According to the article in the February issue of "Engineers Australia" (page 40), the tower is 150 metres diameter and 1 km high. The "green house" diameter is 5 km. The bit that I find missing is any atmospheric data, such as the prevalence of temperature inversions at or about the height of the stack. If of sufficient temperature, they are likely to prevent the convection, I would suspect ?? There is a paragraph in the article which says the height of the tower is necessary " because of the 1 deg C drop in temperature per 100 metres". This is about the dry adiabatic lapse rate in an ideal atmosphere, so inversions and severe variations in lapse rate are likely to have a substantial effect on the power output. I hope these things have been considered in the design... Cheers, John G.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Pete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 6:41 PM Subject: Re: [aus-soaring] Manmade Thermal? | | > I wonder if the glider pilots near the proposed site (Mildura) have | heard | > of it? | | Dunno about Mildura: Renmark GC has seen the articles and thought about | it. Ned's Corner is about halfway between Mildura and Renmark - I went | past the proposed site a few weeks ago wishing it was already there. | | > I wonder how effective it would be as a manmade thermal? | | Can anyone compare its size to a strong natural thermal? 15 m/s (30 knots) | is pretty strong, but the collection area may not be that different to a | natural thermal's. Just a bit more concentrated and reliable. | | I haven't seen a figure for the width of the tower, but I'm guessing it | will be less than the size of a natural thermal? I think I'd like to let | it disperse a bit, ie. join it well above the tower, which is already 1 km | high. | | If there were any moisture involved, the thing could have a plume of cloud | trailing off it downwind. CBs even? And a consistent wind flowing towards | it at ground level. Meteorological impact would have to be part of the | environmental study... | | > .. I wonder if the authorities will ban soaring over it? | | My guess is that it could have "prohibited" airspace around it up to a | fair height. It would be quite a surprise for your average Cessna punter | to stumble into, especially in instrument conditions. | | And I think the owners might take a dim view of any kind of aircraft | circling around their expensive construction. I know Tel$tra were | unimpressed by hang gliders doing close passes near their towers on a hill | I won't mention, and had the nearby launch closed down. | | -- | Pete Siddall ~ Renmark Gliding Club | | -- | * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. | * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message | * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information. | | -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
