Beginnings
In October 1938, Lewin Barringer traveled from Philadelphia to visit his
friend Eliot Noyes in Intervale, New Hampshire. The purpose of the visit
was to investigate the possibility of soaring in the vicinity of New Hampshire's
White Mountains. The two spent an enjoyable weekend flying around the
mountains in "two Wacos and two Aeroncas." [1]
Barringer was so impressed that he made plans to return two weeks later with his
Ross R-2 Ibis sailplane.
The results of the second trip were reported in the December 1938 issue of Soaring
Magazine [3].
Barringer made a total of five flights in the Ibis, and one of them [6]
is now
widely considered to be the first wave flight to take place in the United
States. His maximum altitude of 9500 feet was achieved in the lee
of the Presidential Range, just downwind of Mount Washington (elev. 6288 feet). It is not
likely that Barringer understood the standing wave phenomenon. In his
report he
described rising through a layer of stratocumulus clouds:
So followed an hour of dodging in and out of the clouds during which
I experienced three times thermals of at least 20 feet per second, in
the holes between the clouds. I also noticed that the clouds
on the lee side of these holes were thicker than on the windward
side. On the last and strongest thermal I
climbed over 1,500 feet above the sea of clouds until my altimeter read
just over 9,500 feet [3].
It is very unlikely that this was thermal lift.
Barringer's failure to recognize his flight as a wave flight persisted
through 1942. In the second edition of his book, Flight Without Power,
there is a section on "Altitude Soaring," in which he describes only cloud
flying as a means of achieving great heights [4].
Interestingly, in the "Soaring Meteorology" chapter of the same book,
the standing wave phenomenon is properly described [5].
The author of that chapter, MIT Professor Karl O. Lange, gives John Robinson
credit for the first U.S. wave flight, in 1940. Finally, Lange mentions
Mount Washington as a place where waves might occur. One wonders if the
contributors to this book ever read each other's chapters.
The Middle Period
We have no records of soaring activity at Mount Washington between 1938 and
1966. During that period, wave soaring techniques were developed in the
Rocky Mountains, and many eastern pilots traveled to Tehachapi, California and
Colorado Springs to get their altitude diamonds. Back east, wave soaring
was practiced in very few places, most notably in the Blue Ridge mountains of
Virginia and the Green Mountains of Vermont.
By the mid-60s, a Massachusetts pilot, Allan MacNicol, was probably the most
experienced pilot in both Appalachian and Rocky Mountain wave systems. He knew
the Barringer story, and decided that Mount Washington was worth another look, now
that the mountain wave phenomenon was much better understood.
In the fall of 1966 MacNicol led a hardy band of New England glider pilots in Barringer's footsteps:
back to North Conway and the Mount Washington wave [13].
The results of the first "wave camp" were so good (six Diamonds and 14
Gold climbs in nine days), that a tradition of annual wave camps was
started. From 1966 to 1985 wave camps were held every October, most of
them based at the North Conway airport. As experience was gained, fewer
and fewer long aerotows to the primary wave were made (the airport is 17 miles
from Mount Washington). Pilots learned that they could release in the
secondary or tertiary wave, or even in ridge lift and still make a good
climb.
Word quickly spread. Several Canadian pilots joined the group,
traveling from as far away as Windsor, Ontario. The number of trips made by eastern
pilots to California and Colorado diminished, and a
diamond climb that stayed below 20,000 feet became known as an "Eastern
Diamond."
Also during this period, a relationship developed between the glider pilots
and the meteorologists on the top of the mountain. The Mount Washington
Observatory (MWO) has maintained a full-time presence on the summit since 1932 (scientists there recorded the highest-ever surface wind speed, 231 mph, in
the Spring of 1934). The chief meteorologist in 1967 was a man named Guy
Gosselin. After helping the glider pilots with numerous weather
observations and forecasts, Mr. Gosselin finally took a ride in a Schweizer 2-32
with pilot Mike Stevenson. It was an eventful flight. The two
ridge-soared the "front side" of the mountain (a first) and
landed out at the Gorham, New Hampshire airfield, 26 miles from North Conway. Mr. Gosselin,
an excellent writer, published the story simultaneously in Soaring [12],
and in the MWO Bulletin. The tradition of giving our MWO friends
first-hand "atmospheric experiences" continues today [14]
[15].
Records from this original series of wave camps survive, and several hundred
diamond climbs were recorded during this period. The very best single day
occurred in 1969 when 44 diamonds were claimed.
In 1969 Bob Neumann established the current New Hampshire altitude record (31,900 feet).
This altitude has been exceeded unofficially
several times since then.
The Mount Washington wave became known to readers of Soaring in a series
of articles [2] [9] [12] [17].
Well-known soaring author Richard Wolters described his experiences in his book,
Once Upon a Thermal, [18] and Paul Schweizer included
this historical period in Wings Like Eagles. [16]
For a brief time (1973 - 1975), Brooks Dodge ran the wave camp from Glen,
New Hampshire, only 8 miles from the primary lift area. However, on good
wave days, the secondary rotor was always parked right over the little airfield.
