Longest Thermal flight

[Tim Jonas]

What is it?

For me, the longest flight I had was with an Airtronics Aquila. It was 1977, and I was an Air Force brat with my dad stationed in Spain. Me and a friend high started the Aquila right into the middle of a real trash mover....literally...dust devils and garbage flying everywhere. 1.5 hours later I finally got the sailplane down..scared the hell out of me. 25 years later, I am still looking for that elusive trash mover again.

tim

[Ron Cichowski]

Plenty of good air around. I have a (so far) personal limit of 1 hour. I've done it with HLG, electric assist glider and both 2M and Open class TD ships. At the 1 hour point I start having problems keeping the vision focused on that "dot in the sky" and it is pretty unnerving when you are eye fatigued and your glider blurs out and disappears for a period of time. I fly with prescription sunglasses, maybe I should try polarized and a different tint to lessen the eye strain of staring at the sky. :D

Ron

[Tim Jonas]

I had 17 year old eyes in 77. Don't think I could do it today.

[Don Sims]

Mine was on an electrified Gentle Lady, 1 hr and 17 minutes. My bladder made me stop, even though I live and fly in the country, I still have some level of modisty.... I can see it now, Wife: Just what are you doing???!!?? :eek: Me: UUUMMMMM holding both joysticks hon.....:o

[Jay Burkart]

In the SAM competitions for most of the Texaco events
1 to 2 hours are the standard to win the event at the Champs.

And that is with Old Timers that have high drag and very old
airfoil designs.

You can tell when a competitor is serious when they go
out to the flight line carrying a water jug and a lounge chair.

Oh! those are the days

Jay:cool:

[Neil Stainton]

My longest thermal flight was 5hrs 2min when I was flying full size gliders. I needed 5hrs for my Gold badge, and just made it! I remember the worst thing was being cold for so long. I was flying between 2000 and 5000 and and wasn't dressed warmly enough. The hardest thing was staying up for the final hour - it had overconvected (clouded over) and most of the thermals died away.

I didn't have a pee tube, and I don't know how my bladder managed to hold out! I don't even remember that being a problem - it certainly would be now.

My longest model thermal flight is about 40min.

Neil.

[John Gallagher]

A couple of years ago I managed a 1hr 22min flight with my Phrophet.
In 1976 I flew a full size KA-8b for 5 hr and 26 minutes to get gold duration and altitude.

[Aikens]

Just 47 minutes, last weekend, with a Hobby Lobby Java 150. I could have gone longer, but got kind of scared when my plane became a speck. My neck hurt too. Guess I got to "build up" my neck muscles ;)

[Tim Jonas]

it really is almost painful sometimes.....my eyes hurt and I sometimes get a headache from concentrating so hard.

[Ron Cichowski]

Originally posted by MrMootsie
it really is almost painful sometimes.....my eyes hurt and I sometimes get a headache from concentrating so hard.

....and you are still young! scary Huh?
:D :D

[Ric Duley]

This is still a joke with my wife. It happened when I was single and my 25th wedding anniversary is this May, so it's an old story. I was flying my sailplane one Saturday, staring up all day. It somehow caused a muscle in my neck to tighten up, to the point where I couldn't lower my head and look straight ahead without a great deal of pain. :mad:
Which is the excuse I used for NOT going to meet her parents that night for the FIRST time and have dinner at their house.
I tried heat, cold, but it stayed that way for 2-3 days, then finally the muscle relaxed and I was fine. It hurt like heck, but has never occcured since.
I had to go to dinner the next weekend. No, she wouldn't let me go flying that day. ;)

BTW, longest flight was about 2.5 hours, but not by design. It was with a 16' sailplane with no spoilers and would NOT come down - wings just began fluttering when any down was pumped in. Finally got out of the MONSTER thermal and brought it home. Scary.
How high is a 16' glider when it's just a speck, barely able to tell what direction it's going? Too high.

[Tim Jonas]

Originally posted by Ron Cichowski


....and you are still young! scary Huh?
:D :D

Ron

if 41 is young, then you, sir, are an old bastard!

BTW, moving up to Pepperell MA in June....looking for clubs/sites/LHS

cheers,
tim

[Ron Cichowski]

Tim,
41 is young to a 56 year old!
Ron

Pepperell, MA will put you reasonably close to the Charles River Radio Controllers site in Sudbury. Great group, winch every weekend and lots of knowlegeable flyers!
http://www.charlesriverrc.org/
It will also put you in easy driving distance of RC Buyers Warehouse (Like a local Tower Hobbies)
You will also be near enough to Southern New Hampshire RC in Hudson that you can head up to their events. They have a few glider drivers and a group of IC flyers.
http://www.snhrcc.org/

Welcome to Massachusetts

[Tim Jonas]

great info, thanks Ron.

[tempest411]

My longest flight is about 8 minutes:( It was with a Dynaflight Wanderer. It seems like if I don't hook a thermal right off the high start, the flight will be about several circuits around the field and that's it. Once I bail out of the first thermal, if I am lucky enough to find one in the first place, I only have about a 1:100 chance of finding another. I've been flying an Airtronics Legend for the last few months in an attempt to break that 'record'...I plan to figure out how to use the club's winch in the near future as well.

Rick

[Ollie]

My longest flight was two hours and five minutes with a Paragon. Unfortunately, the only witness was an 8 year old boy so it didn't qualify for LSF Level V. However, the lad did me a great service by spotting the Paragon spiralling out of the base of the cumulus cloud it had disappeared into a couple of minutes earlier.

[NickW]

My longest has been a couple of hour long flights. After an hour I just get too tired to bother with much more. A fellow flier Rusty and I once had a gentle lady and a scooter 3M builtup in HUGE lift for an easy hour. About half of that flight was spent with both models in a gentle spin trying to burn some altitude off to not get too high. It was histerical. Just hold the stick in the corner and sit there. My neck really hurt after that point. Now I try not to fly for more than 10 minutes as staying up all day makes for poor competition practice.

Nick

[R. Carver]

Originally posted by NickW
........... A fellow flier Rusty and I once had a gentle lady and a scooter 3M builtup in HUGE lift for an easy hour. About half of that flight was spent with both models in a gentle spin trying to burn some altitude off to not get too high. It was histerical......

Nick

Heheh...I remember that. Now THAT was a good day of flying!

I've had more than a few hour-long flights. Usually after an hour my neck gets tired, I get thirsty, etc. so I bring it down, wait a while and launch again.

[Aikens]

It seems like sailplane guys are older and/or more experienced than other e-flyers. Just a thought.

