Sunday Funday Nov. 15, 2015 ?

[Bob Kuczewski]

Is anyone up for this month's Sunday Funday?

[JoeF]

I will be there for some fun, exercise, good air, friends, flight in one form or another ...
There is forecast some chance of rain. Cool. SW wind would permit the SW-facing slope be featured, perhaps.
Micro hang gliding will definitely be part of the day.
Clothes? Windbreaker?

[Frank Colver]

I was just going to post that I would pass because of the weather forecast but if you, Joe, (and perhaps some others, BobK etc.) are going to be there I'll join you Sunday for whatever recreation the weather encourages. I'll bring the Alpha and depending on what it looks like, weather wise, I'll set up or not.

I can remember some great days in the past, at flying sites, where the weather was not conducive to flying but it was an enjoyable day anyway. Fresh air, bench flying, exercise, more bench flying, sand kicking, Joe's micro HG, etc.

Frank C.

[dhmartens]

The (willswing) Alpha flying Torrey is one of the most important milestones of a Hang Gliding comeback, in my opinion.

[Frank Colver]

Wow! Thanks for that photo and posting. Great photo!

I would be willing to bring my Alpha down to Torrey for someone else to fly and get some video. Obviously, I'm not qualified to fly Torrey anymore, but I would enjoy seeing my Alpha soaring there.

When I bought the glider last July I knew that my flights would be not very frequent but I also knew that I didn't mind sharing the glider at sites I visited. That's a big change for me since my days of yesteryear, HG flying almost every weekend and no sharing.

BTW - When I told Mike Meier a couple of years ago that I wished Wills Wing still made the SST. He said that if I flew an Alpha it would remind me of the SST. Yes, I think it is fantastic to have a single surface, large area flex wing, a Sunday flyer so to speak, in the skies of Torrey again.

Frank

[Bob Kuczewski]

That might be an Alpha (although I'm not familiar enough to be sure), but it's certainly not Torrey!!     

So who's up for Sunday Funday?

I just checked the weather and it could be a super day!!!

The wind starts out from the South at 8mph until noon.

Then it swings to SW and picks up to 15mph until 4pm.

Then it's straight West . . . at 18 mph.     

I was there one time when a friend was flying his Pulse and soaring as long as he wanted. This looks like that kind of day!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Here's the forecast for Saturday and Sunday this weekend:

  Forecast for Saturday (made on Fri Nov 13 22:41:04 2015 UTC)  

Time	6a	7a	8a	9a	10a	11a	12n	1p	2p	3p	4p	5p	6p	7p	8p	9p	10p
Direction	60	60	60	60	60	130	130	130	230	230	230	240	240	240	230	230	230
Speed	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	3.0	3.0	3.0

  Forecast for Sunday (made on Fri Nov 13 22:41:04 2015 UTC)  

Time	6a	7a	8a	9a	10a	11a	12n	1p	2p	3p	4p	5p	6p	7p	8p	9p	10p
Direction	120	120	130	130	130	190	190	190	240	240	240	270	270	270	270	270	270
Speed	2.0	2.0	5.0	5.0	5.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	15.0	15.0	15.0	18.0	18.0	18.0	18.0	18.0	18.0

Sunday looks very very good!!     

[SamKellner]

We want to see some pics of Sunday's flying at Torrey. HGs

You Guys have fun at Dockweiler, wish I could be there.

And wish I had an Alpha, Yeah.

[Frank Colver]

Yes! I had also noticed the wind forecast looked good if it doesn't rain. Only 20% chance of that so that usually means it doesn't rain.

I may actually need launching wire assist.

Frank

[Bob Kuczewski]

Here's the Sunday forecast as of a few minutes ago:

  Forecast Made on Sat Nov 14 23:49:20 2015 UTC  

Time	6a	7a	8a	9a	10a	11a	12n	1p	2p	3p	4p	5p	6p	7p	8p	9p	10p
Direction	90	90	160	160	160	210	210	210	250	250	250	270	270	270	290	290	290
Speed	2.0	2.0	6.0	6.0	6.0	9.0	9.0	9.0	13.0	13.0	13.0	17.0	17.0	17.0	16.0	16.0	16.0

Here's what it looks like in the form of a graph:

Forecast_for_2015_11_15_c.png (10.12 KiB) Viewed 7968 times

The GREEN line (in the middle) shows the forecast wind speed. The BLUE line (on the bottom) shows the forecast wind direction. The RED line (on top) shows the westerly component of the wind. In other words, that's the effective lifting wind for a west-facing slope (speed times cosine of difference between wind direction and due west).

For tomorrow, the wind will be steadily increasing in speed throughout the day, and it will simultaneously be changing its direction (south in the morning to northwest by midnight.

Since most of Dockweiler faces slightly south of west, the soaring wind should start around noon (especially on the southwest facing slope). It would be wise to be set up and ready to go by then.