Personal best, distance and/or endurance flights
Thread Starter
Personal best, distance and/or endurance flights
OK, new thread, what are your most memorable achievements in aviation as far as endurance and or distance?
No commercial flights obviously, no just you or you as PIC.
My longest glider flight was in K-8b somewhere early 90-ies, 7hours 12 minutes, covered the shocking distance of about 60 miles.
Last Saturday beat that long standing record, 7hrs 48 minutes airborne time exactly 8 hrs Hobbs time 1180 NM from Marshfield MA (30NM SE of Boston) non-stop to Naples, Florida in a DA 42
For the accountants among us, I used 69 gallons of Jet A.
For now it's still here:
FlightAware > N629SA
I'll post some pictures later, amazing flight.
No commercial flights obviously, no just you or you as PIC.
My longest glider flight was in K-8b somewhere early 90-ies, 7hours 12 minutes, covered the shocking distance of about 60 miles.
Last Saturday beat that long standing record, 7hrs 48 minutes airborne time exactly 8 hrs Hobbs time 1180 NM from Marshfield MA (30NM SE of Boston) non-stop to Naples, Florida in a DA 42
For the accountants among us, I used 69 gallons of Jet A.
For now it's still here:
FlightAware > N629SA
I'll post some pictures later, amazing flight.
Toronto to Calgary single pilot IFR. 13.8 hrs airtime 
Moderator
Several of my long distance flights were super highlights:
Rotterdam to Maseru Lesotho in a Twin Otter - 44 hours, with the Rotterdam to Rhodes leg being 13 hours, without leaving the seat.
MD500 helicopter from Wasilla, Alaska, to Vancouver, 19.5 hours of the most magnificent northern scenery I could imagine,
Transatlantic in a Cessna 303, Toronto to Goodwood, UK, 17 hours.
DA-42 L360 from the Diamond factory in London, Ontario, to Texas - 10 hours (did not buy any jet fuel - unfortunately!)
C182 Bend Oregon, to home in central Ontario, via Vancouver Island (to visit a PPRuNer), 22 hours
And, my wife and I, and two folding bikes in my C 150, Central Ontario, to the Bahamas and back. About 30 hours round trip.
Rotterdam to Maseru Lesotho in a Twin Otter - 44 hours, with the Rotterdam to Rhodes leg being 13 hours, without leaving the seat.
MD500 helicopter from Wasilla, Alaska, to Vancouver, 19.5 hours of the most magnificent northern scenery I could imagine,
Transatlantic in a Cessna 303, Toronto to Goodwood, UK, 17 hours.
DA-42 L360 from the Diamond factory in London, Ontario, to Texas - 10 hours (did not buy any jet fuel - unfortunately!)
C182 Bend Oregon, to home in central Ontario, via Vancouver Island (to visit a PPRuNer), 22 hours
And, my wife and I, and two folding bikes in my C 150, Central Ontario, to the Bahamas and back. About 30 hours round trip.
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My longest distance covered was the outbound on this trip, 950nm or so. 6hrs 10mins. The longest in duration was the return flight which was shorter but was 6hrs 50mins. That flight duration was matched on the outbound flight here.
In Europe, especially in southern Europe, the limiting factor is more often the availability of alternates which have avgas, rather than some precise calculation using the aircraft range, the flight to the alternate, and legal reserves. In Europe, I regard the FAA 45 mins IFR reserve as much too thin - even if you have an accurate fuel totaliser which the vast majority of pilots don't have.
The TB20 will do about 1300nm to zero fuel, ISA, MTOW, still air.
In Europe, especially in southern Europe, the limiting factor is more often the availability of alternates which have avgas, rather than some precise calculation using the aircraft range, the flight to the alternate, and legal reserves. In Europe, I regard the FAA 45 mins IFR reserve as much too thin - even if you have an accurate fuel totaliser which the vast majority of pilots don't have.
The TB20 will do about 1300nm to zero fuel, ISA, MTOW, still air.
Moderator
Ah, non stop only! Sorry. I'll stick with my 13 hour leg in the Twin Otter then!
The DA-42 L360 shines in every way other than endurance! No change in fuel quantity, but quite a change in consumption!
