Glider Pilots: Whats your longest flight?

[cougar6903]

Just wondering who has the longest glider flight and what model glider it was in. Anyone have any comments on how the Schweizer 1-26b on duration flights?

 

[GLSoar]

Longest Glider flight

9 hours 12 minutes from NJ to WV to PA to WV to NJ...

Asw20 1000k

My buddy was over 10 hours the same day, hard day!

 

[crash-proof]

Well there goes my "record"... 1.5hr in a Puchacz, a polish trainer. We could have stayed up but me had to go peepee.
Oh I gotta go gliding again, now that's fun!

 

[johnpeace]

I've never flown a sailplane, but have about 100hrs in hang gliders.

My longest duration was about 3 hours.

Longest XC was 25 miles at Lakeview, OR last year. I've done most of my flying in Hawaii where we can't really go very far.

 

[TEXAN AVIATOR]

Personally 2.7 hours, my old CFI went for like 8 once.

 

[Citationkid]

50 minutes in a Krosno

 

[mattpilot]

10 hours? amazing.. i didn't realize thermals stayed around that long....


gliding sure must be an amazing experience... though i'm a big wussie who would never enter an aircraft that doesn't have an engine

 

[crash-proof]

10 hours? amazing.. i didn't realize thermals stayed around that long....


gliding sure must be an amazing experience... though i'm a big wussie who would never enter an aircraft that doesn't have an engine

It's a truely relaxing experience, in that there's virtually no vibration or noise, apart from the wind. You really have nothing to worry about, just point your nose where you wanna go. Everything happens slowly, and with those big wings, it's all about the rudder. Eventually, you learn to control speed just by listenin to the slipstream.

I miss it much, highly recommended.

Here's the bird I flew (well not this exact one of course)
http://www.ddsc.org.au/images/puchacz_ri.jpg

 

[supsup]

My grandpa had a plaque on his wall from the early seventies. At the time it was a nevada record. 550 nm traveled, 8+hours, max altitude was 29k and altitude gained was 19k. It was an all wood glider that he built, can't remember the type. I would have had to install a relief tube.

supsup

 

[LR60BOY]

5.2 Hours

1-26 E Model
Southwestern Ohio

Never made it any higher than 7300'. It probably could have been longer but it was late in the day and the lift was beginning to diminish.

 

[great cornholio]

1.0 in a Balanik in central FL had to land cause I was one of the tow pilots and had to tow the next guy up for his lesson. Same flight was also my highest got up to 4900 before the clouds got in the way.

Gliders are fun cause you get nervous when you start hearing an engine.

 

[ThomasR]

Birds of a Feather.........

Have you ever had birds take cues from your flight patterns in the thermals? Geese sometimes take up formation on a glider. Other birds toy with it to see how maneuverable it is [see if it is a threat or not]. I saw on TV where a duck took up formation on a hang glider. Talk about being close to nature......

 

[LR60BOY]

As an "retired" CFI-G and having around 2500 flights. There is nothing cooler than sharing a thermal with a hawk or maybe a corn stalk stirred up from a dust devil. Don't get me wrong, being in the same thermal with another glider is kind of cool too.Are there any other guys that have flown a 2-32? What are your thoughts?

 

[ShawnC]

2-32, flew it a couple of times. Solid training glider, but would take a heck of a pilot to get a descent XC in it.

I believe my longest flight is just under 3 hours, in an L-23.

 

[CDVdriver]

850 flights....350 hrs...longest flight 7.2 hrs (w/ relief tube)

 

[VNugget]

Do PPL practice engine outs count?

 

[crash-proof]

As an "retired" CFI-G and having around 2500 flights. There is nothing cooler than sharing a thermal with a hawk or maybe a corn stalk stirred up from a dust devil. Don't get me wrong, being in the same thermal with another glider is kind of cool too.Are there any other guys that have flown a 2-32? What are your thoughts?

Yeah yeah, although for us it was the other way around. We used to find columns of vultures, there were at least 50 of em, and join them in the upward spiral. We'd get funny looks from them, but i don't think they minded at all. Another way of findin thermals were recently plowed areas of land, where the freshly upturned rocks would produce amazing thermals.
Sigh...

 

[DaveJ]

What's really cool is when a bunch of hawks see you climbing faster then they are in their thermal and they decide to quit their thermal and come join yours.

 

[johnpeace]

Have you ever had birds take cues from your flight patterns in the thermals? Geese sometimes take up formation on a glider. Other birds toy with it to see how maneuverable it is [see if it is a threat or not]. I saw on TV where a duck took up formation on a hang glider. Talk about being close to nature......

On my longest XC in Oregon, I got low back on the ridge and was about to start heading out to land. Hit the biggest thermal I'd seen so far that day and threw the glider into a turn. My vario was pegged at 2000fpm and the ground was zooming away from me. 5000' later I see something disappear behind my right leading edge and think I'm climbing through another glider.'

It was a HUGE golden eagle!!

We flew in formation in that thermal for about a minute, the eagle just off/behind my right wing. I watched the bird and adjusted my turn accordingly.

That was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

 

[ThomasR]

On my longest XC in Oregon, I got low back on the ridge and was about to start heading out to land. Hit the biggest thermal I'd seen so far that day and threw the glider into a turn. My vario was pegged at 2000fpm and the ground was zooming away from me. 5000' later I see something disappear behind my right leading edge and think I'm climbing through another glider.'

