On August 17, 2018 Perlan 2 made it's second tow into the stratosphere. We awoke to pounding rain from 4:30-5 am followed by snow flurries. But after that frontal passage the skies cleared as Dan Gudgel had forecast. Linda took the photo of the day at sunrise. On this flight (only #48) Jim and Miguel Iturmendi towed behind Arne in the Egrett to just over 44,000 feet (Flight Level 440). We did not expect wave. But each pilot needs to be experienced with the challenges of stratospheric flight. This is the highest documented tow ever of a glider and it was another "rocket ride." They were at 40,000 feet in 45 minutes from takeoff. So almost 1,000 feet per minute on average behind the powerful Egrett. Jim said:
Surfing in the Sky
Glider pilots have surfed on mountain waves since 1932. The process is like surfing on a wave in the ocean, except the glider is in the wave rather than on the surface of the wave. Einar Enevoldson, a NASA Test Pilot, saw evidence that in regions closer to the Poles, in winter, the waves could extend above the troposphere and well into the stratosphere. Previously, no one had searched for waves in the stratosphere in sub-polar regions in winter. From 1992 until 1998 he gathered more evidence that these waves existed, and might be strong enough to lift a sailplane to remarkable altitudes. In 1998 Dr. Elizabeth Austin joined Einar in the search for an understanding of stratospheric mountain waves. She found that the Polar Vortex, and one of its principal components, the stratospheric polar night jet, existing only in winter, provided the high speed wind in the stratosphere that powered incredibly high waves. The Perlan Project was formed to explore these waves and soar them to the edge of space.
