Microlighters

This was quite amazing to see!

On my trip back from Zebula yesterday I witnessed 'standing' thermals, made visible by the ash from veld fires! This was quite incredible to watch. I had always thought that these bubbles of hot air would form and then pop off the ground and, leaving a diminishing whirlwind tail behind them, rise into the sky as a large rising mass of air.

However, to witness these columns of continuously rising (and obviously rotating) air gave me a new perspective on thermals! As long as it took me to fly past the area (say 20 minutes) these same 'standing' columns of rising air just continued unabated, without moving their position on the ground!

My only regret now is not having intentionally flown through one and videoed the experience! We do this all the time, right, 'just that we are oblivious to their presence!!

Nice photo

Hi John.

Nice pic or was that a still from a video clip. If so please post the video.

What time of day was that and what was the temp. I also thought that thermals act much like a lava lamp were the thermal pops off and rises on it's own.

I think that was a once in a lifetime kind of thing to experience. Wish I had been there to see it first hand.

falconp1 wrote:Hi John.

Nice pic or was that a still from a video clip. If so please post the video.

What time of day was that and what was the temp. I also thought that thermals act much like a lava lamp were the thermal pops off and rises on it's own.

I think that was a once in a lifetime kind of thing to experience. Wish I had been there to see it first hand.

It was 11.30am and bliksems hot, as you know! I got seriously bounced all the way back to Aeroden, and with a 20knot tailwind at times it felt like I was surfing a Tsunami! My ASI was going 50 . . . 65 . . . 50 in the space of 10 seconds, with it feeling like the rear of my trike was being lifted by a large invisible hand!! Some of the video footage was so shaky due to the high ASI and associated vibrations of the wing!!

So, yes, it was from a video, but I ditch them due to their size after I have extracted the stills I want!

Also, I was flying north-south whereas in the picture I am facing east, so it was a case of turn east, get the footage, and then turn back on course again!

It was quite remarkable to see though . . . . I was transfixed as to how these thermals just formed these 'virtual smoke stacks' and kept smokin'!

Also, as you can see, some were small, and some really significant! And, what's more, they kept their respective sizes throughout the time that I studied them! I guess that's the difference between a little bounce and getting THUMPED!!

Cheers,

John.com

Hey John

Has anyone ever told you, you have balls of steel. Stainless steel

Triker wrote:Hey John

Has anyone ever told you, you have balls of steel. Stainless steel

HaHa! Not really, I like to think that I assess and manage risk fairly well.

John, it was nice meeting you yesterday and I agree, you have balls of steel, and/or arms of steel for flying in a trike in those conditions. The gyro is much more forgiving and not an issue.

When you took off before me my MGL indicated 35 degrees outside temp.

Herewith my MGL's black box recording of my VSI (at a constant RPM) to indicate what John must have experienced yesterday.

mak wrote:John, it was nice meeting you yesterday and I agree, you have balls of steel, and/or arms of steel for flying in a trike in those conditions. The gyro is much more forgiving and not an issue.

When you took off before me my MGL indicated 35 degrees outside temp.

Herewith my MGL's black box recording of my VSI (at a constant RPM) to indicate what John must have experienced yesterday.

ZEBULA VSI (2).jpg

It was great to meet with all the gyro pilots at Zebula! Thank you for inviting me to join you for brunch. It was really good to meet new faces and to hear a different kind of pilot talk!

Yes, that graph is interesting, but it definitely looks worse than it was out there!

I look forward to meeting up again in the future.

Safe Skies!

John.com