20,000 feet over Oklahoma

tonycondon

tonycondon

Gastons CRO (Chief Dinner Reservation Officer)
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Display name:
Tony
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
 
tonycondon said:
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
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Very cool!

Maybe I missed it, but how king was that flight?
 
That's friggin' awesome, man. Congrats!
 
Great flight!

What is the takeoff performance data in that electro at 8000ft density altitude?
Would it be good out west in the summer?

Be nice if they had a cg hook for an alternate launch method.
 
BillTIZ said:
Great flight!

What is the takeoff performance data in that electro at 8000ft density altitude?
Would it be good out west in the summer?

Be nice if they had a cg hook for an alternate launch method.
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It's barely affected by density altitude. François flew a super regionals at Moriarty. You do have to watch motor temps but that's based on OAT not DA.

There are options for a CG or a Chin hook. JEN has a cg gook. I aerotowed when I was in Lithuania to save the battery for getting home.

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100F-110F here in summer. 85F normal departure temps at Tonopah in summer.

Nice to have that hook option to save the battery.
 
BillTIZ said:
100F-110F here in summer. 85F normal departure temps at Tonopah in summer.

Nice to have that hook option to save the battery.
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I was launching it in 100degrees here in Kansas and at Uvalde and it still was getting about 400 fpm

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Tony,

Awesome flight. Neat airplane too. I've never seen one of those.

Out of curiosity:

- How many minutes at full power do those batteries provide?

- What is the approximate cost of that motor glider? I found the website, but price was not mentioned.

- How do you set a glider record in a motor glider? Is there a way to verify that you didn't spool up the prop during your extended climb?
 
kyleb said:
Tony,

Awesome flight. Neat airplane too. I've never seen one of those.

Out of curiosity:

- How many minutes at full power do those batteries provide?

- What is the approximate cost of that motor glider? I found the website, but price was not mentioned.

- How do you set a glider record in a motor glider? Is there a way to verify that you didn't spool up the prop during your extended climb?
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At full power you get about 15 minutes. At minimum power to hold altitude, about an hour.

Typical cost delivered to the US with instruments and trailer is around $120k.

The GPS logger measures the noise level and easily detects when the motor is running, so the Soaring performance begins when the motor turns off and ends either when I land or when the motor comes back on

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Congrats on setting the state record!

I've been in that smooth lift situation in the hang glider. It's an odd but very pleasant sensation. The day I experienced it, it was a thermal blown up against a ridge. Once I was just a few hundred feet above the ridge, I could just set a bank angle an ride the up elevator without any further inputs. In my case, I had to jump out at 3700 above the valley floor because I was right on top of the ridge,and it's a big no no to get behind a ridge on a hang glider, since they don't penetrate the wind very well.

Congrats again, that sounds like the flight of a lifetime.
 
Wow that's incredible, I never knew gliders can fly that high!
 
Ryanb said:
Wow that's incredible, I never knew gliders can fly that high!
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It's not common, as most thermals top out about 7-10k agl, probably less in high elevation locales like Denver, but there are a couple of phenomena that let you go very high indeed, including mountain waves, which are essentially wind deflected upward by a mountain. Those can take you up to 40k+ depending on conditions, though of course you need a mask for much past 30k, possibly lower.
 
Good job! I love being in a sailplane in smooth air & climbing. I find it interesting that ATC inquired about an instrument rating. I've got blocks of airspace into Class A but never asked that question. It's not uncommon here in Eastern WA to get thermals that can take you into Class A.

Now if someone can just help me find a two-place high-performance sailplane I'll be a happy man.
 
saddletramp said:
Good job! I love being in a sailplane in smooth air & climbing. I find it interesting that ATC inquired about an instrument rating. I've got blocks of airspace into Class A but never asked that question. It's not uncommon here in Eastern WA to get thermals that can take you into Class A.

Now if someone can just help me find a two-place high-performance sailplane I'll be a happy man.
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Schleicher ASH 30. How you'll pay for it is a different matter altogether.
 
I'm looking at a L-23 & a DG505 at the moment. I promised local pilots that I'd have a glider school up & running by March. I never imagined it would be so difficult to find a good high performance trainer.
 
Talhina is actually a pretty area of Oklahoma, especially this time of year with the fall colors. However, it's on the tail end and I'm sure there were more yellow/brown leaves than anything else at this point. I would have never imagined you could catch a ride to 20K' over OK though, at least not without a tow up to 19,999, lol.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Talhina is actually a pretty area of Oklahoma, especially this time of year with the fall colors. However, it's on the tail end and I'm sure there were more yellow/brown leaves than anything else at this point. I would have never imagined you could catch a ride to 20K' over OK though, at least not without a tow up to 19,999, lol.
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I suppose it's all relative. I lived in Oklahoma for a number of years.
 
tonycondon said:
World altitude record is around 51,000 ft!
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Do they use pressure suits or use positive pressure O2? I have experienced pretty strong wave up into the low 40,000s so it isn't inconceivable to me that a glider could get to 51,000'. Still, that's high!
 
SoonerAviator said:
Talhina is actually a pretty area of Oklahoma, especially this time of year with the fall colors. However, it's on the tail end and I'm sure there were more yellow/brown leaves than anything else at this point. I would have never imagined you could catch a ride to 20K' over OK though, at least not without a tow up to 19,999, lol.
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The fella I bought my C182 from is a glider pilot. My 182 was the tow plane. I was amazed how successful he was soaring here over the relatively flat part of the Oklahoma. I'm not sure how high he was able to get, but we would often tow him to 3000 to 4000 ft., and he would come down 2, 3, and sometimes 4 hours later just because he had to pee. The Talihina area is particularly beautiful in fall. Really, the eastern 1/3 of the state is beautiful from top to bottom.
 
Everskyward said:
Do they use pressure suits or use positive pressure O2? I have experienced pretty strong wave up into the low 40,000s so it isn't inconceivable to me that a glider could get to 51,000'. Still, that's high!
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They were wearing partial pressure suits. That was Phase I of the Perlan Project. For Phase II they built a pressurized glider

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OkieFlyer said:
The fella I bought my C182 from is a glider pilot. My 182 was the tow plane. I was amazed how successful he was soaring here over the relatively flat part of the Oklahoma. I'm not sure how high he was able to get, but we would often tow him to 3000 to 4000 ft., and he would come down 2, 3, and sometimes 4 hours later just because he had to pee. The Talihina area is particularly beautiful in fall. Really, the eastern 1/3 of the state is beautiful from top to bottom.
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West of I35 has some good thermal Soaring conditions. The panhandle can easily be thermals over 10,000 msl on a good day.

Talihina was almost to peak leaf viewing when I was there last week. Very pretty.

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At least it looks like you landed back at an airport. You'd hope with that much altitude you could find one.
 
Crazy enough, I did not land in a field all this year!!

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Until this year I averaged ~7 off airport landings a year. This year, none. I can't figure out if I'm turning into a wimp or getting better

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OkieFlyer said:
I'm not sure how high he was able to get, but we would often tow him to 3000 to 4000 ft., and he would come down 2, 3, and sometimes 4 hours later just because he had to pee.
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The experienced guys in our club routinely fly cross-country tasks of hundreds of miles and over 10 hours, sometimes up to 13-14 IIRC. That's non-stop, in the tiny cramped cocoon of a glider cockpit. As a newbie I admire them a lot, my own longest flight so far has only been 6.5 hrs (which coincidentally is identical to the duration of my longest non-stop power flight). Obviously nobody had a bladder that lasts that long; we use different techniques to "go" in flight, just like in power planes.
 
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