Hang Gliding Record Distance Flight Story

On Jan 12, 2:51*pm, John Carlyle wrote:
Very good read about Dustin Martin beating Jonny Durand during a 475 mile hang gliding world distance record, with Gary Osoba providing the day's forecast.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/sp...y-the-silent-r...

-John, Q3

It was a rainy day in Durango, CO, where I was, and I happened to be
reading the RAS when a note was posted that Dustin and Johnny were on
the epic flight and could be watched on SPOT. I immediately clicked
on and was spellbound for the rest of the aftgernoon. Thankfully, no
lightning, so I could leave the computer on. It was a very exciting
afternoon for me, watching their progress, and Dustin's final glide
that was absolutely parallel to the wind (I was flipping back and
forth from the SPOT page to the wind page http://hint.fm/wind/ to
see how they were progressing). 25 years earlier, to the day, Hans
and I had a similar day, landing in Cortez, CO for 218 miles on our
Wills Wings from Mt. Elden in Flagstaff, AZ. Watching another Arizona
Hang Gliding Association (now also includes paragliding) pilot set the
world record was the highlight of my summer. It couldn't have
happened to a nicer guy / more incredible pilot. Atta boy, Dustin!
And, a VERY nice article for a non-gliding publication. Well done.
And, it brought back a lot of fond memories for me.
Bob
19

Is Dustin's flight recorder trace for his world record flight available on the web? I checked on OLC-PHG under Best Flight, but Dustin's 475 mile flight is not there. Strange, because his 335 k flight on May 12, 2012 is listed.

-John, Q3

As an ex hang-glider pilot, I also thought that the story was well researched and nicely written, without the usual inaccuracies.

One interesting note - the article says that pilots had to land before half-an-hour after sunset for the record to be valid. Is this true and, if so, why do they get half-an-hour longer than glider pilots?

Mike

On Jan 13, 8:59*am, Mike the Strike wrote:
As an ex hang-glider pilot, I also thought that the story was well researched and nicely written, without the usual inaccuracies.

One interesting note - the article says that pilots had to land before half-an-hour after sunset for the record to be valid. *Is this true and, if so, why do they get half-an-hour longer than glider pilots?

Mike

They carried strobe lights for just that purpose. We need to look
into that to see if such an addition to gliders could give us the
extra 1/2 hour.

Bob

Hello Bob, you wrote at 01 Jan 2013 17:26:

On Jan 13, 8:59 am, Mike the Strike wrote:
As an ex hang-glider pilot, I also thought that the story was well researched and nicely written, without the usual inaccuracies.

One interesting note - the article says that pilots had to land before half-an-hour after sunset for the record to be valid. Is this true and, if so, why do they get half-an-hour longer than glider pilots?

Mike

They carried strobe lights for just that purpose. We need to look
into that to see if such an addition to gliders could give us the
extra 1/2 hour.

AFAIK, use of position lights allows this (at least over here in Germany).

regards
Werner

On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 07:59:41 -0800, Mike the Strike wrote:

As an ex hang-glider pilot, I also thought that the story was well
researched and nicely written, without the usual inaccuracies.

One interesting note - the article says that pilots had to land before
half-an-hour after sunset for the record to be valid. Is this true and,
if so, why do they get half-an-hour longer than glider pilots?


In the UK, anyway, a glider flight must take place during the day, i.e.
may not start or finish at night. The following definitions apply:

night ends 1/2 hour before astronomical sunrise
night starts 1/2 hour after astronomical sunset

....where astronomical sunrise and sunset must be calculated for a
specific lat/lon and day of the year. IIRC for the purposes of this
calculation the world is assumed to be a perfect ovoid, i.e. the effect
of nearby mountains between the sun and the required location is not
taken into account.

As this is an aviation definition of the start and end of night time, I'd
assume the same calculation is used in the USA.

This is why the article talked about the need to land before sunset + 30
minutes.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Sunday, January 13, 2013 11:04:43 AM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 07:59:41 -0800, Mike the Strike wrote:



As an ex hang-glider pilot, I also thought that the story was well

researched and nicely written, without the usual inaccuracies.



One interesting note - the article says that pilots had to land before

half-an-hour after sunset for the record to be valid. Is this true and,

if so, why do they get half-an-hour longer than glider pilots?





In the UK, anyway, a glider flight must take place during the day, i.e.

may not start or finish at night. The following definitions apply:



night ends 1/2 hour before astronomical sunrise

night starts 1/2 hour after astronomical sunset



...where astronomical sunrise and sunset must be calculated for a

specific lat/lon and day of the year. IIRC for the purposes of this

calculation the world is assumed to be a perfect ovoid, i.e. the effect

of nearby mountains between the sun and the required location is not

taken into account.



As this is an aviation definition of the start and end of night time, I'd

assume the same calculation is used in the USA.



This is why the article talked about the need to land before sunset + 30

minutes.


Out here in the US west, we are limited by the available daylight in summer and are very annoyed by the requirement to terminate flights by sunset - a typical requirement in sanctioned contests and also used by OLC.

We have attempted several times to address this issue, but no success so far. The problem appears to be several inconsistent regulations pertaining to definitions of night in the Federal Aviation Regulations.

I believe that the main problem is that aircraft are required to carry lights after sunset and, since most gliders don't have lights, flight after sunset is considered illegal. I assume that carrying a strobe permits hang-gliders to circumnavigate this requirement?

Mike