On Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 3:53:17 PM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
I arrived one day at Fremont County Airport in Canon City, CO to find
Tom prepping his ASW-20 for, I believe, a World 100 km triangle Record
attempt.

Hey Dan, looks like you conflated two flights :-)

My world record was indeed flown from Fremont County, but several years after our pair flight....

For quite a few years, I'd been studying the wave off the Sangre de Cristo in the Wet Valley above Westcliffe, CO. First in my ASW-20, then the ASH-26E. So our flight was one of many tests of how to best work the conditions..

In November 2003, I was at Fremont County airport doing an annual on the '26E with my AI. We did most of the work on Saturday and put it all back together in Sunday morning. Since the ship was assembled at the end of the annual, flying it home to BFSS at Kelly Airpark seemed like a good idea.

I noticed lennies in the Wet Valley, so declared my most recent tweak to the 100km triangle I'd come up with.

Wind was dead calm on the ground. Motoring toward Westcliffe, I passed through the inversion at around 10K and was suddenly pushing into a 40+ knot headwind. Soon, I connected with the secondary wave near my planned start point. I shut down the engine and did some exploring to make sense of the lift area.

Somewhere around 14K or so (need to dig up the IGC file - working from memory here), I made the start and set on 120KIAS with arms firmly locked on the stick. Cruising crosswind in the secondary and climbing, I approach downwind of the first turn. So I turn into the wind, still doing 120, and press on in the sink until connecting with the primary. A sort crosswind run to reach the first turn and a huge wingover from 120 down to 60 or so, then dive back to 120 and blast on to the next turn. This leg is all lift.

I do another wingover at the second turn, making sure I don't hit 18K. The last leg is a little difficult due to a few rotor wisps getting in the way, so I have to maneuver to stay in the clear. The finish point is still in the lift zone.

Since the first lap took less than 30 minutes, I go around again, now that I know what to expect. Second time was a bit faster, 243.4 kph or 151.2 mph! A month later, Horacio Miranda does 249 kph in Argentina.

While I'm doing this, my wife is driving back north to Kelly Airpark with the trailer.

After crossing the finish line, I slow down and climb to 17K+ and then hop wave to wave back to Kelly Airpark.

5Z