Inspiring and explaining the miracle of silent flight without an engine.
How can planes without engines stay up for hours? How can they fly hundreds - even thousands - of kilometers in a single flight? Where does all the energy come from? How can pilots detect where to find it? How can they use it most effectively?
Are you curious about these questions? Maybe the sport of flying sailplanes is something for you? Come join me and find out!
Hi Clemens, thanks for making this video of your flight. I particularly appreciate the way you shared the thought processes you were having and your observations about the weather along the way. A few tense moments with the cirrus, virga and end of the day fluky lift kept me cheering for you as each one was overcome.
This is amazing! I've learned so much in the last 58 minutes! It's truly fascinating to see your reasoning and how much there is to know about the air! Instant sub!
Watched most all of the “Chess In The Air” videos at least several times and “Wave, Rotor, Convergence, and Thermals” four times. Thank you so much for putting these excellent videos together with accompanying dialogue.
I knew IL, and I still think about his accident a lot. At one point, we were both members of Piedmont Soaring in NC. Did you guys get to talk about this amazing flight after it happened? Congrats! No doubt his accident had an effect on you. On later flights, have you had to implement any of your new contingency plans such as 3k AGL arrival to the home airport due to bad weather, or 1000AGL on final? I'm curious if you feel like any of the things listed on your website should have been applied to this flight?
I'm kinda late to this party, but this is a great video! I'm just starting to learn cross-country. I'm curious, it didn't look like you were banked at a very steep angle in the weak lift that you had; is that a strategy for weak lift? If so, why?
No, its not a strategy. It's just that weak lift often lacks a really well defined core. The pilot will be unsatisfied with the rate of climb and always try to find a better center. This perpetual search for improvement tends to lead to lower banking and may actually cause the climb rate to be worse than it could be. Conversely, if a thermal is strong with a clear core you can easily feel it and you will naturally bank hard to stay in the center. But I will also say there are days when thermals tend to be wider, and days when they are narrower. And they're not all the same anyway. So it's hard to over generalize. On average, the best climb rates tend to be achieved at a 40-45 degree bank flown a few knots above stall speed. But the best results differ from thermal to thermal. A good tool to see how you're doing is the "coach" feature of WeGlide (it's a subscription-only feature). It will analyze every climb in your flight and show you how tightly you turned (it will give the actual turn radius - the best measure since it is a function of speed and bank). Make sure you provide the correct weight of the glider as the best turn radius will be tighter the lower the wing loading. Hope this helps.
Great video, after 18 years of living in Golden, I never flew out of Boulder, all my hours were in So Cal, didn't think they would have the lift there.
Any tow plane pilot has a set of speeds to fly with empty gliders or heavy gliders. If you tell the pilot, I’m heavy or full of water he would know what speed to fly. Even then levels of tug pilot experience can result in slow tows. Glad you survived ok.
This is approximately true but different gliders need different minimum tow speeds. Eg a fully loaded JS3 will need considerably higher tow speeds than a fully loaded Discus. The key reason is the difference in permissible max wing loading.
Congratulations, amazing video, I absolutely loved it. One question: where did you get the accesory to fit the high performance Flarm antenna vertically? (it seems to stick beautifully to the top of the instrument panel)
There are two Flarm antennas on the panel. The one at the front is simply screwed to the panel. The one further back simply is held up by a rubber ring that is a tiny bit smaller than the tip of the antenna. That ring had been installed by a former owner and was just there to protect a cable fed through a hole in the glare shield. It can probably bought at a supply store for electrical hardware but I don’t know. It works. Hope this helps.
How does the task in your oudie know what your finish alt has to be? You would only know this after you started the task. Can you put the finish alt into the task while you are “on task”? Are you using the new oudie N? What a fantastic flight. Congratulations. This video was amazingly educational. Thank you so much for taking the time to put this all together, and sharing it with us.
