Night lights, night flights, OLC and records

"Andy" wrote in message
oups.com...
Do any US registered motor gliders have approved lighting? Have their
owners operated between sunset and night?

Andy


Andy,

I wrote the following several years ago after an intentional night flight in
my previous owned Stemme (I have an ASH26E now, with no lights). I think it
interesting that some are saying it's crazy to fly gliders at night. For me
it was a unique and very memorable, worthwhile experience . . .

16,000 feet in wave over Mt. St. Helena some 30 miles north of Napa, CA.
It's 2 hours after sunset, the sky is crystal clear with no moon, so the sky
blends smoothly into the horizon with no tell-tale line. Below, it's almost
as though someone unrolled a huge black velvet carpet with a million
miniature lights. The pinpricks of light are sometimes clustered to form
cities and sometimes drawn thin to make the highways between like
strings of diamonds. There are large dark patches too, uninviting sinister
black holes that are San Francisco bay or uninhabited hills.

I've flown power planes at night many times and have always been struck by
the beauty of it. From a glider it's somehow more, though I'm not eloquent
enough to explain it. The feeling is of being more immersed in one's
surroundings, yet more alone in the silence of the night and soaring flight.

I spent the better part of an hour climbing from about 7K to 16K. Down low
lift was ½ to 2 knots with wind out of 010 at 24 knots. Up at 16K, it was 54
knots
with 3 knots of lift. Temperature outside was 5 Fahrenheit, and although I
thought I dressed warmly enough, 50 degrees inside soon felt chilly with no
sun
to warm through the canopy.

When I ordered my Stemme, the lighting option was an easy decision, though I
thought a bit expensive. Serial 11-018 may have been the first VT to be
purchased with lights. It was delivered with plain winglets that I later
returned to the factory to be modified once the design of the slip-on light
module was finalized. I'm not sure if lighting can be added once the ship
leaves the factory, but it might be possible.

Being a power pilot I enjoyed night flying, but had no clue I'd be soaring
at night. I thought the lighting package would occasionally allow the option
to fly back home from Nevada in the evening without having to worry about
making it back before nightfall. It does that for sure and more . . . but
I'm so glad I have the option of soaring at night!

Please check out Bob Carlton's website www.silentwingsairshows.com to
see that he has not one, but TWO (Jet Silent - Moterglider and Salto -
Pure glider) night certified sailplanes which he does airshows with.
(NIGHT aerobatics in a glider, I might add!) I'm sure he would be happy
to answer questions via E-Mail. I know that he got around the onboard
generator problem somehow, but do not recall the exact details.

-EX

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:49:58 +0200, Denis wrote:

[Posted on behalf of Jean-Marie Clement
(http://topfly.free.fr/en/accueil.htm)]

Thank you for the extremely interesting post.

There were a number of flights made from Gariep Dam, South Africa, ending
with landings well after sunset, about 10 years ago. These were all record
attempt flights completed by very experienced pilots. I believe that they
were to some extent responsible for later amendments to the IGC Sporting
Code regulating night flying for record attempts.

Typically the flights involved a late thermal climb, close to
sunset, followed by a final glide and landing after sunset.

The more "interesting" landings where those following aborted tasks. As in
these tasks a thermal climb at sunset was not possible and the self
launching glider's motor was used to climb to final glide height. The
landings after some of these flights occurred in total darkness. (This
enabled the glider to land at home base and be ready for another flight
the following day, rather than land out some time before sunset).

The glider was equipped with instrument lighting but no navigational
lights.

The runway did not have runway lights either. Landings were made in the
light of the a motor car headlights. The procedure for this is
interesting and may come in useful to readers of the forum faced with an
emergency situation.

- Firstly the car was parked on the threshold of the runway with 4 way
indicator lights flashing. This served as a beacon that the pilot could
identify many miles away. (Remember this airfield is literally in the
middle of a totally unpopulated region in darkest Africa).

- The car headlights were aimed down the runway from the threshold, into
wind.

- There was radio contact between the pilot and the car driver.

- As the landing glider crossed the car on finals the pilot made a
call to the car driver and the car accelerated such that the car
followed the glider and the car lights illuminated the area of
runway where the glider touched down.

The people involved in these landings were all very experienced pilots and
the risks were carefully assessed and managed. Personally I think the most
dangerous part were the risks associated with "night flying VFR" that have
been described in the previous post.

In the long run, however, it is probably in the best interests of the
sport that the IGC Sporting code has been amended and there is little
further motivation for this type of activity.

Likewise I think that it is accepted that deliberate after dark landings
are not regarded as sporting conduct on the OLC competition - which
thrives on the principal that it is a self policing competition.

But how may Night VFR certified motor gliders exist in the world? One,
yes. Two, I don't think so. And the owner of the only one refuses to put
his flights on the OLC since he does not agree with the rule that imposes
to file the flight within midnight of every Tuesday otherwise flight is
invalid. The longest flight ever made in the Alps (1.350km) had been
refused because of that rule which is simply impossible to fulfil when you
outland on Tuesday evening! FAI requires 7 days and I see no reason for
not implementing this rule.

I must agree with the poster on this point. I always assumed that a flight
ending on Monday or Tuesday could be posted any time up until Tuesday the
following week, ie 7 or 8 days after landing. If see no reason why this
should not be changed, maybe for OLC 2007/2008.

Regarding night certified gliders, what about the Perlan project glider?


Regards


Ian

Ian wrote:
On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:49:58 +0200, Denis wrote:
snip
And the owner of the only one refuses to put
his flights on the OLC since he does not agree with the rule that imposes
to file the flight within midnight of every Tuesday otherwise flight is
invalid. The longest flight ever made in the Alps (1.350km) had been
refused because of that rule which is simply impossible to fulfil when you
outland on Tuesday evening! FAI requires 7 days and I see no reason for
not implementing this rule.

