Soaring

[Doodski]

15 miles - It's remaining within gliding distance of the airport. Gliding distance being a calculated ability to reach the airport at a safe altitude without catching any lift along the way, with some fudge factor in case you get into some strong sink. I set my "safety altitude" at 2000 feet, having had one occasion where I just barely got back safely.

If going distance you try to hop from "within range" of one little airport to the next.

If you "land out", it's a pain in the butt. You either call the club and have the tow plane come and get you from a suitable airfield, or if you land in a field someplace you need some helpers to bring your trailer, take the glider apart, and drag it home. Or you crash someplace.

Many of the contest gliders have motors (that they don't use else they're either out or penalized) that makes the pilot a bit more brave.

15 miles is pretty far. If you are up high, say, 5000 feet, the airport looks pretty close. It looks farther and farther away the lower you are at that distance.

3000 feet drop (to safety altitude) over 15 miles gives you a sink rate of 200 feet per mile, a glide ratio of 26.4, which is not too hard to acheive (in my old glider).

4000 feet drop would still put you at the airport at pattern altitude, and would be a 19.8:1 glide ratio.

Usually I'll find some lift on the way back, toward the airport, and be able to continue the flight.



There's an 18 year old at the club, whose father is an A320 Captain, who is on the fast track and in the contest. I'll post his flight later against one of the probablyr high-finishers.

If you are young, you may have less experience but still be brave and indestructible. Old you may have the latest machine along with many years of expreience. I'm old and have a little experience.

The 18 year old is flying a DG400 owned by the Lakeland Aero Club, that caters to youngsters. He's wearing the red shirt in the scond video on that page. That DG400 had an engine that is probably removed because it doesn't work anymore, possible rebuild in progress. The doors for the engine to pop out were all taped over.It was manufactured in 1987, registration N400YE.



All the gliders carry some sort of GPS flight recorder, and surely they all have some display with the targets.

There will be a starting line, or a circle, that you fly across or into to start your race. There may be starting alstitude limits. Then there will be three or four "turnpoints", with a circle of varying radius around them. You touch the circle you made that turn, but going deeper gives you more points.around them. Miss the circle alltogether and you're out. Then there is some circle or line for the finish, and probably a minimum finish altitude.

Of course the rules go much deeper than that - https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu321wqk83vfo7u/SSA Competition Rules 2023.pdf?dl=1

You don't win anything that I know of but maybe a trophy and bragging rights, as far as I know.

Folks show up in their motor homes, pay the entry fee, and spend a week or ten days immersed in the whole theng.

I'm not that sociable.

Sooper! Thanks for that extensive detailed and very good information. Flying aircraft is something that I systematically wonder about. Like the degrees of flap etc how do they know what to op versus the design of the airframe. Do they memorize this stuff for each airframe or is it calculable in their heads. How do they navigate, how do they know all about angles of attack and descending to land and ranges and fuel range and blah blah... My mother took in renters for the school of aviation in the city she lived in and every single one of them was tack sharp and had a life plan. not one of them was a random success.

 

[Timcognito]

Thanks for the update, Ray. Cool hobby. I wish I wasn't so claustrophobic, I might attempt a copilot ride with a friend who does it up in Napa, CA. Keep posing on this.

I'm not that sociable.

Well at least you share this stuff. It's great to have passion in something that challenges one's mind and skills.

 

[BDWoody]

Flying aircraft is something that I systematically wonder about. Like the degrees of flap etc how do they know what to op versus the design of the airframe. Do they memorize this stuff for each airframe or is it calculable in their heads. How do they navigate, how do they know all about angles of attack and descending to land and ranges and fuel range and blah blah...

If you've never gone for a flight in a small airplane, treat yourself at a local flight school sometime. They almost always offer introductory flights or lessons for pretty cheap, and from what I've seen about your general curiosity and ability to absorb information, you would love it.

Navigation these days is usually GPS, but there are other ground based radio beacons as well that you can tune into and use basic geometry with an aeronautical map, and you can figure out where you are and where you are going. There are lots of rules about airspace in terms of where you can be at what altitudes, but for the most part it's GPS or reading a map based on ground features or radio signals or all of the above.

