Jonathan Leal's big day! 1000km 126 attempt from Mifflin

Hey Guys,

Jonathan Leal has Aero Club Albatross' 508 assembled, taped and ready to fly from Mifflin tomorrow, going for the 1000km diploma in a 1-26! He's been preparing for this flight for a long time and it looks like a really good day for it. He's planning on taking off at 6:30am and the flight should take him somewhere between 11 and 12 hours.

I think he has a SPOT and it should be visible on http://www.ssa.org/SailplaneTracker/Default.asp

If all goes well, he'll be going through his start point near Lewistown PA at around 7am, heading SW toward the Potomac River. He should turn the first turnpoint at 8:15am (Dickey's Mountain near the Potomac River). He should get to near Blairstown and round his NE turnpoint (Millbrook) around 11:15am at which point he'll start heading SW toward the Potomac. He should get to the Potomac River again at around 3:15pm and then he will head back to Millbrook, his finish point. He should get to the finish back near Blairstown at 6:30pm. This gives him a decent buffer, since sunset is 7:45pm.

If the task works out for him, it will be the farthest 1-26 and 13.5 meter flight ever! And he would earn a 1000km Diploma, a National and World Record! All in an Aero Club Albatross' mighty Schweizer 1-26E!

Let's wish Jonathan the best of luck and watch this historic flight unfold!

All the best,
Daniel

For those who don't know Jonathan (Paul Leal on OLC), he is one of the big time 126 pilots from Blairstown. He has over 2000 hours, having started his soaring career in hang gliders. He still flies hang gliders, going to local meets, especially liking the SE ridge near Kirk ridge.

He has been president of Aero Club Albstross twice, served on the membership and safety committees.

He has completed multiple diamond distance level performance flights on the ridges and flown in several 126 championships.

Cool guy!

All the best,
Daniel

Yeehaw. Have a good one.

On Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 6:02:04 PM UTC-7, Daniel Sazhin wrote:
Hey Guys,

Jonathan Leal has Aero Club Albatross' 508 assembled, taped and ready to fly from Mifflin tomorrow, going for the 1000km diploma in a 1-26! He's been preparing for this flight for a long time and it looks like a really good day for it. He's planning on taking off at 6:30am and the flight should take him somewhere between 11 and 12 hours.

I think he has a SPOT and it should be visible on http://www.ssa.org/SailplaneTracker/Default.asp

If all goes well, he'll be going through his start point near Lewistown PA at around 7am, heading SW toward the Potomac River. He should turn the first turnpoint at 8:15am (Dickey's Mountain near the Potomac River). He should get to near Blairstown and round his NE turnpoint (Millbrook) around 11:15am at which point he'll start heading SW toward the Potomac. He should get to the Potomac River again at around 3:15pm and then he will head back to Millbrook, his finish point. He should get to the finish back near Blairstown at 6:30pm. This gives him a decent buffer, since sunset is 7:45pm.

If the task works out for him, it will be the farthest 1-26 and 13.5 meter flight ever! And he would earn a 1000km Diploma, a National and World Record! All in an Aero Club Albatross' mighty Schweizer 1-26E!

Let's wish Jonathan the best of luck and watch this historic flight unfold!

All the best,
Daniel

Very cool! Good luck Jonathan!!

For people who are not familiar with the ridges, here is the "Ridge Map", a tool which has a lot of the landmarks, mountain names, routes and useful information listed:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/ed...2202882076&z=9

For Jonathan's flight, I created a new Layer on the very top called: "Jonathan's 1000km Task". I eyeballed the turnpoints, so don't panic if his track doesn't quite touch them tomorrow.

The main layer is called "The Ridge" which has the most relevant information.

All the best,
Daniel

On Friday, 20 April 2018 04:30:18 UTC+2, wrote:
For people who are not familiar with the ridges, here is the "Ridge Map", a tool which has a lot of the landmarks, mountain names, routes and useful information listed:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/ed...2202882076&z=9

For Jonathan's flight, I created a new Layer on the very top called: "Jonathan's 1000km Task". I eyeballed the turnpoints, so don't panic if his track doesn't quite touch them tomorrow.

