www.sahga.com •Web site update
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Web site update

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:50 pm
by jlowery
Check out the new Weather page at http://www.sahga.com. If you know of any free useful flying weather resources that you'd like included, please let me know.

Also, the events page at the web site has been updated. Added listings for the AZHPA labor day fly-in, the Santa Cruz Flats race, and the RGSA's Dry Canyon Columbus Day fly-in.

http://www.sahga.com

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:58 am
by John Wolfe
John, thanks for doing this.

Please consider adding to the weather page:
Soundings from FSL: http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/
Winds aloft: http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/A ... se=azimuth
Jet Stream Position: http://www.weatherimages.org/data/imag192.html

I'm not wild about the particular jet stream position forecast I've listed above, so if anyone has a better one, please suggest it.

Re: web site update

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:34 am
by jlowery
John,

The FSL page is pretty nerdy, and for neophytes needs some explanation and suggested settings along with the link. TUS is the obvious choice for the sounding, and 8 hours for a morning forecast. but which model do you usually use? NAM? or something shorter-term?

The tutorial links on the page itself will handle the rest.

Thanks for the suggestions,
John L.

Re: web site update

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:41 pm
by morey
jlowery wrote:
The FSL page is pretty nerdy...
Guess that defines me pretty well. Still love that FSL site.

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:47 pm
by John Wolfe
For FSL I use Op40 for near-term forecasts, which are much more accurate than the longer term forecasts, which I get from Bak40. So, Op40 if I'm looking late at night or on the day of flying, and Bak40 if I want to get a rough forecast the day before flying.

For location, I use lat/lon for the site of interest. So, for Miller Canyon I'll use 31.424047, -110.283942.

For "Start Valid Time" I use the earliest time I think I can be on launch.

For "Number of hours" I specify the window of time in which I'm interested, usually 3-6 hours.

Poke the Java-based plots button to get the SkewT plot, and on that page poke the buttons for the various hours of interest. The wind barbs on the side give you a good overview, and the "Get text" button will produce more detail.

The SkewT plot is a good way to see the predicted lapse rate and the levels and depth of any inversions.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:47 am
by amiller
Thanks John L. for updating this page.

I use been using XC skies a lot this year and I seem to like a lot of the features in it.



When I was in CA, I used The Soaring Predictor. It seemed to be about as good and anything else. Sometime they got it right and sometimes they didn't. It was another one to compare if it lined up with the majority of the other forecasts.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 2:32 pm
by jlowery
I thought about adding XC skies, but it's a paid subscription so didn't go for it. I can put in a link for subscriber's convenience if you think it would help, though.

John Wolfe's suggestions are up now.