Every airplane has a set of speeds known as 'V-Speeds,' that are specific to that aircraft and need to be known by the pilot. Well, let's say some of them really should be known if you want to understand your airplane and be as safe an operator as you can be.

A few key examples you really want to know:

Vr (rotation speed on takeoff)
Vx (best angle of climb)
Vy (best rate of climb)
Vfe (Max flax extended speed)
Vne (Never exceed speed)
Vs1 (Stall speed (clean))
Vs0 (Stall speed {dirty))

There are lots more.

V speeds - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Doodski]

If you've never gone for a flight in a small airplane, treat yourself at a local flight school sometime. They almost always offer introductory flights or lessons for pretty cheap, and from what I've seen about your general curiosity and ability to absorb information, you would love it.

Navigation these days is usually GPS, but there are other ground based radio beacons as well that you can tune into and use basic geometry with an aeronautical map, and you can figure out where you are and where you are going. There are lots of rules about airspace in terms of where you can be at what altitudes, but for the most part it's GPS or reading a map based on ground features or radio signals or all of the above.

Every airplane has a set of speeds known as 'V-Speeds,' that are specific to that aircraft and need to be known by the pilot. Well, let's say some of them really should be known if you want to understand your airplane and be as safe an operator as you can be.

A few key examples you really want to know:

Vr (rotation speed on takeoff)
Vx (best angle of climb)
Vy (best rate of climb)
Vfe (Max flax extended speed)
Vne (Never exceed speed)
Vs1 (Stall speed (clean))
Vs0 (Stall speed {dirty))

There are lots more.

V speeds - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

WoW! I counted 75 V-speeds and apparently there can be more! That's a lot of information to use on the fly and of course one would need to be able to rationalize how those speeds affect the airframe in specific ways so there's all that extra stuff. No wonder it's a 2 year full time study plus the flight experience requirements at the college for flight school basics. As I mentioned before all the flight school students that my mother took in as room and boarders where so sharp and alert about everything, had great futures ahead and all of them planned this flying school many years in advance. They really where interesting characters and one of them said he expected to be flying jet fighters in some years and his entire life was oriented towards doing that and had been from a very young age. Sooper stuff. I always wondered about the gauges and now I know about one of them and it's so cool how this works.>

 

[RayDunzl]

Loaded a barometer into the phone, set it for PSI, being curious how the atmospheric pressure decreases with height in units I can understand.

Minimum around 4,000 feet Sunday, 12.8PSI

Next I'll take a little finger clip Oximeter that tests blood oxygen level, when I remember to take it.

 

[Doodski]

Loaded a barometer into the phone, set it for PSI, being curious how the atmospheric pressure decreases with height in units I can understand.

Minimum around 4,000 feet Sunday, 12.8PSI

View attachment 357653

Next I'll take a little finger clip Oximeter that tests blood oxygen level, when I remember to take it.

Hehe. That's freakishly scientific of you. The barometer study is cool but what are you doing with the blood oxy levels?

 

[RayDunzl]

Chasing another glider, same model as mine, for a while Sunday afternoon.

The clouds weren't high, 3000 feet and rising to 4000 late in the afternoon, but they were pretty dependable for lift.

Good enough for 3 1/2 hours, anyway.

 

[RayDunzl]

The barometer study is cool but what are you doing with the blood oxy levels?

Just curious to see if/how the blood oxygen levels change at the altitudes I fly..

Supplemental oxygen is required over 12,000 feet, which is very unlikely to be reached here in flatland Florida.

The highest I've seen was near 7,000 feet.

 

[DonH56]

Hehe. That's freakishly scientific of you. The barometer study is cool but what are you doing with the blood oxy levels?

My wife requires oxygen at home (7500') but her levels are usually OK at her workplace (6000') so it would be an interesting thing to know. Altitude sickness kicks in hard around 10,000' for most people but can begin to exhibit at 5000' or less in some folk. Passing out or just getting sick in a glider as you go high seems undesirable. Tracking O2 levels would at least provide an indication or a potential problem.

 

[Doodski]

My wife requires oxygen at home (7500') but her levels are usually OK at her workplace (6000') so it would be an interesting thing to know. Altitude sickness kicks in hard around 10,000' for most people but can begin to exhibit at 5000' or less in some folk. Passing out or just getting sick in a glider as you go high seems undesirable. Tracking O2 levels would at least provide an indication or a potential problem.

