1000K in a 1-26 Attempt

[agca...@gmail.com]

Daniel is making another run on a 1000k 1-26 flight. Looks like he is running well with an early start this morning. Go Daniel!

[agca...@gmail.com]

Heres the link http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qx3v8UKt3rtQecIVYYZyf39kIpQSWBMk

[chide...@ucfsd.net]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 9:07:46 AM UTC-4, agca...@gmail.com wrote:
> Daniel is making another run on a 1000k 1-26 flight. Looks like he is running well with an early start this morning. Go Daniel!

The weather looks promising, and he is off to a great start!

Go Daniel!

[agca...@gmail.com]

Watching the track, he is pushing right along, he might make it hapoen this time!
Dan

[agca...@gmail.com]

He has himself scheduled to make fairview lake by 11:45am to be on sched, it looks like he is ahead of his sched as of now.
Dan

[agca...@gmail.com]

He made his turn, running fast again SW. He gained some time for himself, may need it later today.
Dan

[Papa3]

About half-way through 1000K in 5 hours . Well designed course has all of the downwind transitions early and late in the day. The toughest transition is coming up in the next hour.

P3

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

What are turn points & finish?

Looking good thus far........

[Papa3]

Third TP is somewhere along the Tuscarora I think just short of Dickies (aka Lockings). After that, it's back home to a finish abeam Blairstown. Right now, he's rocking and rolling along the Tuscarora getting close to Burnt Cabins. With 8,000 foot bases, I've got to believe this is going to happen.

[Papa3]

Last transition coming up. Short of a complete meltdown in the next 30 minutes, it looks like 1000K in a 1-26. That would be good for a whole bucket-load of class World Records (both 1-26 and 13.5M). Amazing flight.

P3

[chide...@ucfsd.net]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 2:29:03 PM UTC-4, Papa3 wrote:
> Third TP is somewhere along the Tuscarora I think just short of Dickies (aka Lockings). After that, it's back home to a finish abeam Blairstown. Right now, he's rocking and rolling along the Tuscarora getting close to Burnt Cabins. With 8,000 foot bases, I've got to believe this is going to happen.

He's looking great right now!!

Awesome!

[Tony]

According to glideport he has exceeded 1000km. Way to go Daniel!!!

Hip hip HOORAY!

Hip hip HOORAY!

Hip hip HOORAY!

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

Congrats, 1000K is hard, in a 1-26 is harder. Good show (assuming he gets home and flight trace is good).

[kochan...@gmail.com]

Congratulations Daniel ... I watched the spot from your last turn home ... great flight ... KK

[john.le...@gmail.com]

OUTSTANDING!! Congratulations on a magnificent achievement!!

John Leibacher, 362, 401, 595

[BobW]

On 5/8/2016 3:56 PM, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
> Congrats, 1000K is hard, in a 1-26 is harder. Good show (assuming he gets
> home and flight trace is good).
>

Seriously STUDLY (reGARDless of flight trace possibilities - but I hope all he
"needs" to ultimately brag about is the flight, not stuff gone wrong related
to it!)!!!

Why, it was less than 3 years ago when I was helping pull young Daniel and his
borrowed 1-26 from a field. Today? Fame by association - woo hoo!

In all seriousness, way to go Daniel!!!

Bob W.

[Michael Opitz]

At 22:09 08 May 2016, john.le...@gmail.com wrote:
>OUTSTANDING!! Congratulations on a magnificent achievement!!
>
>John Leibacher, 362, 401, 595
>

Congrats, Daniel. What a great flight!!
RO

[N97MT]

Congratulations to Daniel. 1,000 KM in a 1-26 is a huge accomplishment. Respect.

[kevi...@gmail.com]

Daniel,

Congratulations!!!

Kevin and Tami Anderson

[Renny]

I am sure Al Parker is smiling down on Daniel!

Truly an OUTSTANDING accomplishment!!

Congratulations!!!

Renny

[PAGA]

New world record?
Bravo Daniel!!!

(7L)

[chip.b...@gmail.com]

Very impressive!

Chip Bearden
JB

[Tony]

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=5017136

[usnightl...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 11:31:25 PM UTC-4, Tony wrote:
> http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=5017136

Thanks a lot guys! It was a fantastic day. Glad it worked out!

