Nearly Mid-Air Collision at Estrella

On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 15:15:18 UTC, (Kirk Stant)
wrote:

: But even at 350 knots, you
: have time to hear and react to the sound of the approaching fighters

Where I fly, we tend to meet fighters on the level while hill soaring.
They are following contours, so their paths are not nice predictable
straight lines. It's normally only possible to establish a probable
course half a mile away (they don't camouflage them for nothing) which
means about five seconds from impact. In that time, a glider can't
move much further than 500 feet. And since they're wiggling about, you
can only be reasonably sure of their course for about 2 seconds. Which
isn't long.

It's much easier when there is vertical separation, but then who
cares?

My personal best is a Tornado overtaking me on the same height and
about two wing spans (100 feet) away.

Ian


--

My personal closest was a twin Cessna (414 or something similar) at exactly
my altitude, about 15 feet off my right wingtip and a heading difference of
about 5 to 10 degrees to the right of my heading (in other words, he came up
from almost directly behind me). The only reason I can think of that he
didn't see me clearly in his windshield was that he was screwing his
girlfriend while his wife sat at home and nobody was flying the plane.

--
Scott
http://corbenflyer.tripod.com/
Building RV-4
Gotta Fly or Gonna Die

"Ian Johnston" wrote in message
news:cCUlhtvFIYkV-pn2-lBQT51GsdKoW@localhost...
On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 15:15:18 UTC, (Kirk Stant)
wrote:

: But even at 350 knots, you
: have time to hear and react to the sound of the approaching fighters

Where I fly, we tend to meet fighters on the level while hill soaring.
They are following contours, so their paths are not nice predictable
straight lines. It's normally only possible to establish a probable
course half a mile away (they don't camouflage them for nothing) which
means about five seconds from impact. In that time, a glider can't
move much further than 500 feet. And since they're wiggling about, you
can only be reasonably sure of their course for about 2 seconds. Which
isn't long.

It's much easier when there is vertical separation, but then who
cares?

My personal best is a Tornado overtaking me on the same height and
about two wing spans (100 feet) away.

Ian


--