Thanks for showing this, it was a real nailbiter... I have never been been in a situation like this without an obvious escape route. I think it is very valuable to watch clips like this in case it should happen. Our mountains here in northern Sweden are not as spectacular as Yours, but often outlanding fields can be rather scarce.
Wow- da warst du sicher durchgeschwitzt. Nach der halben Stunde Bodenturnen. Aber super spannend zum ansehen und by the way: Was für ein toller Flieger!
Man, I can feel the tension in this video! I've had a few moments like this, but I've never flown in the mountains. I guess that adds another dimension to it, literally!
Wow ... when I heard your vario sink and then your first escape attempt failed ... I looked down that valley and knew things were serious. Very dramatic. I'm glad things ended well. Thanks for sharing!!
Over 3 decades ago I was hang-gliding in the French Alps and during a fabulous day we (I and my mates) were doing very well, lots of thermals and we were really going X-country at a good altitude. I spotted an advanced glider well below us in trouble similar to this: Very low in a valley with sporadic lift and, most important, no good landing spots for a high-performance glider. I was becoming really worried for my fellow aviator when suddenly the back of the glider opened, an engine popped out and suddenly he was climbing out of harms way. What a relief! I guess that is why he (or she) allowed the situation to deteriorate to this extent in the first place - there always was an alternate available.
An engine in the mountains is in no ways an alternative. Downsink which can be encountered is usually stronger than the climb rate of these engines, and in the worst case (which actually happens quite often depending on the model), the engine won't even start. Relying on an engine with no outlanding option which can be taken if the engine fails is akin to suicide. FES or jet engine is another topic, but regular sustainer or self-launcher...
@@oii_3768, please note I used the word 'alternate' not 'alternative' - a concept in professional aviation for an alternate destination if the primary destination is rendered useless (unexpected weather, runway closed due to a crash, whatever). An escape route. Sure, boxing yourself into what would be a hopeless corner in a non-engine glider, relying solely on an unreliable, low-performance engine is rather unwise. Even more unwise would be to rely on such an 'assist' engine to outperform even mild mountain sink.
@@Halli50 Yes, fortunately most pilots know what they are doing. But I've came across glider pilots with their own self-launcher - mostly fulfilling the cliche of being the rich guy fresh out of a commercial flight school which just got their own glider - where I couldn't help but feel like a hangman hooking them into the tow. If you can't theoretically make it out of your situation with your engine extended and the motor not working, you just made a huge mistake and hopefully have a bucket of equal size filled with good luck. Just my two cents.
Very interesting and stressful indeed. But successfully managed in the end !! 😊2 suggestions : you should definitely fly faster when very close to the ridge . Then if you loose hope and decide at some stage to go towards the landing area , you can fly in the middle of the valley to avoid sink .
u wont get old flying like that... keep an eye on your airspeed especially when you are flying so close to the ridge. Prepare your flight and get knowledge about the wind/weather and the terrain.
That right turn at 1:20 diving over the ridge that was working, right? Then hugging the lee side of that same ridge didn't help either. Only other thing I wonder about where your tight turns while trying to milk the one working ridge you found. I think you want to make very slow, flat turns, but maybe the lifting region was too small for that? Definitely shared that sinking feeling with you and glad you got out OK.
Thank you for your comment. I've tried to work myself up. In the beginning I wanted to stop the sink and then learn how and where the ridge was ging to work... Fortunately the higher I got the better it worked. That is actually normal....
Another video from same location (about minute 18 is where your vid starts): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WhMjGSwjtHo.html If you pass the last col towards La Meije you will encounter often sink in the beginning if the flow is SW like it was during your flight. You got into a short lee and then decided to go completely to the wrong side. A look at the moving cloud shadows would have helped here. It is important to check during the Parcour Royale if the direction is more NW or more SW and depending on this you can spot the places where you should get near the ridge or stay away. The problem is, that northern part of Parcour Royale is one of the most dangerous parts because the only escape is direction Grenoble and outlanding fields are a long way and the first ones are difficult as well. So your total situation you found yourselve in was indeed tight. If you then hit some thermal, and if its only 0.5m, stay with it.
