Power plant smoke stacks

[ol boy]

Has anybody thought of using a power plant smoke stack for a constant thermal producer? When I was stationed at Ft. Wainwright, Ak they had a power plant that would produce large amounts of steam at hot air all year round but as the tempature rose around May the steam would disapate. This is a small power plant and there is plenty of area to get a good launch to beable to cruise over to the stack. I wish I was into this flying stuff 4 years ago. Ryan.

[Miami Mike]

We sometimes catch lift from this plant north of the landfill where we fly, but it's hard to stay inside that small lift area.

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More at http://www.phflyers.com.

[histarter]

Has anybody thought of using a power plant smoke stack for a constant thermal producer? When I was stationed at Ft. Wainwright, Ak they had a power plant that would produce large amounts of steam at hot air all year round but as the tempature rose around May the steam would disapate. This is a small power plant and there is plenty of area to get a good launch to beable to cruise over to the stack. I wish I was into this flying stuff 4 years ago. Ryan.

:rolleyes: I frequently flew over parked cars arriving at the flying feild to demonstrate my short coupled 3 mtr Mirage's sensitivity, and ability to navigate the small thermal generated by hot engines. If 2 or 3 cars arrived I was able to climb to 700 ft or so for 15 to 20 minute flights, depending on the time of year (hot or cold). :)

[ol boy]

The area that relesses the hot air/steam is fairly large. Not the common smoke stack you see in new plants. I think the power plant there on Ft. Wainwright is close to 60 years old by now maybe even older. I'd have to guess that the area is 60 foot diameter. This maybe even bigger than some thermals that are produced. Just a thought, thanks guys.

[mdennis]

I'm not sure that flying around a power plant is really a great idea given the security issues since 9/11. All we need is to have one glitch, one RC controlled plane into some vital part that you couldn't hit again if you tried, and one idiot in office think, "what if they put explosives in that thing". We just kissed our hobby goodby for awhile.

I'm all for having fun, but the knee jerk reactions we are getting out of supposedly intelligent people, (and politicians), has me a little gun shy these days.