Geo-Thermaling

Volcano National Park
I just got back from a week on the Big Island of Hawaii. Eric Weinert had set up an amazing access point to a launch to see the main craters of Volcano National Park. It was an unusual weather pattern to have such light south winds and we were able to launch in an unfinished cul de sac and fly directly to the main Halemaumau crater.

The idea was to thermal in the heat generated from geothermic conditions in the crater. We had two FAA officials with us to help us interpret the sectionals and give us guidance for a legal flight. We launched early enough to make sure there was no solar convection. Flying toward the edge, I could all ready feel the waves of fairly productive thermal lift wafting by. The lift was broken and turbulent, but I was still able to grab chunks of usable lift and stay up.

The interesting feature of this caldera is that it is large and smoldering. The Halemaumau crater is 280 feet deep and 3000' across, so the potential areas of usable geothermic lift are outstanding.

The launch is at 4,000' and, of course, I was not prepared for how cold it got at altitude. After about an hour, the sun began to add the geo-lift and thermaling conditions were becoming epic. As far as I know, we were the first to fly paragliders over the craters.

Cheers-
Bill