Flying during a Solar Eclipse

years back, I soloed a student in a 2-33...then a 1-26 same day...he went up and set a junior altitude state record...then the eclipse...

Gliders come down and land during a solar eclipse...no lift at all the rest of the day!


Cookie


On Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 1:59:24 PM UTC-4, AS wrote:
Ok - here is a question for the FAR experts:
On August 21, there will be a total solar eclipse occurring - among other places - over South Carolina. The duration of the total eclipse is around 2min 35 seconds.
Is this considered night time? Can I fly a glider under VFR-daytime rules during this time?

Uli
'AS'

Hmmmm....no mention of how to handle soaring during a total eclipse in Reichman's book.

On Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 8:16:07 PM UTC-4, Cookie wrote:
Gliders come down and land during a solar eclipse...no lift at all the rest of the day!

Here in the NE US we'll only get a partial eclipse. The sun will be about 1/4 or more covered for about an hour, peaking at about 60% covered. What should we expect for soaring conditions? Will thermals totally quit? How is it different, in terms of solar heating of the ground, from the patches of high clouds that often plague our soaring?

But...but...If you look at it you could go BLIND! And then lose control of your glider and possibly CRASH INTO A SLEEPING BABY!!!

Lighten up. Go fly the damn thing. 2.5 minutes of an eclipse isn't anything like flying under a solid overcast, and you will probably not be able to keep yourself under the corona for any length of time anyway.

And, no, it doesn't get that dark. There is a lot of scattered light. Kinda like twilight. It's enough to fool birds, but they aren't all that bright. Are you!

Bureaucrats may be more hazardous. Don't get entangled with an ambitious one.

All of you guys have way too much time on your hands . . .
ROY

Article from FreeFlight many years ago....

MAYBE A WORLD RECORD, SORT OF

May 10, 1994 - Keystone Gliderport, Julian Pennsylvania

Its was a beautiful day for soaring but not a ridge day. I had
declared a 750 km out and return task which I thought might be
possible if the thermals were wonderful. As it turned out they
were a bit too wonderful and it was already over developing with
some very large rain squalls blocking my way when I was only 50
km out. I tried to find a way around them but new ones seemed to
develop and block each plan I came up with. Finally I gave up,
climbed as high as I could (about 7000 AGL) and started back to
the gliderport.

Meanwhile back at the field, Bernie Palfreeman of MSC had his
take off delayed by a squall but was now in the air with about
ten Americans, flying locally. It was coming up to 12 noon and when
I got a chance I took a quick glance at the sun when it was
behind enough cloud so that I could see the disk. Sure enough, as
predicted, there was a big bite out of top right side. By 1:20 pm
there was only a sliver of sun left, and although it was very
light out the ground looked dull as if it were in the shade. We
all agreed it was cooling off. By now the sky was clear of cloud
and the whole dozen of us were in two or three gaggles scratching
for lift. We hung on until about 2 pm but then, within about 15
minutes, we all landed. Shot down by an eclipse of the sun - a
world record for sure!

(Dave Noyes of Columbus Ohio also flew out of Keystone gliderport
that day in his Ventus motorglider. He started earlier and beat
the squalls in his run to the south west, away from the path of
the eclipse. At the height of the eclipse he was past Cumberland,
about 200 km away. He said he had a period of scratching but
managed to hang on without using his motor. He was our only
survivor. He arrived back at Keystone several hours after we were
all shot down).

Walter Weir