Mountains, 25 kt Tailwind, smooth air?

comanchepilot

comanchepilot

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Jun 1, 2010
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Tucson
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Joe Farrell, yeah, him
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TUS
I did the $200 dog food run today -we generally feed our lab grain free - and he is a healthy little bugger- no allergies, no hip or joint problems - not obese - a 75# male lab is just about right. We started him on Taste of Wild by Tractor Supply - and try to keep him on it which requires I go to a Tractor Supply, which requires flying the 45 min or so to Bakersfield. Tough, ain't it?

Anyway - the screen shot today was coming home - saw around 27-30knots tailwind - and on the way up - only 1000 feet lower - winds were only 20 on the nose. That 182knot groundspeed stayed with me much of the flight back. I was seeing 140 knots over the ground on the way up.

The GPS told me that this was a 33knot wind. Winds that sporty over 5 and 6000 foot mountains [and higher to the east and west] generally provide you a pretty bumpy ride. Yet - all we saw was a +/-15knot updraft and downdraft near GMN for about 10 miles both ways . . .
 

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I wouldn't be concerned over a 6,000 foot mountain. 12,000 foot mountains, 10,000 foot passes, different story. But either way a tailwind is much preferable to a headwind as the wave will carry you up and over the mountain, vs push you back down on the upslope.
 
I was in the pass over Gorman - east and west of there is terrain a lot higher than 5000' - up to 8 - and the reality is you often see bumps with winds over 20kts- regardless of the level of terrain. I didn't say I was worried about anything - no one likes banging their head on the ceiling of their aircraft in continuous moderate!
 
No input of the flying, but we've been feeding the Doodle on Taste of the Wild and so far, he's the healthiest, happiest dog we've every had. Great stuff.
 
Old Geek said:
No input of the flying, but we've been feeding the Doodle on Taste of the Wild and so far, he's the healthiest, happiest dog we've every had. Great stuff.
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Good stuff for sure. . . . more folks need to appreciate the benefits of a low grain diet - for humans and canines.
 
comanchepilot said:
I did the $200 dog food run today -we generally feed our lab grain free - and he is a healthy little bugger- no allergies, no hip or joint problems - not obese - a 75# male lab is just about right. We started him on Taste of Wild by Tractor Supply - and try to keep him on it which requires I go to a Tractor Supply, which requires flying the 45 min or so to Bakersfield. Tough, ain't it?

Anyway - the screen shot today was coming home - saw around 27-30knots tailwind - and on the way up - only 1000 feet lower - winds were only 20 on the nose. That 182knot groundspeed stayed with me much of the flight back. I was seeing 140 knots over the ground on the way up.

The GPS told me that this was a 33knot wind. Winds that sporty over 5 and 6000 foot mountains [and higher to the east and west] generally provide you a pretty bumpy ride. Yet - all we saw was a +/-15knot updraft and downdraft near GMN for about 10 miles both ways . . .
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Been there, done that. First xc didn't make it over the pass in a c150...full rental power and couldn't out climb the wave...
 
Wave is laminar. You were above the turbulent rotor
 
Sac Arrow said:
I wouldn't be concerned over a 6,000 foot mountain. 12,000 foot mountains, 10,000 foot passes, different story. But either way a tailwind is much preferable to a headwind as the wave will carry you up and over the mountain, vs push you back down on the upslope.
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6,000' Mt. Washington regularly makes mountain wave capable lifting sailplanes to over 30,000' enough energy to make plenty of hurt.
 
Tend to agree with Tony. If you were flying maybe a 1000' lower, you might still have been in the rotor, but were probably high enough to just make it into the laminar layer
 
vfrfellow said:
Been there, done that. First xc didn't make it over the pass in a c150...full rental power and couldn't out climb the wave...
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yeah - I imagine that scared the feces out of you - there are lots of outs for me with 260hp to start - at 8500 and above. I can turn away and descend into the upper desert near Palmdale, try to descend to the San Fernando or Central Valley- it would need to be a really bad wave to not have someplace to go -but in a 152 at 5500 or 6500 - wow.

Welcome to POA.
 
tonycondon said:
Wave is laminar. You were above the turbulent rotor
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The forecast was for moderate turbulence below 10k all day from about the Lake Castaic to Modesto. They had airmet tango out.

I should also have felt the turb on the descent and climb out from BFL - and there was de nada.

Thats a forecast that was nice to see not verify.
 
This is often the case with higher speed winds. I believe they just shear the tops of the turbulent rotors off. I remember crossing the Sierra NE bound over Truckee one summer (it was the summer when we had all those big fires) with a 35 kt tailwind, we flew between 10,500 and 12,500 with the VSI alternately pegged between climb and descent in about a 10 minute cycle but otherwise smooth air.

Another time I flew westbound past Mt Diablo, which is only 3800 feet, with a pretty significant tailwind but dead smooth until just passing the peak at which point it was like going over a waterfall.

The problem is it's all invisible so you never really know
 
ClimbnSink said:
6,000' Mt. Washington regularly makes mountain wave capable lifting sailplanes to over 30,000' enough energy to make plenty of hurt.
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Yeah but you have a lot more leeway to clear it with plenty of altitude.
 
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