By: Will Amory

Will Amory — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:47:55 +0000

Practical Cloud Surfing. What a fascinating idea! In the London Times this morning there was an article on the ‘Cloud Appreciation Society’ whose web site in turn had a reference to the ‘Morning Glory’ and the fact local glider pilots surf the advection cloud banks that periodically roll in. A quick Google search on ‘cloud surfing Queensland gliders’ yielded up this article in Centripetal Notion. I remember having the idea that something ‘cloud surfing’ might be possible during some early private IFR flight training in the eastern US. At the leading edge of an occluded front there’s a horizontal cyclonic effect, which if you approach it in a light plane head-on supplies a tremendous updraft until you’ve been wafted above the leading cloud bank. This is rapidly followed by a tremendous downdraft on the other side. At the time I wondered whether you could ‘park’ an aerobatic plane on the leading edged of this front and ’surf’ on it for a time. Glad to see in your excellent web site videos the idea has been successfully pioneered! But if you inadvertently have to ditch in that neck of the woods, watch out for those gators & crocs (we have the same problem in SW Florida where I live).

Comments on: Surfing The Morning Glory

By: Will Amory