Personal best, distance and/or endurance flights
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Periksmoen
Those are pretty impressive flights. My longest flight was as Captain on a Ferry Citation S2 Florida to South Africa ( Durban) Via the usual Goose bay, iceland, Uk, Spain and down through Africa to Durban.
Total flight time 35 HRS but in a Jet at 39K so probably cheating over some of you bumble bee guys.
Pace
Those are pretty impressive flights. My longest flight was as Captain on a Ferry Citation S2 Florida to South Africa ( Durban) Via the usual Goose bay, iceland, Uk, Spain and down through Africa to Durban.
Total flight time 35 HRS but in a Jet at 39K so probably cheating over some of you bumble bee guys.
Pace
Last edited by Pace; 10th Nov 2011 at 17:27.
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My most memorable "long" flight wasn't that long after all, but might just qualify for this thread. Another glider story.
I had enrolled once again in a weeks gliding course at the club near Zwolle. After a check flight on monday I was let solo again and was having the time of my life in the single-seater Junior. Conditions were reasonable so several flights of half an hour (the maximum agreed upon time) were doable.
Wednesday was drawing to a close. The sun was setting, the last cables were rolled out from the winch, all flights were returning after 6 minutes with a report of "no lift" and my supervising instructor annouced that he wanted to do one more flight with me, to keep an eye on my progress. On the last cable of the day.
So we launch in the K-21, start circling around for lift and find none, as expected. At 230m we return to the circuit and just before entering downwind there's a tiny, tiny blip from the vario. It can't have been more than 0.5 m/s, probably even less than that. The type of thermal caused by a cow farting. But hey, we're not descending, we're alone out here, so why not give it a try. So I carefully bank into a turn and manage to hold on to that bit of lift. For well over half an hour. Eventually reaching 750m.
In the meantime we are watching the activity on the ground. All the aircraft are being pushed back to the base, washed and put in the hangar. The winch is being brought in and so forth, until the field is completely empty. In fact, we can spot our collegues already having an early beer.
All of a sudden the instructor speaks up. "Listen, it's 18:20 now, dinner is in ten minutes time and you know what's going to happen if we're late." So we get rid of the first 300 meters by doing loops, wingovers and all sorts of other things that are great energy wasters. By now we're on a very long final, well above the normal glidepath, so I push in full right rudder and sideslip the aircraft the last 400 meters down, making S-turns as we go because even with full sideslip we're going to end up too far. And I'll be damned if I'm going to need the air brakes this time. That's just too easy.
I eventually stop the sideslip about 5 meters above the ground and let the aircraft simply float to about halfway down the field, where the turnoff for the hangar is. Airbrakes, wheel brakes, we get out, push the aircraft the last 100 meters into the hangar, and make it on time for dinner with seconds to spare.
I had to look it up in my logbook and the duration of the flight was "only" 55 minutes or so, but in conditions like that, that's like an eternity.
I had enrolled once again in a weeks gliding course at the club near Zwolle. After a check flight on monday I was let solo again and was having the time of my life in the single-seater Junior. Conditions were reasonable so several flights of half an hour (the maximum agreed upon time) were doable.
Wednesday was drawing to a close. The sun was setting, the last cables were rolled out from the winch, all flights were returning after 6 minutes with a report of "no lift" and my supervising instructor annouced that he wanted to do one more flight with me, to keep an eye on my progress. On the last cable of the day.
So we launch in the K-21, start circling around for lift and find none, as expected. At 230m we return to the circuit and just before entering downwind there's a tiny, tiny blip from the vario. It can't have been more than 0.5 m/s, probably even less than that. The type of thermal caused by a cow farting. But hey, we're not descending, we're alone out here, so why not give it a try. So I carefully bank into a turn and manage to hold on to that bit of lift. For well over half an hour. Eventually reaching 750m.
In the meantime we are watching the activity on the ground. All the aircraft are being pushed back to the base, washed and put in the hangar. The winch is being brought in and so forth, until the field is completely empty. In fact, we can spot our collegues already having an early beer.
All of a sudden the instructor speaks up. "Listen, it's 18:20 now, dinner is in ten minutes time and you know what's going to happen if we're late." So we get rid of the first 300 meters by doing loops, wingovers and all sorts of other things that are great energy wasters. By now we're on a very long final, well above the normal glidepath, so I push in full right rudder and sideslip the aircraft the last 400 meters down, making S-turns as we go because even with full sideslip we're going to end up too far. And I'll be damned if I'm going to need the air brakes this time. That's just too easy.
