Dust Devils!!

[Chaz]

Dust Devils or Whirlwind!! Anyone ever have the misfortune of being caught in one or being close to one. I think that must be the severest under normal conditions, turbulance to be caught in.

Sometimes when they go over hard ground they are not easy to detect. Other than that they are quite visible.

Your's in Flying
CHAZ

[Chaz]

Yee gawds i cant imagine but i think u must have kaaaked yourself Well you here to tell us about it anyway and yes you right we heading into that season now which is why i thought i would enquire. Obviously any closer to the ground would have meant a different story i bet.

Ive heard they can also attain thousands of feet in height in seccies. Us rookie guys need to hear from you ou manne about this type of thing. Not that i evere intend flying near to one.

Your's in Flying
CHAZ

[lamercyfly]

Hey Demon - way to go :D

If you are in the sky, and you have no option but to intercept one, be sure to intercept INTO THE DIRECTION OF ROTATION. Expect HUGE climb rate. If you interecept with the direction of rotation, you will experience immediate loss of headwind, with resultant violent stall.

Direction of Rotation? Go figure - it is a low pressure in the southern hemisphere :D

Talk later,

[lamercyfly]

I asked FF to help me put some more details on dust devils on. This is from Dennis Pagen's Performance Flying. It is a hang gliding manual, but well worth studying for all trike pilots as well.







Talk later

[Junkie]

I guess gliding experience from the ol' days has helped over the past 6 years to cope with thermals and bad turbulance, but did have one experience as a newbie flying first cross cointry at Midday in summer near Malmesbury.

Result was Me & Trike, in an instant falling outta the sky, facing straight down at the ground -no prior warning, wonder if it was a twister or maybe I just feel asleep and stalled hey

Can tell you that after that little thrombie, I was like a raped owl, counting the bugs on the visor and scanning the horizon, fields and sky for any sign of possible bogies

[Morph]

Can tell you that after that little thrombie, I was like a raped owl, counting the bugs on the visor and scanning the horizon, fields and sky for any sign of possible bogies

[Cloud Warrior]

So now we know what Ian does in his spare time - studying the mating habits of nocturnal birds of prey.

[Microwave]

A couple of years ago during our annual trip to the Berg I was caught up in a dust devil just after rotating. Its an incredibly vulnerable time to be caught up in such a thing as I was only about 3 metres off the ground at the time. The whole plane was pulled violently to the left and I found myself flying more than 120 degrees off my intended course. I k@kked myself for sure. All I could do was just keep the power on and hope for the best . The worst thing is that I never even saw it coming. Even worse, I almost had to hear the rest of the Rietfontein gang questioning me over the radio why they can read my aircraft registration from above B@stard&

[grosvenor]

Photo taken on 18 Sept '05 just south of Villiers

[Ratman]

Saw a mean dusty looking to gobble up whatever was in it's way on Sunday. Luckily far enough away so just headed for the hills after deciding which way it was going to go. After Demon's posts I made up my mind a long time ago that I am not going to tackle one of those. Dust devils have right of way

[Microwave]

Batman, I understand that you are in an advanced stage of your training. Congratulations mate, I look forward to flying with you on a flyday one Friday afternoon.

[Ratman]

Batman, I understand that you are in an advanced stage of your training. Congratulations mate, I look forward to flying with you on a flyday one Friday afternoon.

:D :D Microwave - long time no see Very much looking forward to flydays with you too

[skybound®]

Hitting the devil into the direction of rotation is probably best. But watch out when you exit the other side. Your craft will enter what hangliders call 'over the falls'. Craft pitches quite far forward.

Whatever you do - keep your speed up and back pressure on the bar. I think your instinct may tell you otherwise and push bar out to try and stop the dive - that will set you closer to stall.