Hang
Gliding (forecasting weather) Basics
Introduction:
Herein we attempt to let you know what / where / how we decide to go
Hang Gliding - some of the 'basics' of the forecasting technology are
duplicated here - to let you know how we come to the decision to drive
2 hours (one way) OR NOT (that is wether or not to stay-home and/or go
boardsailing / kiteboarding...)
Bottom-Line: - ANYONE and ANY weather web-page has 'surface-winds' -
and we "MOSTLY" use ' iWindsurf.Com ' to determine this... -
When we are 'considering' hang gliding the two main / fundamental '
tools ' are the SkewT diagram (sometimes called a 'soundings' diagram)
- the data originally comes from NOAA, and in this case they produce
the 'Java' application that runs on our Macintosh(es) (or in any
web-browser on any platform / OS) to produce the
diagram (listed below).
The "Skew T" or "Soundings"
diagram with data and application from NOAA.
what we look for in this diagram:
- winds aloft - along the right-hand edge
- temperature aloft - so we know how to dress -
this you can't really see - it's 'interactive' but we can get
temperature(s) at various altitudes - which is very valuable to know
- temperature (red-line) versus dewpoint
(blue-line) spread
end of " Skew T "
discussion----------------------------------------------------------------
The ' TUV ' - that is "Thermal
Updraft Velocity "(diagram) is from ' http://www.drjack.info
' - we frequently call this web site "Dr. Jack"...
The " TUV " (Thermal Updraft Velocity) diagram from Dr. Jack
(Glendenning)'s web-page: http://www.drjack.info
what we look for in this diagram:
- TUV = Thermal Updraft Veolocity - how much
"LIFT" are we likely to get (we like 300 plus (Ms. May likes 500 plus))
- Hcrit = Height critical = the top of the LIFT
- in the fall it's 'low' (typically less than 2,000 feet, in the spring
- 7,000 feet)
- Winds (direction and strength) = we don't like
more than 15-20 knots MAX - the hang-gliders can't go very fast and so
we like low 'winds aloft' so we can make some ground-speed and go places
- LCL = Level of CLoudbase - similar to Hcrit
but different - if the cloudbase is too low then the lift is too low
some other things = more things to look at to
determine LIFT potential over the flight-area
end of " TUV "
discussion----------------------------------------------------------------
last updated: 07:27 a.m. on
Monday, 09 December, 2007: revID:
1d in Austin, Texas,
USA