Some good flights were made out of Glen, but in 1976 the operation moved back to
North Conway.
On the 47th anniversary of Barringer's flight (October 25, 1985), Walter Weir
set the unofficial record with a flight to 33,600 feet.
Then in 1986, the North Conway airport was sold to a real estate developer
and closed for good. The airfield at Glen was also gone, and suddenly
there was no access to the wave. An attempt was made to reach the wave
from Fryeburg, Maine in 1990, but the distance from the airport to the high
ground was too great to be practical.
Recent History
The Nutmeg Soaring Association, led by Ron Clifford and Jim Wright, returned to Mount
Washington in 1993. They flew from the Gorham, New Hampshire airfield, which was an
innovative idea. Gorham had a reputation of being a tricky place to fly for two
reasons: the primary rotor and the non-existence of any alternate place to
land. The Nutmeggers figured out how to tow around the rotor to the
primary lift, and they always seemed to get back to the airfield. They
operated wave camps there until 1996.
During the 1999 and 2000 wave seasons, the Post Mills Soaring Club sent a few
experienced pilots from their home field in Vermont to Gorham. They
determined that, with certain safety precautions, Gorham could become their new
base for wave camps. It was also clear that the challenge was to find
alternatives to the long high aerotows to the primary.
The following year, an extremely successful weekend camp was held (six
diamonds, four lennie pins, a flight to 32,000 feet) [7] [8],
and at least two alternatives to the high aerotows were developed. Safety
procedures were worked out, and a comprehensive safety briefing document was produced [11].
PMSC was joined by the largest club in New England, the Greater Boston
Soaring Club, and now the wave camps are bigger than ever, spanning more than
ten days each October. Lewin Barringer's spirit of exploration lives on as
well: the feasibility of cross-country wave flights has been demonstrated,
and further x-c flights are planned.
Summary
For almost 70 years, glider pilots have been drawn to the White Mountains of
New Hampshire. The remote location and rugged terrain make it unlikely
that a permanent soaring site will ever be established near Mount
Washington. However, pilots still make the effort to go there, and all who have experienced the Mount
Washington wave have shared with each other, and with those who came before
them, the pioneering spirit.
References:
1 Anon., "News
From Clubs and Members," Soaring, Vol. 2, No. 11, November 1938,
p 10. [120K]
2 Anon, "Regional Ramblings," Soaring,
Vol. 32, No. 10, October 1967 p 30. [394K]
3 Barringer, Lewin B., "White
Mountain Winds," Soaring, Vol 2, No. 12, December 1938, pp 2-3, 11 [354K]
4 Barringer, Lewin B., Flight
Without Power, Pitman Publishing Corporation, New York, 1940, revised
1942, pp 192-195. [145K]
5 Ibid, pp
143-144. [68K]
6 Ibid (1940 edition), p 220 [61K]
7 Brooker, Kevin, Soaring, Vol. 66,
No. 1, January 2002, p 9. [492K]
8 Brooker, Kevin, "Diamonds Before
Breakfast", Soaring,
Vol. 65, No. 10, October 2001, pp 28-30. [1.0M]
9 du Pont, Stephen, "The 1968 Mount
Washington Wave Camp," Soaring, Vol 33, No. 3, March 1969, pp 11-13.
[1.6M]
10 English, William D., "The Barringer
Trophy," NSM, A Quarterly Journal of the National Soaring Museum,
Vol. 2, No. 4, Fall 1978, p 3.
11 Good, John F., "Flying Mt. Washington Area Wave from Gorham, NH,"
Ver. 3.1, PMSC Web, October 2003 [551K]
12 Gosselin, Guy, "A Timeless Sky," Soaring, Vol 32, No.
2, February 1968, p 12. [816K]
13 MacNicol, Allan, "Waves, East and
West," Soaring, Vol 32, No. 2, February 1967, pp 13-15. [1.0M]
14 Posegate, Ann, "Glimpse
of 'A Timeless Sky,'" Windswept, The
Quarterly Bulletin of the Mount Washington Observatory, Vol. 46, No. 1,
Spring 2005, pp 38-42. [1.7M]
15 Sanborn, Doug, "Riding the
Wave," Windswept, The
Quarterly Bulletin of the Mount Washington Observatory, Vol. 43, No. 1,
Spring 2002, pp 30-33. [1.0M]
16 Schweizer, Paul, Wings Like Eagles, Smithsonian Institution Press,
Washington and London, 1988
17 Wolters, Richard, "A Letter from the
Mt. Washington Wave," Soaring, Vol. 35, No. 3, March 1971, pp 20-22.
[998K]
18 Wolters, Richard A., Once Upon a Thermal,
Soaring Society of America, Santa Monica, 1974, pp 91-105. [396K]
