Friday, January 3, 2014

it's all about the wind



























When I first moved out here, I was pretty excited about building wind turbines.  After about a year and a half, I figured out that the sun was a lot more reliable than the wind so I took my turbines down and added more solar panels.  This is the 10 day wind forecast (direction and speed): SE13, SW14, N12, E9, SSE11, SW9, SE6, NNE6, NW7, SWS10.  Now I am interested in the wind again because of my new powered paragliding adventure.  Put up a replacement anemometer for my weather station and checked out the old anemometer that was up by my wind turbines.  The little magnetic reed switch I soldered together way back on October 30, 2008 was busted.  Found an exact replacement from https://www.sparkfun.com/  Ordered 2 for $6.69 including shipping.  I will be able to use this one as a hand held wind speed indicator along with a wind sock near my launch area.  47,61,25,0,B,0

4 comments:

just.Bob said...

As to the wind forecast, would all ten days be flyable?

John Wells said...

Only calm days below 15mph - and only early morning or late afternoon...never mid day when the upper winds tend to be more turbulent due to thermals.

just.Bob said...

Thanks. I know the wind is a huge deal. I have a friend that took up powered parachuting, but gave up and sold it because of limited flying days. However, wind turbine business is huge here in Texas. Why? Because it blows most all the time. I never thought of a wind forecast, interesting.

Chris Miller said...

Come out here and jump off of Jack Eden Mesa and fly out over our place and land out front. I'll pay you to take some aerial photos and it will be a lot cheaper than me buying an quadcopter drone. Come on... will ya? Will ya???