1800km Sierra Wave XC Flight Today

Bill Hoadley wrote:
It would be interesting to hear about his coordination with Air Traffic
control to get use of the Class A airspace. Using the higher altitudes
must have been a big plus for this flight. B. Hoadley

I'd like to be in the room when Gordon and Kempton discuss the value of
higher altitudes for these cross wind flights. Summarizing what Kempton
said in a recent lecture in Seattle:

"Above 10,000', my ASH 26 is limited (redline) to 162 knots true
airspeed, so flying above 18,000' doesn't provide a speed advantage on
strong days. In fact, the higher winds at higher altitudes may work
against you as the crab into the wind reduces your speed along the wave
system. A glider with a higher redline would make longer flights easier."

The higher altitudes do give you more opportunity to deal with weak
patches, but these are likely not important on the kind of day needed
for these very long flights. The greatest advantage of the Class A
flight is for downwind attempts because the extra altitude is needed to
get to the next wave source. We'll have to hear from Gordon and Kemp
about it's value for crosswind flights!


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

He must have burned alot of O2 at those altitudes. Did he complete the
flight on a 22 Cu ft bottle?

Eric Greenwell wrote:

"Above 10,000', my ASH 26 is limited (redline) to 162 knots true


That seems high. Do you mean 162 mph?

Mike

That's TRUE airspeed. About 120 KIAS at 20,000'.

The redline is 146 KIAS up to 3,000m - which works out to around 163
true, then stay there as you go higher.

-Tom

Eric, we see the same thing out here at the Colorado Front range.
Having the ability to go higher would be a great help with some of the
weak patches and discontinuities in our ranges. For a long (crosswind)
flight in our location those gaps can be significant. Even being able
to go up to 20-22K would be a big help, and you would not incur a big
TAS penalty.
Speaking of downwind wave dashes, Dr. Joachim Kuettner is sponsoring a
new prize for the first person to complete a 2000km downwind wave
flight. I believe details on this prize will be coming soon from the
SSA.
Nice to see these long flights being done without logging frequent
flyer miles on
Aerolineas Aregentina.
Bill Hoadley