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Old 25th May 2013, 11:08
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Wirbelsturm
 
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Many years ago I flew, in a SAR helicopter,to an offshore wind farm control tower to pickup an injured man from the tower.

The weather was inclement to say the least and the blades of the surrounding turbines were feathered to reduce the risk of damage to the turbines due to the high wind speeds.

Approaching the farm from downwind into wind there was extreme turbulence coming from the blades as they wind milled. I had to fly through the farm to get to the control tower, which, on this particular setup, was positioned centre of the farm. My personal opinion would be that the turbulence from the blades would be increased with the generation of lift, i.e. power generation. As with all wings the vortices generated migrate away from the tips in all directions downwind thus developing a larger turbulence zone with weakening intensity the further downwind from the devices you are.

These things can be nasty to fly around at low level and, from my experience both from what I've written above and from operating low level SAR operations next to land based farms, the utmost care needs to be exercised when conducting flying operations, especially downwind. I believe that it is now standard practice to offset control towers away from the centre of the farm on offshore installations.

Having flown in and out of Popham on several occasions over the past 25 years in various things both fixed and rotary I shudder to think what the impact of a farm at such close proximity and upwind of the westerly runway would do to microlights and light aircraft.

Good luck.
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