Boy Who Flew With Condors - Dick Johnson? Other Comments

On Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:00:22 PM UTC+1, wrote:
On Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 2:19:58 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I have had numerous climb-outs from 200' in a Woodstock 11.9m. I used to practice them daily around 8:00 am at Zapata, TX.

However, in the prototype Carbon Dragon I once had a 63' agl climb-out at Hobbs at the beginning of a World Record attempt. This was witnessed by an FAI Official Observer who was appointed out of Geneva (pre-Paris) and who rigorously analyzed the barogram after the fact, being rather amazed at the time. This was utillizing mid morning, "soft" thermals which derived more than 50% of their bouyancy from latent heat in the humidity. There was some wind, and the only challenging moment was when I had to narrow my bank angle to make sure my inside wing lifted over a telephone wire while drifting by.

Gary Osoba

Gary, let's be careful with anecdotes such as yours. What you are doing in a small, very light wing-load glider is not applicable to the kind of soaring we normally do. In fact it might lead to others trying that kind of flying in a Discus or '27. My club had just yesterday a safety meeting around the topic of "Normalization of Deviance". Thermaling lower and lower and getting away with it fits that definition and has lead to numerous fatalities in our sport. Your stories are the opposite of what we need. The fact that I can throw my Discus-launch RC glider in the air and soar for long times does not mean that's the future of soaring. Please modify your post.
Herb

Herb-

I clearly identified the gliders I experienced low saves in. It's fine that you are calling attention to important factors such as W/S. I would not attempt a 63' save in my 27. Or the modified Sigma, which flies at a higher W/S than any other sailplane in the world- the other end of the W/S spectrum from the Carbon Dragon which flies at the lightest W/S in the world. However, I would not attempt pitch-based dynamic soaring in the Carbon Dragon although the Sigma is well suited to it.

The subject was low saves in a manned sailplane, not playing with your RC gliders. I'm sorry that something I have experienced- and done safely given the circumstances- appears to be offensive to you. When you have flown these gliders in these circumstances, you can recommend more actions to me. Otherwise, this is the only "modification" to my post I will make.

Gary