Gliding: how was it for you?

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Fox3WheresMyBanana
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#21 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:57 pm

With any swept wing aeroplane, above a certain angle of attack, you may be able to change where you are pointing with the stick, but it doesn't change where you are going. You need power for that, and a lot of it.

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#22 Post by FD2 » Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:53 pm

Gliding to 76,000 ft

A new flight altitude record has been set - by a glider.

Pilots took the carbon-fibre sailplane named Perlan 2 to 76,124 feet - 23,202 metres - above Patagonia in Argentina, project backer Airbus said, smashing two of its own previous records.

Pilots Jim Payne and Tim Gardner flew higher than even the US Air Force's U2 spy plane aircraft, which topped out at 73,737 feet in 1989, the aircraft manufacturer said.

In erasing its own two records, the pressurised glider crossed the "Armstrong limit," the threshold between 59,000 and 62,000 feet above sea level, where blood boils without insulation.

Aiming to break the 42-year-old altitude record of 85,000 feet set by the SR-71 Blackbird jet, Perlan 2 exploited massive seasonal wind currents ripping in from the Pacific.

During the late South American winter, those waves roll east across the Andean cordillera and, after sweeping the mountains, merge with cyclonic high-altitude winds from Antarctica.

With an assist from that polar vortex, the combined energy creates a supercharged thrust capable of surging more than 100,000 feet - 30,480m - into the stratosphere.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/106 ... rd-heights

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A small advance from T31 days eh?!

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#23 Post by Wilco » Sat Sep 08, 2018 4:05 am

FD2
Thanks for the link. Good stuff!

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#24 Post by Boac » Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:44 am

Late picking upon this thread, but a couple of inputs:

F3 - I believe JF did an 'engine out' in a Harrier on a test flight - I cannot lay my hands on the details right now

For all - how did the pilots of the Perlan maintain pressurisation?

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#25 Post by FD2 » Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:03 am

Boac - from the article:

'In erasing its own two records, the pressurised glider crossed the "Armstrong limit," the threshold between 59,000 and 62,000 feet above sea level, where blood boils without insulation.' Ignore the boiling blood...


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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#27 Post by Boac » Sun Sep 09, 2018 7:18 am

Still unable to fnd a link to the 'tech' providing the presurisation. It is, unbelievably, at an 8.5 psi differential, and the two-person crew will not wear pressure suits. All I have found is that the cabin 'is designed to be leak free' but can cope with a loss rate of '1litre per minute' - I think all done from installed compressed gas.

Absolutely staggering to see that it has exceeded the altitude record for wing-born powered aircraft.

Going back to Fox3 post #15 - the 'One-in-one' was a practised Hunter manoeuvre and if memory serves me right 'qualified' controllers would guide the aircraft to a point where 1000ft per mile would reach the runway at which point you blew down the flaps and gear. I remember a trip at Chivenor where we did it for practice with a cloudbase of about 1000ft. Amazingly reliable.


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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#29 Post by Krystal n Chips » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:31 pm

The ATC launched me into the skies, alone, in Aug 68. The first and third flights were uneventful. The second was, erm, problematic due entirely to the brick like flying qualities of the Cadet Mk 3.....in sink. I elected not to try and land on the then one of the longest runways in Europe, Burtonwood, but instead ona ramp full of 44gal drums, ground euip. and other sundry chunks of metal. My "Good Show " / Green Endorsement " for this superb display of airmanship is, presumably, still in the post.

I then joined the GSA because I was informed they spent the evenings discussing aspect ratio's, consuming cucumber sandwiches over a small glass of dry white wine before retiring for a good nights sleep.

There were a few "unfortunate misunderstandings " thereafter..my illegal incarceration at the Aachen border ( as was ) crossing...I blame this entirely on the involvement of US Army Military police at the time, I was totally innocent !.....being refused entry to an S/M establishment after a field landing following a 150km bimble to somewhere the other side of Eindhoven one Sunday...said establishment being near the autobahn turn to Weert coming from Roermond....an extended delay at Felixstowe due to HM Customs asking inane questions after a rough crossing, being flown into Wegberg as a means of transport to said hospital.