Huge thanks to all of the people that made this happen:

Steve Beer for crewing
Rick Roelke/Bob Cook assisting with official observing
Brian Glick for towing early early in the morning
Phil Chidekel for the weather forecasts

MSA for providing such a wonderful clubhouse to crash the night
Aero Club Albatross for letting me use their wonderful 1-26E!

Full report to follow after some reasonable rest.

Thanks again,
Daniel

[John Godfrey (QT)]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 9:07:46 AM UTC-4, agca...@gmail.com wrote:

> Daniel is making another run on a 1000k 1-26 flight. Looks like he is running well with an early start this morning. Go Daniel!

Awesome effort! Congratulations.

[agca...@gmail.com]

Daniel, I feel priveledged to have started this threat on your wonderfull achievment. Congrads big time! Well done! Thanks for demonstrating what our 1-26's are capable of with exceptional piloting skills!
Dan #225

[tkn...@earthlink.net]

Remarkable flight, and the culmination of dreams and ideas.

Tom Knauff

[usnightl...@gmail.com]

This was written with some haste, so forgive me for grammatical errors or other misgivings. But in view that y'all want to know, here it is:

1000km in a 1-26

If you look at the OLC archive for '09 under my name, you may find something interesting. Six years ago I tried to claim my best soaring flight to date, a 3.5 hour local flight, the first time I had stayed up for a notable amount of time. On my desktop, I had Ron Schwartz's epic ridge flight from '09, which I had looked at a million times over. Well I accidentally claimed that flight log when I tried to upload my flight and I didn't realize that I had until I had stumbled onto the '09 page, by which time I couldn't delete it. Certainly OLC didn't give me any points, but nonetheless I apologized to Schwartz for the mishap. He thought it was a riot!

The particular flight by Mr.Schwartz was a 1000km attempt in a 1-26 and he came very close to actually doing it. I viewed it with awe and sort of believed that this flight was beyond feasibility, particularly for me. As much as I enjoyed flying the 1-26, I expected to get a Silver in it and then I'd hit a brick wall and move up to higher performance. But I kept flying the fun little bird, it kept working and little by little the badges started to drop away and big ridge flights became feasible for me. Mr. Schwartz kept making epic flights and I kept learning and dissecting all the bits and pieces.

Finally there came a point when I tried to figure out the best way to do the 1000km flight. The big challenge from Blairstown is that we hit a "brick wall" only 60 miles from the start. Having looked at Ron's flights, I realized that this was the bottleneck that needed to be resolved. We just could not afford to get stuck there for two years in the morning and expect to make enough miles later in the day. The first solution was to make a big lap on Blue Mountain and then put the third turnpoint farther South. This was a much better solution, but nonetheless it is still a very challenging task. Blue Mountain early in the morning is no cakewalk and having to go 50 miles SW of the Potomac River is tricky too. Later I started looking at other options, from Julian and Mifflin, PA. While Knauff's place is a wonderful site for most records, Altoona and Bedford gaps were too tricky to traverse early in the day, so that ruled out Bald Eagle Mountain. The "back route" through Tussey still required jumping over the "Wall", which is easy in high performance, but not something to take for granted in a 1-26. Lastly, the prospect of driving along the Knobblies with 20-1 was not exciting for me, so back to square one.

In January 2015, it occurred to me that the length of the ridge from Blairstown to the end of the Tuscarora Mountain is 300km and Mifflin is around 100km from the end of it. With three runs back and forth, that amounts to 900km and the short run from Mifflin rounds it out to 1000km. This was a fantastic solution as it completely resolved the "bottleneck" at Hawk Mountain. Early in the day, all the significant transitions were to be downwind. Furthermore, the whole range of the task was confined to a smaller ridge system, which meant the weather did not need to be as special to make the day work. I was sure that this was the most doable 1000km task on the Appalachian ridge system, particularly for a 1-26. All the was needed was to have a long day, reasonable thermals and a patient crew to drive me out to Mifflin the night before and bring the trailer to Blairstown, where I was to complete my flight.

Fast forward to this year and I finally decide to make an honest go out of this task. It was now a matter of waiting for the weather. Unfortunately, up until May our spring season was quite disappointing. I had expected to do this flight in late April, which is traditionally when we have our best soaring days. Instead we had rain, rain and more rain and wimpy ridge days. We did not even have any honest thermal days so far! However and quite luckily, a day was setting up for May 8th with the basic parameters necessary for this kind of flight. I started to sort out the logistics, recruited Steve Beer as a crew and we headed out on Saturday to get the glider ready for the following day.

