Pace, sounds like you were nicely enveloped in wave....after having transited the rotor, things can smooth out nicely. But 20,300 was enough for my diamond height in a glider, and I get nervous relying on oxygen....

Mary

In that air you would have climbed at 2000 fpm from 20.000 to 30,000 in your glider :ok:agreed on the oxygen )) do gliders go to 30K ? and what breathing systems do they use for such high levels? I suppose it would be feasible to have a pressurised glider?

Pace

Steve Fossett. 50699 feet in wave over the Andes. Wearing a pressure suit.:D

(and he'd been hoping for a lot more height!)

UK record (Aboyne) 38000 feet

Wasnt that UK height record proven to be fraud or has my memory played tricks?

don't think so. It was, as I recall, Chris Rollings with a young lady tug pilot at Aboyne.

Any glider flying at Aboyne, where wave is encountered when the wind is North, West, or Southerly, will be equipped with oxygen tanks and masks and canulas, and usually if it is an expedition of visiting gliding pilots, careful supervision and advice. The tug pilot has to be tops at the job. Often at Aboyne the windsocks are pointing opposite ways at either end of the runway.
The airtow can be VERY VERY EXCITING, through the rotor. But the tuggie had the experience to tow me to the right spot on a good day, and over Balmoral I found the upwind primary wave, and that was it for me! back and forth in the smooth strong lift, and when they called me on the radio I was over the moon! so made jolly sure I was high enough for the claim, and then did a bit of sightseeing. Could see all three bodies of water, up North, the North Sea, and something else down South....

And good job I was carrying TWO barographs! one was the old tick tock needle scratching the line on the smoked paper, the other the new sort - which FAILED TO MARK WHERE I CAME OFF TOW! ! ! But the British Gliding Association was happy with the old smoky, so there you go. Old technology is sometimes the best, especially if you fail to dip a bit after release to mark that event.

ChrisJ100, now I remember the one to which you refer. The chap who will NOT live in infamy, his name long forgotten, simply engraved misleading lines on his smoky paper.. suspicion was aroused and his claim was reversed.

So there was a fraud, but not Chris Rollings and lady tug pilot.

Wasn't there a guy who pretended to sail round the world, sending radio bull**** for months, while he puddled around in the tropical Atlantic waters?

That would be Donald Crowhurst sailing in the Golden globe round the world race, Mary. Sad story really, he was pressured in to joining the race when neither he nor the boat were ready. He eventually went mad and jumped overboard.

Most high altitude flights in gliders in Canada use ex-USAF A-14 diluter demand pressure-breathing regulators with bail-out bottles attached to the parachute. Below FL200, nasal cannulas are more commonly used these days.

The Canadian absolute altitude record is 34,400'.

A few years back now when I was still relatively new to flying (500 hours or so) I was conducting a fishery protection flight to the south east of the Falklands in an Islander.

On returning towards the Islands I could see some cloud build up on the horizon from about 100 miles out. By 50 miles it was apparent that we had a line of CB's between us and the only land for about 400 miles. The options were fairly straight forward so continue we did, Initially we could see gaps between the clouds. As we got closer the clouds merged and the radar showed the cells so no problem, closer still (10 nm or so) the cells were merging but we could see the rain coming down. By now we were at about 1000ft and aiming for the gap in the rain. As we entered the gap the rain merged and there was lighening forks on both sides. I continued descending to about 500ft and exited the weather with no turbulence at all.

We landed a few minutes later with no unusual turbulance and relieved that it had been so easy. Perhaps we were lucky, it is not something I would make a habit of but I would always opt to approach a CB from low level (below 1000ft) it might be bumpy but any strong downdraughts have to become horizontal at some point.

Went to pick up an a/c today from Sherburn off it's annual. Weather was amazing setting off from Lincoln, cristal clear and unlimited vis. Landed half an hour later at Sherbs in snow and vis like a particularly mucky fishbowl...an hour later it was grand again. Funny stuff winter flying.

That is because there is a lot of instability in the air - moves all the pollution up to high levels giving good visibility where things are clear, but also setting off the isolated CBs that give the snow, and of course in the snow you will get bad vis.

I knew that.


No I didn't. Thanks for that, informative as usual Fox.