I eventually stop the sideslip about 5 meters above the ground and let the aircraft simply float to about halfway down the field, where the turnoff for the hangar is. Airbrakes, wheel brakes, we get out, push the aircraft the last 100 meters into the hangar, and make it on time for dinner with seconds to spare.
I had to look it up in my logbook and the duration of the flight was "only" 55 minutes or so, but in conditions like that, that's like an eternity.
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It takes a while to get to know the gauges and fuel idiosyncrasies of a new aircraft. When I got my old crate, I was nervous to fly more than 3hrs even though she has 5-7hrs endurance, depending on altitude and power setting. The gauges are not very accurate, but turned out to at least be consistent.
Flew back from Chicago to LA again a few weeks ago and had a couple of 4hr legs, which now feels rather comfortable. Last leg into LA was the most uncomfortable, not because of fuel, but because the sun had set and I still had a good hour over some very high mountains to do. Scares the crap out of me flying over pitch black mountains at night. When I finally saw the lights of Palm Springs spread out in front of me, it was like I'd been born again.
Won't be doing much night mountain flying in the future, I think. Not worth the stress. Unless it's perhaps a completely clear moonlit night. Maybe then.
Flew back from Chicago to LA again a few weeks ago and had a couple of 4hr legs, which now feels rather comfortable. Last leg into LA was the most uncomfortable, not because of fuel, but because the sun had set and I still had a good hour over some very high mountains to do. Scares the crap out of me flying over pitch black mountains at night. When I finally saw the lights of Palm Springs spread out in front of me, it was like I'd been born again.
Won't be doing much night mountain flying in the future, I think. Not worth the stress. Unless it's perhaps a completely clear moonlit night. Maybe then.
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 13th Nov 2011 at 08:49.
Thread Starter
Finally some pictures as promised:
The departure airport
JFK straight ahead:
Skyline of New York with the Statue of Liberty on the far left
Just added KAPF to see if we could make it:
That was prior to any reroutings that actually made it longer.
Halfway point:
After that 4 hrs of this:
Final result:
The departure airport
JFK straight ahead:
Skyline of New York with the Statue of Liberty on the far left
Just added KAPF to see if we could make it:
That was prior to any reroutings that actually made it longer.
Halfway point:
After that 4 hrs of this:
Final result:
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Aboyne to Lasham, June 25th 2004 - 11hrs 2min airbourne, 665km straight line distance (to set the current UK Goal Distance record), in a Nimbus 3dt glider with Gordon Macdonald. We took off at 03:53 local and landed at 14:55 at Lasham - we still felt pretty good when we landed. A really amazing flight.
Still can't work out how to post images but there's a map of the route here:
Goalrecordtrace_r.jpg picture by hantsav8or - Photobucket
And a picture of Edinburgh, taken from 'out to sea' over the Firth of Forth at 7:45am here:
Goalrecordtrace_r.jpg picture by hantsav8or - Photobucket
2004 was a pretty good year, as the month before I had my longest ever flight at 11hrs 30min, again in the Nimbus, on a 804km flight out of Lasham (it was an uncompleted 850km task).
OG
Still can't work out how to post images but there's a map of the route here:
Goalrecordtrace_r.jpg picture by hantsav8or - Photobucket
And a picture of Edinburgh, taken from 'out to sea' over the Firth of Forth at 7:45am here:
Goalrecordtrace_r.jpg picture by hantsav8or - Photobucket
2004 was a pretty good year, as the month before I had my longest ever flight at 11hrs 30min, again in the Nimbus, on a 804km flight out of Lasham (it was an uncompleted 850km task).
OG
Last edited by On Glide; 15th Nov 2011 at 07:20.
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PS - Mods, how can I post images? I've read the guidance notes on the PPRuNe site, but I can't get it to work and my posting rules say that I may not post attachments - any ideas?
Or use [img]urlgoeshere[/img] tags.
Thread Starter
Longest glider flight distance: 680nm / 1259Km, duration (another flight): 11h12m
Longest power flight distance: 8001nm / 14818Km, duration: 17h45m
Longest power flight distance: 8001nm / 14818Km, duration: 17h45m
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Did 5.40 in a K8 on my silver duration. It was a red hot summer's day so I took off wearing shorts and a polo shirt. Spent most of the flight at around 7-8k and came down like a block of ice. Lesson learned.
Longest trip P1 in powered so far is 2 hrs and that was long enough, I just can't imagine what 20 hrs in a light a/c must be like. I do the Brisbane run every year and 13.5 to Singapore in the comfort of a passenger jet is brain aching enough.
