Every glider flight manual I studied made it clear that the flight tested limits laid out applied up to 3000 meters ... over that you are relying on a combination of theory, over-design, excessive build over required standards, and it always seemed to me good fortune. I have no idea if such applied to the Arcus M used by Payne.



On Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 9:01:26 PM UTC-4, Soartech wrote:
or fantasy of flight?
On page 52 of the September issue of Soaring magazine Jim Payne is listed as having flown an out and return course of 300 km at an average speed of an amazing ground speed of 189.62 MPH ! Can someone please explain how he did this when the Vne of the Arcus M is 174 MPH. It seems to me the only way to do this is to somehow fly (at Vne the entire flight),downwind, on both out and return legs.