Hungarian world record on 1250 kilometre triangles

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jbreznai
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Hungarian world record on 1250 kilometre triangles

Post by jbreznai » Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:42 am

I believe it this world record report for everybody interesting


GLIDING WORLD RECORD OVER A TRIANGULAR COURSE OF 1250KM

19th December 2007. Bitterwasser, Namibia (southern latitude 23° 52.617’, eastern longitude 17° 59.317’, elevation 1256 m). It is a glorious day in the history of Hungarian gliding. The Hungarian world record rises again, after 71 years!
In the morning, a plane took off to determine the gradient and woke me up at half past 7. I took a look at the thermometer, it showed 24°C, and at the hygrometer, which showed 25% relative humidity, the wind is mild, blowing from a north-easterly direction. I know from experience that this data is the sign of good weather (in the morning air must be dry and hot). Before breakfast I start preparing my plane for the flight (its type: Nimbus-4T, registration marks: HA-3176, competition number: XX).
Breakfast is at 8 o’clock, and at 9 am a briefing starts, which contains a detailed meteorological guide. This weather forecast makes me affirm my decision that here’s the favourable opportunity for the flight of the 1250 km long triangle, which means a new Hungarian record and the 1250 km FAI certificate.
The flight of 1250 km distance is possible in just a few places all over the world. One of these suitable places is Bitterwasser, however only from mid-December until the end of the month. It’s also to be known that as we’re in the tropical area (the tropic of Capricorn is 42 km to the north), the time available for the rise of the thermals rarely exceeds 9 hours, because daytime is less than at the end of June at home, so we have to hurry up, and only those who approach the world record speed can succeed. It’s not by chance that the number of those who own the 1000 km certificate exceeds 500, while the 1250 km certificate is owned by just 7 in the world. So this distance, because of its difficulty, is an achievement.
For a record attempt it’s extremely important to choose the appropriate course and the plan. Personal experience and studying other pilots’ flights can assist us in this work. I’ve been twice to South-Africa and I’m here for the second time in Namibia. All four occasions (occasionally I spent 1.5-2 months flying) I succeeded to fly several Hungarian records, so I’ve already achieved the personal experience. With the help of the year-round OLC contests I could study other pilots’ flights. The data are available through the internet, and I can analyze them with my software.
In December last year, here in Bitterwasser, a Slovenian-German pair flew two 1250 km triangles in the German’s two-seater ASH25-EB28, flying at a speed of 142.82 km/h, and on the second day 143.28 km/h, which didn’t drop much behind Hans-Werner’s world record, which at that time was still valid. Studying these 2 flights was very useful for me. That day a number of pilots flew in OLC as well. Many of us has a low opinion of the OLC pilots (they fly just to directions, where good weather exists), but for me they were pretty useful, since their route showed me where above-average weather is common. Of course when I plan my record attempt I pay attention to this data.
I planned the courses at home with the help of my PC, then I printed them off onto a piece of paper, so at the start, when I enter the plan into the data recorder, I already possess data. I planned two 1250 km triangular tasks. One of them was starting from the northwest, the other from the northeast. Finally the latter was performed. During the planning I had to point out my own extra turning points in the official turning point database in order to match the FAI regulations (the shortest leg of the triangle under 750 km can not be less than 28% of the total distance).
I was ready to start by 10 o’clock. By this time, most of the gliders were there and had started to take-off. There was no cloud, the sky was entirely blue. I entered the plan into both of my data recorders and into my PDA, then I filled in the obligatory pre-declaration form and I handed it to the observer.
I chose the following task: Bitterwasser hangar (S 23° 51.850’ E 017° 59.367’) – 1250T4 (S 23° 10.000’ E 016° 20.000’) – Asbospan (S 26° 38.000’ E 016° 37.000’) – 1250T5 (S 24° 52.500’ E120° 19.500’) – Bitterwasser hangar, 1253.00 km over a triangular course. Start in the leg of the triangle.
In belief that “Good preparation is almost full success”, I took off at 10:22am.