Though it had nothing whatever to do with me, a friend flew a tanked C 206 from Bermuda to Africa solo non stop. I think it was about 24 hours flying.
The DA-42 L360 shines in every way other than endurance! No change in fuel quantity, but quite a change in consumption!
Though it had nothing whatever to do with me, a friend flew a tanked C 206 from Bermuda to Africa solo non stop. I think it was about 24 hours flying.
A mere 5.8 hours here - Maule MXT-7-160 from Scalea, Italy, to Sitia, Crete. It could not be flown without constant rudder input, and it was mostly over the sea, in severe haze, with a broken Artificial Horizon - so, it was quite long enough!
katamarino.co.uk - Adventure Flying Resources
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Hmmm... Where to start?
I've had about a dozen flights in the 20 hour range, but I think my longest was this one at 21.6 hours from start-up to shutdown, including 20:55 actual time in the air.
The longest distance I've flown non-stop was 2650nm from Massachusetts to Shannon, Ireland. As a testament to the Mooney's fuel efficiency, I took on 0 gallons of fuel in Shannon (they don't carry avgas anymore) and flew another 1000nm+ to Vienna on the same fuel I took on in Mass. 3700nm on a tank of gas ain't too bad.
Other notables include this one at 2450nm non-stop,
which made for a very long week because it was only four days after this one:
One of the most memorable has to be a 17-hour flight in a Twin Otter from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands due to the fact the I had no autopilot, no heat, a GPS failure, and was surrounded by 1400 gallons of JetA.
Finally, one of the longest point A to point B flights (though there were stops en route) was this one at 12,410nm which required nearly 100 hours of total flying time
I've had about a dozen flights in the 20 hour range, but I think my longest was this one at 21.6 hours from start-up to shutdown, including 20:55 actual time in the air.
The longest distance I've flown non-stop was 2650nm from Massachusetts to Shannon, Ireland. As a testament to the Mooney's fuel efficiency, I took on 0 gallons of fuel in Shannon (they don't carry avgas anymore) and flew another 1000nm+ to Vienna on the same fuel I took on in Mass. 3700nm on a tank of gas ain't too bad.
Other notables include this one at 2450nm non-stop,
which made for a very long week because it was only four days after this one:
One of the most memorable has to be a 17-hour flight in a Twin Otter from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands due to the fact the I had no autopilot, no heat, a GPS failure, and was surrounded by 1400 gallons of JetA.
Finally, one of the longest point A to point B flights (though there were stops en route) was this one at 12,410nm which required nearly 100 hours of total flying time
.......my bum gets sore just thinking about it.
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My longest non-stop flight you ask?
75nM…..Guayaquil to a beach town called puerto Rico, in another provence.
That still took me 1,5 hour in an UL, Rotax 80HP--> headwind!
Come on guys, gotta start somewhere.
Once my new beast is up and running I might be looking at 4-5 hour non-stop jaunts though. Hence my username……..
Cheers,
###Ultra Long Hauler###
75nM…..Guayaquil to a beach town called puerto Rico, in another provence.
That still took me 1,5 hour in an UL, Rotax 80HP--> headwind!
Come on guys, gotta start somewhere.
Once my new beast is up and running I might be looking at 4-5 hour non-stop jaunts though. Hence my username……..
Cheers,
###Ultra Long Hauler###
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My longest duration, about 10 hours 45 minutes, is pitifully short compared with 21 hours etc, but it was in a Ka6E glider with a tiny cockpit having no room to change position. I had a very good cushion arrangement and felt quite fresh when I landed.
Skip the rest if bored of details of other people’s flying.
Chris N.
-----------------
A Glider Flight in Competition Enterprise
July 1987, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. The seventh and last day of the competition, every day of which we had flown one or another sort of tasks. Today’s event was not untypical of Competition Enterprise, involving pilot selection of turnpoints from a number of alternatives, the aim this time being to fly round the largest triangle within the pilot’s and glider’s abilities.