Thank you so much, that goes very well together with my analysis so far.... I had indeed more SW. I will definitly consider the Cloudshadow more in my equation. And yes it was tight and it is a difficult area to be in. I appreciate your comment!
it is easier than it sounds... Like all the LS Gliders the LS 5 is a climber.... you feel the thermals realy well.... 15 Meter Gliders are of course more agile
Hat dein Hawk in dieser Situation was Vernünftiges bezüglich Wind und Thermik angezeigt? Oder hast du nicht draufgeschaut. Mein Flieger ist wesentlich jünger und - je nach Temperatur - knarzt die Haube genauso.
There was an escape route . If you found no lift you could escape by the Vénéon valley to the fields of Le Bourg-d'Oisans , Vizille or even Grenoble Airport at "Le Versoud" . Don't know why you turn to the left at 2:00 instead of going straight ahead to the Barre des Ecrins west ridge . .By the way it's "Parcours royal ".
Jean Marie, merci for your comments... I tried to explain in the Video, that I should have stayed on the main Ridge. Instead I choose to escape above the left Ridge to the West. Bad Plan because I realy went into the downdraft there.... Leaving the Valley direction Bourg-d'Oisans would have been the last option... Foutunately I found some lift. Parcours Royal!
Hallo // woher kommen die dauernden "Knarzgeräusche" im video ? - Zuerst dachte ich an vereinzelte Regentropfen die aus den schweren Cumuli's fallen.......
@@Alpha-III danke für Info // ich hab am NaMi noch was vergessen: bei 15 Min 30Sek hattest Du ja gefühlte + 4m/sek gefunden..... = hat der Lift nicht gereicht, dass Du eine Aussenlandung hättest vermeiden können ?...
Hallo Branislav, the Problem was not the turn to the right @1.20... I should have stayed atthe ridge an not turn to the left @1.57. That turn brought me back into the downdraft....
@@Alpha-III No, my friend. The problem started as soon as you turned right at 1:20 and went behind the ridge into the rotor. When you fly on a ridge, you MUST NOT make a DOWNWIND turn and you did it ! Every turn MUST be IN THE WIND . If your ridge is on the your right side , the turn must be to the left. If your ridge is on the your left side , the turn must be to the right ! Before 01:20, the wind was coming from the left side , and in order to stay on the ridge, you had to make a turn to the left , NOT TO THE RIGHT ! Best regards !
In the beginning of the Clip, I show a map with a reachable outlandingfield.... it is called "Aussenlandefeld" in German language..... That would have been the plan... because no engine....
Its a variometer, shows whether you are rising or sinking. The faster the beep, the faster you are rising, the low frequency noise, no beep shows you are sinking. You can see the variometer on the instrument panel with the needle hovering around the 0 mark but rising up to 2 or 3 metres/sec when the beep was getting faster. When it goes below 0, he is sinking.
I wonder if the standard solution that one could learn from this would be an immediate turn back to neutral waters, as soon as one encounters a sink area like after 1:20 ? Because heading forward and staying in the bad area will get everything quickly worse, as we could see.
actually thats what I tried, I turnen letft to get back to neutral Waters, but things got worse there... I should have calculated the Wind better an stayed on the main Ridge. This is my conclusion...
@@Alpha-III I meant a more extreme turn, a 180-degree-turn at once, at the latest at 1:36. So to say "Uuups, it's bad here, lets go from where I came." That is what I will take away from your valueable video, as a quick resolution for such a problem in dangerous hill areas.
@@berndkorthaus5082 This is realy hard so say, because there are often Situation like this and you can't turn always.... Even after an imidiate turn I would have been to low to jumper back over the Ridge I came from.... Who knows.... Thank you for your comment
@@Alpha-III Das habe ich gefragt zu Walter Schneider in 1976, warum machtest du kein opene classe 20 meter ? Und das antwort war "Nein, das ist zufiel arbeit". Er hat aber diese prototyp gemacht, mit die Fluegel der LS4
Sustainers in mountainous terrain like the Alps are by no means a "get out of jail card". The sink can easily outweigh the meagre 1-2 m/s that a sustainer will give you, and if the damned thing doesn't start you could find yourself in a lot of trouble very quickly.
Ich stelle mir das in einem Holzflieger vor... -4 m/sec d.h. Sinken am Ort, sprich senkrecht nach unten und man hat nichts zum dagegen halten. Hatte ich zum Glück nicht an so einem Ort.
@@wolfgangdoehring4555 ich stell mir das lieber nicht vor.... Ich hätte zur Not noch rechnerisch ein paar Meter Plus auf ein Landefeld gehabt.... Gleitzahl LS 5 ca. 55 zumindest rechnerisch
