Recently I have been playing around with OziExplorer's 3D profiling program, looking at some past flight tracks.
In September last year I had a very interesting flight that involved getting caught in a thermal. We took off in the afternoon, which was warm but not hot, from the paddock behind our house at Binalong for a short flight. As part of my practice for the Worlds, I was flying a Kavanagh EX65, which is designed to handle fast vertical speeds. We cruised (quite quickly) up to 3000 feet above the launch site and then leveled out. Then a strange thing happened...
Without putting much heat into the balloon, we found ourselves in a sudden rapid ascent and within a minute and a half we were at 5500 feet where it rounded out. The balloon handled the climb very well, it was more a surprise to find ourselves at that height. After a fast descent, we landed on the other side of the hill having only traveled 2km.
4 comments:
Yeehaa! Any idea on the speeds involved? Don't forget to read the limitations section of the flight manual before answering....
Remind me what the limitations are and I will tell you how fast it was.
Sean - i seam to remember you talking about the dangers of "wineglassing" - perhaps that's an advantage of the EX65, I can see the sails pitch now - With the EX65's smaller horizontal profile you need never worry about wineglassing in a thermal again.
That is a sensational profile of a Thermal. The wind direction is perfect to hit the hill and it would have only needed a bit of heat to set it off.
Most Paraglider types would weep with joy looking at that profile. Topping out at about 5500 sounds about right for an afternoon thermal as well.
It sure makes for economical flying when you dont have to burn.
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