[NickW]

Originally posted by Aikens
It seems like sailplane guys are older and/or more experienced than other e-flyers. Just a thought.

Well... its funny you mention that. Sometimes while sifting through posts on the Ezone I read the strangest things about Center of Gravity adjustments. I think us sailplane guys work much harder than anyone else on CG and therefore understand it better than most in the hobby. (Flamesuit On!!)

As far as age goes. I'm only 29 and I'm one of only a few other sailplane flyer's my age in Florida. There are about 6 of us, and then the age group jumps up dramtically to 40-50 and then another jump to retired age. This may just be a product of florida, but it seems like there are not as many of us younger guys into sailplanes as in other disciplines of this hobby. I think its just the general reputation of sailplanes as being big balsa wood 2 channel ships. If more people could see full pedal winch launches and some of the wild speed runs we do with sailplanes I think more younger people would join up.

To fly a sailplane effectively takes a lot of dedicated practice. I think its much easier to reach an average level of proffeciency with powered ships than it is with sailplanes. Sailplanes are easy to fly, but it takes a long time to learn to keep them up for more than three minutes a flight. I have only been in this great hobby for two years, and I have a lot to learn. But I love competing, and I love to practice so it all works out.

Im off to Tallahassee, FL for a contest tomorrow. Wish me Luck!

Nick Wisdom
Orlando, FL

[Ollie]

Here in Charlotte County Florida the age of the average resident is over 60! Even so there are about 10 power fliers for every sailplane flier and only about 1/10 of the sailplane fliers also fly power regularly.

There are some people, like sailplane fliers and sailboaters, who enjoy using the forces of nature to their advantage and don't mind waiting for favorable weather conditions.

It is my view that power fliers and power boaters enjoy the roar of engines and the power to dominate their environment rather than use its subtleties to their advantage. "Why hunt for lift when you can bore a hole in the sky any time you want?," seems to be their attitude. To them, hunting for an elusive thermal and just circling in it is more frustrating and boring than fulfilling. They don't have to pay attention to drag reduction (pylon racers are the exception) when they can get what they want with a more powerful engine. Almost any outlandish contraption can be made to fly with enough power, witness the flying witches, lawnmowers and other novelty configurations.

I'm not trying to put any group down, just draw some distinctions. Everyone should enjoy the hobby/sport in their own way.

[Tim Jonas]

IMO, proficient sailplane pilots are much better energy managers than powered pilots. One shot on approach.

[Ron Cichowski]

Originally posted by MrMootsie
IMO, proficient sailplane pilots are much better energy managers than powered pilots. One shot on approach.

I still fly some power. The amount of time with sailplanes makes the occasional power out landing of an IC ship a non-event.

The first appeal of gliding was during an exposure to a contest. I showed up as a spectator at a club field off a dirt road in a major clearing in the country. The only sounds to be heard were the conversations of the attendees and the whisper of a winch line on the way up. What a delightful environment to spend a day in.

Ron

[Ric Duley]

I also enjoy the quiet atmosphere while flying a sailplane. I find the noise of IC flying to be annoying. Again, that's not a knock on anyone, just what I personally enjoy.
I also enjoy flying my electric planes, but again primarily because it's quiet.

[Tim Jonas]

agreed, although the sound my 2 cylinder, four stroke OS FT160 on my Cub is pretty slick.

it is the whiny two stroke noise that bugs me.

[Kestrel]

The age groups mentioned is rather interesting. Here in Wisconsin, it seems to follow the same patern. A couple of younger fliers, a good number of 40-50 and a respectable retired group. Right now I am kicking myself. I stated to learn to fly a Wanderer about 20 some years ago. Crashed it several times and put it away. Brought it back out a couple of years ago determined to learn and now,,,,,, I don't have a hobby but rather an obsessioin! I'm kicking myself because I lost 20 plus years of R/C soaring. A couple of thoughts. One is that I don't think I was mature enough or at least dedicated enough to put the effort into learning what was required to get and maintain flight. Yet now it is what is so intrigueing about sailplanes. The ability to fly without self contained power. AWSOME! Another was the fact that there wasn't a club or anyone around to help. One thing though about the age groups could simply be the timing. The younger crowd is working during the week and only has evenings and weekends to fly. The best lift is around mid day when we are at work. I used to take may Wanderer out in the evening, power it up with the .049 and then be back on the ground in 3 or 4 minutes. After getting the hang of thermaling and building the Kestrel, I have caught a number of thermals including several over a half hour. The evening flying, with little chance of catching a thermal isn't as much fun! A power pilot supplies his own lift whenever he can get out. Just me rambling. Duey

Hey Ron. Is that an animal on your shoulder?

[Tim Jonas]

I think you have to have a bit better attention span to keep a sailplane up, but those IMAC guys know exactly what they are doing all the time.

[Soar_dude]

the longest flight I have had was down in California at NAS Lemoore with a global Easy answer from Global Thing was a lead sled but man I hooked up from about 25 feet up and took it up to 1,500 to 2,000 feet it was awesome had a 39 minutes flight before I go tired and sore necked and almost losing it cuase it was to high to see "specked out" I have sinced moved to Washington Everyone told me I would nover find good thermal's here but I have I hav had some 30+ minute flights here. There is nothing like hooking into a big boomer and riding it till your glider is a speck in the sky:D

Soar dude

[Michael Heer]

I have lots of flights over one hour but none over the magic two hour mark. Longest flight was an hour fifty one minutes and 20 something seconds with a Sagitta 900. I had an hour an a half one day with my Oly II when the battery died and the plane went with the wind. It cleared a freeway and landed in a fenced in storage tank area.
I could have submitted my LSF level IV with two thermal flights years ago but I am holding out for a 4 hour slope. Several attempts at Los Banos have ended when the wind died after three hours. One with a small plane where I lost my equallibrium and experienced tunnel vision after two and a half hours. My friend had to land the plane for me as the world was going dark. A really weird experience and a real shame as the wind kept getting better that day but I was shot. No real rush for level IV as that will be my end point. Mike

[Ex-Slimedriver]

Come to the Montague Cross Country Challenge(N. CA) in June. You'll see guys launch around 10:00 AM, bag a thermal, leave the airport in there chase vehicles.. and be gone untill mid afternoon!