As far as the weather forecast, the big question was when the frontal passage would occur. The flight required launching around 7am and it was unclear if the weather would allow for that. Secondly, the front was to go through later at Blairstown, so it was entirely possible that I would not have been able to hit my first turnpoint as promptly. However, as far as the other parameters it was evident that the day was going to be quite unstable and the wind looked good for most of the day. At the end of the day the wind was to go fairly Westerly, but that was not too concerning at the time. (If the wind goes too far West, then the angle could be too far off for the ridge to work well.)

Steve Beer and I got the glider set up and we stayed the night at the Mifflin Soaring Association clubhouse. At the time, GBSC was also having a soaring encampment, so it was quite busy. Luckily, Rick Roelke was there and he agreed to be my official observer. As the US representative to the IGC, he thought there was a way to make the flight valid for a World Record with Bob Cook acting as a remote senior official observer. This was certainly exciting and we will see if it will qualify. We then went to sleep up in the loft, along with a number of other folks excited to make a go out of the nice ridge the following day.

The day started at 5:20 in the morning after decent rest. All the batteries were charged, everything was ready to go. Had my oatmeal breakfast, got the glider ready and Rick sealed the logger into the glider. Just before 7am, Brian Glick towed me into the air, the wind already blowing a good clip from the NW. There was quite a bit of moisture and towing up to 3800ft (3000ft AGL) actually took us a little bit above the clouds. I worked some weak wave to my start point on Shade Mountain and then shot off SW bound toward my turnpoint. The question now was whether the ridge would work. Early in the day, it is entirely plausible that the air does not mix enough for the wind to be solid at ridge top. Luckily it was working and I was moving along at 70-80 mph toward my first turnpoint at Dickeys Mountain. The nice thing was that the ride was quite smooth. Typically pushing the 1-26 up to 80mph gets quite rough as with the light wing loading, all the turbulence hits you quite hard. I counted my lucky stars and figured I ought to take advantage of this as long as I can as later on, it would probably get very rough.

The downwind transition at Gobblers Knob (end of Shade Mountain) was not a problem and good air got me across without any trouble. The Tuscarora was gangbusters. I was driving along in smooth ridge, 500ft above going 80 mph. Going into the turnpoint, I slowed down a bit as that section gets very rough. There's a small upwind ridge that forms a Vee at the end of the Tuscarora and the downwash makes it a rodeo in there if you are low. I got in on schedule and got moving toward Blairstown.

Now the big question was if the thermals would kick up enough to let me do the downwind jumps from the end of the Tuscarora. By the time I got to the end of the Tuscarora, some little puffs were marking weak lift and the jump to Mahantango was quite reasonable. Same deal from Mahantango to Bear. At the end of Bear Mountain, the lift was not all that great. It got me to about 2300ft, a little downwind of the ridge, which was enough to make Sharp. I went for it and was not entirely thrilled with the decision once I left. I got to Sharp right at ridge top, but where I got to it there were no places to land. The ridge kicked up just fine and I scooted along until the end of it, got a nice climb to Hawk and coasted along Blue Mountain. I hit the turnpoint substantially ahead of schedule, at 11am. I had expected to hit the turnpoint at 11:45am!

Heading SW bound again, the thermals cooked up nicely, but the ridge was still reasonably smooth. The thermals were energetic so every time I hit them, I had a pretty hefty G load, but otherwise the ridge was relatively benign. This was very good for me as the rocking and rolling we normally get is really fatiguing to me. Getting back to Hawk Mountain, now it was time to do the upwind jumps. Luckily I had built up quite a bit of time in reserve, so they were not that stressful. I knew I could afford to get stuck for a while and still complete the flight. I had completed the first 500km in just under 5 hours and had eight hours of daylight for the rest. All of the jumps were relatively benign. First I climbed up in a nice thermal and then I managed to find a street each time. As a result, I made it across with plenty of altitude to spare, which was quite nice as the transitions did not require as much mental effort. Thanks to Schwartz for marking the thermal that got me across to Tuscarora!