It was a HUGE golden eagle!!

We flew in formation in that thermal for about a minute, the eagle just off/behind my right wing. I watched the bird and adjusted my turn accordingly.

That was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

Great post, johnpeace. Of the billions of people living on earth, only a very,very, small number have [or will ever] experience what you described. To fly with the natural aviators you had the opportunity to think as they think and know how alike we are to other living beings. I like it.

 

[jball2]

4 hours 9 minutes in a SGS 2-33 in along the Blueridge Mountains.

3 hours 55 min in a SGS 1-26E along the same area.

1 hour 55 on a winch launch in a Ka-8 in Alabama. The hawks were awsome and found the thermals for me. One of my most memorable flights ever as I felt accepted by the birds as they stayed right with me until I was forced to land because someone else wanted the glider. I hated sharing that day!

 

[huncowboy]

On my longest XC in Oregon, I got low back on the ridge and was about to start heading out to land. Hit the biggest thermal I'd seen so far that day and threw the glider into a turn. My vario was pegged at 2000fpm and the ground was zooming away from me. 5000' later I see something disappear behind my right leading edge and think I'm climbing through another glider.'

It was a HUGE golden eagle!!

We flew in formation in that thermal for about a minute, the eagle just off/behind my right wing. I watched the bird and adjusted my turn accordingly.

That was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

Awesome story!!!

My longest glider flight is going to be the shortest here with 4 min. It was just another pattern flight in training and I never got a glider license. Got like 20 flights all 2-4 min and you pretty much worked all day long in the club to get 2 flights a day max. It was almost free though, and the only available way for me to fly... there, and then... Back than I never thought that once I was going to hold a license for an airplane with an engine... BTW the glider I flew was like this here (Gobe R26, trainer):

 

[Lead Sled]

I've had a couple of 5+ hour and more 3 and 4 hour flights than I can count in a 1-23 (Basically a 1-26 with long wings and a L/D of 30 something to 1) that I used to own. The only reason that I cut them short was that I only have a 4 hour bladder.

It was in ridge lift and I could have kept going literally all day. In fact, after I landed, my partner in the 1-23 took it up for another 5+ hour flight. I'm not sure how much ground I covered - I worked the ridgeline for about 20 or 25 miles each way, but I assume that I must have covered 250 or 300 miles before it was all over. I've never bother to go after any of the SSA badges, it was always too much of a hassle trying to line up the crew, chase cars, etc. It was alway much easier just to hang out on the ridge and play with the hawks.

I did do a long aero tow once. That was pretty interesting. We aero towed 150 nm out to a friends ranch in Idaho and spent a week flying out of a pasture right next to the ranch house then aero towed back. We rigged up a shockcord bungee to help keep forward pressure on the stick. It really worked out slick. One of these days, I'd like to pick up a motorglider. I imagine that I'll be a lot braver when it comes to cross country flights.

As far as altitude goes, the 1-23 had a good oxygen system and I've have a few flights right up to the floor of the Class A airspace. (18,000 ft) It would have been no problem going higher, but ATC wanted more advanced notice and wouldn't open the window for us. Besides, it was getting pretty cold.

It's been a few years since I've flown a glider, but I still have the CFI-G on my instructor's certificate. One of these days, I'm going to start using it again.

Lead Sled

 

[johnpeace]

Awesome story!!!

Thanks...in Mar's tradition, I should tell the long version sometime...

Maybe I'll work on it this week.

 

[cougar6903]

Anyone fly a Schweizer 1-35? How is it in weak lift?

 

[Donsa320]

As an "retired" CFI-G and having around 2500 flights. There is nothing cooler than sharing a thermal with a hawk or maybe a corn stalk stirred up from a dust devil. Don't get me wrong, being in the same thermal with another glider is kind of cool too.Are there any other guys that have flown a 2-32? What are your thoughts?

Yep, I loved the 2-32....rented it at Rosamond, a long time ago. I would have bought one for back here in the midwest but its minimum speeds are a little too high for the smallish, weak thermals we get here. I owned a 1-23, a 1-26 and a 2-33 and got to fly my friends' various German glass sailplanes...what a hoot!

~DC

 

[Goose Egg]

Around 3hrs, but in a motorglider so it was power assisted. Fun stuff. I need to get my aero-tow sign off.

-Goose

 

[Crimson03]

2.5 hours ASK-21. Currently trying to study for the CFI-G written, hopefully I will get off my ass and get that ticket this summer. After that I intend to pick up a 1-26 for myself, after of course we close on the house, requisite new furniture, wife's new car ...

 

[Goose Egg]

Currently trying to study for the CFI-G written, hopefully I will get off my ass and get that ticket this summer.

That written is cake--25 questions. It took me 10 minutes and I got a 96%. It's like the freakin' FOI! The checkride is no biggie either. Hit it bro!

-Goose

 

[Kawasumi_Kichou]

16,900' over Mt. Charleston in a Grob 109B one fine day. Some birds showed me a thermal over the Mt. Charleston Hotel. Rode that up to about 12,000' then moved over to the Pahrump side of the ridge and rode that on up. Altogether around 2 hours of pure bliss.