Randy

[rycomm]

I've only managed about 15 miutes at the local ic field with a 4 channel Terry. I was kinda sport flying loops, rolls ect. for the first couple of miutes, the decided to climb up for a glide down. I hit a thermal in the corner of the feild, shut off the motor and did my best attempt at thermal turns. I don't know how high, but the 40" terry was a speck. After landing a reloaded a new battery and got about 10 miutes, then about 5 on the last. It was such a thrill, I have began considering a 2m electric sailplane ever since. I used to fly a Hobby Shack spirit of 76 all foam glider in High School with an upstart in by back yard (15 acres). I don't think it ever flew longer than 5 minutes, but it was a lot of fun. Loops of the high start were my favorite! I still have that Up start, but not the 15 acres.
Ryan

[Frank B]

I had a 41.5 minutes flight yesterday.:) The longest one I have timed.

[Frank B]

New personal best: 43.5 minutes with my Rapid (see avatar)

Also: 38.5 minutes with a home made flying wing (zagi-like).

[Tony D.]

I've had a few 1 hour flights that could have been longer but I get "Glider Neck" something fierce although I did "White Out" my Holmes earlier this year.

Also my eyesight doesn't allow me to go as high or as far out as some of the fellows in the club I belong to so I get uncomfortable with long, distant flying.

Basically I prefer having to scratch down low in marginal conditions as it is IMO more of a challenge and a good way to improve ones lift reading abilities.

There is nothing like pulling off a 30 foot save and specking out from there.



T.D.

[Ollie]

Tony,
Working a small, weak low altitude thermal is a challenge and thrill for me too.

[Ric Duley]

I agree - there is no thrill greater than turning a low, weak thermal into a speck'ed out plane.

[Tony D.]

Maybe we need a new thread for best low level save, but in the mean time here is mine.

This happened about 8 years ago, I was flying a Charlie Richardson F3B Raider ballasted to about 16Oz. sq. ft. and I was shooting landings off of a very powerful but short high-start.

I was flying in a soccer field that has 4 large and tall light towers in it, I was on final at about 15 feet when I got a bump on the right wing tip so I turned into the bump and started circling so tightly that I was basically standing the glider on the wingtip and really moving.

I wasn't going up but I wasn't coming down either and the bubble I was in started moving down the field so I stayed with it.

I had travelled about 150' downwind when the glider started to slowly rise and I knew that if I stuck with it I would climb out.

BUT, I was headed straight for one of the light towers and I really wanted to stick with the thermal so just before I would have flown into the light tower I jumped out of my thermal, (I was now at about 35') dialed in camber and did two slow circles around the light tower and on the second circle nailed my thermal on the other side of the tower and speced out.

It was when I was at 300' or so that I realized I had been holding my breath and actually leaning forward with concentration during the initial part of the flight.

I have had some great saves but nothing like that one.



Tony D.

[wingsnapper]

If I have to guess, it would be around the 1 Hr mark. Fankley, every time I speckout now, I just find a place to lay down and forget about time altogether. After a while I'll eventually become careless enough to blunder out of lift and have to land, but a lot of the time Ill find some more and up we go again.
With that said, my personal favorite flight happened last month starting from a hand-launch. It wasn't over 15Min, but I will never forget watching my 2M get a bump of lift at about 15ft. A few hairy minuets later it was just a speck and loving every second of it. Who says you need a 10 oz 59" carbon / ???? to have fun in the park. JS

[Ric Duley]

Who says you need a 10 oz 59" carbon / ???? to have fun in the park. JS Exactly ;)

[aircargo]

I remember my longest thermal like it was yesterday. Whaddya know...it WAS yesterday!

I bought one of those popular electrified Ascent gliders early this spring, so I'd have something a little smaller than my Electra to fly at a local park. I've always wanted to try 'motorless' gliders. So while putting the Ascent together I had a brainstorm (some might say brain fade) and took the motor out. I put the receiver battery as far forward as possible to compensate for the motor weight, with the receiver right behind it. I used a couple of dabs of Shoe Goo to mount the prop spinner to the firewall, and and two small pieces of packing tape to cover the prop slots in the spinner. It balanced perfectly on the recommended CG, so I started javelin tossing it around the local park.

Well, my 49 year old arm didn't last long, so I added a small tow hook and bought a mini bungee launch. I epoxied the wings together for strength and it works great. Flights are usually 1 to 5 minutes. The size of the park, and trees keep me from venturing too far, searching for lift.

Yesterday I finally 'hit one'. I flew over a small ashphalt parking lot that's always empty and got a little lift from that and circled around it again and got a little more...did that a few times and that must have put me into some bigger lift. It kept going up and up, and I kept circling in that area and kept flying back and forth through the lift, watching the Ascent for indications of lift and kept gaining and gaining altitude with each circle.

I finally got to the point where it was very hard to distinguish the attitude of the plane. It had turned into the proverbial 'speck'. I even took my thumb off the stick and just let it do it's thing on it's own for about ten minutes. At that time I noticed a vulture float in, riding the 'wave'. He made one lazy circle with me and continued on his northerly course.

I finally thought to myself 'jeeze, I hope I can get down' and I was really struggling to maintain sight of it. So I nosed it down a bit and brought it in.

Total flight time 45 minutes. I'm sure I could have stayed up longer, but my neck and back were sore, and I knew I was in danger of sunburned gums from grinning the whole time.

My first 'big one'... what a blast

Doug

[Mr B....]

I did 2hr. last month and my club members had fun with it. They posted it on our news letter. Take a look.
SWSA news letter (http://swsapopoff.8k.com/July03/Page03D.htm)

[schrederman]

I once did 2 hours and 10 minutes from the old site at Tarrant County Jr. College in Ft. Worth. I was working on my first 1 hour flight and trying to get some landing practice in, too. I was in my late 20s and still had a pretty good arm. I was throwing my 100" Legionair hard enough to make a circuit and land. I caught a low thermal from one of these hand launches about the time Cecil Haga showed up with Jim Simpson in tow. At 55 minutes I was low and looking for something to save me. Cecil started ribbing me and then bet me a 6-pack I couldn't make an hour. I was just about to give up when a sheet of crumpled newspaper started to swirl just behind me, where the parking lot started. I yelled back that he was on and specked out with the paper! I never did collect the 6-pack....

Jack Womack

[nuevo]

I completed a thermal flight slightly over 3 hours this past Sunday, over several cotton fields in Northern Alabama. I also happened to cover a course of 10 km (6.2 mi) out and back at the same time.

The plane was an Aquilla XC (or XL?), that I had never flown until that morning.

BTW, the day started out completely overcast. It was not a boomer day.

It can be done. Takes a bit of patience. With the right weather and skill, you can do it, too!

