Re: 1000KM FAI Triangle
From: Ramy Yanetz 06/07/2006 03:08 To: Miki Weiss; Amir; Avron Subject: Re: 1000KM FAI Triangle Thanks guys. I occasionally check the Israeli hang glider forum and olc to see what you guys doing. I miss flying in Israel. My flight is now in first place for the Hilton Cup for USA, which is the most prestigious event in soaring. The winners are invited to Barron Hilton's ranch (the owner of the Hilton hotels) for one luxury week of flying, all expenses paid. I have a good shot unless someone will fly a longer triangle flight this year . Here is the lengthy story of the flight. You can put it in the forum if you like: I wasn't planning to fly that weekend at all since my wife was leaving for a trip abroad Sunday early morning, but the forecast looked so great I decided to do the 3 hours drive to Truckee (near lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border) just for Saturday, and promised my wife to be back on time to give her a ride to the airport the next morning. I loaded my LS4 (a 40:1 standard glass ship) with water, declared an ambitious 1000km FAI triangle with a start and finish in Carson City (near the famous Minden gliderport). The reason was that it is often impossible to jump over the Sierra and across lake Tahoe back to Truckee very late in the day. I took a high 5000ft tow at 10:30AM before the lift started and released near Carson City. The following 1.5 hours were a struggle with unreliable lift, getting relatively low couple of times and almost backtracking to an airport. My buddy Sergio, who is the only one ever made a 1000km FAI triangle from Truckee, and who declared a 1250km that day, even landed out at this time. Just as I thought the day is not turning as expected, the day turned on, and for the next 6 hours or so I was flying in epic conditions, often flying at speeds of 100-120 knots to stay below 18,000ft (the legal limit), and rarely stopping to make few circles. Cloudbases were at least 20,000ft. I turned Cerro Gordo (at the south end of the Owens Valley near Lone Pine) then continued north east across 2/3 of Nevada to Eureka. Once I turned Eureka, I had 200+ miles to go, but now had to deal with the flip side of strong conditions - Over development, overcast and virga. Virga is like a box of chocolate, you don't know what you will get till you get there, strong sink, lift or both. I tried to choose the best energy line along the virga and OD, but it took me directly into the huge restricted airspace near Fallon, which forced me to make a big detour into shadowed ground under solid overcast and dying lift. I pointed the glider to Hawthorne, which seemed to be the furthest landable place I can get to, as it was getting closer to sunset and the lift was barely working. I resigned to land at Hawthorne (about 100 miles from my destination, likely an overnight and a long expensive aero retrieve the next morning), and made a phone call to my wife breaking the news I will not make it home on time to give her a ride to the airport. But in the back of my mind I still hoped to find the Walker lake convergence east of Hawthorne. I found a save before in this area, which is otherwise a trap since it is surrounded with high mountains and lake, but to expect to find it so late was almost asking too much. Suddenly I saw a dust devil, an unusual sight so late in the day and in completely shadowed ground. I only had few hundred feet to spare before committing to Hawthorne, and the dust devil was too far, but I pointed the glider to that direction hoping for miracle. In the absolutely last moment before I needed to turn back to the airport I found the lift, a smooth 5 knots which took me back all the way to 18000ft, still below glide slope to home, but thanks to some left over buoyancy in the air and a little tail wind I managed to squeeze an 80 miles, 42:1 final glide from my LS4, across 3 mountain ranges all the way to Carson City airport, my finish point, for a late landing. I managed to drive all the way back home that night, thanks to the adrenaline from the flight still pumping, arriving after 3AM, just on time to see my wife and give her a ride as promised. The total 3 turnpoints free distance was 1080km. OLC gave me a total of 1147km at an average speed of 110 km/h. http://www2.onlinecontest.org/bhc/bhc_fluginfo.php?&ueb=N&ref3=182291 Ramy Yanetz http://www2.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2006/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=40888&ueb=N&olc=olc-usa&spr=en