It was suggested, less than politely I have to say, that maybe I should find another club other than the one at the time located at Colerne....this I did at one noted for not being Bicester, but located very near. Paradise ! Kindred spirits in abundance !

I "fell out of the sky "one day over Bruggen...900ft / 700ft per min descent....." I learnt about flying from that ".

I lost a few friends, some on here may well know one, initials A.P. former Lightning driver, and a few more lived to tell the tale, albeit not as intact as when they launched.

I managed to get about 900hrs, was a BGA Inspector and overall gliding was good for me and me for gliding.

I also killed two pigeons, sorry, and had the engraved in my memory forever, experience of sharing a thermal with a professional, an eagle, over 31Sqdn one day. The eagle was suitably disdainful of the flapping controls and idiot in the Ka8.

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#30 Post by Boac » Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:55 pm

initials A.P. former Lightning driver
- Knew him well. A sad accident.

Earlier days[attachment=0]luqaB.jpg[/attachments] 3rd from left, I think, Luqa 1978. I always remember him busting out of a very low-level Queen's Birthday Flypast as we threaded through the TV aerials somewhere west of London. Reheat and up to 33,000 feet through the London TMA =))
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#31 Post by Cacophonix » Tue Dec 04, 2018 10:29 pm

My experience is that gliding seems to make for some very good stick and rudder pilots. It also, sadly, occasionally catches out even the very best pilots...
A British airline pilot was killed when his glider slammed into a rocky hillside at 150mph while he was celebrating his 60th birthday with a solo flight.

Flybe airline captain Peter Reading, 60, had tried to climb and was believed to have stalled and gone into a spin. He was unable to pull up the nose before crashing on Monday.

The father-of-two from Godalming, Surrey, had been on a gliding holiday with wife Ingrid.

He had launched from an airfield in a Jonker JS-1 Revelation that is capable of speeds of 175mph.

The previous day he had taken his 59-year-old wife up for a flight over the wild Karoo and South Africa’s biggest dam near Norvalspont in the Free State.


Rescuers raced to the scene but Mr Reading’s body was found among the wreckage. Gariepdam Gliding Club chairman Manni Voigt said the area was popular with British pilots.

“He is a very experienced glider pilot with over 60,000 flying hours under his belt and a further tragedy is that he had gone up to celebrate on his 60th birthday,” he said.

“We don’t know exactly what happened but it would seem he was flying too slow and lost lift on a wing and stalled and went into a spin.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/b ... 97151.html

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#32 Post by ian16th » Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:34 am

During my Boy Entrants time, at Cosford we were encouraged to get involved with gliding.
One day a lad was flying with a Sqdn. Ldr pilot and on landing he hit the football goal posts and they were both killed.

Put me right off, never showed a glimmer of interest there after.
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#33 Post by Krystal n Chips » Wed Dec 05, 2018 12:48 pm

ian16th wrote:
Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:34 am
During my Boy Entrants time, at Cosford we were encouraged to get involved with gliding.
One day a lad was flying with a Sqdn. Ldr pilot and on landing he hit the football goal posts and they were both killed.

Put me right off, never showed a glimmer of interest there after.
BOAC..thank you for that anecdote ..... :-bd .....he was a really nice guy, great sense of humour and such a needless accident given the long standing awareness of the belly vs nose hook when aero towing dangers.

The lighter side of hitting poles....

One day at Bruggen....the peri track adjacent to the launch area is being renovated and thus helpfully in place are those scaffolding barriers to prevent access.

Enter our hero....a man of many talents, he had a law degree and another in theology, so what better career option than subsequently joining the Army could there be....is flying the Swallow....problem, for him, there is a glider on the landing area !....no matter there was more than enough available space, he was determined to land from whence he departed....we watched "with interest " as his thoughts were being transferred to the controls flying the base leg followed by a finals turn in which the nose elegantly rose and the airspeed visibly reduced....having survived this demonstration of how to enter a spin, minus the useful bit of altitude, he duly decided he would now avoid the parked glider and land...on the peri track.