[Daemon]

From flat ground.. Over an hour, but not sure by how much flying a 15oz DLG. Flew for a while, then looked at my watch and stopped flying an hour after that.
Flying off a hill but at the limits of visibility (not in the slope lift band) 2+ hours. Slopes, even small ones, act as thermal triggers and they also will cause "thermal centering" as a thermal would rather feed upslope than down, so they focus and even pause for a while over the top of the hill. (they pause by feeding only from the upwind side)
I avoid "soar neck" by lying down flat and using my water bottle as a head rest. Of course the last time I did that my XP-3 DLG was already specked against a pure blue sky (which I don't particularly care for), and I lost it (completely.. forever). *sigh*

My best saves have all been flying from this site.
http://www.houseofthud.com/rc/mtzion3d.jpg
Now you're going to say "But Ian, that's just a big slope." Surprisingly enough it's primarily a thermal site. Prevaling winds are from the west and that slope is east facing so the paragliders and R/C gliders generally are flying thermals that develop in the valley/plains and pop loose coming upslope. Paragliders routinely launch at 7k feet and fly up to 14k feet, or take off cross country and fly 30-40 miles north or south. I've had hour plus long flights standing up there with the flag on my tx antenna hanging limp.

Anyway.. best save was flying from just below the big "M" (for School of Mines), 1000 feet above the valley floor, and having the wind completely stop dead late in the day, and ending up with the glider way down about 500-600 feet below launch altitude, ranging out as far as I could see to the east, watching the flags way down in the paraglider LZ (2500 feet away) to see which way they were pointing to find a thermal, then working a series of small thermals back toward the slope, where they build into bigger thermals as they coalesce around ridges and outcroppings, then scratching my way back up (all the while, not a lick of wind where I'm standing) to fly it into my hand.

But what was even better than that, was doing that twice back to back. My own DLG was 400 feet down, and I got it back and landed, turned around and my friend Ed has a stricken look on his face as his own glider is even lower than than mine and sinking rapidly. I ask him if I can help, and he immediately pushes the TX into my hands. First thing I always do is make sure the trim is right. Amazing how often someone flies with 3 clicks of right aileron trim, or down trim they've got to fight all the time. Makes for very unsmooth flying. I trim it out flat and level, then give it a click or two of up for best lift speed, and start looking for the thermal. I also will sit down on the edge of the hill with TX in lap so I can relax and concentrate on flying. His took about 10 minutes to get back, but I did get it back. That was a kickass save. Had about a half dozen paraglider pilots watching that one too, so I just *had* to make it. ;)

ian

[TomM]

I suck.
30 some minutes with a Paragon- I lost it so I had to give the box to the local ace who could identify it in the crowded sky , and get it down to where I could see it. That was years ago on a winch.
Lately with my histart- 10 minutes is a good flight.

[RSCherry]

48 min 13 sec is my longest so far, this weekend at the South Jersey Silent Fliers field in Marlton, NJ. Conditions were perfect with plenty of lift everywhere. Did it from a hi-start with a Slegers Spectrum.

Bob

[leverick]

Longest RC flight is 1:50 with my Spirit in ridge lift in front of an 800 ft. westerly facing ridge about 5 minutes from my house. I fly this ridge lots in the winter and spring when the prevailing westerly's really set in. I high start form the bottom of the ridge turn back into it the park the glider, set the transmitter down as it climbs out and pull out the collapsable chair and water bottles (or beers if its late in the day). Get comfy then lay back and spiral down to the deck and take the elevator back up , time and time again.

Lowest Save: I flew hang gliders for about 15 years until I got married, had children, major job etc. I was flying in a competion in 1989 when I got flushed in some strong sink after launch and was coming into land at the landing area below this easterly facing mtn range (Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming) A good friend had just landed about 15 minutes before me and was breaking down his glider. As I came around to land into the wind at about 100 ft AGL I hit a little bump and started to 360. It was zero sink and I stayed with it circling above the landing area for about 15 minutes. My friend saw what was happening and ran out from breaking his glider down and started throwing cow patties at me yelling obscenities and other comments about my manhood. I'm only 100 over his head so I was taunting him and questioning his throwing ability since he he was missing my entire glider with his feeble cow chip throws (he finally went to rocks and was able to hit my glider). This thermal finally let off and I took it to cloudbase at 13,500 MSL and then embarked on a 45 mile cross country flight. The entire flight was about 3 hours. I logged some 4+ hour flights after that on other cross country flights.

The cross country hang gliding community has really taken off in the last 10 years with the record now set at over 400 miles on a single flight (10.5 hours). Southern Texas is the hot spot now for going long. You can check this fringe group of hang glider pilots out at a website www.ozreport.com for an update on whats happening in this arena.

Oh, well not being able to continue hang gliding, RC sailplane flying had a natural appeal. I get the same thrill (almost) but with my feet on the ground. DLG/HLG is the purest form of RC flight I've found. The ability to speck out and then do long triangle's from a hand launch is pretty thrilling.

CHEERS,

Leverick

[Pteradactyl]

My longest flight so far was 8.75 minutes, which I think isn't too bad considering that it was only my first time to fly any sailplane. I only soloed about a month ago on a kit bashed Sig Kadet Sr. ( I know, it's a slimer, but you don't try to learn to fly sailplanes when the winds average 25 - 30 mph on an almost daily basis here in Southeastern Arizona!\


The sailplane was a Marks Model Wanderer (an original - picked up it and a Wanderer99 on the 'net about a year ago, building the '99 now.

This is my first post here as Pteradactyl, I posted a few times a year or so ago (before the surgery and a few other not-so neat happenings. Anyway, I'm glad to see there are still a few silent flyers around and fully intend to enjoy this forum. PT

[Ric Duley]

Pteradactyl,
Welcome to RC Groups! :)

Good to hear about your flight. I'm sure that plane will yield many more soon, and they'll be even longer. I learned on a Mark's Models Windward many, many years ago.

Enjoy!

[MTT]

I had one of those "saves" yesterday.
I was already on the downwind leg, getting ready to land, when the sailplanes suddenly shudders and makes a little jump, like if it had hit a speed bump!
I turned around immediately, and must have caught that thermal just when it was starting, managed to follow it up all the way to 1100 ft, according to my picolario.
Once Up there, it was no problem finding more lift, turned out be a 45 min flight.
Could have been more, but after 45 min I was getting bored, and my neck stiff, so I brought her down.