Once on the Tuscarora, now it was just a matter of zipping over to the last turnpoint and not screwing up the run home. I hit the turnpoint just before 3pm, 50 minutes ahead of schedule and had plenty of time to get back. Once I got to the end of the Tuscarora, my wind readings showed that the wind was going pretty Westerly. Once on the Mahantango, I saw my ground speed was a good 20 mph over my indicated airspeed. As much as I appreciated the tailwind component, I knew that soon the ridge was going to bend and favor a much more Northerly wind. I figured it was time to get off the ridge and thermal instead. I climbed off and stayed high until I dropped down for a little bit to 2000ft near Sharp. Once I hit a thermal, I saw that the wind was around 285 degrees and figured let's just thermal all the way home. The clouds were quite high and by Hawk Mountain I made it up to 8700ft. Then it was just a matter of coasting home, taking a couple climbs here or there. Having a 20-25 mph tailwind is certainly nice! I hit the finish at 3000ft and landed with still two hours of daylight to spare.

The big challenge of the flight was not so much the execution, but in the physical endurance. I had flown all of the ridges involved and the transitions were not anything particularly novel. A lot of the focus went into trying to stay relaxed and avoiding exerting mental effort as much as possible. Luckily the ridge was relatively smooth, so I was able to stay relatively fresh for most of the flight. By the end I was starting to get soar, but it was not all too bad.

This flight was only possible due to the effort and support of a lot of people. Some people who had contributed very significantly were:

Steve Beer for crewing
Rick Roelke/Bob Cook assisting with official observing
Brian Glick for towing early early in the morning
Phil Chidekel for the weather forecasts

MSA for providing such a wonderful clubhouse to crash the night
Aero Club Albatross for letting me use their wonderful 1-26E!

Thank you so much guys!

Lastly, what I hope the soaring community takes away from this experience is that this flight was indeed done in an Aero Club Albatross glider. I am incredibly fortunate to be in a flying club that has given me incredible latitude and encouragement in the use of their equipment. I hope that other clubs give their members the same opportunities, particularly their youth members. This is how we will grow the sport.

[agca...@gmail.com]

Thanks Daniel for the summary. I always learn abnch whenever someone tells their story. Looking at your track and time line, given another day of equal or slightly better conditions, it looks like another 100 miles could be added onto the task. I know someday you will get another opportunity. Congrads again.
Dan #225

[Craig Funston]

Well done Daniel! Thanks for writing it up for all of us to enjoy vicariously.

7Q

[BobW]

On 5/9/2016 8:12 AM, usnightl...@gmail.com wrote:
> This was written with some haste, so forgive me for grammatical errors or
> other misgivings. But in view that y'all want to know, here it is:
>
> 1000km in a 1-26
>

<Major snip...>

>
> This flight was only possible due to the effort and support of a lot of
> people. Some people who had contributed very significantly were:
>
> Steve Beer for crewing Rick Roelke/Bob Cook assisting with official
> observing Brian Glick for towing early early in the morning Phil Chidekel
> for the weather forecasts
>
> MSA for providing such a wonderful clubhouse to crash the night Aero Club
> Albatross for letting me use their wonderful 1-26E!
>
> Thank you so much guys!
>
> Lastly, what I hope the soaring community takes away from this experience
> is that this flight was indeed done in an Aero Club Albatross glider. I am
> incredibly fortunate to be in a flying club that has given me incredible
> latitude and encouragement in the use of their equipment. I hope that other
> clubs give their members the same opportunities, particularly their youth
> members. This is how we will grow the sport.
>

Daniel,

Congratulations once again!!!

Thanks for summarizing your epic flight so rapidly. Just as Ron Schwartz's
2009 1000K attempt served to inform and inspire you, perhaps your write-up
will serve someone(s) in the future. For the savvy reader there's a LOT of
"stuff" (e.g. mental preparation, flight strategy/tactics) to be gleaned both
directly and inferentially from your write-up. Great stuff!!!

Bob W.

[Dave Nadler]

Awesome Daniel, Congratulations!!

[Gordon Boettger]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 6:07:46 AM UTC-7, agca...@gmail.com wrote:
> Daniel is making another run on a 1000k 1-26 flight. Looks like he is running well with an early start this morning. Go Daniel!