With erm, unerring accuracy, he duly lands the Swallow directly in front of said scaffolding barrier. The pitot on the nose took most of the impact, the canopy got a crack, and he emerged not even remotely flustered...as the proverbial "when, not if, and waiting to happen " candidate, he had already demonstrated his prowess to attain this award on a winch launch one day....about 300ft, twang !, cable break....no big deal, normally that is. Instead of recovering as trained, he proceeded to perform a wing over and returned to the launch point...the instructor, one T.N-G ( RIP ) known as " The Iceman " which he was, one of the calmest instructors I ever met, was, as they say "visibly moved " after this display of airmanship....after the Swallow accident however, our hero decided that possibly he was safer sitting at Rhein'D for the weekend.....as did we.

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#34 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:58 am

Perlan test pilot and Perlan Project visionary, Einar Enevoldson, died earlier this year.
Longtime NASA research pilot and aviation explorer Einar K. Enevoldson died at home on April 14, 2021, in Emeryville, California. He was 88.

Einar Enevoldson explored the earth and skies with wonder and curiosity.

In a literally stratospheric career that spanned 67 years, Einar kept his feet on the ground even when his head was far above the clouds. He flew above 50,000 feet in 17 different types of powered and unpowered aircraft, advancing our understanding of machine and human performance in the earth's stratosphere. He liked to say he'd spent a lifetime learning to fly. Contrary to popular perception, Einar asserted that he didn't take risks, relying on cautious, meticulous planning and systems design for his audacious achievements.
When not airborne, Einar loved reading and discussing history, literature, philosophy, and science with anyone who would listen. He had a gentle, patient demeanor and deeply humane world view. It was important to him to make mistakes. He led by sharing what he learned from his mistakes and by providing guidance instead of direction. He delighted in playing the devil's advocate. He shared a love of classical music, especially opera, with his family.

He was deeply fascinated by the natural world—in particular, clouds, weather, and birds. The family photo album contained more pictures of clouds than of people! He was always ready with a story from his adventures: gliding with a curious bird, chasing caribou with a stir-crazy radar technician in Greenland, or, as a young boy, tearing around the hills of San Francisco on his bike.
Einar was born in Seattle on June 15, 1932. As a young man, he was fascinated with building and flying model aircraft, setting his first world record at the age of fifteen with a hand-launched class-B model glider. In high school, he learned to fly sailplanes near San Francisco, then worked in the tungsten mines near the El Mirage gliderport in the California desert to pay for lessons at what he called the "University of El Mirage".

He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Wyoming after joining the USAF as a fighter pilot in 1954. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for his seven time-to-climb world records in the F-104 Starfighter at Point Mugu, CA.

After graduating from the Empire Test Pilot School in Farnborough, England, Einar became a test pilot for the Royal Air Force from 1966 to 1967, flying the Hunter, Lightning, and Javelin fighter jets. He continued his passion for gliding while in England, involving his family in his first soaring competitions there.

In 1968, Einar became a research pilot for NASA at Edwards Flight Research Center, where he stayed until his retirement in 1986. He was awarded two NASA Exceptional Service Medals: for the F-111 Supercritical Wing Program and the F-15 Remotely Piloted Research Vehicle, and for F-14 stall and spin resistance tests. Among the aircraft he flew were the F-8 digital-fly-by-wire, supercritical wing testbeds, the YF-12A mach 3 interceptor, the oblique wing AD-1, the Controlled Deep Stall Sailplane, and the X-24B lifting body.

He spent his weekends back at El Mirage pursuing his love of non-powered gliding flight in sailplanes. His entire family spent much of their time on glider ports, preparing for soaring competitions, and crewing for contests and cross-country flights. His daughters grew up believing that a sailplane fuselage in the living room was normal. After retiring from NASA, Einar served as chief test pilot for Grob Aircraft in Bavaria, Germany on the high-altitude propeller planes Egrett (Strato 1C) and Strato 2C. Einar's curiosity about a graph of a high-altitude wave pattern led him to conceive of a method for high-altitude sailplane flight using stratospheric mountain waves, an idea that he later developed into the Perlan Project. Perlan remained his focus until his death. In 2006, after many trials on three continents, at the age of 74, Einar and his co-pilot set the sailplane altitude world record, almost 50 years after his first time-to-climb world record. The Perlan Project continues to fly, carrying forward his vision of soaring, unpowered, to 100,000 feet.

