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@@charleslongley7862 Thanks! It was a lot of fun. A GREAT experience.

@@jamesa5720 Thanks James. My Phoebus will climb with a Libelle, if I do my part. 😉 Eastern WA, especially the area around Ephrata, is a FANTASTIC area to grow your XC legs. Lots of good land-out fields and thermal markers like dust devils when down low. The soaring is pretty darn good!

@@obiwanrazzy Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm hoping to participate in many more future R8 events. I agree that it is one of the best soaring educational events you can attend. I learned SO much!

@@Rocky6able Thank you. It was fun producing it, and even better collecting the footage. 😉

@@AdrianMelia-0 Thanks Adrian. Music is from the “Sound Tracks” available music in iMovie. Tracks are: 20 Miles North Big Sky Image Enchancementalist

Thanks, John, the gliding is, of course, magnificent. I'm so glad that you're taking that Phoebe's to places it might never have gone were it not for your efforts.

@@AdrianMelia-0 most of my other recent videos use music from Uppbeat. uppbeat.io

@@SteveMinar thanks Steve. I hope so too.

Thanks. It’s fun!

Thanks. It’s been fun to fly. Lots of “bang for the buck”.

I did a video screen capture from WeGlide 3D flight replay. One of the features that the SSA makes available to us through the partnership with WeGlide. www.weglide.org/flight/336650

You may notice I often fly with both hands on the joystick. This is for two reasons: elevator is very pitch-sensitive and light, so this gives me more control. The ailerons are quite heavy in flight. I would say it is similar to the G103 I have flown-light elevator, heavy ailerons, just more so. The rudder is also very heavy and responds slowly, but once it starts to respond, it is a big response. It is a big rudder on the Phoebus.

Thank you sir. A little inspiration for the warmer months, posted from frozen Montana. 😉

Thanks Target. Yep, at times 13K seems low. But learning to trust your flight computer and knowing you have glide back to your airport is very reassuring. But this comes with experience, and knowing you have the right data set in your flight computer.

It was fun editing the video, but even more fun collecting the footage. 😉

Thanks Noel. This flight was on 9/17/23. I’m really looking forward to more and longer XC flights. 🙂

A first-gen Mountain High.

I no longer use that audio Piep vario. I now have a LX Nav S80, which I MUCH prefer.

Thanks. I wish I could do more.

Yes indeed! Can’t wait to go back again. 😁

It belongs to Big Sky Soaring at the Flying Y Ranch airport in the Paradise Valley, just north of Yellowstone National Park.

Thanks for the encouragement. I have since replaced the Cambridge vario with a LX Nav S80 as well. I MUCH prefer it! I also added a PowerFlarm Core, which talks nicely to the S80. Nice to be able to see other traffic on the S80 as well. This can be seen in some of my newer YT videos.

@@johnfoster1201 Ok, much better!!. a few weeks ago I replaced my old red box flarm with a LXNav PowerMouse, which includes an ADSB receiver as well. Much better range now. Of course also connected with the S80 and via Bt the S80 is connected with my Android smartphone running LK8000.. I fly competition with this setup!

Thanks for your input. I'll keep that in mind when I'm editing my next video. Thanks.

A Silver Badge in real life has 3 parts: 50km distance, 1000m altitude gain, and a 5hr duration. They don’t all have to be done in the same flight, fortunately. I don’t think Condor requires the 5hr duration, but could be wrong.

Flying is fun, whether in Condor or IRL. 😁

My pleasure. You're absolutely right!

Originally when I picked it up, it was paint overspray on the canopy. I had to polish it out. The canopy is not perfect now, but definitely useable and a LOT better.

Thank you! I look forward to getting many more hours of footage. 😉

@@johnfoster1201 Bonjour John, tes images sont très belles, mais seront beaucoup plus agréables à regarder quand tu auras fait des coupures dans tes prises de vues: il est insupportable de devoir regarder du fil accéléré pendant 13 mn ...!!

@@francisnonain4430 Thank you for your input.

Haha. For sure! Modern varios certainly have a less annoying sound.

Correction: HORROR movie 🙂

Some people don’t like to watch long videos.

I’m looking forward to when we will do training flights here.

I saw that one! Very nice.

"Fly when you have the time, not when the weather report is supposedly good", is what I say.

Thank you!

Haha. You’re right. Pretty amazing technology for the time though, right? But I’m glad to have something better in the cockpit now.

Thanks Fred

Fortunately I don’t have to deal with the drogue parachute with this glider. The spoilers work very well on the 15m wing. But I’ve heard they “anemic” for the 17m wing. It’s amazing what an extra 2m of wingspan can do, isn’t it?

How often does that happen? I've never heard of it happening before, but I imagine its possible.

It was such a promising day! I was so bummed to have to go back due to this mechanical problem.

Thanks. With enough headwind it is good practice to keep your reaction time fast.

I'm not able to translate this comment, so not sure how to respond. Sorry.

Thank you.

I’m about 185cm. I had to move the rudder pedals all the way back, and rebuild the instrument panel to make sure the cut-outs for the legs were high enough that my legs didn’t hit it. But I fit without hitting my head on the canopy. With parachute, I’m about 90kg. My elbows are against the cockpit walls, which somewhat limits my arm movements, but I’m able to still move the joystick through its full range. It’s tight, but doable for me. You’d have to “try it on” for yourself to see how it would work for you. Also, my glider has some damage history, which has added weight to it, which has cut down its max pilot weight to 95kg. Watch out for that.

@@johnfoster1201 Thanks.

@@josefsoltes8572 You're welcome.

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

Haha 😂. It certainly has a very big rudder.

Apparently, the effectiveness of the spoilers on the 15m version is very different than on the 17m version. Mine are VERY effective, and other A and B model owners have reported the same to me. On the 17m (C model)-not so much. Thus the need for the drogue chute.

Very nice! That’s a good way to spread out the costs.

There is the museum piece “Piep-Vario” that makes the harsh squeal, and then an audio beeping from XC Soar running on the Android Phone.

HAHAHAHAHAH like R2D2 was high on crack

Thanks. Montana is a FANTASTIC place to fly with many beautiful vistas to enjoy.

Thank you! Will do!

Thanks Adrian. It was fun putting the video together, but even better producing the footage. 😉