As a paraglider pilot starting to think about pushing OTB (over the back) at Boulder, these videos provide critical insight into what the air does back there. Seeing you so low over Niwot ridge made my palms sweaty, but you have a much more usable glide ratio 🤣 Thanks for the awesome videos as always!!
Hi Carl, yes, a Ventus and a paraglider are obviously extremely different. And what's safe depends entirely on the day. Gliding in a Ventus at ridge top level at Niwot can be perfectly safe one day (as it was on Wednesday when there was no significant sink anywhere), and totally hazardous on another (e.g. in wave and rotor conditions). As always, it depends. Stay safe!
Just a suggestion, don't spend so much time with your hand on the flap lever during aerotow launch. Start full negative and have hand on release in case a wing drops and digs in causing a ground loop for you and hauling the tail of the tug around pointing him at the fence or ditch. Once you have 25- 30 kts change flap setting to zero or +1 and get you hand back on the release ready to release if you get too high behind the tug risking a tug upset. Hope that helps. Btw I fly a ventus and a tug and was lucky enough to survive a tug upset at low level. Hope you have many happy hours in your Ventus. It's a great glider
I have a question for you. I was taught to go into a 'low-tow position' during aerotow. The concept was that the aerotow release would not work if the glider pulled the tow-rope up too high (pulling the tug plane into a nosedive). In the low-tow position we would glide just below the turbulence, and the tug plane pilot would watch to see if we were in trouble and unhook if ever needed. . There was apparently a story of a glider taking off in aerotow. The glider pilot pulled back on the stick, went too high and lifted the tail of the tug plane. The tug pilot couldn't unhook and was forced into a nose dive and..... well crashed and died. Ever since at the Magaliesburg Gliding Club (South Africa) we were taught to strictly go into the low tow position. . Just about every video I have seen here has the glider in the high-tow position during aerotow. Could you give me an opinion...?
@@markplain2555 Here's a belated opinion. Yes, "kiting" the towplane can and does happen; we had a fatal accident here in New Zealand a few years ago. For that reason, the Aussies universally use the low tow position. While it seems odd at first, I personally think it's safer and should be more widely used.
Thanks for sharing your amazing flight in a very helpful way of explaining the effect of convergence. I'm gonna use it to explain better to my students in my club! keep doing this!!
Nice to see someone having fun, as here all activity is temporarily shut down. Text book visualizations of a convergence line. Bookmarked your video for training purposes. Thanks for sharing.
Great vid. Though, I fly helicopters rather than gliders - and I thought helis were noisy, but that constant beeping would drive me barmy in five minutes!
You know, if you sit on the floor with your back against the bad and your legs stretched out in front of me with the laptop on your thighs, it's almost like being there. 82:1! You guys with your fancy flaps! regards from a Discus driver.
Boulder is also going into “shelter in place” mode today and it looks like this “final glide” was indeed the ultimate final glide for quite some time. So I’ll be joining anyone who’s flying on their computer screens. I actually recommend Condor for that. Interest is literally soaring with lots of live multiplayer online races. Not as cool as real life but still a good second best option and a ton of fun!
I don’t know what the exact size of my oxygen bottle is. If filled completely, it lasts for about 15-20 hours of use (depending on the altitude - it will automatically provide more oxygen the higher I fly - it’s a pulse on demand system from Mountain High)
I see a triangle marked on your tracker which you didn’t do. Were you on another declared task, or decided to abandon that one to just fly the convergence as far as you could for fun? Spectacular running that line at such a height.
Ye know I always feel uncomfortable watching someone go cross country in a mountainous area. Where can you do an outlanding if needed? Do you feel there is still plenty flat surface for an outlanding? And what about retrieving the glider in this area? . Do you always have a sense of confidence that you won't need to do an outlanding?
Hi Mark, it’s good that you worry about this. The terrain in Colorado is unforgiving and there are long stretches without landable areas. The good thing is that we are usually able to fly quite high above the ground. In combination with a high performance glider, this means I can keep airports or other safely landable sites in glide the entire time even when they are 30, 40, or even 50 miles away. Knowing where they are and how high I need to be to reach them is crucial for the safety of the flight. Thanks for the comment.
Maciek Bednarski Hm. Not sure what you mean. I circled at the early part of the flight (you can see this in the video). Then, for the last 174 miles I flew without a circle. I reversed directions 3 times during that part but a 180 turn does not constitute a circle. The reason I was able to fly without further circling was that I could follow unusually long and strong lines of lift (mainly convergence but also convective lift lines.). Does this help?
