Flying Tiger Country

[Oscar]

Only a very, very silly pilot would fly very low over tiger country, right? Unless that pilot was 100% assured that there could be no possibility of engine failure?

 

Which is why we don't get too many videos of prolonged flight low over tiger country...

 

This guy is obviously certain that there is no possibility of engine failure (though THIS tiger country would have the tigers giving up, exhausted..)

 

 

 

[Cosmick]

great to watch

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Pretty hard to have a engine failure in a glider Oscar

 

 

[Oscar]

Never entered my considerations as a glider pilot.! Several times, I abandoned the day's task at 1,000' AGL in zero lift, from caution: one of those, I would have easily squeezed through the gap in the hill well above the fence - by 20 - 30 feet, maybe a bit less- and made the airfield and my 300K goal - but I didn't know the local terrain. I landed, and when tugged out, swore mightily for having lost a Gold Badge flight at around 285k..

 

But would you fly your Savvy through that country at height getting down to 'count the squirrels' AGL, even with the mighty Rotax purring along? Even at a steady cruise of 110 kts with the energy quotient? ( ER, maybe 110 kts is a bit enthusiastic for a Savvy, or a Jab., or a Lightwing..?)

 

At first look, that flight is lunatic. But listen to the commentary, when the PIC says: 'I could probably make that gap, but I have a wife and kids: a 99% chance is not good enough'. How many RAA pilots do NOT make that sort of calculation and decision, because the noise out the front is going OK.?

 

In a glider (other than an engine-equipped glider, becoming more common these days), you have three things separating you from a potential landing site: height ( in terms of L/D), speed that can be converted into height, and possibly lift between you and the landing site. Lift is an unknown until you get it..

 

My sister-in-law recently spent a week at Mt. Beauty, mountain flying. One flight, back to base, she travelled 20 ks for a height loss of 2k feet ( and buzzed some hikers at about 50 feet AGL- naughty but fun.) Reckon you could make the field in ANY RAA aircraft from 20ks out and 2k feet? I am damn sure my Jab. wouldn't.

 

 

[Guernsey]

Pretty hard to have a engine failure in a glider Oscar

I agree about the engine failure but I recon that I would have had heart failure.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Oscar My full size flying life began in gliders out at Kingaroy. I flew gliders for many years it really teaches you HOW to fly properly AND use rudder not like most GA pilots I have seen they dont know what the rudder is for except taxiing and takeoff. All of my flying though was thermal no ridge soaring. I was never around when the wave was on at the Bunyas. Glider flying you have a different mindset when you fly as yes there is no big fan at the front. Ridge soaring is a art and there is a lot more training and to know about it and I am a virgin on this matter only what I have seen and drooled over while watching. The mindset during the commentary was what I would have expected exactly from a accomplished glider pilot and his ridge soaring experience. Just a great video and a good insight into the different decision making needed to fly gliders. I have alway maintained that all pilots who have never flown a glider should go and do 10 or 20 hours to really show what they are NOT doing during their power flying. I would never fly like that over that terrain that is just good sense but there are pilots I know that would no matter what engine you have up the front

 

Mark

 

 

[facthunter]

Of course if there's lift about you can stay up as long as you choose in a plane with a good L/D ratio. A jetliner will glide 100 miles from 30,000 feet so they are pretty efficient. The "ordinary" U/L has probably a glide ratio of about 10 to 1 , so Sans Moteur at 60 knots and 1,000 feet height above terrain you can "range" a bit over 2 kms track distance if you don't do any big turns and there is no downhill slope to escape. If you are coming up to a crest and you lose the donk and can do a turn safely the slope is a way out IF it's greater than your glide angle. Wind effect has to be allowed for with actual angle achieved. and air currents up or down if they are very significant. Flying a powered aircraft near a mountain range provides opportunity to save fuel or go faster if you fly on the windward side at the right spot/line. Nev

 

 

[djpacro]

Only a very, very silly pilot would fly very low over tiger country ...

Thanks for that, beautiful part of the world - I lived in the Salt River Ranges, in a valley through which the Salt River ran. Not really tiger country - mountain lion, moose and bear common however.

 

 

 

 

[kaz3g]

Very impressive; country and flying, both...but I wonder about the sense of wandering off so far into the mountains relying on ridge and thermal lift alone.

 

Kaz

 

 

[djpacro]

Yep, a very long, hard walk to civilisation.

 

 

[Oscar]

It's hard to tell from his video and very calm, low-adrenalin manner, but I can only guess that he had his bug-out plan pretty well established. It's interesting the way he uses the flaps constantly to keep his speed energy maximised, going from (at a guess,) maybe around + 10 / - 5 or so; I've only flown any distance in an IS 29D2 with reflex capability, and in thermal conditions only used reflex to scoot between thermals - but I'm not in his class of pilot.

 

Many years ago, a US pilot -maybe Karl Striedeck - set an out and return record flying up and down the Appalachian ridge ( I THINK it was, but that was a long time ago, maybe early '70's) of 1,000 km. I do remember a comment about the flight, that he was auto-tow launched, and reckoned he got off using about 1/4 gallon of petrol, so got something like 2,000 mpg fuel economy. Just about all that flight he was at around 100 feet AGL, and ( I think it was on that flight) at one point, some miners set off an explosion in a quarry just ahead of him and he had to do a very, very sudden jink to avoid flying through the rocks in the air....

 

 

[diesel]

Three nz pilots a few years back did 1028 kms together. Great effort.

 

My power planes always head for a ridge or wave.

 

Chas