After leaving there was still no cloud, but the gliders that took off before showed the climb. After a short climb, I switched on the motor for 1-2 minutes, in order to let the data-recorder register the engine noise in accordance with the record terms. There is 2-3 m of climbing and far away in the northeast and northwest above the mountains I notice the first clouds in the direction of the turning point. A trusting feeling overcomes me: the plan was properly chosen. I do my best to fly as high as possible and to get into the departure position. I see, behind my starting point an ASH-25 spirals. I fly over the starting line at 10:53 at 2850 meters (each height in this article is measured in QNH), and I’m heading below the ASH. The first turning point’s direction is 279 degrees (in Namibia the value of declination is significant, -15 degrees); distance is 185.9 km.
Below the ASH I’m welcomed by a 3-4 m/s climb. I lift up to 3450 m and start on my course, of course alone into the blue, since the ASH heads elsewhere. The nearest cloud is about 140-150 km away (in the deserted area the sight distance is 300-400 km because of the dryness of the air). In the blue I try to fly the fastest between the heights of 2800 m and 3600 m. I stop climbing. As the climbing lessens, I stop it and I glide ahead, during which I pay attention to the second leg’s weather. It is a relief to see that above the mountains in a southerly direction the clouds look pretty good. I can hardly wait to reach the clouds. As I’m approaching the mountains, the altitude of the ground level is increasing, so my altitude above the sea level is decreasing, which is a bit nerve-racking, but I manage to fly as high as possible to reach the clouds. They are alive and lift, but I go through them, and I head towards the most beautiful, under which there is 5-6 m/s, I climb to 4450 m and start breathing oxygen to keep alert. I glide ahead towards the next turning point, now with increased speed. Before the turning point I climb to 4700 m at 4-5 m/s, here is the cloud base. I reach the turning point at 4400 m, at 12:26. The average speed of the first leg is 119.23 km/h, the average climbing rate is 2.5 m/s, the average glide ratio is 51.6. I turn to the second leg. The direction of the second turning point is 161 degrees, its distance 385.1 km. As I turn in that direction, the convergence line’s panorama bursts upon my sight. The design of the task was correct, as in fact it lies on the course and I’ll run through it. I start the dolphin flying. The view is tremendously beautiful. On the right the Namibian desert, on the left the Kalahari desert, under me the dividing mountains, above me the clouds. There is no greenery on the mountains, just stones and cliffs. The clouds, with short breaks, go through the course. Seldom have I had to stop to climb, but I do this only when the variometer stops at a higher value. My average speed is continuously increasing (I see this on one of my on-board computers and on my PDA). Near the second turning point the cloud base rises at 5200 m and 40 km before it as I look at my PDA, I see that I have obtained the present world record speed: 149.2 km/h. Before this the world record was held by Hans-Werner Grosse for about 20 years, at 143.46 km/h, which he flew by his two-seater ASH-25, in Australia above the desert, in the middle of the continent, taking off from Alice Springs. This record was beaten in July 2007, in Ely, Nevada, USA by the American billionaire, Steve Fosset accompanied by Terry Delore from New Zealand, by the two-seater ASH-25 owned by the American. This duo has achieved a number of world records, mainly in Argentina in waves. The New Zealander pilot was previously a world record holder by himself, but the American pilot has never been alone in gliding before.
I read one of the statements of Fosset two or three months ago, saying that while they are flying together, they shared the tasks between themselves in the sky. It is doubtless an advantage against those who fly alone, and it’s possible that when the two pilots co-operate successfully, the chance of making mistakes is lessened. I noticed after landing, that my bottle was full, so I didn’t drink even a sip of water (which is totally wrong), because I was so focused on the challenge, that I didn’t even feel thirsty. But there is a disadvantage, because the cabin of the double-seater is wider, so at a higher speed, and in case of setting a world record, the gliding speed is really high, the drag is bigger than that of the single-seater, so the glide ratio of double-seater planes is less.
For me the stake started to increase steadily, mainly when I looked at the next log and saw that the weather there is also pretty good, as far as I could see the sky was full of clouds, the base of which was at 5200 m. I started to realize the possibility of setting up a world record. I reached the turning point at 14:40 at 4250 m high. The average speed of the second leg was 172.46 km/h, average climbing was at 3.3 m/s and average glide ratio was 103.9.