@@ChessInTheAir Yes, now I get it :) I did not follow the distance closely (where you've started to count it), that is what I've missed. Sorry, I am just learning how to glide, but it is on pause because of the virus :( Still great vid ;) Thanks for that. Also if you have a full vid and can share that to show how you navigate looking at the sky and ground (to recognize where the lift is or isn't) that would be something I would definitely like to watch in the future ;)
Great flight.. but strictly speaking not a 'final glide'...that is you utilised lift and changed direction to follow the lift...a final glide computer gives you a glide angle to reach the finish line in a straight line with typically a safety margin of 500ft. In the old days with 35-40 glide ratio gliders a 30:1 finish was deemed a safe glide angle. I always used 3000ft (approx 1 km high) at 30 km out or 6000ft at 60km out... but even then at Omarama I was at 5000ft with 20 km to run in an Open Cirrus and still landed out. Just a point on the VNE of your glider...not sure of the altitude you were flying at but please be very careful when flying at high altitude. VNE at sea level is 154 knots (IAS). At 20,000 ft it is down to 120 knots IAS. Exceeding VNE puts you outside the aircrafts performance envelope and into flutter territory. All the best to everyone...
Hi Apocalips, thanks for the safety tips! Flying in Colorado, almost all our flights are at high altitude and we’re probably more aware than most about Vne at altitude but your comment is very well taken! And yes, regarding the definition of final glide you can find different ones and you are absolutely right about the change in direction. I included the flight trace so everyone can see exactly what happened. I hope I get a chance to fly in Omarama. It looked like they would be forced to shut down for good but I have a little more hope following the most recent communication from G Dale. I have visited and love that area but have not flown there (except in Condor.) Thanks for your comment!
Q.E.D. - the term "Final Glide" means the distance between the last circle and the landing. So, yes, I did quite a bit of circling earlier in the flight to gain the necessary altitude. I have no interest in fooling anyone. My goal in making gliding videos (and writing about it on ChessInTheAir.com) is to capture my own learnings and also to help others who are interested in becoming better glider pilots.
ChessInTheAir OK. Thanks for that. I misread it and thought you were implying that you’d flown from the tow-release for 174 miles without using any thermals. I’m a sailor, not a flier, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the half dozen or so times I’ve been up in a glider and a couple of times in micro lights. Too old (76) to switch pastimes now - wouldn’t pass the medical. 👍
I don’t particularly like it either. The CAI 302 is a very accurate instrument but to change the sound I would need to invest thousands in a new vario. I’m not sure yet if it’s worth it. It would seem there should be a possibility to change the sound with a software upgrade but I’m not aware of such a software. Are you?
As a paraglider pilot starting to think about pushing OTB (over the back) at Boulder, these videos provide critical insight into what the air does back there. Seeing you so low over Niwot ridge made my palms sweaty, but you have a much more usable glide ratio 🤣
Thanks for the awesome videos as always!!
Hi Carl, yes, a Ventus and a paraglider are obviously extremely different. And what's safe depends entirely on the day. Gliding in a Ventus at ridge top level at Niwot can be perfectly safe one day (as it was on Wednesday when there was no significant sink anywhere), and totally hazardous on another (e.g. in wave and rotor conditions). As always, it depends. Stay safe!
@@ChessInTheAir Totally! Our flight envelopes, acceptable landing fields, and more are radically different. Hope to see you in the air someday!
Great flight. The split screen map was an excellent addition. Well done.
Cool video. Greetings form polish glider pilots and keep posting when the virus is gone!
Wonderful video and a very useful tutorial for convergence line flying!!! Hope soon we all are back in the sky to touch the clouds with our wings!
Thanks! Yes, I hope so, too!
Just a suggestion, don't spend so much time with your hand on the flap lever during aerotow launch. Start full negative and have hand on release in case a wing drops and digs in causing a ground loop for you and hauling the tail of the tug around pointing him at the fence or ditch. Once you have 25- 30 kts change flap setting to zero or +1 and get you hand back on the release ready to release if you get too high behind the tug risking a tug upset.
Hope that helps.
Btw I fly a ventus and a tug and was lucky enough to survive a tug upset at low level.
Hope you have many happy hours in your Ventus. It's a great glider
Colin Hamilton Good suggestion, thanks!
I have a question for you. I was taught to go into a 'low-tow position' during aerotow. The concept was that the aerotow release would not work if the glider pulled the tow-rope up too high (pulling the tug plane into a nosedive). In the low-tow position we would glide just below the turbulence, and the tug plane pilot would watch to see if we were in trouble and unhook if ever needed.