Michael

[David Taylor]

My longest flight to date was just under 4 1/2 hours with an old corn dogger HLG on a totally awsome day. I threw the plane directly into a thermal and proceded to speck it out to the point that I was shaking and it was going in and out of sight, I put it into a spin for about four full minutes to bring it down to where it was small, and yes I did try to leave the thermal first, from there I did aerobatics until I was around 70-100 feet and found another thermal and went back up to speck altitude and proceded to do the same thing about five more times at which time my tranny started beeping so I brought it in, lined it up perfectly and cought it.
Simply amazing day.
Dave

[evan]

I'm a newbie so please pardon the exuberance if it sounds like I discovered fire and cooking all in one day.

The longest flight was today 14mins. 23 seconds and 16mins. 52 seconds with timing started from the time I got off the high start ring till landing. First thermal was weak and fast moving but enough to maintain a somewhat low altitude; when it got a little too far for comfort, I decided to bring it back. The second one started out small and got progressively stronger until the plane was going up so fast I bailed out of it and landed (too exciting).

I've always wanted sailplanes and have been soloing since the second week of January 03 on a S&B TA 152h electric to get stick time and develop the right reflexes. Got the High Start Saturday last week and have been flying everyday in the morning and was lucky if I could keep it up for 2 mins. (got a 4min 27 second on Thursday). I was starting to get a little disappointed with my flying when today came along. It's definitely the best day of my flying life; not as good as S** but darn near close:) The field that I fly at is owned by the county and they started mowing so it was time for me to leave but if they didn't i'll be there until sunset.:)

Update 9-16-03: I got another one today that lasted 32mins & 06 seconds. It started kinda weak and got stronger, got up higher than the buzzards but did not let it speck-out (chicken. :D ). Once there was a lot of altitude it was easy to jump from thermal to thermal. Awesome experience.

[uscra112]

Three hours, about, with a modified Skimmer ( ! ). Hay in my back field had just been cut, and the thermal just wouldn't quit. I began get worried about my transmitter battery giving out. The JR xmtr only gives you about five minutes grace after the beeper goes off, and most of the time it would have been ten just to get it down without doing a speed dive, which the Skimmer won't survive.

[pepflyer]

My friend, Hardy Benson and a few helpers did over 10 hours a few years ago. This was an attempt on the FAI world record with nicads. We ran out of steam just minutes from breaking the record. I think it is now over 15 hours for nicads and held by a German. The plane was an oldtimer looking design custom built by Kip Merker,(deceased) of Tucson, AZ. It was very fragile and was very hard to handle in rough thermal air. Our eyes took weeks to recover. It was flown by three rotating pilots in shifts of 30min. to an hour. Pepflyer

[Matt Brooks]

Hi there, My longest flight was on one of those days that you dont get very often, in fact just about everything seemed to be going up !. It was timed at 2 hours 21 minuites. with an Algebra 4 meter plane,in the end i came down as those on the flying field were unsure whether it would be subject to some sort of disqualification if i flew any longer as our permitted time on the field was running out. Shame really, as later we found out that i could have continued !, oh well i will try it again one day!

[Jeff85]

I fly with my 14 year old son. Our longest flight was yesterday Sat. May 7, 05 10:07 hr. 1hour, 6min. 10sec. Flying a old Windstar using: a Jeti Phasor Brushless 15/3, with a Phonix 45 ESC, powered by Thunder Power 6,000 mh S2, and Graupner Cam 8x6 prop. My son did all the flying on this one. We were at Bayshore park in Sunnyvale Ca. on a cloudy windy day 10-15mph reaching altitudes of 1,000'+ (actually flew through clouds). Over half dozen other gliders up both powered and unpowered out flew them all! :)

[quakerbird]

My longest fly is about 50 mins with may quakerbird. I think the longest fly's limit is your body-self.

[Vinkie]

My longest flight was 1h48mins with my FVK Optima XXL electric sailplane. It was a nice september day in 2003, I started at three in the afternoon, spec'd out a few times and flew more than 20mins in formation with two buzzards. I came down when thermals seemed to have died out. Taking into account my usual dead-air flight time with this plane (50mins) this leaves about an hour of thermal flight.

I have since then fitted a variometer and although I came close a few times I never managed to beat this time since. But I know I will this summer ;)

Regards,
Martijn

[evan]

I've forgotten about this thread until a few days ago when I got an e-mail prompt regarding a response. I've gotten a little better since Sept. of 2003, not much but was able to do a 63min. flight using the old Spirit on 4-4-04; just to see if I could do it and by golly, it was possible.

One of the clubs that I belong to is big on LSF so we do a lot of the designated tasks and it is a lot of fun but I feel that after a certain altitude/conditions the "lift" is so abundant, you jump from one area of lift to another very easily. The flight described above could have been easily 90 or more mins. but it was too easy. I think the real challenge is working the low thermals, getting the plane high and doing it over again. Some LSF duration tasks could be an exercise in Masochism depending on your point of view.

The real work was in this flight was keeping the plane at a certain altitude so it was still easy to control, doesn't fly away (no spoilers) and get's lost in the lift and managing airspeed so the wings dont depart from the fuselage since they were only secured with rubberbands and the speeds you reach will challenge the planes integrity :)
YMMV so have a great time Thermal Hunting :D

[uabass]

1 hour on Gentle Lady ARF (could have go on longer if not for wife waiting at home). 40 minutes on Great Plane Fling (Poly).

Both while doing loops, rolls and inverted flights.

[FWFlyer]

My longest pure glider flight was 33 min 50 sec. It was 11 years ago. I had just built a full-house Spirit 100 to fly in the local glider club. My buddy and I were setting up the controls and mixes that day. We spent most of the day flying 5-8 minute flights.

I launched into what looked like another short flight when I hit the column of air. I cored the thermal and rode her until the plane looked about 1/4 inch wing span. Twice I brought it down to a reasonable size. Finally, out of fear of low receiver batteries, I brought it down for a landing. No flight is worth losing a plane due to dead batteries.

[rdwoebke]

This was on one of my 1 hour L4 attempts. Was using the Paragon. I don't know exactly how long it was, because the timer on the Multiplex cockpit only counts up to 1 hour. :-) Using another pilots ristwatch, we know it was close to 1 hour 50 minutes. After I hit the 1 hour, I thought I'd just see how long I could fly as a practice for the 2 hour L5 goal. My tx battery started to get a bit low, so I landed before I hit 2 hours.

Ryan

[John Walter]

I have had several 1+ hour flights flying a Grand Esprit, Laser Arts Majestic, and an MH32 RES ship. My longest flight to date was 1 hour, 25 minutes with the MH32 RES ship. It was a bit nerve racking to speck-out in big lift on my second flight ever with that ship since I wasn't sure how the spoilers would affect the pitch trim!