I took off in my somewhat old-fashioned Schleicher Ka6E around 11.00, and took the tow to 3,300 feet, hoping to contact mountain wave. I found some and gained a bit of height near the gliding site, up to about 5,000 feet. It looked as though conditions were good to the North West. My plan at that stage was to climb as high as I could over the Grampians and then head North to a bridge over the River Spey near the coast. I made modest progress to Tomintoul. There I encountered a problem. For a safe margin to glide over the mountains, I needed height which I could only gain in wave. I found that I could climb in the wave to about the top of the nearest clouds, but not high enough to be sure of flying safely over the tops and in clear air over to the next wave bar, which looked as though it would have taken me straight to the Spey bridge. Worse still, I kept losing the wave and descending below cloudbase where the wave no longer worked. I looked at the fields round Tomintoul and concluded that I could land relatively safely if I had to, but focused mainly on thermalling back up into the wave – not an easy transition, but possible with persistence. I spent over an hour in that area, going through the same cycle several times until I finally gained enough height to dash over the nearest cloud to the one beyond. From there to the Spey bridge was an easy run, mainly at about 5-6,000 feet. I had lost so much time, however, that I could not expect a very good result for the day compared with others who had chosen that route and reached there well before me.
To make a decently sized triangle I headed towards Banchory in the Dee valley, turning another point just outside the controlled airspace surrounding Aberdeen Airport. I had permission from their air traffic control to enter their airspace if I needed to. In the event, I climbed well there, and had adequate height to return to Aboyne. A modest task achieved, after a bit of a struggle.
Returning to Aboyne with a few thousand feet in hand, I was surprised to hear some of those with a better start going further west, where it looked to me as though there was almost complete cloud cover over the Grampian and Cairngorm mountains. The wave was working well, however, and I thought it would be interesting to explore it along the Dee valley even if I could not improve on the size of a valid triangle, so off I went, above the clouds. At first there were plenty of gaps where the ground was visible, and navigation from my chart was easy. As I moved further west, the clouds increased, the holes got smaller, and near Braemar the ground was rarely visible. Until then, I had been able to work between 5,000 and 8,000 feet, above cloud.
I reached a point where the next step required flying into the westerly wind, round the side of particularly large wave cloud, and then hoping to find lift again on its western side. All week I had been working out safe exit routes from the mountains in the event of the next hoped-for area of rising air not working. This time, the escape route would be to go south, towards Blairgowrie, gliding down over gradually lower mountains; and then turn left, eastwards, for Kirriemuir and land out somewhere in the flat fields of that valley.
The big cloud did not work. Worse, there were almost no holes at all, and navigation was now a potential problem. Without lift, I was descending into the clouds at about 5,000 feet and the mountains there go up to about 3,500 feet – higher still in the Cairngorms to the west - so it was time for the escape route. I flew southwards with my cloud-flying instrument - the turn and slip - now switched on. In cloud but with occasional gaps, I was able to see the ground often enough to confirm that it was dropping away faster than I was losing height. My flight might be about to come to an end, with an ignominious and inconvenient outlanding, but it would be safe, and a reasonable achievement for the day in a wooden glider. I came below cloudbase and now had the ground in sight continuously.
A little north of Blairgowrie there was sunlight streaming though a large hole in the clouds now above me, shining onto a substantial mountain. I was approaching its western flank, which faced into wind, and it occurred to me that I might prolongue the flight a little at least, if it worked as a ridge, with the wind blowing up it and hence creating lift. If that didn’t work, it was back to the plan to turn left when past it and head for the flat lands.
It was the strongest ridge lift I have ever encountered – off the scale of my 10-knot (one thousand feet per minute) vario, the instrument which shows the glider’s rate of climb. The lift went right on through the hole in the clouds, past the mountain tops. As I put on my oxygen mask at 8,000 feet the wave lift still went up. At 13,000 feet the lift eased off, and through a further hole to the west I could see Loch Tay – another of our choice of turnpoints. Some quick calculations showed that even with no more lift, I could glide over to Loch Tay, turn back for Aboyne, and return there all above the clouds with the height I now had.
Loch Tay looked magnificent, as I photographed it to prove I had reached there. I would now be able to claim a larger triangle – 266 kilometres upon returning to the start point, when later measured, though I had actually flown much further with my diversions. Turning back for Aboyne, now down to 12,000 feet, I looked down again at the hill that saved me, where the ridge lift had combined with wave to yield that spectacular climb. The wave was also the cause of the hole upwind of the mountain which made such a climb safe as well as exhilarating.
