tonycondon
Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
Last Thursday I took the Silent 2 Electro down to Talihina, OK. Wind was supposed to be strong out of the SW and more importantly very consistent in direction and speed up to about 30,000 ft. I self launched about 8:20 am.
I immediately got some lift in some weak rotor right next to the airport. This got me up into the secondary wave in which I climbed to 5000 msl. Talihina is at 690 msl.
Pushing upwind into the primary took some high airspeed just to make progress, but I encountered the primary over Albion which is usually where we find it. Tacking back and forth parallel to the ridge line I climbed to 11,000.
The wave started weakening at that altitude so I decided to move east where I thought the ridge would be better aligned with the wind. About 15 miles southeast of the Talihina airport I found another good wave which eventually took me to FL200!
Climb rate were slow, probably averaging 150 fpm for the whole flight. The air was perfectly smooth which is damn eerie. When I was pointed southwest I had basically zero groundspeed and between not feeling a ripple in the air and seeing no motion over the ground it was pretty weird.
Fort Worth Center asked if I was instrument rated as I climbed into the high teens and then issued a clearance to climb to FL200. That was high enough to set the Oklahoma state altitude record and earn me Diamond Altitude for a 5000 meter altitude gain.
I landed before noon. A guy from Dallas had arrived to check out the Electro. He had a towplane (180hp C-170) and gave my friend Randy a tow. Randy drive down from Tulsa. After a couple hours working to get into the wave, Randy managed to top out at FL219! My record didn't last long.
All in all it was an incredible day of wave flying in SE Oklahoma. All of this off a ridge that only rises about 1300ft above the valley!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=2019279038
I immediately got some lift in some weak rotor right next to the airport. This got me up into the secondary wave in which I climbed to 5000 msl. Talihina is at 690 msl.
Pushing upwind into the primary took some high airspeed just to make progress, but I encountered the primary over Albion which is usually where we find it. Tacking back and forth parallel to the ridge line I climbed to 11,000.
The wave started weakening at that altitude so I decided to move east where I thought the ridge would be better aligned with the wind. About 15 miles southeast of the Talihina airport I found another good wave which eventually took me to FL200!
Climb rate were slow, probably averaging 150 fpm for the whole flight. The air was perfectly smooth which is damn eerie. When I was pointed southwest I had basically zero groundspeed and between not feeling a ripple in the air and seeing no motion over the ground it was pretty weird.
Fort Worth Center asked if I was instrument rated as I climbed into the high teens and then issued a clearance to climb to FL200. That was high enough to set the Oklahoma state altitude record and earn me Diamond Altitude for a 5000 meter altitude gain.
I landed before noon. A guy from Dallas had arrived to check out the Electro. He had a towplane (180hp C-170) and gave my friend Randy a tow. Randy drive down from Tulsa. After a couple hours working to get into the wave, Randy managed to top out at FL219! My record didn't last long.
All in all it was an incredible day of wave flying in SE Oklahoma. All of this off a ridge that only rises about 1300ft above the valley!
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=2019279038