Wind turbines

[gordon_dunn]

I know this topic has been aired a few times on here, but has anyone any experience of flying downwind in close proximity of tubines?  I've just been granted permission to use an excellent field, but there are 2 wind turbines on the northern perimeter of the field.... but a bit reluctant to give it a go.    My only fear is turbulence-  generally I follow the 'avoid 2X the height and 4x the distance' rule.... but might be different with turbines?????

 

GD

 

 

[powerlord]

Turbulence goes miles down from then.  there's some studies or videos I've seen. Sorry can't citate.

I've flown over about 3x height OK,  but don't go near em downwind - my advice would be leave about a mile.

I suppose if they are downwind of your take off you'll be OK.  maybe only use the field when that's the case ?

[AndyB]

The large wind turbines will leave considerable rota for a long way.....certainly more than a couple of fields! In your field near a turbine the downward speed of the rota, in the few hundred metres following it, will be about a third of the speed of the turbine blade! 

[admin (Simon W)]

I now live with a wind farm 1 field away from the house. I have flown in front of them but never behind. 

You can feel the Rotor from them when stood on the ground at the other side of the field (about a mile at a guess) 

As is the case with all Rotor... it is relative to wind speed, so of course, no wind = no Rotor. 

SW

[Casper]

DHV did tests on this, watch this video 

 

It's not as bad as you might think, I was surprised when I saw this.

[cas_whitmore]

Manny ' what was the pilot saying!!! 

Cas .

[GR002]

One of my fields is one field away from 3 big turbines. I have flown close to them on the up wind side but never down wind of them. I noticed once I was ground handling and the wind had turned so I was directly down wind the wing was all over the place and was definitely up setting the wing . I have used this field for years and turbines appeared 3 years ago, I am just care full of wind direction.

[AndyB]

Upwind is fine.....well upto a couple of metres from the blades........how close dare you go!

[savage]

I have flown all around wind turbines and they aren't an issue. There are millions of them right across Europe and I had more than a couple of close encounters with them on the Flight of the Swans expedition.

One overcast, light wind, November morning, I am flying with a group of 10 paramotorists across the Netherlands, when several of us suddenly notice a rolling turbulence, not enough to collapse a wing but, a big contrast to the absolutely flat calm conditions of the morning. It made us all sit up and look around, we realise we have flown directly downwind of a wind farm, which is at least 2Km away. Our lead pilot makes a radio call to warn some of the others in our group and I make mental note to avoid flying downwind of turbines in future.

Roll on a few days and flying across Belgium one morning, the wind is howling and it's rough. 15 gusting 20 Km/h on the ground with a paramotor ground speed of anything between 110 Km/h to backwards, depending on which direction we are facing (Dudek Universal 28m). We are following a local pilot to his landing field and with some amazement, I watch him fly down to a big field of turbines, weave between them and land in the field immediately behind them...  Reviewing our options we make our landing approach high above the turbines and try to keep away from them as much as possible, but given that we were flying backwards for some of the descent, we can't really go downwind to get away from them. Anyway, we land without incident and don't notice any extra turbulence from the turbines. Chatting with the local pilot about the turbines and he say's he's never had an issue with them...mmm.

Following refueling, our local pilot stays on the ground due to hypothermia and let's be honest, it not exactly pleasant up there. Anyway, we manage to launch both the trike and my paramotor, directly towards the turbines, in the strengthening conditions, we make a 90-degree turn close to the back of them, slowly climb out and head towards France. Again, no extra roughness from the turbines over and above what was already in the atmosphere.

My thoughts. Turbines cause some turbulence, it's noticeable in smooth air but not in rougher/ stronger conditions. Does the fact they operate at a constant speed but increase the blade pitch in stronger conditions have anything to do with this, I have no idea?

Finally, don't blame me if you fly behind one and fall out of the sky.  

And don't forget the 500 foot rule, peeps.

[GR002]

I was flying back to landing field and there was 10 to12 mph wind. I was half a mile down wind of large turbine but higher  than top of blade area  and I flew into rotor. It was not bad enough to collapse wing but was noticeable. The area of rotor seems to expand larger than area of the turbine blades.