Thanks! Glad you like it! Since the Oudie knows the start altitude (the actual altitude when crossing the start line) it can calculate the finish altitude by subtracting 1000m. I’ve been using an Oudie IGC and it seems to do this right. Im always a bit careful though and have also tried to do the math in my head to not come back too low. Have not had an issue with this. Hope this helps.
Congratulations for your marvelous and amazing flight!!!! Your video is very well done! All along, I felt like that I was at your place in the cockpit!! Again Bravo and Bravo!!!
Congratulations Clemens on a great flight and nice video. Thought I heard Shmulik's voice on the radio? Brought a tear... Seriously, your vario and audio are horrible! One can get used to almost anything but that's really not OK...
Thanks Dave! Could not agree more about the vario. You'll be pleased to know that I replaced it with an S10. Much better! And yes, you heard Shmulik - 5 days before his death. Very sad and tragic. I referenced it in the video description.
Congratulations. Epic flight and impressive perseverance given the uncertainties at play. Great commentary. And I really appreciate the beautiful scenery of Colorado, which I remember well from my childhood (I was born and grew up in Boulder until the age of 10 and my father was a glider pilot).
Hi Christopher, many thanks for your kind comment. I suspect you must be a close relative of the late Chi Pickett-Heaps. I know too little of the tragic story, but please know that since 1972 our club, the Soaring Society of Boulder, has awarded the Chi Picket-Heaps trophy to pilots who have contributed the most to the sport of soaring. It is our club’s highest honor and as club president it falls to me to give out this award to those who deserve it most. I would love to learn more about the background story. If you don’t mind, I would love to learn more. Please email me at ChessInTheAir@gmail.com if you are willing. Kind regards, Clemens
Congratulations on a great flight! I love your commentary and explanations of the decisions that you were making as you progressed. I often see videos like these in which the pilot makes very sketchy choices that could lead other less experienced pilots into flawed decisions based on bad judgment. Your choices carefully balanced safety and managed risk. Very well done! I am sorry for the loss of your friend.
No particular time reference, just enjoying this again, reminded me of the old Ball & Tounge saying. Step on the Ball! Visually I see it otherwise. Muscle memory knows the answer. If you love aviation, learn how to fly Gliders first (All of the experiences) I't's the best lesson you'll ever need to know about Aviation.
Wow!!! I have just watched your entire video. I don't know how to express my gratitude for this video. I hope to some day fly a 1,000kms triangle myself. You have just taken me through the whole process in impeccable detail. I don't know what is more amazing: the fact that RU-vid has allowed me this experience, the fact that you undertook the entire experience and filmed it - or more important the fact that you narrated your enire thought process. . I have many questions to ask but for now.... I just want to say thank you so much for this video. . I am sorry to hear about Shmuel Dimenstein and my condolences to his family - it is never nice to hear of a fatality in our sport.
Thanks for the kind feedback. I’m not the best pilot but I can remember a time not too long ago when I would have appreciated a video like this as a learning tool. If it helps you and others my objective is accomplished :-). Good luck with your soaring journey!
Thanks for taking us along on the ride. I appreciated the long video and the especially the detailed comments. If I may suggest, chapter marks and showing your position on the track and map more often would help watching it in parts. Oh, and the icing on the cake would be a quick insight in the weather for the day at the beginning. Enjoyed it all and you had me on the edge of my seat around TP3.
Thought I would never make it through a 3 hour video but turned out to be a real nailbiter. Could be the next Netflix box set! Great flight, Challenging sky at the end...perseverance and good decisions paid off, well done and congratulations.
Thanks so much for this inspiring flight! Congratulations! I was watching all the 3 hours and I enjoyed every minute and learned a lot! Especially the race against the cirrus far from home was tense. I will take a lot from this for my future flights! Cheers!
I found your video last night and it kept me up an extra hour. First thing this morning, I finished watching. Congratulations on your task! I am amazed at how hard it was and how you stuck it out for 9 hours! Well Done! Thanks for the video.