All things that interest me majorly although I have little to knowledge about. Thanks for the details.

 

[ivayvr]

I still have a very vivid memory of my only flight on a glider that took place some 55 years ago. It was on a Cirus, all wood construction, and to this very day I have an uneasy feeling remembering the moment the winch started pulling. The noise produced by the wings bending was really frightening and I was expecting that at least one wing will break. Once the cable was released, fear changed into the most enjoyable feeling ever. Contrary to my expectations, the flight was not totally silent. Especially during the sharper turns the glider was producing a sound similar to a vacuum cleaner.
At that time I was a member of an Aero club having a powered planes section, glider section, parachuting section and model building section. I was a member of the last one and that is how I hitched a ride on a glider.
I kept building, designing and flying model airplanes for some 55 years. The activity I enjoyed the most was radio controlled thermal soaring. I stopped a few years ago due to a failing vision and problems with the field we used to fly. After September 11 and propagation of drones, various administrative requirements made model flying much less fun and in some cases almost impossible.

 

[RayDunzl]

The activity I enjoyed the most was radio controlled thermal soaring.

I built three.

The "Gentle Lady", a 2 meter "Metric", and a 100 inch "Antares". All crashed, of course.

1994 or so in The woodlands TX

Top Flite Metric - controls were rudder, elevator and spoilers

It's attached to 300 feet of "string" attached to 50 feet (stretched to about 250 feet) of latex tubing to launch like running with a kite, or as mentioned above, a "winch launch" in a real glider.

Not mine, but a Top Flite Antares. "Full house" controls with rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps and spoilers.

Travelled for work, flew them many different places.

Don't know why I never thought about taking up real gliding back then. Could have flown all over the country.

 

[Timcognito]

Could have flown all over the country.

You still can. As you know, they rent those things.

 

[ivayvr]

I built three.

The "Gentle Lady", a 2 meter "Metric", and a 100 inch "Antares". All crashed, of course.

1994 or so in The woodlands TX

Top Flite Metric - controls were rudder, elevator and spoilers

It's attached to 300 feet of "string" attached to 50 feet (sreetched to about 250 feet) of latex tubing to launch like running with a kite, or as mentioned above, a "winch launch" in a real glider.

View attachment 357740

Not mine, but a Top Flite Antares. "Full house" controls with rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps and spoilers.

Travelled for work, flew them many different places.

Don't know why I never thought about taking up real gliding back then. Could have flown all over the country.

Upon moving to Canada, I left all my planes behind, kind of bulky to carry them over the ocean. The first one I built when we, settled was "Spirit" by Great Planes. It was electric powered, so no winch, bungee or tow line needed, and built many others after that. Never even made a single one with ailerons and never felt the need for that. Most were polyhedral and they were turning nicely by rudder and elevator only - real floaters.
About crushing, it took me a few years to stop. Part of that was my first radio was a single channel, reley less Mac Gregor.

 

[RayDunzl]

Wednesday was a "Blue Day".

Not a cloud in the sky, just some distant "smog", the top of which pretty much indicates the absolute limit of lift above ground.

Launch to 2000 feet into a blue sky at 1:32pm, and the first few hundred feet of a strong thermal we ran through just before release...

Blue Day Launch

With no clouds to give clues as to where good lift is occurring, you have to just stumble around through slightly bouyant, still, and sinking air until you find an active thermal. No visual clues in the air as to where they are.

The ground can provide clues, as different surfaces absorb more heat from the Sun and warm the air over them. On a windy day you figure it's there, somewhere, but where to catch it at whatever altitude is a guess depending on wind speed as the thermal drifts downwind.

Fishing for another thermal at 4:04pm, and getting a nice one on the hook...

Catching a thermal

Wednesday was a rather calm day, when circling there wasn't much drift. The upward moving air is stonger on the wing inside the turn, so a strong thermal constantly tries to "spit you out". Lots of corrections (and little mistakes) trying to stay in it


Didn't go far, as there was strong sink along with the strong lift. Finally couldn't find anything on the way back towrd the airport.

Was a little bit lower than desired on the approach to the airport, but it worked out OK. You can always lose altitude, you can't always gain some.