The main layer is called "The Ridge" which has the most relevant information.

All the best,
Daniel

That's a scary looking map! Are those points historic crash sites or is that your way of marking possible outlanding sites with the chances of a poor outcome?

Howdy,

There is a separate layer for the crash sites over the years and a description as to what happened and why... so the same mistakes can be avoided.

The orange and yellow boxes are landing options. Yellow options are places where people had successfully landed or has been walked on the ground. Orange are places that have been marked, either from a flying glider or by Google Earth as a possible viable option. The plan is to walk those sites when practicable.

All the best,
Daniel

On Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 9:02:04 PM UTC-4, Daniel Sazhin wrote:
Hey Guys,

Jonathan Leal has Aero Club Albatross' 508 assembled, taped and ready to fly from Mifflin tomorrow, going for the 1000km diploma in a 1-26! He's been preparing for this flight for a long time and it looks like a really good day for it. He's planning on taking off at 6:30am and the flight should take him somewhere between 11 and 12 hours.

I think he has a SPOT and it should be visible on http://www.ssa.org/SailplaneTracker/Default.asp

If all goes well, he'll be going through his start point near Lewistown PA at around 7am, heading SW toward the Potomac River. He should turn the first turnpoint at 8:15am (Dickey's Mountain near the Potomac River). He should get to near Blairstown and round his NE turnpoint (Millbrook) around 11:15am at which point he'll start heading SW toward the Potomac. He should get to the Potomac River again at around 3:15pm and then he will head back to Millbrook, his finish point. He should get to the finish back near Blairstown at 6:30pm. This gives him a decent buffer, since sunset is 7:45pm.

If the task works out for him, it will be the farthest 1-26 and 13.5 meter flight ever! And he would earn a 1000km Diploma, a National and World Record! All in an Aero Club Albatross' mighty Schweizer 1-26E!

Let's wish Jonathan the best of luck and watch this historic flight unfold!

All the best,
Daniel

He's off and going. He's carrying a borrowed spot, so he shows up as X5 on the tracker.

Annnnd he's up! John Bird, the deputy official observer reports Jonathan launched at 7:11am. SPOT shows him now driving along the Tuscorara. It's 8:50 and it looks like he's just about rounded the first turnpoint. That puts him around 35 minutes behind his planned schedule, but with an hour and 15 of buffer built into the task, he's got plenty of margin.

Now he'll be looking at making some speed along the long, flat run on the Tuscarora toward the Susquehanna River. He'll have two small transitions to make; one downwind at Sidneys Knob and an upwind run at Honey Grove. But these jumps are not all that big and they probably won't even require turning..

The tricky bit kicks into gear when he will have to negotiate the major transitions after the Susquehanna River toward Hawk Mountain. However, the TAFs report cloudbase at 4000ft and rising, so the thermals should be working solid once he gets there.

- Daniel


All the best,
Daniel

On Friday, April 20, 2018 at 8:58:23 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Annnnd he's up! John Bird, the deputy official observer reports Jonathan launched at 7:11am. SPOT shows him now driving along the Tuscorara. It's 8:50 and it looks like he's just about rounded the first turnpoint. That puts him around 35 minutes behind his planned schedule, but with an hour and 15 of buffer built into the task, he's got plenty of margin.

Now he'll be looking at making some speed along the long, flat run on the Tuscarora toward the Susquehanna River. He'll have two small transitions to make; one downwind at Sidneys Knob and an upwind run at Honey Grove. But these jumps are not all that big and they probably won't even require turning.

The tricky bit kicks into gear when he will have to negotiate the major transitions after the Susquehanna River toward Hawk Mountain. However, the TAFs report cloudbase at 4000ft and rising, so the thermals should be working solid once he gets there.

- Daniel


All the best,
Daniel

Here is the direct SPOT link: https://share.findmespot.com/shared/...qAltJnJlc9 qz