rl@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Robert Langridge%CGL) (01/20/86)
It is amusing to ask people who are not acquainted with sailplane records to guess the numbers. Non-pilots always guess way under, by large margins, but I find that even many power pilots don't know, and are often quite surprised. So at the risk of boring the cognoscenti out there, here are the figures from my 1984 SSA Membership Handbook, which I think are still valid: DISTANCE IN A STRAIGHT LINE: 907.7 miles, H-W Grosse (Germany), 1972 DISTANCE OUT AND RETURN: 1022.58 miles, T Knauff (USA), 1983 ALTITUDE GAIN: 42,303 ft, P Bikle (USA), 1961 These records are interesting because they illustrate the three main types of lift used by sailplanes: Grosse: Convective (thermals) Knauff: Orographic (ridge lift, though with some wave) Bikle: Lee wave Grosse flew from the Baltic coast of Germany to the Atlantic coast of France, mainly following cumulus streets. Knauff ran the Allegheny ridge out and back from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. Bikle flew the Sierra wave from Bishop, California. All these records are fabulous achievements, but Bikle's is extraordinary, since on 25 Feb 1986 it will have stood for 25 years. His ABSOLUTE altitude on that flight reached 46,267 ft! To break it, pressurisation will be required. For those who might be wondering, the duration record was abandoned decades ago, as it only measured how long the pilot could stay awake. I think 56 hrs was the last official time. Biographical note: My own best is 51 miles, 7000 ft and 5 3/4 hrs for an FAI Silver C in 1974. Peanuts by comparison with the records, but I had a helluva good time doing it, and squeezing out 51 miles in a sailplane from Central New Jersey without running into the New York or Philadelphia TCAs or the Atlantic ain't easy, I can tell you! (In fact, finding cumulus bases above 7000 ft in NJ is something of a miracle too :-) Bob Langridge rl@ucsfcgl (ARPA, UUCP, BITNET) Computer Graphics Laboratory University of California +1 415 476 2630 San Francisco CA 94143 +1 415 476 1540