[bigjohn]

My personal best was about 1:20 way back when I was a teenager flying before my afternoon summer job at the glider field in Melas park with the world famous Chicago SOAR club. The plane was an Oly II, which flew 2 flights over an hour that day. The end of the second flight was made with a dead battery that would respond about every five seconds which allowed me to keep the plane headed inbound and trimmed for a mostly level landing. It landed hard with a bit of damage to the bottom of the tail boom. This would have been sometime in the late 80's. I still have that plane in storage.

Last Sunday, I took my 3m Mako out for the second time. I still don't have the launch, landing, camber dialed in. The first launch was too shallow and it went out like a bungee launch. I flew 10 minutes after that. Then I got a good launch, and flew a 32 minute flight after that. I kept catching lift, then fooling with the speed setting, or doing cuban 8's and then going back up. All after 5 PM, not exactly prime time. I could have flown well into the evening if my goal had been to preserve altitude.

Pretty good for a 2nd flying day with the plane. I just traded up to 3m from a 2m and the superiority is obvious. The L/D difference is huge. The Orion (which I bought from NickW, BTW) is an excellent sailplane. But the ease in finding and riding lift with an open class plane is unbelieveable.

[katobaggins]

My best in pure thermal is 40 minutes.

My best off flat land is 1:20, but that flight I believe was partially in "wave" off the back side of a hill that's upwind of the field that I usually fly on. Got glider neck and landed.

Both with an NSP Kestrel 2M RES. Hope to do better this summer.

[Eberwein]

My longest flight was back in 1993 in Boulder when I was in College. I missed dinner that night because I just couldn't quit.

The plane had a Cox Black Widow mounted on a streamlined Sig power pod. About 2-1/2 to 3 minutes of power was enough to get it to spec height when there was just a little lift. The whole sky was going up that evening. There was a nice large grass field outside the dorm (filled in with other dorms these days), with a small slope down to the field, which made a nice place to lay down while flying, avoiding the sore neck!

I launched at 4:00 PM and wasn't down until 7:30 PM, for a 3-1/2 hour flight. Thinking back on it, I'm lucky I didn't loose it to dead batteries.

[ejett]

My longest flight was with my BoT at the local power club field the last week in January this year. I launched into pretty good lift and specked out, then flew around a while and got down to landing altitude. As I was setting up for the landing I noticed 3 buzzards near the far end of the runway at about tree top height circling and obviously climbing out so instead of landing, I flew over toward them and sure enough there was the thermal. I took it from about 30' to speck again and was up until 1 hour, which I had set as my limit. I popped the spoilers and landed at 1 hour 8 min.

It was a beautiful day with a few white cirrus at high altitude, no cumulus puffs anywhere, but the lift was awesome.

It was the only flight I made that day, launched one time with my half size highstart.

EJ

[carrinsr]

Oops...I posted a new thread indstead of a quick reply...so my story is under "Longest Flight?" You may enjoy reading it.

David
AMA19839

[gentle ben]

My longest flight was over a field that had large steel plates welded together to form some kind of floor. The buildings were long gone but those pads would generate thermal after thermal all afternoon. The only thing that limited my flight was the fear of the reciever battery not lasting. That was twenty years ago flying my Aquila by Airtronics. I still have that plane but have been out of rc since then.

Ben

[Shaper Dave]

My best was around 4 years ago flying my Predator XL in great thermal conditions here in Hawaii.
1 hour flights can be common but I figured why not see just how long I can go. When I was coming up on 2 hours my legs were aching my arms hurt from holding the transmitter and neck and eyes were giving me trouble.
Needlees to say I haven't gone through that again. I'll stick with the normal 30 to 40 min. flights.
Dave

[Tim Jonas]

holy smokes...I started this thread 3 years ago! Still looking to beat my time, though.

[Soar_dude]

the longest flight I have had was down in California at NAS Lemoore with a global Easy answer from Global Thing was a lead sled but man I hooked up from about 25 feet up and took it up to 1,500 to 2,000 feet it was awesome had a 39 minutes flight before I go tired and sore necked and almost losing it cuase it was to high to see "specked out" I have sinced moved to Washington Everyone told me I would nover find good thermal's here but I have I hav had some 30+ minute flights here. There is nothing like hooking into a big boomer and riding it till your glider is a speck in the sky:D

I know what you mean Tim I started getting e-mails from this thread will I guess I Chime in now. I had a one hour flight down at Renton with my kids foamie 2 meter other pilots ribbing me that I was getting alot of mileage out of a hunk of foam and a 27mhz radio. :D

Soar Dude

[iAlex]

1.5 hours with a Balsacraft Coyote flying at Point of the Mountain in Utah.

Longest fullscale sailplane flight is slightly over 4 hours in a SGS 1-35. Though this year I am hoping to exceed that and also make a cross country flight from IYK to Mt. Whitney and back.

[Mini Buzzard]

January 1, 2005

The Silent Wings Soaring Association club of Covina, Ca Results sheet by Gene Hays.
PopOff Gateway, SWSA's Monthly Newsletter

Hi All--

I told all of you that it wouldn't rain on our parade! We were worried though and so were the promoters of the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl. If you saw either of these events on TV you saw our flying conditions since we are only a few miles east of Pasadena. We saw sun, clouds, a slight breeze and no rain. Beginning temps were in the low 40's, climbing to the low 60's and then dropping by mid-afternoon. Yes, some of the guys wore shorts.

Our day began at about 8:00 with Major and crew setting up the winch equipment. Meanwhile some of the electric guys tore up the skies with their Slow Stiks, PT-17s, Edge 540s, Tempests and hotliners. Once the winch was ready Mike Reagan hooked up his AVA for the first thermal flight of the year. When Tom Finch showed up with his new Vandal Mike handled the maiden toss and then maiden winch launch. I'm sure you will hear more about this molded plane real soon.

Larry Jolly assembled his old Comet, held a class on how to read the air using visible moisture (clouds) accumulation in the sky and then headed to the winch to begin his nearly 3 hour adventure. Most of the time the 16' span was difficult to see due to his altitude, especially when he flew into a cloud. Spoiler deployment and up elevator eventually resulted in the plane tumbling back into view. Others, like Merrill Brady, Henry Arance and Major Anderson, followed Larry's lead and while they had great flights couldn't keep up with the Comet. Sadly, Henry had to bail out of his thermal due to visibility issues and his Aquilitos shed a wing panel. The plane was destroyed but we all marveled as the shed wing went back up and eventually disappeared in the clouds.

