Dunno how that’ll come through. I’ve got some nicer ones on negatives somewhere…

There is one group who has found a use for lenticular clouds-”lennies”-glider pilots. Flying in a good sailplane with a skilled pilot on the front side of these clouds is how altitude and duration records are set, never mind the glory of flying in strong lift. Avoiding the rotor is part of the game.
I recommend the experience if you are serious about feeling the awe and wonder the universe provides. My most perfect flights have been in southern Alberta in the lee wave east of the Rockies. Pilots travel from all over the world to fly there, deliberately!

Lennies can be a pilots friend- like surfing the atmosphere.

While there is risk associated with mountain waves (ie turbulence) I’d hate to underestimate their potential for fun. In the right aircraft and with appropriate skill, ‘surfing the wave’ is a real hoot.

While working in an Air Traffic unit in Whitehorse Yukon, I remember days when I’d receive PIREPS (PIlot weather REPortS) from pilots who’d reported that they’d taken a real beating while flying to the lee of Mt Logan or other coastal mountains. While these reports indicated a hazard (usually indicated by lee wave clouds), to some pilots these reports were simply incentive to go play. By play, I mean they’d take a high performance twin (ie. King Air or Cheyenne III) and file a flight plan for a ‘training’ flight into the affected air and they’d spend their ‘training’ time surfing.

As well, as we frequently see along the Alberta Canadian Rockies, lenticular clouds indicate a potential ‘subsidence break’ or Chinook Arch along the mountains. What this means is that while low cloud or fog might blanket the prairies, there could be a narrow band of clear skies immediately to the lee of the mountains through the area of bad weather – and therefore a path for VFR flight. This clear sky area is a result of airmass subsidence – ie. descending air. As a saturated airmass (100 percent relative humidity) descends it is compressed and heated and once heated the airmass is no longer saturated (RH less than 100 percent) and the cloud dissipates and the sky clears.

Point being … Those lenticular clouds mean more to aviators than just hazard. While being pretty, they are also an open book to what the atmosphere is doing at that particular location and when properly understood they can offer opportunity as well as hazard.

Then you probably like the mysterious and beautiful piece titled “Nuages” by Debussy. It is the first of Debussy’s “Three Nocturnes” for orchestra. In fact, the whole suite is perfect music for star gazing as well.