Originally Posted by
India Four Two
You probably weren't flying near Vne* most of the time either!
* 151kts at SL in the Arcus M, reduces somewhat with altitude.
Absolutely spot on IFT
Mine was sometimes the opposite end of the scale LOL,it was an Out and Return from Old Sarum - Ha'penny Green - Old Sarum in Sept '89 my Launch time of 1230 was kinda late - my Club at the time were not interested in x country flying and kept feeding club gliders into the launch queue in front of private owners and when I finally got to the front it just happened to coincide with the brand new (homemade) Winch appearing,I refused to be launched in my little libelle by this totally untried contraption (it would have been its first ever launch
) and I had to drive our dump truck up to our tried and tested old winch to get my cable.
Anyway I got away ok and the outbound leg was good fun with a fairly classic climb/cruise sawtooth profile on the barograph but as I neared the TP I could see the sky behind me changing to flat Battleship Grey,there was a decent thermal near my TP so I got my photo and headed south.I had a dodgy 30 mins or so just south of the TP where I was tiptoeing along at 46/50 Kt just trying to stay airborne (near Kidderminster on the barograph below),I reached the Cotswolds ok and had to fly a compass heading due to the bad vis/haze into the afternoon sun.I popped out of the haze just south of the Cotswolds and there were just 2 clouds visible to the south - I headed for the slightly darker one near Pewsey and joined another glider searching for lift ( something like an Astir) - he found it first so I went over to join him,I remember thinking to myself ''I am not going to fail now'' so I took the thermal for every foot I could and got my highest climb of the day (5,600'),of course when I left the thermal I soon realised that I had plenty of spare height to get back to OS so I gradually put the nose down and flew much of that last leg at near vne,I still had enough height to dog leg around to the west to cross the Caravan at 50 feet/120 Kt to announce my arrival and a gradual climbing turn into the circuit.The club were surprised to see me back as a Sea Breeze Effect had penetrated that far inland and they had no local soaring after 1530.I could not walk after I landed as there was an air leak around the nose hook and my feet were frozen in my light summer shoes
321 Km on the map I think and by far the furthest I had ever been from the airfield,of course the downside of an O/R is the distance from home but it was a really easy turn point photo and fairly easy nav except for the haze over the Cotswolds.
