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Old 8th Feb 2018, 20:47
  #15 (permalink)  
RatherBeFlying
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Toronto
Posts: 2,560
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The Atmosphere has some Nasty Tricks up its sleeve

I lost 285' in a vortex / downburst encounter from final at 300' AGL and remain most grateful that I avoided damage to myself and my glider.

There are a number of accidents, many fatal, where the atmosphere bit hard.

As with the AAIB report, my Oudie and Air Glide S provided data that permitted me to determine horizontal and vertical wind shears. A vortex can produce a shear twice the wind aloft:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...DY0Q1Z6NXdsd2s

With other similar accidents I am aware of, the windshear is downwind of higher terrain or a large building. This accident is different in that the higher terrain is absent, but the air flow disturbance seems to have been generated by the change in slope profile.
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