I must agree with the poster on this point. I always assumed that a flight
ending on Monday or Tuesday could be posted any time up until Tuesday the
following week, ie 7 or 8 days after landing. If see no reason why this
should not be changed, maybe for OLC 2007/2008.

For OLC 2007, the deadline will be changed to 2400 local time on
Tuesday, instead of 2400z to allow Western Hemisphere pilots more time
to claim. The Tuesday deadline is for flights through Monday. Flights
on Tuesday have until the following Tuesday to be claimed.

Doug Haluza
SSA-OLC Admin

On Oct 8, 9:30 am, "Doug Haluza" wrote:
For OLC 2007, the deadline will be changed to 2400 local time on
Tuesday, instead of 2400z to allow Western Hemisphere pilots more time
to claim. The Tuesday deadline is for flights through Monday. Flights
on Tuesday have until the following Tuesday to be claimed.

It's unfortunate that the deadline can't just be "7 days aftrer the
flight" instead of this Tuesday limitation. As has been mentioned many
times before, this penalizes the pilot who completes a flight on
Tuesday, but far away from an internet connection.

-Tom

Hi Tom,

I agree that it would be easier if you had 1 week to upload. I would prefer
that as well. But you are slightly incorrect about pilots flying on
Tuesdays. They have the most time possible - until the following Tuesday at
midnight. It is pilots that fly on Monday that only have about 24 hours to
post their flights.

Paul Remde

"5Z" wrote in message
ps.com...


On Oct 8, 9:30 am, "Doug Haluza" wrote:
For OLC 2007, the deadline will be changed to 2400 local time on
Tuesday, instead of 2400z to allow Western Hemisphere pilots more time
to claim. The Tuesday deadline is for flights through Monday. Flights
on Tuesday have until the following Tuesday to be claimed.

It's unfortunate that the deadline can't just be "7 days aftrer the
flight" instead of this Tuesday limitation. As has been mentioned many
times before, this penalizes the pilot who completes a flight on
Tuesday, but far away from an internet connection.

-Tom

5Z wrote:

On Oct 8, 9:30 am, "Doug Haluza" wrote:
For OLC 2007, the deadline will be changed to 2400 local time on
Tuesday, instead of 2400z to allow Western Hemisphere pilots more time
to claim. The Tuesday deadline is for flights through Monday. Flights
on Tuesday have until the following Tuesday to be claimed.

It's unfortunate that the deadline can't just be "7 days aftrer the
flight" instead of this Tuesday limitation.

The reason for not doing this, according to the OLC person that answered
my question about it, was to encourage the weekend (when most flights
occure) flights to be posted promptly. I'd prefer 7 days (or at least 3
days), too, since when I'm traveling in the motorhome, I might not
always get to an Internet connection in time, but it seems like a
adequate reason for the OLC purposes.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

On Oct 8, 8:05 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
The reason for not doing this, according to the OLC person that answered
my question about it, was to encourage the weekend (when most flights
occure) flights to be posted promptly. I'd prefer 7 days (or at least 3
days), too, since when I'm traveling in the motorhome, I might not
always get to an Internet connection in time, but it seems like a
adequate reason for the OLC purposes.

Hmm, here's a thought for encouraging prompt submission: after 2-3
days, the score is reduced by 20% per day, so after 7-8 days, the score
is zero - or perhaps stops at 50, thus allowing very late claims to
keep track of personal distance achievements, but the score is
essentially worthless. Still does nothing to aid someone "on safari"
and far from the internet for an extended period of time.

-Tom

The new OLC 2007 Claim Form should be much more dial-up friendly, since
it does not need to dowload the entire airport database, which includes
13,000 airports in the US.

It may also be possible to upload from a Windows Mobile phone, or
PocketPC, with an aftermarket browser replacement.


5Z wrote:
On Oct 8, 8:05 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
The reason for not doing this, according to the OLC person that answered
my question about it, was to encourage the weekend (when most flights
occure) flights to be posted promptly. I'd prefer 7 days (or at least 3
days), too, since when I'm traveling in the motorhome, I might not
always get to an Internet connection in time, but it seems like a
adequate reason for the OLC purposes.

Hmm, here's a thought for encouraging prompt submission: after 2-3
days, the score is reduced by 20% per day, so after 7-8 days, the score
is zero - or perhaps stops at 50, thus allowing very late claims to
keep track of personal distance achievements, but the score is
essentially worthless. Still does nothing to aid someone "on safari"
and far from the internet for an extended period of time.

-Tom

When I formulated the Tuesday evening rule "A flight has to be scored at
the latest on the Tuesday following the flight." many years ago, the
intension was to be able to have the final scoring for the weekend on
Wednesday morning, so that it can be published in the newspapers by
Thursday when it is still worthwhile to print.

Unfortunately the press was never informed as planned.

The Tuesday evening rule came also in handy when I wrote the original
rules for the OLC-league, because we could provide the final scoring the
the round on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately this is too late now,
because the local newspaper wants the information at the latest on
Monday afternoon.

Hans Trautenberg






5Z schrieb:

On Oct 8, 9:30 am, "Doug Haluza" wrote:
For OLC 2007, the deadline will be changed to 2400 local time on
Tuesday, instead of 2400z to allow Western Hemisphere pilots more time
to claim. The Tuesday deadline is for flights through Monday. Flights
on Tuesday have until the following Tuesday to be claimed.

It's unfortunate that the deadline can't just be "7 days aftrer the
flight" instead of this Tuesday limitation. As has been mentioned many
times before, this penalizes the pilot who completes a flight on
Tuesday, but far away from an internet connection.

-Tom