Volume 34 No 4 Aug-Sept 1983.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

THE WORLD'S LONGEST GLIDER FLIGHTTOM KNAUFF describes his world record goal and return distance flight of 1647km ina Nimbus3 on April 25, flying along the Appalachian ridges from Williamsport, Pennsylvania to Knoxville,Tennessee to beat Karl Striedieck's 1977 record by 12.3km. His average speed was155.3km/h. Tom has 14 national and two other world records, is the only pilot to have gained AllThree Diamonds in a Schweizer 1-26 and the only one to fly a 1000km speed triangle in the USA.Preparedness: World record flights arenow so great a distance that a pilot mustbe assured of enough daylight hours tocomplete his task. For this reason, therecord season in the eastem UnitedStates is limited to early fall and latespring. Flights begin during (he twilighthours, and sailplane prepara'tion begins inthe predawn darkness. Typical take-offtimes will be around 5am so the pilot andcrew will begin their tasks well beforethat.Social life nilA serious pilot will develop a disciplinedregimen of very early to bed, veryearly to rise, exercise, and diet during theweeks before and during the record season.Friends and relatives are understandingwhen it looks like a possible record dayand pilots and crew go to bed at 8.30pmand social engagements are broken theday before a cold front comes through.To reduce the preparation time on themorning of a record flight, the sailplane iskept assembled; antifreeze for the waterballastis measured; batteries arecharged; warm clothing, maps and flightdeclarations are organised and any otheradvanced flight preparations that can bemade are done,Weather: We watch morning and eveningweather programmes on television andkeep a close watch on favourable weatherpatterns as they approach the easternUnited States. If an especially good systemdevelops we go to the university Metdepartment to look at the maps and data.The head of the department has evenissued us our own key to the building sowe can get in during hours they are normallyclosed.Early startThe morning of a record flight beginsat 3am by listening to a weather alertradio. If this sounds promising, we thenphone the FAA flight service station toget the weather reports along ourintended flight path.All of this is how it is supposed to work.Sometimes a weather system sneaks in, ordevelops in such a way that we don'tTom after his epic flight.expect record soaring conditions.We had kept the Nimbus assembled,ready to go, for ten days before therecord day. It was scheduled to rain allday Sunday, ·as a low pressure areamoved up the Atlantic coast, so we tookthe four outer panels off the wings andput the Nimbus in the hangar.Five after recordsSunday it did rain so we took a day off.Sunday evening several of the pilots wentto the Met department. There were fivepilots at the glidcrport who were aspiringfor their 1000km flight, plus KarlStriedieck who was watching tlile weatherfor a long triangle flight. They all decidedthat Monday's winds would be too north- .erly. pilots who lived distances away \Calledtheir flight service stations and got thesame forecast.I knew about the low pressure systemand didn't expect anything great from itso didn't watch the weather. Several of uswent to a play and then had a late dinner.I got to bed after midnight.At 4.30am my internal alarm went offand I woke to a strong wind blowingagainst the hOllse. The weather ·alertradio was calling for strong winds and aquick phone call to flight service confirmedthat the winds were blowingstrong all along the mountains clear downto Knoxville, Tennessee.We were getting a late start, but DorisGrove and I rushed to ,the gIiderport andwoke up the pilots who were staying inthe bunkhouse and our mobile home onthe gliderport. We alsoca'lled the localmotels where p.ilots were staying. Thanksto other practice runs over the years,things went quickly and I was able tobegin the aerotow to my remote startpoint 91km away at Williamsport before7.30am. I could have launched llhhrsearlier.Snow showerSnow showers obstructed our flightpath as we towed towards Williamsport.The tow pilot mentioned tha;t we mighthave to turn back. We descended toabout 700ft above the ground to maintainground contact as we flew through a snowshower at Lock Haven. I released fromtow at 7.50am and raced tbe tow,planeback towards Ridge Soaring Gliderport.The map oftne route.Alan Sands from Ireland, in a Kestrel19, and David Noyes in an ASW-19took-off from the gliderport at 8am as Iwas approaching Howard dam. Alan was,150SAILPLANE & GLIDING