LOCALadk Magazine

26 Fall 2018 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk to stay up the pilot must find air that is going up faster than he or she is going down. It's not obvious from the ground, but there is a lot of energy—and movement—in the sky above. Thermals are the most common source of lift. Simply put, the sun heats the ground, the ground heats the air above it, and as that air warms it rises like a hot air balloon. The glider pilot needs to find that rising air and stay in it. Not a simple task, but like ever ything else, there are clues and tricks to the trade. The most obvious clue to where the lift is, is where the clouds are. Clouds are formed when the rising warm air cools enough that the moisture in it condenses and becomes a visi- ble cloud. For the glider pilot this means that wherever there is a cloud there is, or was, a thermal. Now all he or she has to do is get into that thermal and stay there, circling like a hawk or an eagle, climbing up to the bottom of the cloud, some- times slowly, sometimes at a thousand feet a minute. Then it's on to the next cloud, connecting those dots in the sky for miles and miles. Thermals are the strongest and most reliable source of lift during the spring and summer months, but in the fall, the at- mosphere above the Adirondacks begins to settle down a bit. The air begins to cool and become more stable and the thun- derstorms and the big, beautiful cumulus clouds that come with summer thermals disappear and are replaced by flying saucer-shaped lenticular clouds formed not by warm air ris- ing but by the wind blowing across the mountains, a telltale sign of mountain wave. It's time to bundle up and head to Lake Placid. Flying in a moun- tain wave is one of the more thrilling and sometimes more dangerous ways to expe- rience motorless flight. As a strong wind blows across a mountain range it gets deflected up, much like water rushing over a boulder in a fast moving river. When the conditions are right a "wave" forms that can take a glider to incred- ible heights. In September 2017, two pilots flying a spe- cially designed sailplane flew to 52,172 feet over the Andes Mountains in Argentina. To put this in perspective most air- liners cruise between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. The goal for this sailplane, called the Perlan Project (www. perlanproject.org) is to fly to 90,000 feet: the edge of space. In Lake Placid our goals are a bit more humble, but flights to 20,000 feet and better are not uncommon and that's why, starting in mid- October, glider pilots start gathering at the Lake Placid airport. One of our club's tow pilots flies our tow plane up from Saratoga while the glider pilots drive up with our ships in specially designed trailers. You may have seen long white trailers with a bump on the end and wondered what was in them. Well, now you know. Most of us set up camp on the airport grounds with the permission of the air- port manager, while a few seek the comforts of local motels. In the morning the gliders are assembled and lined up, ready for take-off. The tow plane taxis onto the runway and is connected to the glider with the tow rope. Once ever yone is ready the tow plane and the glider take off, flying in formation. Depending on the direc- tion of the wind, the wave may be forming over Whiteface Mountain, Mount Marcy, Algon- quin, or just about anywhere. With so many mountains to choose from, if the wind is strong and the atmosphere stable there will probably be wave some- where, and the tow pilot will take us to it. But there is an entr y fee. In order to get to the wave we first have to fly through its nas- ty cousin, rotor. This byprod- uct of wave formation is a layer of violent updrafts and downdrafts that tests the skills of both the tow pi- lot and the glider pilot, but once we are past the rotor and connected to the wave it's smooth sail- ing, or flying. Wave lift is, in fact, silky smooth, and once in it all the glider needs to do is stay in it and enjoy the ride —keep- ing in mind that what goes up must come down, and the down side is never too far away. It's not uncommon for a wave flight to take a glider so high that a little extra oxygen is needed, and most gliders are equipped with an oxygen system for those high-altitude flights. But to fly above 18,000 feet, where all air traffic is strictly controlled, in addition to oxygen we also must gain permission from air traffic controllers in Boston. A pre-ar- ranged phone call usually takes care of this, and with their permission granted we can fly into the controlled airspace, so long as we stay within the confines of the "wave window." Now the glider pilot can relax a little and enjoy the view as he climbs higher and higher. The mountains and lakes stretch out below for as far as the eye can see —as do the clouds. One of the gravest dangers of wave flying is getting caught "on top." If the clouds close in below the glider and the ground is no longer visible, there is no safe way to get

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