The gliding activities were well organized by Klaus Ohlmann, known as a world record pilot and expert in wave flying. Every morning he interpreted the gliding forecast, prepared by METEO-France, and did a great job by explaining the gliding possibilities in detail.
On the day of arrival a cold front passed the flying area, with a northwesterly flow during the following days. In these well known Mistral conditions ideal lee waves were generated.
This situation was used to fly a series of cross-sections in the wave of Montagne de Lure between 1500 meters and 6000 meters. On this flight the horizontal and vertical wind components were documented with a GPS-datalogger, together with the space and time coordinates. The evaluation of these data is still in progress, the results will be presented in the next autumn-meeting in Aalen.
The other days provided some good opportunities to get familiar with using waves for cross country flying in the area of the Ecrins, Grand Paradiso and Monte Rosa.
Apart from the fun of flying, the participants shared their meteorological knowledge and gliding experience. Nobody is likely to forget the nice atmosphere, the French food and the well known tasty wine of the provence.
Impressions from flights by Hermann Trimmel and Rene Heise
 |
 |
 |
 |
A flight by Hermann Trimmel (18 April 1998) in the lee wave of the Montagne de Lure was used to study the structure of the air flow. Evaluation of the GPS-logger data by Rene Heise together with a topographical data bank (some data points of the flight are missing). It was possible to display and discuss hot spots or points of severe turbulence (rotor) in conjunction with the terrain. Climbrates are color coded: 2 - 3 m/s: red, 3 - 4 m/s: yellow, and more than 4 m/s purple. Maximum altitude was 5000 m. The right image is a sketch by Hermann Trimmel showing the structure of the wave.
 |
 |
 |