Riding the Wave
A 13-Year-Old Glider Pilot’s Journey to 14,000 Feet
When I came to work at the airport one day Tom, my instructor said it was going to be an epic wave day. The wave happens only in special conditions and I have been looking forward to it for a long time. As we headed down to the hangar in a golf cart to retrieve the PW-6 glider, Tom explained that the conditions were ideal for flying in the mountain wave. We pulled the glider out of the hanger and brought it down to the flight line.
Dave the tow pilot got in the tow plane and Tom and I got in the glider. The wing runner gave the take off signal to Dave and we bounced down the grass runway and took off. The rough conditions were exhilarating. It felt like we were getting tossed around in a washing machine. Tom took over for the rest of the tow because it was so rough. After we got through the rowdy air the wind settled down, it got smooth, and then I started flying. We released from the tow plane at 4,000 ft above the ground. Then we got into the wave and climbed to 14,000 ft twice in a very strong lift with no engine. The lift was so fluid, and amazingly smooth that I couldn't even feel that we were going up. However by looking at the instruments and just looking down at the ground and clouds, I knew we were going up.
Glider pilots are always looking for lift like thermals, ridge lift and wave. Thermals are columns of hot air rising that we can circle in like a hawk. Ridge lift is when the wind hits the side of a mountain and gets deflected upward and you can climb on the upwind side of the ridge if you fly perpendicular to the wind. The wave is when the wind hits the back side of the mountain and comes up and over like an ocean wave. When the wind is hitting the back side of the mountain it has to be going at least 20 knots perpendicular or within 30 degrees perpendicular to the mountain. The wave can produce strong, smooth lift over the Mad River Valley (MRV) allowing gliders to climb very high without an engine.
As we got higher the MRV started to look different. The view from 14,000 ft was amazing. We were right over my house and I didnt even realize. We radioed Burlington approach control and told them that we were flying around the MRV in the wave. They helped us by making a bubble around us so the other planes didn't hit us. We were always turning to make sure that the clouds didn't close in on us because if we went through the clouds we could get disoriented. It got colder as we soared higher. My feet were getting cold and almost numb. It almost felt like we weren't moving. The visibility from a glider through the canopy is like a fighter jet. I could see the blue sky above the clouds and the ground below. It was very exhilarating and awesome.
After flying for an hour we flew different maneuvers descending back towards the airport. It was very rough in the traffic pattern and we were getting bounced around close to the ground while coming in to land. It was rough because just like when an ocean wave breaks the mountain wave has eddies of air currents around it. Glider pilots call it rotor. When we came in to land Tom told me that he was going to do the landing because there was a very strong cross wind and turbulence.
It was a great flight because I learned more about how the wave worked and I was surprised at how fast the weather and clouds can change. Even though it was challenging it was a lot of fun and very exciting. I love learning how to fly and hope to keep having these great experiences.