In 2020, he was designated a Distinguished Statesman of Aviation by the National Aeronautic Association for "his visionary and persistent quest to advance the progress of aeronautics by researching and exploring the stratosphere in a glider utilizing high altitude waves." Einar reckoned he might hold the record for different types of aircraft flown at high altitude. The story of Einar's aviation life is told in Bertha Ryan's 2010 book Soaring Beyond the Clouds: Einar Enevoldson Reaches for 100,000 Feet.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgat ... =198502885
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#35 Post by Pinky the pilot » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:06 am

Noticed that this thread has seemingly stalled, so I thought I'd put the nose down a bit....

Started Glider training at age 12 with my Father who was one of the Barossa Valley GC's Senior Instructors at the time. Soloed on 17/1/70 at age 15.

Continued regularly over the years until commencing Power training in early '82. Then was a bit sporadic. Last flew a Glider solo on 28/03/91 which, interestingly enough, was Hans-Werner Grosse's old ASW 17. Have flown 18 different types....well 19 if you include a brief hop in a reproduction of a Primary Glider. My favourite was the Glasflugel H301b Open Libelle. :-bd
Flew a 512km Triangle in it at an average speed of 102 km/h.

Didn't mind flying the ASW 20 either!

Logged just over 330 hrs with Gold C and two Diamonds. Held an Assistant Instructors rating for a while.
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#36 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:53 am

Pinky the pilot wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:06 am
Noticed that this thread has seemingly stalled, so I thought I'd put the nose down a bit....

Started Glider training at age 12 with my Father who was one of the Barossa Valley GC's Senior Instructors at the time. Soloed on 17/1/70 at age 15.

Continued regularly over the years until commencing Power training in early '82. Then was a bit sporadic. Last flew a Glider solo on 28/03/91 which, interestingly enough, was Hans-Werner Grosse's old ASW 17. Have flown 18 different types....well 19 if you include a brief hop in a reproduction of a Primary Glider. My favourite was the Glasflugel H301b Open Libelle. :-bd
Flew a 512km Triangle in it at an average speed of 102 km/h.

Didn't mind flying the ASW 20 either!

Logged just over 330 hrs with Gold C and two Diamonds. Held an Assistant Instructors rating for a while.
My experience of glider pilots who fly fixed wing is that they are really good stick and rudder folks who use the the rudder properly.

Are you likely to take up glider flying for pleasure again?
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#37 Post by Pinky the pilot » Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:22 am


Are you likely to take up glider flying for pleasure again?
I'd never say never! Like to one day, but these days I'm always at the other end of the aerotow rope!

At last count, just over 2,400 hrs logged towing Gliders. NFI how many tows that is, but have twice done 52 launches in one day. Once in Pawnee at Waikerie, and once in Robin Dr400 in Japan.
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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#38 Post by k3k3 » Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:30 am

In 1974 I was on a course at Cosford, for about eight weeks that summer I went over to the gliding club almost every evening, I oozed enthusiasm for all things aeronautical and pushed, pulled, lifted, cleaned, did everything that was asked of me, and never once even got to sit in a glider. I was just a dogsbody for the clique.

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#39 Post by ian16th » Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:37 pm

k3k3 wrote:
Fri Jul 09, 2021 11:30 am
In 1974 I was on a course at Cosford, for about eight weeks that summer I went over to the gliding club almost every evening, I oozed enthusiasm for all things aeronautical and pushed, pulled, lifted, cleaned, did everything that was asked of me, and never once even got to sit in a glider. I was just a dogsbody for the clique.
In 1953-4 there was a double fatality at Cosford.
A Sqdn Ldr and a B/E both killed in a landing accident.
Sorta put me off unpowered flight!
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: Gliding: how was it for you?

#40 Post by tango15 » Sat Jul 10, 2021 7:02 pm

My own experience was less than stellar, so to speak. We were with the CCF at Halton, when it was decided that the cadets would each get a chance to 'fly' a glider. We were launched by bungee, but Mr Slingsby's product failed to get me properly airborne and was defeated by simple gravity. No further attempts were made.

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