Let'sgoflying!
Touchdown! Greaser!
to me, anyway - I'd never heard of it!
For years during my hikes I would occasionally see buzzards soaring on the 'wrong' side of a ridge. Ie the wind was pushing up one side ("ridge lift") and then ostensibly rolling down the lee side. I figured they were young birds or something. Not.
In some conditions, when a stronger wind crests a ridge, there is sudden separation of wind flow so that it continues blowing fast at the level of the peak ...with calm wind below. A shear or diff in speed between the two bodies of air.
Well I saw a pbs video tonight that talked about it - turkey vultures especially, it said, would take advantage of this shear in the form of "Dynamic Soaring" where they fly into the more energetic flow to gain airspeed and then circle down into the still air. Wiki touches on it but I need to do more research to fully grasp it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_soaring
The vid had birds, a man in a glider, and notably an rc glider that had picked up 200mph with this technique.
BTW the video was all about raptors and their flying capabilities and was Amazing!
For years during my hikes I would occasionally see buzzards soaring on the 'wrong' side of a ridge. Ie the wind was pushing up one side ("ridge lift") and then ostensibly rolling down the lee side. I figured they were young birds or something. Not.
In some conditions, when a stronger wind crests a ridge, there is sudden separation of wind flow so that it continues blowing fast at the level of the peak ...with calm wind below. A shear or diff in speed between the two bodies of air.
Well I saw a pbs video tonight that talked about it - turkey vultures especially, it said, would take advantage of this shear in the form of "Dynamic Soaring" where they fly into the more energetic flow to gain airspeed and then circle down into the still air. Wiki touches on it but I need to do more research to fully grasp it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_soaring
The vid had birds, a man in a glider, and notably an rc glider that had picked up 200mph with this technique.
BTW the video was all about raptors and their flying capabilities and was Amazing!
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