"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Wayne Paul" wrote

By the way, the mountain in the above link is 12,600 feet. When flying
in this type of terrain I like to be as high as possible. (See:
http://www.soaridaho.com/photogaller.../17900_MSL.jpg,
http://tinyurl.com/yu4oym and http://tinyurl.com/2haboz) The valley
floors in this part of Idaho are between 6 and 7 thousand MSL.

Beautiful, but foreboding, isn't it?

Was this in the winter? It suddenly occurred to me that these
"un-natural" flying machines have no engine, thus no heat, right? It must
get rather cold up there at nearly 18,000 feet, in the winter, with no
heat - or is there some fuel fired heat of some type?

How cold have you seen it get in the cockpit, and how do you deal with it
being that cold? How about instruments; with that cold, do they continue
to work well, or are there some tricks about that?

Jim,

These pictures were all taken during the first two weeks of August. (2003,
2005 or 2006)

Yes it gets cold if you fly in the winter; however, personally I don't fly
between October and March. The large canopy does provide quite a bit of
solar heating which is enough for summer flying. In the fall and spring I
dress like I would if I was going skiing. Heavy boots and socks. (sometimes
I even ware electric warmed socks) shirt, sweater, down coat, gloves, ski
cap, etc. Canopy frosting is a problem if the vents are closed, etc. So
far my 12 amp hr battery has not failed even when the cockpit was sub-zero.
To date I have not had a temperature related instrument/radio problem.
Oxygen is our main concern. Remember, the glider altitude record is a
little over 50,000 MSL.

I am sure this discussion has diverged far from the ultra-lite/homebuilt
charter. However, I will be happy to answer further questions via email.

Wayne
http://www.soaridaho.com/