Dan,
Outstanding accomplishment!!! You're an animal. Way to stay focused and keep trying. A dream come true. Respect!
Gordon Boettger

[ucanem...@gmail.com]

I see many pilots offering respect, which of course is well earned! But I have another emotion, shame. Having always flown glass birds in great western conditions and I have not flown a 1,000k.

An amazing flight and one that has given me motivation.

[ND]

having committed most of "the sunship game" to memory, i once looked up some stuff about stirling moss who was mentioned by gleb derujinsky. i came across a quote from sterling moss who said, "it is necessary to relax your muscles when you can, relaxing your mind is fatal." that kind of goes against what you say below, but i get what you mean about pacing yourself mentally. one of the things about this or any long flight which is really tough, is the physiological aspect. keeping your body and mind functioning optimally for that length of time is as tough as anything else!

[MNLou]

Congratulations Daniel! Way to plan and execute. Well done!

[Daniel Sazhin]

Hey andy,

You're certainly correct about the necessity of staying mentally sharp or the consequences could be catastrophic. However, there are different levels of emotional intensity that you can exert at different times. The simplest example involves transitions. For most of the jumps, particularly the upwind ones, I backed off compared to most of my flights. I ended up making the jumps with 1000ft or more to spare. I could have left lower and done them more optimally, but I knew that would be more mentally exerting, so I tried to give a little bit more margin to avoid burning out.

One of the interesting things about these sorts of flights is that on one hand, you are pushing hard all day and keeping the speed up, but on the other hand, you DO have all day to complete the flight. You certainly can't give up efficiency often, but backing off a couple times to keep yourself physically and mentally sharp is feasible.

Best regards,
Daniel

[JS]

Excellent flight, Daniel.
And you beat Ron to it!
Jim

[Casey]

Nice. In a borrowed 1-26 no less. I would be happy to even fly half that distance. Wow, what a feat!

Casey

[gregg...@gmail.com]

Congrats, totally awesome flying. What I'm wondering is the market value of 1-26s up now that they are 1,000 kilometer capable gliders...

[BobW]

On 5/10/2016 1:46 PM, gregg...@gmail.com wrote:
> Congrats, totally awesome flying. What I'm wondering is the market value
> of 1-26s up now that they are 1,000 kilometer capable gliders...
>

Heh.

While I wouldn't bet my retirement money on it, were there a way to quantify
the number of presently-(or, imminently-about-to-be-)XC-capable soaring
pilots, the quantity of those who (say) in the next year come to believe - as
a result of Daniel's flight - that you CAN fly XC in something having less
than 40:1 L/D, vs. those who continue to rationalize that reality away
"somehow", I'd be tempted to wager an Andrew Jackson on this flight serving
more to solidify pre-existing beliefs than "properly open" eyes!

Having done a paltry 48 miles in a 1-26 and under 10X than in 1st-generation
15-meter glass, you can put (keep, actually) me in the class who believe it's
the pilot, not the L/D that's more important to XC miles.

As for Daniel's accomplishment, consider me thoroughly impressed with every
aspect of it!!!

Bob W.

[WaltWX]

Daniels,

My hearty congratulations from California... Walt Rogers "WX"

Your synopsis demonstrates the "complete package" of record and contest flying. Planning, weather forecasts, logistics, mental preparation and metering psychological energy. Great Job!

Walt Rogers WX

[JimF]

The assault on 1500k in a TG-2 is next. But seriously, all of us who
grew up on the Schweizer 2-33, 1-26 aircraft truly appreciate and enjoy
this accomplishment.
Congratulations Daniel.




--
JimF

[cliff...@gmail.com]

Yes, way to go Daniel! Great accomplishment. Perseverance does pay off!

Interesting side discussion about the merits of flying a 1-26 compared to glass. Not wanting to hijack the thread but---- I started out in Hangliders then Power, then sailplanes. I did my first badge work in our clubs 1-26D 454,then the L-13, I did thur gold distance in the 1-26. What made me move up in performance was not more enjoyment but the fact that I wanted to fly and compete with my Buddies and they all had higher performance. I just couldn't get that rush of pulling up into a thermal below them knowing I caught them, in a 1-26. Sure I could beat them with the handicap at the end of the day, but I didn't get to fly WITH them most of the flight. By the way my first contest completion was in a 1-26. It was a 156 mile triangle and took me almost 6 hours to complete :)

CH Ventus B