07-01-2016, 05:36 PM
If the conditions are right you can get some super lift at McCoy park.
When I was there on Saturday I could see the heat haze almost straight out from the pilot area slightly to the right just on the far side of the reeds. It's only fairly subtle but when you see that and the wind sock begins to swing and point towards it you know the hot air is going up and the air at ground level is flowing in to take it's place.
The conditions you need are a warm to hot day with just a little bit of breeze the stagnant air heats up and sticks to the ground until it gets just hot enough to break away and it all goes up like a bubble. If you could see it. I imagine it would look like a bit like a giant lava lamp. with blobs of hot air breaking away and going up from time to time.
Sometimes you get a really good one off to the left over the driveway which im sure is generated by a mas of air being trapped and heated up in the concrete area of the weir and when it gets going good it seems to work for about 15 or 20 mins.
SRL and Towelly have done a lot of Discus launch gliding, I watched them fly for around that time off a single launch no motor at all, one afternoon.
Gliding is brilliant fun especially with no motor. What would be good would be just to have a tow plane to get the gliders up there and then float around and hunt for the rising air.
When I was there on Saturday I could see the heat haze almost straight out from the pilot area slightly to the right just on the far side of the reeds. It's only fairly subtle but when you see that and the wind sock begins to swing and point towards it you know the hot air is going up and the air at ground level is flowing in to take it's place.
The conditions you need are a warm to hot day with just a little bit of breeze the stagnant air heats up and sticks to the ground until it gets just hot enough to break away and it all goes up like a bubble. If you could see it. I imagine it would look like a bit like a giant lava lamp. with blobs of hot air breaking away and going up from time to time.
Sometimes you get a really good one off to the left over the driveway which im sure is generated by a mas of air being trapped and heated up in the concrete area of the weir and when it gets going good it seems to work for about 15 or 20 mins.
SRL and Towelly have done a lot of Discus launch gliding, I watched them fly for around that time off a single launch no motor at all, one afternoon.
Gliding is brilliant fun especially with no motor. What would be good would be just to have a tow plane to get the gliders up there and then float around and hunt for the rising air.
“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." ~Leonardo Da Vinci