The BBQ was fired up and lunch was served. Larry was still up there so he and his dog Baron shared a hotdog that was delivered to the flight line. Eventually Baron got bored and took a nap but woke up in time to see Larry land just short of 3 hours. That time, however, wasn't enough to have the longest flight in Ray's contest. It seems Arizona had some pretty good air too..........

Overall, a great way to start a new year. Good friends, good weather, good contest, good memories. You can see how some of us did at http://www.swsapopoff.8k.com/PostalContest010105.htm. Pictures will be up soon.

Dan [Borer] ---

Taken from this article with pictures:
http://www.skybench.com/woodcraft/2005/postal/

[carrinsr]

I posted this at a different location some week ago, but if this counts: I launched my Graupner CIRRUS 13 Saturdays in a row one summer some years ago, and off the first launch each time thermalled her for well over an hour, bringing her back down ONLY because I was concerned about the batteries in the plane! But then again, this is Florida. Well, not quite true...one time I brought her back down after over an hour because I started teasing two hawks just below a Cumulus cloud, and one of them finally sank talons into the fuselage just in front of the stab before I could get away...still landed safely. But OH for a Picolario back then! (o: David

[Jeff85]

This was on one of my 1 hour L4 attempts. Was using the Paragon. I don't know exactly how long it was, because the timer on the Multiplex cockpit only counts up to 1 hour. :-) Using another pilots ristwatch, we know it was close to 1 hour 50 minutes. After I hit the 1 hour, I thought I'd just see how long I could fly as a practice for the 2 hour L5 goal. My tx battery started to get a bit low, so I landed before I hit 2 hours.

Ryan

Could you please explain what L4/L5 is for us who don't know and maybe a web site for cross ref. Thanks

[rdwoebke]

L1/L4/L5,etc are levels of the LSF.

As requested, your URL:

http://www.silentflight.org/LSF_Base/tasks.htm

:-)

LSF is a fun organization that does a lot of good for soaring. And, the self paced acheavement program is very rewarding for minimal cost.

Ryan

[Tim Jonas]

and it is hard to get to the last level, so it's extremely challenging.

[CalT]

My longest thermal flight from a flat site, bungy launch is just shy of 2 hours. 1:55. As I recall I was pretty pissed off at not making the 2 hour mark. Heaps of sink that day and strong thermals. had a couple of very low saves around 30 feet above the ground.

I was only 16 or 17 then and was flying a new Sig Riser.

[terry.cx]

Not my longest, but most memorable flight was with a Dodgson Windsong about 10 years ago. At 1 hour 40 minutes I looked at my xmitter and the meter was at the edge of the red zone. Full flaps and straight down I come, landing with no trouble. I left the xmitter on to see how much longer it would go. After 5 minutes the meter dropped into the red and I had no control.
Terry

[ferincr]

Mine is 40 minutes on my second day out with my resurrected AG. :)
I think I could have stayed longer up there but I decided that it got a bit unchallenging up there and decided to bring it down (I need to practice my launches and landings).
Anyway I'm going for my personal record tomorrow! :D
Fernando

[jh2rc97]

My longest flight was about 15 years ago with a Pantera at 1 hour and 45 minutes. Transmitter battery was getting low. The next weekend a had a midair with a hawk. Half the stab slid off of one of the steel rods and went 90 degrees to the other. It took several minutes for a 110" glider to flat spin all the way to the ground. Didn't even hurt it, other than the covering was ripped on the rudder. Flew it later that day with one hawk making noise the rest of the day. It made several passes at the glider on the next flight. He was upset.

[averen]

So did you hit the hawk? Or did the hawk hit you?

As for longest flight...I'm not really sure, probably around the hour mark with my Spirit Elite...with my DLG it's probably around 45 minutes or so.

For the age thing it definately seems like the majority of the guys in our club are 50+ (sailplanes and e-flight stuff only...). There are some younger ones there. I'm the youngest in the club at 25. There are a couple of other guys around my age and we generally make up the DLG group. I think DLG is really great for getting some of the younger crowd into sailplanes.

I fly a little of everything from IC, to helis, to 3D, to sailplanes. Personally I don't think one is better than the other. They're all great in their own ways. It's great to hang in a thermal for 30 minutes with a glider...it's pretty sweet to work on hard maneuvers with a heli or 3D plane. And regular IC or electric planes are great to putter around the sky doing some enjoyable "no thought" flying. I enjoy the challenge of helis and sailplanes the most though :)

Jared

[ferincr]

Anyway I'm going for my personal record tomorrow! :D
Fernando
Well the only thing I broke today were my two Aquilas :(
Fernando

[tw126a]

Sorry to hear that Fernando, what happened?

Tom

[ferincr]

On the Aquila XL was pilot stupidity. :mad:
I was on final aproach going downwind and too close to a palm tree so I decided to go around it quite open to avoid miscalculation and it went great but when I was around it and coming upwind the plane kept turning into the tree and instead of doing a 180 turn I did like a 270, one of the wings hit the tree (which didn't break) but the fuse cracked half way between the wing and the tail, some minor on the rudder too (already working on it :) )
And the AG just dropped from the sky from 20 feet straight down (I guess pilot stupidity too :p ).Another fuse crack at the front, and some cabin damage.
The good side is I'm getting pretty good at working with FG now :D
Thanks for asking,
Fernando

[jh2rc97]

So did you hit the hawk? Or did the hawk hit you?

Well that was hard to tell, I came up under him, he flapped and hit the tail. More or less he just slapped me around alittle.

As for longest flight...I'm not really sure, probably around the hour mark with my Spirit Elite...with my DLG it's probably around 45 minutes or so.

For the age thing it definately seems like the majority of the guys in our club are 50+ (sailplanes and e-flight stuff only...). There are some younger ones there. I'm the youngest in the club at 25. There are a couple of other guys around my age and we generally make up the DLG group. I think DLG is really great for getting some of the younger crowd into sailplanes.

I fly a little of everything from IC, to helis, to 3D, to sailplanes. Personally I don't think one is better than the other. They're all great in their own ways. It's great to hang in a thermal for 30 minutes with a glider...it's pretty sweet to work on hard maneuvers with a heli or 3D plane. And regular IC or electric planes are great to putter around the sky doing some enjoyable "no thought" flying. I enjoy the challenge of helis and sailplanes the most though :)

Jared

[ferincr]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I got a hell of a day today there was lift everywhere!
I got to the field a bit early and got few short flights and about 10 the sun came out, no wind and there I was, I launched again and little by little few curious vultures started to arrive and in few minutes there where everywhere (and my Aquila XL was with them). Got my chair out checked on the plane again, was high enough went to the car and got my water bottle and I sat there for a loooooooong time! I got to the point there the voltmeter on the TX showed 8.9v I went back to the car got the spare batery pack and as soon as the alarm went off I turned the TX off quick maneuver and put the fresh one in.
Ok, ok, ok, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it this long, total flight time 2hr and 5 min. :D :D :D :D :D
I got a hell of a sunburn too! :eek:
:D Fernando :D

[Jim Bacus]

Just over 2 hours with my ICON lite to complete the LSF V thermal task requirement. I couldn't begin to count how many thermal rides I had in that two hour period! :D

[little flyer]

I just got a 23:34 flight for my LSF II

[Mr B....]