.
There was apparently a story of a glider taking off in aerotow. The glider pilot pulled back on the stick, went too high and lifted the tail of the tug plane. The tug pilot couldn't unhook and was forced into a nose dive and..... well crashed and died. Ever since at the Magaliesburg Gliding Club (South Africa) we were taught to strictly go into the low tow position.
.
Just about every video I have seen here has the glider in the high-tow position during aerotow. Could you give me an opinion...?
@@markplain2555 Here's a belated opinion. Yes, "kiting" the towplane can and does happen; we had a fatal accident here in New Zealand a few years ago. For that reason, the Aussies universally use the low tow position. While it seems odd at first, I personally think it's safer and should be more widely used.
Nothing better than a vario going off the scale.
That is an awesome convergence! And very nicely put together video, thanks
Nice visual convergence line with a stunning backdrop, awesome! 😎👍
Great video! I just found your channel and i love it! Keep them coming!!!
Ein sehr interessantes Video, und eine große fliegerische Leistung !
Beste Grüße, Charly
Entlang der Rocky Mountains Konvergenz ist das gar nicht so schwierig. ;-)
Thanks for sharing your amazing flight in a very helpful way of explaining the effect of convergence. I'm gonna use it to explain better to my students in my club! keep doing this!!
Thanks!
Great views! Wintersport as it supposed to be. Safe nice flights!
Nice to see someone having fun, as here all activity is temporarily shut down. Text book visualizations of a convergence line. Bookmarked your video for training purposes. Thanks for sharing.
Wow wow wow!! So well edited .. the Dream !
Amazing shots that curtain cloud wow !
Great energy line.
Yes indeed!
Great vid. Though, I fly helicopters rather than gliders - and I thought helis were noisy, but that constant beeping would drive me barmy in five minutes!
you can turn the beeper off.
The sweet beeps of lift. Best sound there is. LOVE IT :D
Steeyuv Beeps are music for gliderflyers!
Got say >>>> Big balls on you mate !
Amazing flight!
Awesome, thanks for sharing
Very nice! Do you guys have transponders onboard?
Mostly yes. All of our club gliders do, and most private gliders do as well. Some also have ADSB out but that is still a minority.
You know, if you sit on the floor with your back against the bad and your legs stretched out in front of me with the laptop on your thighs, it's almost like being there. 82:1! You guys with your fancy flaps! regards from a Discus driver.
Boulder is also going into “shelter in place” mode today and it looks like this “final glide” was indeed the ultimate final glide for quite some time. So I’ll be joining anyone who’s flying on their computer screens. I actually recommend Condor for that. Interest is literally soaring with lots of live multiplayer online races. Not as cool as real life but still a good second best option and a ton of fun!
Nice video, thanks for sharing. Quick question... How much oxygen do you carry, and how much time does it allow?
I don’t know what the exact size of my oxygen bottle is. If filled completely, it lasts for about 15-20 hours of use (depending on the altitude - it will automatically provide more oxygen the higher I fly - it’s a pulse on demand system from Mountain High)
@@ChessInTheAir awesome - thanks for the additional info and the quick response!
I don’t see any places to land out interesting wow just beautiful
Good observation - there really aren’t any... but most of the flight was at high altitudes and I had airports in glide the entire time.
I see a triangle marked on your tracker which you didn’t do. Were you on another declared task, or decided to abandon that one to just fly the convergence as far as you could for fun? Spectacular running that line at such a height.
Robert - yes, I abandoned the task to fly the convergence line (although I did close it out at the end of the flight just for the sake of it.).
Do you have a transponder? Thanks for posting, nice video.
Yes. It’s really important as we’re flying a lot across arrival and departure areas for DIA. I would not fly there without one.
Ye know I always feel uncomfortable watching someone go cross country in a mountainous area. Where can you do an outlanding if needed? Do you feel there is still plenty flat surface for an outlanding? And what about retrieving the glider in this area?
.
Do you always have a sense of confidence that you won't need to do an outlanding?
Hi Mark, it’s good that you worry about this. The terrain in Colorado is unforgiving and there are long stretches without landable areas. The good thing is that we are usually able to fly quite high above the ground. In combination with a high performance glider, this means I can keep airports or other safely landable sites in glide the entire time even when they are 30, 40, or even 50 miles away. Knowing where they are and how high I need to be to reach them is crucial for the safety of the flight. Thanks for the comment.
