In summary: Date: 2-4-2001 Ship: SGS 1-34 (N134BC) Release alt: 13,800 ft Max alt: 17,999 ft Time: 3:50
2-4-2001, Boulder, CO. Earlier that morning there were some small rotor and lenticular clouds visible, but they disappeared. Much further S, there was a rotor and a lenticular cloud visible, so I knew that the wave was working.
Mike Exner in 08L launched me around noon. We flew through mild turbulence in the rotor. From 11.5kft to 13kft there was turbulent lift. It was workable, but I did not want to release --- since this was my first wave solo wave flight I was cautious and I wanted to tow into the primary. After another patch of turbulence, we got into the primary and I released at 13.8kft. The lift was 4kt and the winds were WNW at ~30kt. I climbed to 18kft where the wind was ~50kt. To the the W of the continental divide the cloud cover was solid, but to the E of the continental divide it was blue.
I explored the wave for a while by going back and forth at high speed just to maintain altitude in order to figure where the lift and sink were. I went to Netherland/Eldora. I could see the skiers at Eldora as small dots. Further to the S there was a lenicular cloud.
After that I had some fun spinning 1-34 --- I would climb to 18kft, do a clearing turn, spin down 1-2kft, then climb again. When I had enough of that I headed N.
As I was going N exploring new territories there appeared to be gaps in the lift. Since it was blue, I lost lift a few times and also fell into the up-going part of the rotor a few times. Whenever I found good lift I would punch a waypoint into my Palm Pilot so I could easily find it again if I needed it. With winds at ~50kts from WNW, progress N was slow. Eventually I got a few miles N-ward past Longs Peak. There appeared to be a large gap in the lift N from there, so I headed back S. After some ~15mi I turned back N. Although it was still blue, it was much easier to follow the lift since I now knew where it was. I could fly at 100mph IAS while maintaining altitude.
I flew to ~5nm NE of Longs Peak. From there I flew SW to close over Longs Peak. The view was beautiful. I wish I had remembered to take my camera...
Meanwhile, to the W, the cloud cover became thicker. To the E, rotor clouds and some leticulars became visible. I was monitoring carefully whether clouds to the E were growing. They did not.
Now, with visible rotor and lenticular clouds, it was very easy to maintain position in the best area of lift. The lift also got better. This was ~2.5hrs into the flight. I went back and forth S-N couple of times. The best lift encountered was ~10kt. I saw two jets above me, maybe some 10mi away heading for DIA. I did a few more spins, a few more dives (0G and -G just to find how much dirt there is in the 1-34 cockpit) and pullups, etc.
Temperature in the cockpit was 5F. My feet were pretty cold with 3 pairs of socks, but wiggling my toes helped. Otherwise, I was not cold.
As I was running low on oxygen, I unwillingly decided to go back. As I did not want to go back through the rotor, I climbed to 18kft, and then turned towards 1v5. I had to fly fast to maintain 0 sink. With the tailwind it took no time to get to over Sixmile Reservoir. I got there at 17kft. From there I did a clearing turn, and I spun once to 14kft, and then once more (in the other direction) to 12kft. Then paused to get used to how things look at this altitude. Then two more short spins to 8.5kft. After that I flew around to lose altitude, and landed. The winds on the ground were light (~3kt) from NNE.
Between the initial climb and descent back to 1v5, I spent more than 3hrs between 15 and 18kft. According to my GPS, the avg speed was 52kts, and total distance traveled 204nm. The flight was a great learning experience.
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