Good job! Level 3 just gets better.

Merrill Brady
LSF 7247
Level V #116

[2motheus]

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I got a hell of a day today there was lift everywhere!
I got to the field a bit early and got few short flights and about 10 the sun came out, no wind and there I was, I launched again and little by little few curious vultures started to arrive and in few minutes there where everywhere (and my Aquila XL was with them). Got my chair out checked on the plane again, was high enough went to the car and got my water bottle and I sat there for a loooooooong time! I got to the point there the voltmeter on the TX showed 8.9v I went back to the car got the spare batery pack and as soon as the alarm went off I turned the TX off quick maneuver and put the fresh one in.
Ok, ok, ok, I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it this long, total flight time 2hr and 5 min. :D :D :D :D :D
I got a hell of a sunburn too! :eek:
:D Fernando :D

Felicidades!

[Wingtips24]

This may have been asked but what do you guys do to keep your transmitters running for hours like that. I am sure even fully charged my transmitter would not run for 5 hours. Not that I would be flying that long but still question still applies

Tips

[CaptRon]

When I bought this plane and set it up Bob From USASoaring said it would fly!!!!! I said I hope so. We winch launched the plane and right into a thermal. I got tired of flying and passed the transmitter to a friend and then he passed it back and we did that for about an hour then landed the plane to check everything. There have been a few flights well over two hours now on this plane it just doesn't want to land.

[AEROLIPE]

Hi guy's of model airplanes, i alredy fly in brazil with, glider, slope and thermal, glow, giants and 3d and one litle of f3a, and going to hudson, for stud in hudson high school, i would like know, where you fly in hudson, why i don't know!

thanks, and big hug

Felipe

[aeajr]

Longest Thermal Flight to date - 58:43

Polecat Aero Thermal Dancer

January 2007 at the Long Island Silent Flyers Club field.

[slozuke]

My longest flight that I can remember was about 10 years or so ago in Tehachapi, CA flying my Hi Flite Mirage. It was up in excess of 2 hours flying out over a big valley after hand launching from atop a ridgetop. I could have stayed up longer if I liked but I was afraid of running out of battery either on the Tx or the Rx.
Sadly, the site no longer exists as a house now sits on that site. Boy would I like to live there! Imagine launching out from your own backyard!!

[Polkastudio]

My longest flight ever was just over 2 hours, used it for my 15 min thermal for LSF level 2 which was what we were out for. That was in 1981 or 1982. Just started flying again in March this year after 25 years away from the hobby. I have already had flights over an hour. If I can find a bigger field I know I can top that easy with the lift here in Tennessee. I lived in Michigan at the time of the 2 hour and I believe the air is better here. Even out of practice using a Fling two meter my first day out I had a 25 minute flight. I am building a Ken Bates Merlyn for some longer/higher flights. Like some of you said, we get older and can't see anymore. I have had the S___ scared out of me a couple times when my plane got too small to see. I had to fly out of a thermal about a month ago with my Mirage and blew the wing tips off trying to bring it back down. Believe it or not I was able to land it without any other damage though. I would have lost it otherwise. Its hard to believe but there are not many folk's flying sailplanes here, mostly Power planes. They are missing a treasure because I never fail to find some lift when I'm out!

Polkaboy

[chevell]

With my original Olympic 650. I sawed off the nose and mounted a cox .049. Made it easy to gain altitude but was messy. It was a cloudy day with cumulus clouds and one huge sucker hole right over the area I was flying at. I knew my fully charged radio could do 4 hours so I stayed up for a little over 4 hours,having to dip out of clouds a couple times and lost sight of it once. It was a strong thermal and very big around,as I got close to the clouds it grew even stronger. Some of the flying was over water,the clouds were causing much of the lift once I was high enough. Lucky I have very good vision because it was really high most of the time. People were watching me and asked where is your plane? I told them it's really high and way over the water,they looked but never did find it. :rolleyes:

I usually fly Torry Pines but have been content with a small coastal bluff right near my house. I routinely get my Monarch to a spec on that bluff and it's only 15 feet high,I don't even bother launching it hard. Two hour flights are typical. Hardly anyone ever flys there either.

[AMBeck]

Back in September, I had a business trip to Va. and Md. Took along a new design 100" RES and my "Aspiration", which is a lightened and cleaned up Aspire clone with 90 degree flaps. On Saturday I went out with my nephew. It was a warm, booming day. We specked out the 100" model in about 20 minutes after a low save. I pulled spoilers and came back for a ~30 minute flight. Then we launched the Aspiration and he took the buddy box. We worked a couple thermals and specked that one out too. It was so high that my nephew couldn't keep oriented and I took over. He was getting bored, so I slammed on the flaps and came back like a parachute for a 45 minute flight.

A couple days later my meeting finished early, so I went to a soccer field and launched the 100" model. There was high thin cirrus overcast, so I didn't expect much. Worked some bubbles but nothing organized, finally I was getting close to pattern altitude, gave one last pass over the baseball diamond and caught a weak bubble. I hung in and got away for another speck out. Dove straight down with full spoilers for about 30 seconds and was still high. Later, as I entered down wind, another weak bubble kicked off at the IP and I worked it for 10 minutes, zero sink at 50 feet of altitude. Finally, it was getting hot and my neck was giving out, so out came the spoilers to end a 45+ minute flight.

On the way home, I stopped at a soccer complex for one last flight. It was 9:30 AM and everything was damp. As I stretched out the highstart, a buzzard launched from a nearby hedge row and didn't stay up, then another one hooked into some zero sink and kindly marked it for me. I joined in and scratched up 50 feet or so before the lift gave out. Four buzzards and I started searching. One of them connected and all of us ran for the lift. I joined on the bottom of the stack and in 5 minutes had climbed through them all. (Too bad no one was around to see that!) Worked a couple of other lift areas but never got really high. I brought it down after another 45 minute flight because I had to hit the road. It was a long way back to SC.

Four launches in a week, four great flights, two of which were in pretty scratchy conditions. Life is good!