Catch a Wave

By Mark W. Danielson

The Beach Boys sang, “Catch a wave and you’re sittin’ on top of the world”, but unlike the sea waves they were referring to, air waves can literally take you there. Since air and water are both fluid, similar waves are created by disturbances at the surface. Wind currents flowing over mountains create rising air, as seen in this diagram. Mountain waves attract sailpane pilots like carcasses do buzzards.

Dan Rihn and I started flying gliders as kids. Dan soloed one on his 14th birthday. (see photo) I had my power plane license when I started flying them. In the SF Bay Area, lift was as easy to find as free gas, so we fought to stay in whatever we had. But in mountainous areas like the Sierra Nevada or Rocky Mountains, mountain waves can lift a glider in excess of 40,000 feet. (You need oxygen above 10,000 feet, and you should have a pressure suit above 25,000.)

After many years of flying aerobatic airplanes, Dan rediscovered sailplanes, and quickly learned that flying a high performance sailplane is nothing like what we flew as kids. Nowadays, he routinely flies his ASW-20 (photo below) up and down the lower Sierra Nevada, and last year climbed to 25,000 feet in a mountain wave, earning him a “Lennie” altitude award. (flight path shown on diagram)

While wind currents generally flow from the west, under the right circumstances, a strong easterly wind will flow, forming mountain waves over the ocean. I once experienced this climbing a heavy MD-11 over the ocean from Oakland to Anchorage. At 28,000 feet, my aircraft suddenly accelerated to its maximum speed of .87 mach while climbing at 7,800 feet per minute. At 33,000 feet, the wave topped out and the lift disappeared. Since the autopilot cannot handle such extremes, I manually lowered the nose twenty degrees and leveled at my cruise altitude of 35000 feet. Everything was normal after that.

Dan’s friend, Thorsten Streppel, was flying his sailplane in an easterly wave off the Santa Barbara coast where he took photos of the coastline and the Dr. Seuss-like clouds shown above. Since this wave extended along the Coastal Range, he was able to fly hundreds of miles while still gaining altitude. Everything in Dan’s and Thorsten’s flights are recorded on GPS for record and review purposes. Prior to GPS, you had to take photos and use a barograph to document such things.

The atmosphere provides us with as many challenges as it does opportunities, but with the right equipment and knowledge, sailplane pilots can get birds-eye views of the world with only the wind under their wings.

The Simpler Life

By Mark W. Danielson

The best thing about my flying job is being able to drop in on distant friends. I was recently able to visit my best buddy during a short LA layover. Dan and I grew up together, have known each other for fifty-four years, and every visit feels like old times. We did everything imaginable growing up, riding our bikes up and down the East SF Bay hills delivering The Richmond Independent, and when we finished, would race through Wildcat Canyon on what we called the “Inter-Canyon 500” to Tilden Park and other regional parks. My paper route had a particularly steep hill near its end that frequently had a radar cop parked near the bottom. My goal was to get stopped for speeding, but in spite of my many efforts at exceeding forty miles per hour in a twenty-five zone, it never happened.

In our early teens, Dan and I were either kayaking, sailing, or piloting sailplanes or airplanes. Steve Canyon was our hero, and Twelve O’Clock High was our favorite TV show. Dan soloed a glider at age 14, and we both soloed airplanes on our sixteenth birthdays. Dan’s dad was my flight instructor, doctor, and mentor. He bought a J-3 Cub so that Dan could build flying time, and I was fortunate to be included in that, too. Being two years older than Dan, I earned my license first, and the two of us flew a plane around Northern California, sleeping under the wing. Neither of us took anything for granted, and we worked hard for what we achieved. Although Dan had hoped to be a test pilot, his vision declined during college. Instead, he has had a remarkable thirty-three year career with Northrop Aviation, has designed nine civilian aerobatic airplanes as a side-line, was an aerobatic champion, and is a third degree black belt. I’ve had an equally successful thirty-nine year piloting career with the Air Force, Navy, and numerous civilian aviation positions. We are who we are because we had supportive parents and a thirst to achieve our dreams.

(Dan and his J-3 Cub. Me and our under-wing tent.)

A lot has changed since we were kids, though. Cell phones and personal computers keep inescapable pressure on kids and under-develop their minds. Instead of jumping off a fence with a pretend parachute, or building models as we did, they play video games, or chat electronically, all the while gaining weight from their lack of exercise. The President’s Physical Fitness program faded along with daily gym class. Kidnappings and random shootings have become far too common. One day, meaningful conversation between two people may even become extinct. But while today’s kids may not have the same opportunities as Dan and I, nothing says they can’t have dreams and work to achieve them.

Our Schwinn bikes riding gave Dan and I our independence. Not only did they get us around, they also taught us coordination, energy management, and geometry. To me, there is nothing better than seeing young kids riding bicycles. Two boys in my neighborhood are just like Dan and me, but they are the exception. It’s easy for me to make a value judgment, but instead, I’ll chock this up as the new reality.

Looking back, life was simpler when Dan and I were growing up. All we had to worry about was the Cold War, and remember to “duck and cover” when out teachers told us to. Perhaps because most moms stayed at home to raise their kids, we respected adults, and identified them as “Mr.” and Mrs.” Another difference is we were happy living with one TV, one phone, one family car, and ate meals at home.

Children today face many more challenges, and the pressure to be perfect is outlandish. The media portrays unrealistic lifestyles, and kids are bombarded with technological interference. While I view these changes wishing their lives could be simpler, I must realize that they aren’t complaining because their perspective is different from mine. In that regard, I suspect they will one day look back, and like me, wouldn’t change a thing about how they grew up.