Transcontinental

This is the sort of dumb aloud-wondering usually reserved for the soaring off-season, but...
How many days or weeks do you think it would take to fly a sailplane across the continental U.S. or Canada? Really fly it--no trailering as has been necessary during the Smirnoff Derby and Return to Kitty Hawk. With the amazing flights being done in all parts of North America these days, I figure it's only a matter of time before someone puts it all together. Presumably retired and with a self-launching motorglider. What route would they take? What should we call the prize?

Great idea! I've attempted several attempts to fly to Kansas city from Phoenix with stops at Moriarty NM, Ulysses KS then to Sunflower in Yoder KS and back. Got waylaid after Ulysses in a torrential down pour in central K's leaving a week of water logged central Kansas to navigate made a mere 50 miles then had to trailer to and from Yoder. But have a few Western straight outs and large triangles of several thousand miles without dissembling from Prescott to Parowan, Ely, Vegas, Prescott.

On Monday, August 22, 2016 at 4:19:04 PM UTC-6, Auxvache wrote:
This is the sort of dumb aloud-wondering usually reserved for the soaring off-season, but...
How many days or weeks do you think it would take to fly a sailplane across the continental U.S. or Canada? Really fly it--no trailering as has been necessary during the Smirnoff Derby and Return to Kitty Hawk. With the amazing flights being done in all parts of North America these days, I figure it's only a matter of time before someone puts it all together. Presumably retired and with a self-launching motorglider. What route would they take? What should we call the prize?

In the early 70's the Smirnoff Sailplane Derby was held on (I believe) several occasions. In 1972 the route went from LA - Phoenix - Las Cruces, NM - Odessa - Dallas - St Louis - Chicago - Akron - Baltimore. The race participants were top pilots of the day and each day was scored like a contest day. They took two towplanes on the "trip" and they tried to cover the 2,900 miles by soaring approximately 300 miles each day. More info can be found in the Soaring magazine archives. For example, some info on the planning of the 1972 race can be found on page 6 & 7 of the April 1972 edition of Soaring magazine.

I've been thinking about a fun pubicity transcontinental race between sailplanes (already solar powered) and solar powered vehicles. Any initial thoughts about which would win? Seems like Discovery or some channel like that would take it up.

Bret

On Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 7:40:28 AM UTC-7, Bret Hess wrote:
I've been thinking about a fun pubicity transcontinental race between sailplanes (already solar powered) and solar powered vehicles. Any initial thoughts about which would win? Seems like Discovery or some channel like that would take it up.

Bret

That's a great publicity idea, Bret!
Jim

My transcontinental race idea works like this:

Participants start at a particular Pacific shoreline location (which is not too far from a gliderport). Participants may use differing modes of transportation as they choose so long as none use electricity or a fuel for motive force. Possible modes include hiking, running, soaring, swimming, horseback, paddling, cycling, sailing, skateboarding etc. The first person to enter the Atlantic ocean wins.

Clearly glider flying can provide the most miles in a day as long as there is decent soaring weather. So this would be a soaring centric race yet would offer other modes that are fitness oriented. If the soaring weather isn't looking good a racer can press on or wait it out. If he lands at other than a gliderport, he'll have to use another self powered mode to get to a possible launching site.

All participants use a tracker at all times and are required to report frequently to a common website where everyone can know any participant's status.. Every participant would have a crew with them with glider trailer and various other self powered vehicles.

A road bike and a dirt bike would be obvious essentials. Pure glider participants would probably want to also carry auto tow launch gear.

We'd have to think through this a little more. I'm sure there's more rules that would be needed.

On Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 1:22:10 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
My transcontinental race idea works like this:

Participants start at a particular Pacific shoreline location (which is not too far from a gliderport). Participants may use differing modes of transportation as they choose so long as none use electricity or a fuel for motive force. Possible modes include hiking, running, soaring, swimming, horseback, paddling, cycling, sailing, skateboarding etc. The first person to enter the Atlantic ocean wins.

Clearly glider flying can provide the most miles in a day as long as there is decent soaring weather. So this would be a soaring centric race yet would offer other modes that are fitness oriented. If the soaring weather isn't looking good a racer can press on or wait it out. If he lands at other than a gliderport, he'll have to use another self powered mode to get to a possible launching site.

All participants use a tracker at all times and are required to report frequently to a common website where everyone can know any participant's status. Every participant would have a crew with them with glider trailer and various other self powered vehicles.

A road bike and a dirt bike would be obvious essentials. Pure glider participants would probably want to also carry auto tow launch gear.

We'd have to think through this a little more. I'm sure there's more rules that would be needed.

Without electricity or a fuel for motive force, how are they going to launch?

On Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 12:22:10 PM UTC-5, Steve Koerner wrote:
My transcontinental race idea works like this:

Participants start at a particular Pacific shoreline location (which is not too far from a gliderport). Participants may use differing modes of transportation as they choose so long as none use electricity or a fuel for motive force. Possible modes include hiking, running, soaring, swimming, horseback, paddling, cycling, sailing, skateboarding etc. The first person to enter the Atlantic ocean wins.

Clearly glider flying can provide the most miles in a day as long as there is decent soaring weather. So this would be a soaring centric race yet would offer other modes that are fitness oriented. If the soaring weather isn't looking good a racer can press on or wait it out. If he lands at other than a gliderport, he'll have to use another self powered mode to get to a possible launching site.

All participants use a tracker at all times and are required to report frequently to a common website where everyone can know any participant's status. Every participant would have a crew with them with glider trailer and various other self powered vehicles.

A road bike and a dirt bike would be obvious essentials. Pure glider participants would probably want to also carry auto tow launch gear.

We'd have to think through this a little more. I'm sure there's more rules that would be needed.

You should probably drop cycling. They already have that race covered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Across_America

http://www.redbullxalps.com/ with sailplanes. Interestingly X-Alps is Redbulls biggest draw for viewers. Surprising with all the stuff they sponsor.

On Tue, 23 Aug 2016 11:21:08 -0700, Dan Daly wrote:

On Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 1:22:10 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
My transcontinental race idea works like this:

Participants start at a particular Pacific shoreline location (which is
not too far from a gliderport). Participants may use differing modes
of transportation as they choose so long as none use electricity or a
fuel for motive force. Possible modes include hiking, running,
soaring, swimming, horseback, paddling, cycling, sailing, skateboarding
etc. The first person to enter the Atlantic ocean wins.

Clearly glider flying can provide the most miles in a day as long as
there is decent soaring weather. So this would be a soaring centric
race yet would offer other modes that are fitness oriented. If the
soaring weather isn't looking good a racer can press on or wait it out.
If he lands at other than a gliderport, he'll have to use another self
powered mode to get to a possible launching site.

All participants use a tracker at all times and are required to report
frequently to a common website where everyone can know any
participant's status. Every participant would have a crew with them
with glider trailer and various other self powered vehicles.

A road bike and a dirt bike would be obvious essentials. Pure glider
participants would probably want to also carry auto tow launch gear.

We'd have to think through this a little more. I'm sure there's more
rules that would be needed.

Without electricity or a fuel for motive force, how are they going to
launch?

Presumably by ground launch, winch or aero tow as usual, but with a rule
that the leg only starts when the glider has passed round the west side
of a start point on the western boundary of the airfield where it took
off. You'd probably want to restrict the start height too.

You might also allow a tow-car to move the glider in its trailer, e.g.
from a landout site to an airfield, provided that this moves the glider
away from the Atlantic.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
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