Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

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NaderFam
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Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by NaderFam » Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:40 pm

I've been trying to learn the physics of wave formations and am catching on slowly. But they are all using ideal conditions and scales are barely pertinent to real world of an inexperienced flyer. So, its a bit of a mystery to unravel.

Meanwhile I've tried to setup weather in various landscapes to create predictable waves to practice, but have not had much success.

Would you be able and willing to help?

Have you come across a landscape and weather settings for it to make easily discoverable waves? It would be supper helpful for novices like me if you could share that.

I would offer to gift any glider (in Condor) for the person with a suggestion voted best.
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Bre901
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Re: Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by Bre901 » Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:35 am

There have been some discussions on the wave topic, searching the forum won't hurt :wink:

Having said that: no need to search for "exotic" landscapes, Slovenia2 is enough.

Set the wind to be more or less perpendicular to the ridge(s). 20-30 kph wind is enough, about double that value above the inversion layer.
To begin with, adjust stability do a medium value. If you have more than one ridge you may want to tweak that so that the wave is in phase with the ridges
Select high levels of moisture so that lenticulars are visible

I have attached a sample FLP. I have tested it only on the ridge where the 1st TP sits, the wave is in phase with the ridge which makes it quite easy to catch (climbed to 4000m in 22 min from start, lift was 4 m/s under the lenticular leading edge east of the TP)
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CN: MPT — CondorUTill webpage: https://condorutill.fr/

Lenticular
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Re: Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by Lenticular » Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:57 am

Nephi is another great scenery for wave flying.

I set 15 kts of wind for the surface, and 30 kts for the wave.

The wave itself is affected by stability and wind strength. 30 kts windspeed, 5/10 or 6/10 stability yields the highest climb rates at the higher altitudes, and 60-80% humidity allows you to see some or all of the lenticular clouds (I prefer 60%, that way it only shows the stronger wave cloud formation).

O/T: we had wave yesterday here in the UK, which was very clearly defined against perfectly clear blue sky conditions.
G-ZULU /// LTN
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NaderFam
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Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:59 pm
Location: US, NYC

Re: Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by NaderFam » Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:00 pm

Thanks for your replies. and for supplying examples.

I have found bits and pieces about waves in the forum, which is obviously not an educational center. The goal is to learn the theories about wave formation conditions and then go looking for the most obvious locations to test those ideas. It is easier than personal trial and error. So, I hope there are places where the wave is so close to the ideal that it is actually boring for experts, but great for novices.

On the web I found https://chessintheair.com/ quite helpful. It has a section on wave that is well written and illustrated. Finding locations and conditions that produce waves clearly needs a good understanding of the theory of atmosphere. which like all theories, I can understand quickly but takes me a long time. Trying to reduce the latter and boost the former.
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bluefang
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Re: Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by bluefang » Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:19 am

If you need more reference material, the following trilogy of books comes highly recommended... I only have volume one (which covers ridge lift and thermals) - Volume 2 covers wave and convergence:

The Soaring Engine, by G Dale - Volumes 1-3

https://wingsandwheels.com/pilot-suppli ... ne-v2.html
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Get my scenery on condor.club: RDU-USA (Raleigh/Durham area of NC)

Lenticular
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Re: Best Landscape to Learn about Waves

Post by Lenticular » Fri Jun 18, 2021 12:41 pm

IRL wave is found by looking for the lenticular clouds, and riding a thermal high enough to pick up the upward moving side of the rotor.

You can get wave (particularly mountain wave) without lenticular clouds, and still achieve fantastic heights.

In the sim, wave is a bit simplified. The lenticular clouds always appear at 15000 ft AGL (not sure if this was changed, but certainly in earlier versions of Condor it was). The wave itself is set up on the wave page, and occurs anywhere the terrain permits it (this part is relatively accurate).

I have noticed that in flatter areas (particularly the UK) wave seems a bit more widespread than it would be in reality. While it can (and does) extend maybe 50-100 miles south of the ridges that created it, in Condor it seems to be all-or-nothing downwind of a ridge that creates wave. I haven't tried flying a long way away from the source though, but while it does weaken away from the ridge/mountain, I don't think it ever actually disappears.

I did some flying this evening, and I have wave formations all around me even though I don't think the conditions exist at my present location (it's very flat, and the terrain slopes the wrong way vs. the wind direction).

If you go crazy and set booming wide thermals up to 15000 ft, you'll pick up the rotor at around 6000-10000 ft. It's characterized by a constant 4+ kts lift.
G-ZULU /// LTN
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