Nice!
why do so many glider pilots not use their feet properly....?
How is this WITHOUT a single circle? Is there something I am missing about what 'circle' means? That is a genuine question.
Maciek Bednarski Hm. Not sure what you mean. I circled at the early part of the flight (you can see this in the video). Then, for the last 174 miles I flew without a circle. I reversed directions 3 times during that part but a 180 turn does not constitute a circle. The reason I was able to fly without further circling was that I could follow unusually long and strong lines of lift (mainly convergence but also convective lift lines.). Does this help?
@@ChessInTheAir Yes, now I get it :) I did not follow the distance closely (where you've started to count it), that is what I've missed. Sorry, I am just learning how to glide, but it is on pause because of the virus :( Still great vid ;) Thanks for that. Also if you have a full vid and can share that to show how you navigate looking at the sky and ground (to recognize where the lift is or isn't) that would be something I would definitely like to watch in the future ;)
Maciek Bednarski Hi Maciek, you’re welcome! I wish you all the best for your training and hope that you’ll get to continue soon!
Great flight.. but strictly speaking not a 'final glide'...that is you utilised lift and changed direction to follow the lift...a final glide computer gives you a glide angle to reach the finish line in a straight line with typically a safety margin of 500ft. In the old days with 35-40 glide ratio gliders a 30:1 finish was deemed a safe glide angle. I always used 3000ft (approx 1 km high) at 30 km out or 6000ft at 60km out... but even then at Omarama I was at 5000ft with 20 km to run in an Open Cirrus and still landed out.
Just a point on the VNE of your glider...not sure of the altitude you were flying at but please be very careful when flying at high altitude. VNE at sea level is 154 knots (IAS). At 20,000 ft it is down to 120 knots IAS. Exceeding VNE puts you outside the aircrafts performance envelope and into flutter territory. All the best to everyone...
Hi Apocalips, thanks for the safety tips! Flying in Colorado, almost all our flights are at high altitude and we’re probably more aware than most about Vne at altitude but your comment is very well taken! And yes, regarding the definition of final glide you can find different ones and you are absolutely right about the change in direction. I included the flight trace so everyone can see exactly what happened. I hope I get a chance to fly in Omarama. It looked like they would be forced to shut down for good but I have a little more hope following the most recent communication from G Dale. I have visited and love that area but have not flown there (except in Condor.) Thanks for your comment!
Turning at 2:30 Level flight at 8:00. Good long flight without using any petrol.
Glider 14 years from Poland. First thermal flight.
@
No sun. no lift.
I stand corrected.
"quite" narrow? :)))
trzesnk Yes, not unusual for mountain thermals in Colorado, especially when there is also wind shear and rotor.
Title: Without a Single Circle
All I see first minutes is plane doing circles 🤷♂️
Santiago Marzano No circle in the last 280km. You have to get up somehow at first ;-).
@@ChessInTheAir oh I get it
“Without a single circle”
Could’ve fooled me. Saw you do at least one in the first three minutes.
Can’t be arsed watching more.
He glided 174 miles without circling. He still had to climb before hand. Did you expect him to make his way from the ground without a tow-plane too?
Q.E.D. - the term "Final Glide" means the distance between the last circle and the landing. So, yes, I did quite a bit of circling earlier in the flight to gain the necessary altitude. I have no interest in fooling anyone. My goal in making gliding videos (and writing about it on ChessInTheAir.com) is to capture my own learnings and also to help others who are interested in becoming better glider pilots.
ChessInTheAir
OK. Thanks for that. I misread it and thought you were implying that you’d flown from the tow-release for 174 miles without using any thermals.
I’m a sailor, not a flier, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the half dozen or so times I’ve been up in a glider and a couple of times in micro lights. Too old (76) to switch pastimes now - wouldn’t pass the medical.
👍
русским НЕ СМОТРЕТЬ - а то НИЧЕГО НЕ ПОНЯТНО (про коммент в видео)
... и ПОЧЕМУ та хрень постоянно пищит ????????
Worst vario sound
Ever
I don’t particularly like it either. The CAI 302 is a very accurate instrument but to change the sound I would need to invest thousands in a new vario. I’m not sure yet if it’s worth it. It would seem there should be a possibility to change the sound with a software upgrade but I’m not aware of such a software. Are you?
@@ChessInTheAir Oh no it's not worth it to spend a thousand just to change that sound
No sorry I don't know how you could do that and if you can
next time filter that voice plz so sucks