32. There is an IMAX film out about storms, has tornadoes, and other natural disasters in it. damned if i can remember the name. was put out in 1996 or so. It has scenes of the NCAR research glider flying through some cumulus buildups. sign me up!
tonycondon said:
Thanks to google, Stormchasers. The NCAR folks showup at our airport once in awhile chasing TS. Sit and watch the portable doppler then go.
tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
thats it. I believe that glider is still around Boulder somewhere. Matt knows, i cant remember. I think it may be on display.
Anthony
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Anthony
fgcason said:
Red Rocks is a great place to see a concert. The geological formations, the view of the Denver area and the acoustics are all spectacular. Take a drive up there and walk around a bit. Its interesting and you get to see the view of Denver. You must either be in Morrison, Idledale or Kittredge.
Eric, didn't we fly over Red Rocks once either in your Mooney or my Tiger?
fgcason
En-Route
Anthony said:
I've puttered through the park on the motorcycle a couple times before I got faceplanted. Interesting place. Lots of twisties and some interesting rocks to wander around. It looks like a small version of Garden of the Gods from what I've seen of it. Next week when I'm on 2 wheels again I'm going to go over and walk around for a while.
Anthony said:
I *think* I'm in Golden but I'm not totally sure. Lots of areas merge around here (golden, lakewood and a couple others) so I'm just where I set camp at. (I figure if I don't even know where I am, no one else can find me either.
)P.S. For anyone that rides motorcycles, there are some fun twisty roads in the area that often begin with roadsigns like this one that begins just west of the south entrance to Red Rocks.
Just stay well within your abilities and be careful of loose dirt and oncoming traffic in the wrong lane.Attachments
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