Flying in brilliant sunshine over the clouds and mountains once more, by dead reckoning and checking occasionally with landmarks visible through more distant holes in the cloud layer, I heard a friend in a two-seat glider talking on our radio channel. He had not been far from Aboyne all day, but was having a wonderful flight with a friend. He confirmed what I expected, that the gliding site had clear air above so that I could let down without risk when I reached home.
I landed shortly before 10 p.m., the sun low in the sky, my flight having been for 10 hours 45 minutes. The others had long since landed, except for my two-seater friend who seemed intent on soaring the local wave until after sunset. The Competition last-night-party was in full swing, and the scorer was out on the runway to meet me and find what I had done – he needed it to work out and announce the results of the day and the whole week of competition.
As it happened, with handicapping reflecting my low-performance glider, I was the day winner and second for the week. Satisfying though that was, my elation was enhanced by the thoughts of where I had been, and what I had seen and done. I had used thermal, wave, and ridge lift, and transitioned between them; experienced the low of nearly landing out and the high of that wonderful climb that got me round and home; seen spectacular cloudscapes, green mountain sides, grey granite peaks, and blue waters; navigated over, through and around clouds; and completed the longest flight of my life.
A day to cherish.
Skip the rest if bored of details of other people’s flying.
Chris N.
-----------------
A Glider Flight in Competition Enterprise
July 1987, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire. The seventh and last day of the competition, every day of which we had flown one or another sort of tasks. Today’s event was not untypical of Competition Enterprise, involving pilot selection of turnpoints from a number of alternatives, the aim this time being to fly round the largest triangle within the pilot’s and glider’s abilities.
I took off in my somewhat old-fashioned Schleicher Ka6E around 11.00, and took the tow to 3,300 feet, hoping to contact mountain wave. I found some and gained a bit of height near the gliding site, up to about 5,000 feet. It looked as though conditions were good to the North West. My plan at that stage was to climb as high as I could over the Grampians and then head North to a bridge over the River Spey near the coast. I made modest progress to Tomintoul. There I encountered a problem. For a safe margin to glide over the mountains, I needed height which I could only gain in wave. I found that I could climb in the wave to about the top of the nearest clouds, but not high enough to be sure of flying safely over the tops and in clear air over to the next wave bar, which looked as though it would have taken me straight to the Spey bridge. Worse still, I kept losing the wave and descending below cloudbase where the wave no longer worked. I looked at the fields round Tomintoul and concluded that I could land relatively safely if I had to, but focused mainly on thermalling back up into the wave – not an easy transition, but possible with persistence. I spent over an hour in that area, going through the same cycle several times until I finally gained enough height to dash over the nearest cloud to the one beyond. From there to the Spey bridge was an easy run, mainly at about 5-6,000 feet. I had lost so much time, however, that I could not expect a very good result for the day compared with others who had chosen that route and reached there well before me.
To make a decently sized triangle I headed towards Banchory in the Dee valley, turning another point just outside the controlled airspace surrounding Aberdeen Airport. I had permission from their air traffic control to enter their airspace if I needed to. In the event, I climbed well there, and had adequate height to return to Aboyne. A modest task achieved, after a bit of a struggle.
Returning to Aboyne with a few thousand feet in hand, I was surprised to hear some of those with a better start going further west, where it looked to me as though there was almost complete cloud cover over the Grampian and Cairngorm mountains. The wave was working well, however, and I thought it would be interesting to explore it along the Dee valley even if I could not improve on the size of a valid triangle, so off I went, above the clouds. At first there were plenty of gaps where the ground was visible, and navigation from my chart was easy. As I moved further west, the clouds increased, the holes got smaller, and near Braemar the ground was rarely visible. Until then, I had been able to work between 5,000 and 8,000 feet, above cloud.
I reached a point where the next step required flying into the westerly wind, round the side of particularly large wave cloud, and then hoping to find lift again on its western side. All week I had been working out safe exit routes from the mountains in the event of the next hoped-for area of rising air not working. This time, the escape route would be to go south, towards Blairgowrie, gliding down over gradually lower mountains; and then turn left, eastwards, for Kirriemuir and land out somewhere in the flat fields of that valley.
