Wave over the Annapolis Valley
17 November, 2001 

You will not believe this but it is true. Dick and I were at 12,000 ft in wave over the Annapolis Valley today. 

Five of us were at Waterville today, Trevor L, Warwick, Ralph, Dick and I.
It was a cold day and we initially towed VKA , UIL, and the winch to
Waterville. Conditions were high overcast with clearing increasing. The wind
was from the NW at 10+ knots and there were no CU. However, I had download
the Skew-T plot and it indicated that if the ground warmed to 3-4 C that
there should be thermals to 4500 feet and the wind sock would shift to the
NE every so often.

We decided it was too much trouble to assemble a club glider but Dick
decided he wanted to test his radio and headset aloft - so.... I decided to
exercise VKA's wings. Ralph launched me at a little after 1 pm. Dick's radio
worked very well and he and I kept in touch the whole time on 123.4 (With
IMP of Halifax still claiming that it was their frequency).

I found a thermal after a few minutes of searching and it was reasonably
consistent but required tight turns - I kept with it and drifted downwind to
the SE of Waterville and slowly climbed to 3000 feet. I started moving up
wind and found another thermal and climbed to 4000. Dick was in the air by
this time staying aloft in a weak thermal near the airport.

I found a rough strong "thermal" which booted me above a thin wispy cloud -
the only one in the area. I flew up wind of it and the lift was a smooth 5
knots up but then I drifted down wind and lost it. Suddenly, the words,
rotor cloud and wave lift hit my brain. I look around and there were a
couple other "wispy" clouds in the area. I worked my way up wind through the
sink on the down side of the rotor then the up-side and into smooth lift -
definitely wave!!!  I flew into the wind and found the lift increased to 5-6
knots up. I stayed in it and climbe smoothly through 5 and 6 thousand feet.

I let Dick know what was present and he had climbed to 3000 ft and moved
into area over Rt 101 upwind from me and found the same conditions. By this
time I was climbing through 7000 ft and really excited. The only problem was
that I was not prepared for this!!! I had not eaten lunch, I had no water, I
did not bring my GPS and recorder and most important, I did not have a pee
bottle - AND it was cold up there (-10C).

I stayed in wave downwind of the airport until I gained almost 9000 ft. Over
the north mountain to there was a thin line of cloud that I concluded might
mark the primary wave so I headed across the Valley. As with any proper
wave, the sink increased dramatically as I pushed to the NW against the
wind.  I was over the North mountain before the sink lessened and changed to
lift. Flying at 40-45 knots my lift was about 5 knots . I was still behind
the clouds which were right at the shore of the Bay of Fundy.

Dick had followed and we both climb to 10 then 11 and to 12,000 feet.
Actually I stopped short at 11,900 ft and head east along the north mountain
to explore the wave eastward. Dick went to the limit at 12,500 feet and
there was still a couple of knots of lift.

We were not sure the source of the wave, since there were wisps of cloud out
over the water to the north. In front of the cloud over the North mountain,
there was dramatic sink.

We went as far west as the end of the Greenwood zone at Swindles Knob where
we have ridge soared. I tacked east along the north mountain slowly to
Blomidon Penisula. I was still at 10,000 feet -
We had been up 2 hours and decided it was time to get warm on the ground. We
turned downwind and headed toward Waterville. On the way we explored the
secondary and tertiary wave.  The secondary was about over rt 101 while the
tertiary was at the edge of the southern uplands (South Mountain). We went
on behind that into the downside of the wave to get sink and decend. The
rate was 10 knot downs in places and made a good down elevator.

Even then we had to pull spoilers to get down in a reasonable time.

We both landed at about 4:45 pm and eagerly hopped out of our gliders to get
comforable.

What a flight!!!! - It proves there is wave over the Valley and Nova Scotia
can have great soaring conditions if you are ready to fly and find them.

Cheers.

Larry