I turned to the following leg, the direction of the third turning point was 48 degree, and distance was 419.9 km. At the beginning I could make dolphin flying, but I went forward, I found blue holes, I had to glide through, so I dipped, but I always succeeded in climbing for a while. It was similar to what I found abeam of Keetmanshoop, both variometer was swung up at the maximum value, the average showed 6 m/s for a long time. I read the average speed from the PDA, it showed 155 km/h, and I was so high! At this point I started to believe in flying a world record, in spite of that the weather started to deteriorate at the border of Botswana, the cloud base sank, but I found some 3 m/s lifts and managed to reach 4400 m.
I could climb until 15 km before the turning point, however the cloud base was just at 3900 m, the clouds were thinning and didn’t help me to climb. I reached the third turning point at 17:23 at 3300 m. The PDA showed that the average speed was 153 km/h. The average speed of the log was 154.57 km/h, the average climbing was 3.6 m/s, the average glide ratio was 55.1. The next leg was the last, direction is Bitterwasser at 280 degree, the distance was just 262.1 km. The picture in front of me was not especially reassuring as the beautiful clouds were far from me, I couldn’t reach them from that particular height. If I had stopped climbing in small lifts, I would have lost the world record. I attempted to glide by the Nimbus at the lowest dipping I could, keeping the altitude, trying to reach the highest glide ratio and even if I had to stop climbing, just the minimum to reach the good weather. The climbs were short and tight, as I reached the cloud base it didn’t lift, so I just flew through them, but there was keeping under them. I pushed myself forward 120-130 km. The manoeuvre was successful, but the 15-20 km/h tailwind was a great help in this. I reached the good weather at 130 km from Bitterwasser, and at 2300 m high I caught a 4-4.5 m/s lift and I climbed to 3850 m, and as it started to deteriorate I went ahead. After this climb the average speed decreased to 150 km/h. I only needed to make one last climb and I’d get home. As I was gliding the average speed increased and I constantly kept an eye on the PDA. I tried not to stop and to find the last big climb. I caught it 75 km before the finish line, and I climbed to 4100 m and started my final glide. I had nothing in front of me, because the northwest part of the convergence line was overdevelop, became thundery and the thunder cap shaded Bitterwasser. This over shading had begun at about 35-40 km before the finish. At the end of the climb the average speed fell back to 149 km/h (according to the rules I had to beat the last record by 1 km/h), but I was relaxed, because I knew that during the final glide it was going to rise. That’s how it happened, as I was gliding ahead it increased, so I reached 150 km/h again. My speed, according to the instruments, was 160 km/h as I approached Bitterwasser I got higher on the gliding line, because I took advantage of the small lifts as well. I increased the gliding speed to 180 km/h, the over ground speed was about 230-240 km/h. The average speed according to my PDA exceeded 151 km/h. I needed to be careful, because I must not cross the finish line under 1858 m (Crossing the start and the finish line with no more than 1000 m difference in altitude). The computer showed that with these circumstances I began to get over the glide path after all. The speed was 220-230 km/h, the over ground speed increased to 260-270 km/h. Then finally I arrived home, I crossed the finish line at 19:09 at 1910 m high. The PDA showed that the speed was 151.9 km/h, the average speed of the last log was 148.87 km/h, average climb was 2.5 m/s, average glide ratio was 59.9, the average speed of the whole flight was 151.52 km/h. It is a new world record! Average climb was 3.0 m/s, average glide ratio was 65.0.
I landed at 19:16, sunset was at 19:34. The challenge took 8 hours 16 minutes, the duration of the flight was nearly 9 hours. When the plane stopped, I felt incredible happiness. I flew a speed world record over a triangular course of 1250 km, FAI diploma and 5 Hungarian national records. As this is the longest distance a Hungarian glider has ever flown, it satisfies more record criteria.
These are the followings:
- Distance record over free triangle
- Distance record over maximum 3 free turning points
- Distance record over maximum 3 declared turning points
- Distance record over declared triangle
- Speed record over a triangular course of 1250 km
The world record is the greatest professional achievement, because there’s no one better in the world. It’s the desire of all the pilots. I believe I reached the top of my career as a pilot. It was well worth to bear for this day.
In Bitterwasser, receiving the 1000 km diploma and the world record comes with a wonderful habit, planting a palm tree. There’s a plaque at the foot of the palm tree marking the name of the pilot, his achievements and the date of flying. I also got a beautiful palm tree that I planted ceremoniously among the others planted by world record holders. I’d like to ask everyone who reads this report and ever goes to Bitterwasser, please water my palm tree!

Bitterwasser, Christmas 2007.
Laszlo Hegedus

MALEV Aero Club

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