Devcon1 Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Like many today it was a glorious day for flying and certainly at our strip some very powerful thermals that had to be escaped from if you wanted to live to tell the tale. During a lull in flying we started to see grass falling from the sky all around the field, now there was very little horizontal wind speed and it was falling from height. Never seen the result of thermal activity taking stuff from ground level and carrying it away, it was quite surreal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetenor Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 A pity you couldn't film it eh ! It would have been interesting to see . John O.T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Etheridge 1 Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Not from Texas was it ?-today we had a 4 foot long inflatable metallic blue letter 'S' land on top of our rotating washing line. I would have preferred grass though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Member Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 [This posting has been removed] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 Then, after we started importing Japanese cars it just rained Datsun Cogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcaddict Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 not much chance of thermals up here in scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Etheridge 1 Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 I thought you guys wore thermal underwear under your kilts? Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 28/08/2017 09:41:43 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 Seen this many times on the farm over the years,on hot days mini twisters form [ only three or four feet across] and if they cross a field with loose dry hay or straw some gets sucked up in the air and can then be deposited some distance away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Berriman Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 The small pieces of straw from a combined harvester having a free thermal to see the views and then returning to earth to annoy or tease you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiKid Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 I have seen them quite frequently during the summer months. They usually form in the afternoon of really hot calm days and can start off small and slowly build up. I was out with a mate once and was about to launch my glider - looking around to make sure the coast was clear I noticed that one of these chimney thermals had formed behind us. Gave him a yelp and grabed my camera for a quick pic. You can just make out his glider heading for the thermal from stage left. This particular beasty was a whopper and stayed around for another 10minutes or so. I managed to launch and join my mate for a bit of a frolic. The twister had formed in a plowed paddock on the other side of that maize and was full of dust. When we eventually landed our gliders were covered in dust and it had also got inside the fuses as we had vents to cool the electronics. Everything was coated in fine dust and we had to give the insides a good blasting with compressed air at home. Great fun and very kind of mother nature to give us a pointer to her free ride. Edited By KiwiKid on 28/08/2017 10:34:39 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 That was a whopper, most last less than a minute. Good pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin b Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 Thermals ? That's fast moving vertical rising air, usually during the summer. We've had lots and lots this year. Only ours are horizontal and across the strip ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiKid Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 Posted by J D 8 on 28/08/2017 11:45:22: That was a whopper, most last less than a minute. Good pic. Yep, it was the longest lasting one I have seen. After about 5 minutes the bottom broke away from the ground and the whole lower part turned into a ball which drifted up and away left to right. We followed it until it got too far away - awesome. You can often spot these thermals by seeing small things circling in a cone shape, sometimes you might spot bigger things Edited By KiwiKid on 30/08/2017 04:10:52 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devcon1 Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 Love the picture of the model heading to the elevator. I imagine it was a bumpy ride.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiKid Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 It was and the lift area was rather small with sink around the edges. Managed to core it a few times, but literally got spat out the side as the column was rotating quite fast internally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devcon1 Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 I'd love to try it though.... Reminds of a time about 40 years ago at my old club, it was the days when farmers used to burn fields for some reason and thought I would try and fly a tow launched glider over the burning field thinking I would go up, from memory it was a rather stupid thing to do as I seem to remember it was like trying to fly in a tumble drier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Whitehead 1 Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 Posted by Tom Sharp 2 on 28/08/2017 02:22:59: When I was young, a long time ago, it used to rain cats and dogs. Following which there would be poodles left laying about all over the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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