Cascade Soaring Society Wave Calendar

WAVE CALENDAR

This web page lists the days when wave was working in or around Wenatchee in the spring of 2004.
When the date window is colored [[[[]]]]], then there was a wave.

If the date number is underlined, there is a link to more comments about that day -
- whether there was a wave or not. Often there are also pictures or diagrams that go along with the comments.
Click on the date to get more information about that day.

MARCH <click on MARCH for details about March

APRIL <click on APRIL for details about April

MAY

JUNE

Sunday June 13. The wind was brisk from the west, and cumulus was forming already in the early morning. It looked like the weather would overdevelop, the sky get obscured, and that it would rain. However, by noon the spacing between cumulus suggested that there might be wave. Indeed, there was one. Incredibly, it started as low as 3200' right over the Columbia River at downtown Wenatchee. Laviniu was the one who exploited its potential, and managed to climb above the clouds in the wave to 10300'. Many CSS pilots were flying this day - besides Laviniu also Thom Walker, Dave Goetsch, Keith Wiggins, Vitek, John Roskos, and Dean Johnson, possibly others. All reported having being tossed around in powerful thermals and enjoying great flights.

Saturday June 12. In the evening there were nice lenticulars, however, the sky above them was overcast and any climb through the cover would have to be on IFR.

Friday June 11. After it rained heavily the previous two days, and the skies were laden with moisture. Wind was blowing from the normal (westerly) direction; the sky was sunny again, and a great lenticular formed over Cle Elum.

Tuesday June 8. Quite an extraordinary day. The Wenatchee Wave in reverse! The whole day winds were blowing from the east, just the opposite to the usual wind direction for the valley. And indeed, a wave formed.

This is the view at 4:20 pm looking to the south, taken from the Eastmont junior high school in East Wenatchee.

Saturday June 5. The morning clouds suggested this too would be a good wave day. In the morning it was blowing pretty hard, and the sky was overcast. It seemed that no cumulus could develop and this would be a no-fly day (for most it was... ).

This is the view north towards Entiat Ridge where a nice wave was undulating at 10 am. Wind is from the left.

By one o'clock the overcast dissolved and the sky blossomed to clear blue dotted with nicely developed cu's. Some people got to soar, some had to work.

At six o'clock in the evening the same sky segment as in the picture above looked like this.... the sign that the same wave which was there in the morning was still working in the evening....

The wave was not active only in the north. To the south it was also pretty big. Look at this:

Quite menacing. The view is to south to Jumpoff. West is to the right, and that's where the wind was coming from.

Monday May 31. Memorial Day... and a fourth day in the row that wave worked! While in the morning it was not quite obvious that anything would happen (the sky was rather overcast), by mid-afternoon the high cirrus started drifting away, enabling great cumulus clouds to develop over Columbia Basin. Many long distance cross-country flights were made. CD covered 265 miles, going to Moses Mountain NE of Omak. On the way back to Quincy the clouds started to develop tell-tale signs that a wave might be brewing above and ahead of them...

... and indeed, here is a classic example. The wind is from the right. The technique to get above the cloud is to climb as high as possible under the cloud base (the dark area on the lower left in the picture), and then transition past the cloud's leading edge to the right - upwind side of the cloud, and then slope-soar the cloud.

Here is the view looking south, slope-soaring the cloud. A nice lenticular developed above Quincy, and enabled a climb to over 11,000'. Lennies seemed to appear everywhere, and the next two hours were spent doing another hundred plus cross-country miles all above the lower cumulus clouds- to the wave at Mission Ridge, the confluence of Wenatchee River with Columbia, and then to the Rocky Reach wave (picture below, looking to the north. The Columbia River canyon is on the lower left).

Sunday May 30. At 9:30 am a lenticular was hanging right over Pangborn Airport. View from E Wenatchee SE.

By noon there were plenty of cu's everywhere, and pilots set off roaming cross-country. The wind was stiff and for some it delivered an unplanned surprise. One pilot landed out at Waterville, and another in Pitcher Canyon in the lee side of Mission Ridge (at 47°21.8 N, 120°21.3 W in a steep uphill field).

Here is the aerial view of the landing. The pilot landed diagonally from lower left to upper right, and stopped in 30 feet on a steep field.

Others were luckier and contacted wave; in different locations. JC from PSSA climbed to 16500' over Rocky Reach Dam; SN from SGC was outside the wave window; so went "only" to 17500', between George and Quincy; and CD from CSS climbed to 14200 over Jumpoff just to stop the climb there on account of oxygen malfunction, while the lift was steady 8 knots.

Saturday May 29. A very interesting day with lots of wind, but which was not picking up with altitude... According to the soundings winds were in the range of 25 to 30 knots all the way to 30,000'. For a good wave wind gradient must pick up. Nevertheless, wave did develop in the lower elevations, numerous pilots got into it and climbed from the low of 5,000' to as high as 12,000' (Tim H. from PSSA). Tim came down after 8 pm with a big grin.

This is the wave he used. (This picture taken at about 6 pm.) Notice the shadow of the lenticular covering the area of Badger mountain on the right.

The PSSA Blanik was tied down, and over it (looking north) Tim was was climbing in the wave.

At 8:15 pm a long noodle of a lenticular developed, stretching from over the top of Mission Ridge to over Twin Peaks... a distance of about ten miles. The view is over the Safeway gas station in E Wenatchee towards Mission Ridge, looking southwest.

Friday May 28. A couple of pilots from the visiting Puget Sound Soaring Association got to 10,500' around Rocky Reach Dam.

The view is from the Obadashian bridge (Hwy 2 across Columbia River), looking north.

Sunday May 2. A series of lenticulars covered the sky in the morning. Around 9 am a row of rotors hung above Wenatchee Heights. Behind them, in the picture, was a smooth lenticular. The wind was from the west (from the right to the left in the picture). Just above the spine of Mission Ridge was another row of rotors, apparently underneath that smooth lenticular.

As the day progressed, lenticulars became less pronounced. According to the satellite report, winds were not very strong. Up to 9000' less than 15 kts, and only then increasing. It looked like it would not be much of a day.

Undaunted, Laviniu towed up at noon, closely followed by Vitek. Wave WAS there, even far out into the Columbia Basin.

Here is a view from over Badger Lookout towards Waterville (looking northeast). Also Ephrata pilots got in the wave, thirty miles downwind, east of Beezley Hills; the highest anyone got was 10,500'. There seemed to be lenticulars everywhere.

and here, from the same location, to the south, towards the Pocket, Pangborn, and Jumpoff. That's where Arnie was fighting to climb up to the lenticulars in the Russia. All of us had great, challenging, and satisfying flights.

As the sunset was approaching, the airflow got smoother, and lenticulars started to develop into beautiful forms.

Both images are excerpts from the same scene, taken five minutes apart. As the sunset was progressing, the clouds became even more whimsical.