From: Ramy Yanetz 06/07/2006 03:08 To: Miki Weiss; Amir; Avron Subject: Re: 1000KM FAI Triangle Thanks guys. I occasionally check the Israeli hang glider forum and olc to see what you guys doing. I miss flying in Israel. My flight is now in first place for the Hilton Cup for USA, which is the most prestigious event in soaring. The winners are invited to Barron Hilton's ranch (the owner of the Hilton hotels) for one luxury week of flying, all expenses paid. I have a good shot unless someone will fly a longer triangle flight this year . Here is the lengthy story of the flight. You can put it in the forum if you like: I wasn't planning to fly that weekend at all since my wife was leaving for a trip abroad Sunday early morning, but the forecast looked so great I decided to do the 3 hours drive to Truckee (near lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border) just for Saturday, and promised my wife to be back on time to give her a ride to the airport the next morning. I loaded my LS4 (a 40:1 standard glass ship) with water, declared an ambitious 1000km FAI triangle with a start and finish in Carson City (near the famous Minden gliderport). The reason was that it is often impossible to jump over the Sierra and across lake Tahoe back to Truckee very late in the day. I took a high 5000ft tow at 10:30AM before the lift started and released near Carson City. The following 1.5 hours were a struggle with unreliable lift, getting relatively low couple of times and almost backtracking to an airport. My buddy Sergio, who is the only one ever made a 1000km FAI triangle from Truckee, and who declared a 1250km that day, even landed out at this time. Just as I thought the day is not turning as expected, the day turned on, and for the next 6 hours or so I was flying in epic conditions, often flying at speeds of 100-120 knots to stay below 18,000ft (the legal limit), and rarely stopping to make few circles. Cloudbases were at least 20,000ft. I turned Cerro Gordo (at the south end of the Owens Valley near Lone Pine) then continued north east across 2/3 of Nevada to Eureka. Once I turned Eureka, I had 200+ miles to go, but now had to deal with the flip side of strong conditions - Over development, overcast and virga. Virga is like a box of chocolate, you don't know what you will get till you get there, strong sink, lift or both. I tried to choose the best energy line along the virga and OD, but it took me directly into the huge restricted airspace near Fallon, which forced me to make a big detour into shadowed ground under solid overcast and dying lift. I pointed the glider to Hawthorne, which seemed to be the furthest landable place I can get to, as it was getting closer to sunset and the lift was barely working. I resigned to land at Hawthorne (about 100 miles from my destination, likely an overnight and a long expensive aero retrieve the next morning), and made a phone call to my wife breaking the news I will not make it home on time to give her a ride to the airport. But in the back of my mind I still hoped to find the Walker lake convergence east of Hawthorne. I found a save before in this area, which is otherwise a trap since it is surrounded with high mountains and lake, but to expect to find it so late was almost asking too much. Suddenly I saw a dust devil, an unusual sight so late in the day and in completely shadowed ground. I only had few hundred feet to spare before committing to Hawthorne, and the dust devil was too far, but I pointed the glider to that direction hoping for miracle. In the absolutely last moment before I needed to turn back to the airport I found the lift, a smooth 5 knots which took me back all the way to 18000ft, still below glide slope to home, but thanks to some left over buoyancy in the air and a little tail wind I managed to squeeze an 80 miles, 42:1 final glide from my LS4, across 3 mountain ranges all the way to Carson City airport, my finish point, for a late landing. I managed to drive all the way back home that night, thanks to the adrenaline from the flight still pumping, arriving after 3AM, just on time to see my wife and give her a ride as promised. The total 3 turnpoints free distance was 1080km. OLC gave me a total of 1147km at an average speed of 110 km/h. http://www2.onlinecontest.org/bhc/bhc_fluginfo.php?&ueb=N&ref3=182291 Ramy Yanetz http://www2.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2006/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=40888&ueb=N&olc=olc-usa&spr=en