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Two new home made gliding / cloud videos have been put online.
On 29th December 2015 I took two winch launches above the clouds while experimenting with a brand new GoPro Hero 4 Silver. I combined clips to make it look like one flight, while highlighting the best parts of the flights. Cloudbase started off at 1100 feet above the ground while I was able to launch (on runway 23) to 1700-1800 feet. This gave me the chance to buzz the clouds from above. It also gave an unusual landing perspective too.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0c4rzpdxtk
Then I took an aerotow launch. I decided to record the launch as a 2 frames per second timelapse. The results were better than I could have imagined. Cloudbase was about 1200-1500 feet above the ground. I towed all the way to 4000 feet above the ground (4600 feet QNH). The second half of the tow above the larger cumulus clouds was spectacular! Upwind of me showers were building so my timing was excellent. I recorded video during the flight itself too. On the way down, after some spectacular flying amongst the clouds, I even managed to find some rare December thermals under the incoming shower clouds that extended my flight by 10 minutes. I did land with slightly wet wings from the shower but that was no problem. One of my best ever winter flights to end a month of almost constant gloomy extensive low cloud.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAbkjaLM03A
My first goes at edited videos. The 2nd one with a nice dreamy soundtrack.
-Mike
This is how I get those nice cloud shots at close quarters:
Pic in the CAS albums: https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/members/FlyByWire/my-clouds/picture/317/
-Mike
Reposted from the Odds and Ends thread. Would have done it on Dec 31st but the website went down?
I took an aerotow above the clouds yesterday. Here’s a 29 second timelapse of the launch. That was great fun! Playing around with a GoPro Hero 4 Silver I got for my birthday. What a fantastic little camera!
-Mike
Thanks Hygge. It was a breezy day but not too bad. A little bumpy below cloudbase but that is normal on an unstable day (just what’s needed to form cumulus clouds).
OK I’ll re-post to the Above The Clouds thread then. :)
I also have a lot of pictures up there too. What a stunning day it was aloft that day. Looks nice today too now some clouds have built up.
-Mike
I took an aerotow above the clouds yesterday. Here’s a 29 second timelapse of the launch. That was great fun! Playing around with a GoPro Hero 4 Silver I got for my birthday. What a fantastic little camera!
-Mike
Okidoki why did my reply vanish when I tried to edit it? How irritating… Let’s start again! Removing the links this time as they seem to be the culprit. Just cut and paste into a new browser tab / window. Edit: Oh they are showing as links after all. (People: Do not use the link button when posting. It appears to be broken…)
This sounds like a 120 degree parhelion to me. Please find a description at Atmospheric Optics here:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/120pars.htmThere are also some pictures here. The lower one is mine, taken while walking the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem in March 2007 (near the Damascus Gate) as a bank of cirrostratus passed in front of the sun:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/fz137.htmMore pictures of mine can be found on my website (scroll down to March):
http://www.flybywire.org.uk/pictures/weather2007.htmlCheers.
-Mike
Hello Hygge. Sorry for the delay. I’ve been too busy working and gliding. Oh September’s been a good gliding month with 3 flights where I touch and enter cumulus (or Towering cu) clouds. Fraid I was flying instead of attending the conference. Hope that went well.
As for Pileus at Lasham, A quick search shows that I photographed some in 2008, 2013, and several times further back. I don’t see them that often though. But any time you get cumulus rising into a moist layer of air, it is possible to deflect that moist layer upwards to form a pileus. Perhaps I’ve seen them maybe once or twice a year? Hard to say. I’m pretty sure they’re much more common than that as we often have moist layers above clouds in this country.
Curiously my best Pileus pic was way back in 2002 when I was at the same height as it:
-Mike
A few nice short aerial cloud timelapse clips:
https://vimeo.com/84930224
https://vimeo.com/86172133
https://vimeo.com/90080341The second one is dramatic with the thunderstorms in the distance but the first one is my favourite flying past the Cb’s off the right wing. Spectacular. The third is a nice cirrussy flypast. Although some lovely lenticular wave clouds below near the end.
-Mike
I’d happily meet up another time indeed. Hope you enjoy the conference. Hope your project goes well H.
-Mike
Sorry I decided not to come as the ticket prices looked to be £100+ which was more than I was prepared to pay. I hope the conference goes well.
-Mike
Saw this super timelapse video shared on Facebook:
Watching the supercell clouds rotate and even tornadoes develop was amazing!
Another video from the same author documents the development of a tornado too more specifically.
-Mike
Thanks! :)
If you look at the Above The Clouds… thread you’ll see a new post with 4 new pictures from that flight. Enjoy!
-Mike
Here are some pictures from the 5th July flight around the shower cloud and from above cloudbase:
I was at 4500 feet at the main cloudbase in a glider just South of Greenham Common. I was under a towering cumulus with a shower under it. The moisture from it was causing low clouds to form below me on the edge of the rain:
Shower at Greenham Common / Newbury
Shower at Greenham Common / NewburyI took a 2000 foot cloud climb just East of Kingsclere, Hampshire to FL65 (6500 feet). As I was flying Southwards to find my way out of the cloud I flew through a small gap between towering cumulus. It was like being in a giant crevice! :
Flying through a small gap between two towering cumulus clouds.I was gliding back to Lasham Airfield after popping out of the side of the towering cumulus clouds. As I passed Basingstoke I was still well above the 4500 foot cloudbase (I was well below the local airspace ceiling of 5500 feet):
Above Cloudbase near BasingstokeA full set of pictures will eventually appear on my gliding page at http://www.flybywire.org.uk/pictures/gliding2015.html.
Cheers!
-Mike
This afternoon over Hampshire after climbing 2000 feet up the inside of a large cloud (6kt thermal in there): https://youtu.be/epz8SRwLqX4
“After having fun in a Lasham Gliding Society Discus near a shower cloud in the Newbury area I took a cloud climb 4km East of the town of Kingsclere. Cloudbase was about FL45 (4500 feet). I topped out at the airspace ceiling of FL65 (6500 feet) after climbing at about 6kts most of the way. Then after a long period inside a large cloud I emerged somewhere closer to Basingstoke, where I couldn’t resist a new video clip. Alas I forgot to turn off macro mode on my camera. Despite that, apart from one section of malfocussed video (which I edited out) it didn’t come out too badly. Phew! Easily my best cloud eye candy of the year so far in the UK. The town visible in the clip is Basingstoke, as I am headed back towards Lasham. I was still close to the 4-4500 foot cloudbase when I approach Lasham well after the video ends.”
I also got some lovely shots on the way of the ‘skirt of clouds around the shower, seen from above, before I went climbing up into the adjacent cloud.
Still floating gently back to earth…
-Mike