The landing rollout at 4:38pm was as close to my parking spot (30 feet) as I've ever been, as the gliders that park in front of me were still in the air.

Landing

 

[Timcognito]

Wednesday was a "Blue Day".

Not a cloud in the sky, just some distant "smog", the top of which pretty much indicates the absolute limit of lift above ground.

Launch to 2000 feet into a blue sky at 1:32pm, and the first few hundred feet of a strong thermal we ran through just before release...

Blue Day Launch

With no clouds to give clues as to where good lift is occurring, you have to just stumble around through slightly bouyant, still, and sinking air until you find an active thermal. No visual clues in the air as to where they are.

The ground can provide clues, as different surfaces absorb more heat from the Sun and warm the air over them. On a windy day you figure it's there, somewhere, but where to catch it at whatever altitude is a guess depending on wind speed as the thermal drifts downwind.

Fishing for another thermal at 4:04pm, and getting a nice one on the hook...

Catching a thermal

Wednesday was a rather calm day, when circling there wasn't much drift. The upward moving air is stonger on the wing inside the turn, so a strong thermal constantly tries to "spit you out". Lots of corrections (and little mistakes) trying to stay in it


Didn't go far, as there was strong sink along with the strong lift. Finally couldn't find anything on the way back towrd the airport.

Was a little bit lower than desired on the approach to the airport, but it worked out OK. You can always lose altitude, you can't always gain some.

The landing rollout at 4:38pm was as close to my parking spot (30 feet) as I've ever been, as the gliders that park in front of me were still in the air.

Landing

Those videos were awesome!

 

[RayDunzl]

Those videos were awesome!

Yeah, It's fun. I suppose I have something of an addictive personality, find something I like and can't get enough of it.

Quite a few people come through the club, join, pay, and then you barely see them again.

Had a traveller from Ireland who joined for a month, but he's departed in a westerly direction to continue his trip to wherever.

I think we had six "Guest Rides" (people from the public that pay the club $125 for an hour or less) and a couple of "Friend Rides" where a club member takes up a friend on Sunday.

One menber worked a long time to get his license, and bought a plane a couple of months ago, and seems afraid to fly it... Waiting for perfect weather. I think He flew it once so far. (The weather is rarely "perfect")

It's not all takeoff and landing and thermalling. Here's a "cruise" segment from Saturday, about 8.5 miles, losing only 600 feet, with a calculated Glide Ratio of 70:1 (8 miles in feet divided by 600 feet loss) between thermal stops. The glider is rated (optimistically) at 36:1, but catching some lift along the way stretches it out.

Cruise on Saturday

Having some clouds to give clues where the lift is helps a lot.

I saw one glider segment from the Seniors Contest last week that gave a Glide Ratio of 414:1 (no typo) from a glider witha rating of 50:1 (or more) at a much faster speed than my little antique.

 

[RayDunzl]

Glider Cockpit



1 Flap Handle
2 Wheel Brake
3 Altitude in feet
4 Airspeed in mph
5 A little indicator for 45 degree bank angle
6 Yaw String to show if you are straight in to the relative wind, of "yawing" left or right
7 Compass (that's about 45 degrees wrong)
8 Electronic Variometer - marks are roughly 200 feet perminute rising or falling
9 Flight Computer/Logger - software running on an Android platform, Moving Map, GPS, Baromter, Weather, Calculated Wind, Routes and Targets and distances, etc
10 Mechanical Variometer - minor marks are 100 feet per minute
11 Release handle, to let go of the rope behind the Tow Plane
12 Rudder Pedals (down by my feet) - to "yaw" left or right
13 Control Stick - wiggle that left and right to "roll", move forward and back to "pitch" the nose down or up
14 Heating, Ventilation, and air Conditioning. Generally stuck around 20 degrees F below ground temperature when flying

There's a 9 ampere hour 12V battery behind my head to power the vario, and a USB power port for the logger and camera

Communication is via handheld radio

Noise is about the same as riding in a car with the driver's window open an inch or two

It's a 1980 Schweizer 1-35C, #97 of 101

 

[RayDunzl]

Not Soaring, but something I've imagined before...

 

[Doodski]

@RayDunzl That aircraft is pretty outrageous. Mesmerizing...