Diary of events for the wave soaring group @ Patagonia, September 2019
27 September 2019
El Chalten, v2
25 September 2019
The sky awaits the OLC Champion 2019 for another flight 500 km North and back South the Cordillera. Congratulations, Klaus!
It is also the windiest day of the campaign in El Calafate so far (~20 m/s at the ground). Enough dirt in the boundary-layer for a great mountain sunset with a virtual mountain range.
Klaus and Thomas return from their 3-day trip along the Cordilliera. Miles and miles of data... Stay tuned on their blog to read the flight reports: https://soaring-for-science.com/
20 September 2019
No words.
19 September 2019
Klaus taking long distance measurements up to Malarque (35°S). What we do is spot clouds and achieve new balloon height records -> 34.9km (launched at ~15 m/s wind speed at the ground)
17 September 2019
Group-excursion to the gliders; Klaus flying to high altitudes and low temperatures (-50°C @ ~9 km). Out of range for one of the temperature sensor.
16 September 2019
Fabulous clouds, new El Calafate balloon height record (32.5 km), glider flights and guests at our cabañas.
15 September 2019
"Da wo der Gletscher kalbt...". Day off at the glacier Perito Moreno.
14 September 2019
Interesting wave conditions, mostly North of us in the afternoon. Unfortunately impossible to reach from El Calafate, but we tried!
13 September 2019
No great wave conditions today, but a short flight was performed. Comparison of today's flight and the flight of 11 September to our radiosondes give some more confidence in the glider measurement system.
12 September 2019
Logging issues in yesterday's flight when temperatures reached -40 degrees. Modifications of the system will hopefully solve the problem.
(photo taken by C. Holler, BigAir Factory)
11 September 2019
Eventful days in Patagonia: Mountain waves and frontal systems; Klaus flying to high altitudes; big balloons; long lines in gas stations and polar stratospheric clouds...
10 September 2019
More radiosondes and preparation for good wave conditions on Wednesday, 11 September. In the meantime the El Calafate team keeps growing.
09 September 2019
Launch of the first radiosondes from El Calafate. In between radiosonde launches, we follow Klaus taking measurements of the local mountain waves.
07 September 2019
First El Calafate flights with our measurement system. Purpose: in-flight calibration of our wind measurements.
06 September 2019
Another day of preparation: Helium bottles arrived and we unmounted the flow probe to perform upgrades.
05 September 2019
A day of running errands, picking up our freight with equipment and first checks and preparation. Klaus and Thomas landed with the gliders in the evening!
03-04 September 2019
Journey and arrival: Munich - Frankfurt - Buenos Aires - El Calafate.
