Ridge Flights April 24

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Friday was an outstanding soaring day and it was quite fun experiencing one of those magical Spring days everyone talks about. I am fortunate to fly out of Blairstown amongst some really first rate cross country pilots. Everyone has pushing each other to do better and using OLC we can build on each other's flights. It's amazing how fast the entire group is progressing, but even more so over the past year. Within a season, we went from simply getting to a transition, finding a climb and bombing along to expecting to find a line and thermal minimally if at all to make it across. We have been able to start finding patterns where these lines set up in the various transitions and been making more and more use of them. This is a revolution for Blairstown ridge soaring because by optimizing those early upwind jumps, we can really take advantage of our geographic location of being effectively at the NE terminus of the ridge system. I think we will be able to pull off bigger and faster flights well into the future as we keep pushing the boundaries of this great soaring site.

And a huge thank you to Bill Thar for giving me the opportunity to fly your absolutely freakin' awesome machine. That sailplane is a ridge monster!

Best Regards,
Daniel

On Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 8:37:55 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Friday was an outstanding soaring day and it was quite fun experiencing one of those magical Spring days everyone talks about. I am fortunate to fly out of Blairstown amongst some really first rate cross country pilots. Everyone has pushing each other to do better and using OLC we can build on each other's flights. It's amazing how fast the entire group is progressing, but even more so over the past year. Within a season, we went from simply getting to a transition, finding a climb and bombing along to expecting to find a line and thermal minimally if at all to make it across. We have been able to start finding patterns where these lines set up in the various transitions and been making more and more use of them. This is a revolution for Blairstown ridge soaring because by optimizing those early upwind jumps, we can really take advantage of our geographic location of being effectively at the NE terminus of the ridge system. I think we will be able to pull off bigger and faster flights well into the future as we keep pushing the boundaries of this great soaring site.

And a huge thank you to Bill Thar for giving me the opportunity to fly your absolutely freakin' awesome machine. That sailplane is a ridge monster!

Best Regards,
Daniel

Congrats!

It was a little hard to tell from the flight tracker, partly because Blairstown appeared to be not at the northern turnpoint, but rather just short of it, but the flight looked to comply with the 28% rule for an FAI triangle. The curve of the ridges plus a few transitions make this work pretty well, so credit also for creative and effective task design. I know how hard it can be to get the FAI rules complied with.

It's not clear to me which of the other 1,000k flights referenced in this thread were FAI triangles. Great accomplishments regardless, but making the FAI proportions work represents an even greater challenge - especially on a ridge flight where it's so tempting to pick a flatter triangle and minimize the up/downwind transitions.

9B

On 750 KM and above, it is 25%-45% rule, not 28% rule. Allows for a change in thinking.

What I liked best is that after Dan completed his 1000 Km triangle, that wasn't enough for him! He went and added another 300 Km for more OLC points! I would have been thrilled to have just crossed the finish line, then gotten home and landed. Not Dan. "There is still daylight, the lift is still working, I am going to keep on going."

Fantastic flight, Dan!

Steve Leonard

Yeppers, say "Hi" to Ron....... (from a driver of "002")

Still wanting to finish my 3rd Diamond (alt) and a 1000K from Middletown, NY (everything else is done from here, "A through 2 diamonds").

Congrats to the long flights done recently from "further SW along the ridge" from us in Middletown.

Crap, wish I was flying the last few weekends...... sigh......

The Aero Club Albatross crew out of Blairstown has definitely made a focused effort to continuously increase the size of legal FAI Triangles over the last 10 years. In the mid-2000s, 750K was considered a spectacular flight. Now, we are seeing at least a couple each year. 1000K was next, and Ryszard Krolikowski flew within about 0.5KM of a legal one a couple years back. Daniel's is the first completely legal 1000K triangle out of Blairstown.

The challenge is typically to meet the 25% rule without having to fly too far upwind or downwind of the ridge system. On a typical strong ridge day, slogging upwind for 100 miles, some of it over real tiger country, is not fun. So, designing tasks to maximize high speed running and minimize white knuckle stuff is the trick. Often, a mistake of only 5 miles in positioning a turnpoint can cost 30 minutes, which you can ill-afford when you are already trying to use most of the soaring day.

As far as the number of 1000K Triangles, all of the flights I was citing are triangles (some that 711 mentioned are not). At least 6-8 in the desert Southwest and probably an equal number out of the Appalachians. If I had to put a number on it, I'd guess "about 20" legal FAI Triangles of 1000K or greater.

On Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 7:37:33 AM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:

It was a little hard to tell from the flight tracker, partly because Blairstown appeared to be not at the northern turnpoint, but rather just short of it, but the flight looked to comply with the 28% rule for an FAI triangle. The curve of the ridges plus a few transitions make this work pretty well, so credit also for creative and effective task design. I know how hard it can be to get the FAI rules complied with.

It's not clear to me which of the other 1,000k flights referenced in this thread were FAI triangles. Great accomplishments regardless, but making the FAI proportions work represents an even greater challenge - especially on a ridge flight where it's so tempting to pick a flatter triangle and minimize the up/downwind transitions.

9B

See "Four on the Floor" November 1986 Soaring. The single greatest, IMHO, soaring flight in history. I believe Tom was also along for part of the ride - and did it a bit faster.

The flight was flown in ASW-20s... A Duckhawk should have a fairly significant speed advantage at 120kts. A US 1000km triangle and 1250km triangle speed record seem plausible.

On Monday, April 27, 2015 at 4:40:11 PM UTC-4, Papa3 wrote:
Not to take anything at all away from this flight (heck, Daniel is a fellow club member), but there have actually been quite a few 1000K or greater triangles. In addition to a fair number flown in ridge country, there have been a bunch in the West/Southwest (Nevada, California, Utah). Certainly not hundreds or even scores, but I'd bet a couple dozen or thereabouts.

Regardless, it's an awesome accomplishment (says the guy who abandoned the same task as Daniel and had to settle for only 850K or so).

Erik Mann (P3)




On Monday, April 27, 2015 at 4:24:49 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Friday, April 24, 2015 at 1:32:53 PM UTC-4, Whiskey Charlie wrote:

Daniel Sazhin and the Duckhawk seem to be over 500 km into his 1000 km triangle as of 1:30 PM.

Daniel's flight is nothing less than remarkable. I may be wrong, but I believe there has only been one other 1,000 km FAI triangle flown in the USA.

There was also a group flown, 1,250 triangle.

Tom Knauff

See "Four on the Floor" November 1986 Soaring. The single greatest, IMHO, soaring flight in history. I believe Tom was also along for part of the ride - and did it a bit faster.



Hi Kevin, any chance you have a link for this article?

No doubt an epic flight by some top pilots!

SSA login required.
Pages 16-22.
Could be the best article ever in the magazine. Up there with the National Geographic article on KS.
Jim


http://www.ssa.org/Archive/ViewIssue...=1986&month=11

I would also highly recommend Joe Lincoln's reporting on the 1969 National and 1969 World Championships at Marfa. Absolutely brilliant.

On Friday, May 1, 2015 at 12:30:30 AM UTC-4, JS wrote:
SSA login required.
Pages 16-22.
Could be the best article ever in the magazine. Up there with the National Geographic article on KS.
Jim


http://www.ssa.org/Archive/ViewIssue...=1986&month=11