The big cloud did not work. Worse, there were almost no holes at all, and navigation was now a potential problem. Without lift, I was descending into the clouds at about 5,000 feet and the mountains there go up to about 3,500 feet – higher still in the Cairngorms to the west - so it was time for the escape route. I flew southwards with my cloud-flying instrument - the turn and slip - now switched on. In cloud but with occasional gaps, I was able to see the ground often enough to confirm that it was dropping away faster than I was losing height. My flight might be about to come to an end, with an ignominious and inconvenient outlanding, but it would be safe, and a reasonable achievement for the day in a wooden glider. I came below cloudbase and now had the ground in sight continuously.
A little north of Blairgowrie there was sunlight streaming though a large hole in the clouds now above me, shining onto a substantial mountain. I was approaching its western flank, which faced into wind, and it occurred to me that I might prolongue the flight a little at least, if it worked as a ridge, with the wind blowing up it and hence creating lift. If that didn’t work, it was back to the plan to turn left when past it and head for the flat lands.
It was the strongest ridge lift I have ever encountered – off the scale of my 10-knot (one thousand feet per minute) vario, the instrument which shows the glider’s rate of climb. The lift went right on through the hole in the clouds, past the mountain tops. As I put on my oxygen mask at 8,000 feet the wave lift still went up. At 13,000 feet the lift eased off, and through a further hole to the west I could see Loch Tay – another of our choice of turnpoints. Some quick calculations showed that even with no more lift, I could glide over to Loch Tay, turn back for Aboyne, and return there all above the clouds with the height I now had.
Loch Tay looked magnificent, as I photographed it to prove I had reached there. I would now be able to claim a larger triangle – 266 kilometres upon returning to the start point, when later measured, though I had actually flown much further with my diversions. Turning back for Aboyne, now down to 12,000 feet, I looked down again at the hill that saved me, where the ridge lift had combined with wave to yield that spectacular climb. The wave was also the cause of the hole upwind of the mountain which made such a climb safe as well as exhilarating.
Flying in brilliant sunshine over the clouds and mountains once more, by dead reckoning and checking occasionally with landmarks visible through more distant holes in the cloud layer, I heard a friend in a two-seat glider talking on our radio channel. He had not been far from Aboyne all day, but was having a wonderful flight with a friend. He confirmed what I expected, that the gliding site had clear air above so that I could let down without risk when I reached home.
I landed shortly before 10 p.m., the sun low in the sky, my flight having been for 10 hours 45 minutes. The others had long since landed, except for my two-seater friend who seemed intent on soaring the local wave until after sunset. The Competition last-night-party was in full swing, and the scorer was out on the runway to meet me and find what I had done – he needed it to work out and announce the results of the day and the whole week of competition.
As it happened, with handicapping reflecting my low-performance glider, I was the day winner and second for the week. Satisfying though that was, my elation was enhanced by the thoughts of where I had been, and what I had seen and done. I had used thermal, wave, and ridge lift, and transitioned between them; experienced the low of nearly landing out and the high of that wonderful climb that got me round and home; seen spectacular cloudscapes, green mountain sides, grey granite peaks, and blue waters; navigated over, through and around clouds; and completed the longest flight of my life.
A day to cherish.
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It does amaze me how long gliders can stay up, in the UK, which doesn't have an awful lot of mountains 
I remember flying over Albania (basically, Croatia to Crete) and at one spot, FL170 or so, holding altitude on autopilot, our IAS went up from ~ 100kt to about 140kt. The nose came down, obviously. Clearly there was a massive updraught there. It lasted about 10 mins. It was totally smooth. It was there a few days later on the same route. The mountains were about 8000-10000ft high.
If you were there with a glider you could have just sat there for ages, soaring to some silly height, maybe FL300 plus.
I remember flying over Albania (basically, Croatia to Crete) and at one spot, FL170 or so, holding altitude on autopilot, our IAS went up from ~ 100kt to about 140kt. The nose came down, obviously. Clearly there was a massive updraught there. It lasted about 10 mins. It was totally smooth. It was there a few days later on the same route. The mountains were about 8000-10000ft high.
If you were there with a glider you could have just sat there for ages, soaring to some silly height, maybe FL300 plus.