Incidentally, I'm just doing my IMC rating and did a PAR approach today in real IMC, was totally blown away to see the runway lights appear at 600 ft on the nose. Good innit.
Longest trip P1 in powered so far is 2 hrs and that was long enough, I just can't imagine what 20 hrs in a light a/c must be like. I do the Brisbane run every year and 13.5 to Singapore in the comfort of a passenger jet is brain aching enough.
Incidentally, I'm just doing my IMC rating and did a PAR approach today in real IMC, was totally blown away to see the runway lights appear at 600 ft on the nose. Good innit.
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Backpacker
Strange how some of the most memorable glider flights aren't the long distance award or competition flights. The two that stick out in my mind are scratching around in a K18 one October, not getting above 1200' for the entire flight but hanging onto every shred I could find, I even got something out of a garden bonfire I spotted. I think it was about 50 minutes but one of the most rewarding flights I've ever had.
The other was taking a 5,000' tow in a K21 (I'd won some tow time in a lottery as I remember) one gin clear summer evening. The air was like glass and you know how the 21 runs on rails anyway. I just stuck 60 kts on and floated down, not a breath of anything in the air. It was one of those times that you weren't flying a glider, you were the glider. Absolute magic, a flight I'll never forget.
Strange how some of the most memorable glider flights aren't the long distance award or competition flights. The two that stick out in my mind are scratching around in a K18 one October, not getting above 1200' for the entire flight but hanging onto every shred I could find, I even got something out of a garden bonfire I spotted. I think it was about 50 minutes but one of the most rewarding flights I've ever had.
The other was taking a 5,000' tow in a K21 (I'd won some tow time in a lottery as I remember) one gin clear summer evening. The air was like glass and you know how the 21 runs on rails anyway. I just stuck 60 kts on and floated down, not a breath of anything in the air. It was one of those times that you weren't flying a glider, you were the glider. Absolute magic, a flight I'll never forget.
Longest glider flight distance: 680nm / 1259Km, duration (another flight): 11h12m
Longest power flight distance: 8001nm / 14818Km, duration: 17h45m
Longest power flight distance: 8001nm / 14818Km, duration: 17h45m
Power: A non-stop ferry of an empty B777-200ER from Singapore to London via Nairobi as Indian airspace was unavailable at short notice.
Gliding always had potential exitement not far away 
My Siver 5 hours was 5hrs and two minutes off the winch...I really thought I was going to fail at the last minute in a dying day
=========================================================
Below was (I think) my lowest ever get away during a x country,I really didnt want to land out as it was a (cough) restricted area
==========================================================
My first ever long x country was Old Sarum - Halfpenny green - Old Sarum and I declared a diamond goal,the outward leg was a piece of wee wee (nice saw tooth on the barograph) but the return was a nightmare and I was really just trying to shorten the retrieve - I never thought I would get home.
I eventually got enough height to cross the cotswolds (into sun - bad viz) and popped out into the clear with a choice of only 2 clouds between me and Home,I scratched around Pewsey with another glider under the chosen cloud trying to find the lift and as soon as I saw him turning - I shot across to join (we were getting pretty low) - it turned into quite a good thermal and I took it for every foot (''i am not going to fail now'' going through my mind)...when I set course for Old Sarum I was ridiculously high and flew home at VNE
...beating up the caravan and then a chandelle into the pattern
6 hrs 30 mins of hard work LOL
My Siver 5 hours was 5hrs and two minutes off the winch...I really thought I was going to fail at the last minute in a dying day
=========================================================
Below was (I think) my lowest ever get away during a x country,I really didnt want to land out as it was a (cough) restricted area
==========================================================
My first ever long x country was Old Sarum - Halfpenny green - Old Sarum and I declared a diamond goal,the outward leg was a piece of wee wee (nice saw tooth on the barograph) but the return was a nightmare and I was really just trying to shorten the retrieve - I never thought I would get home.
I eventually got enough height to cross the cotswolds (into sun - bad viz) and popped out into the clear with a choice of only 2 clouds between me and Home,I scratched around Pewsey with another glider under the chosen cloud trying to find the lift and as soon as I saw him turning - I shot across to join (we were getting pretty low) - it turned into quite a good thermal and I took it for every foot (''i am not going to fail now'' going through my mind)...when I set course for Old Sarum I was ridiculously high and flew home at VNE
...beating up the caravan and then a chandelle into the pattern 6 hrs 30 mins of hard work LOL
