Looks too much fun to be legal.
Discussion
surely they were going way too close to those cliffs for safety unpowered?
They had looooooooads of ridge lift from an onshore breeze (wind comes in from sea, hits cliffs, rises, glider wants to rise with it). Enabled them to convert all of that lift-energy into airspeed, i.e. instead of using the rising air to lift the glider, a lower nose attitude uses it to make the glider fly faster while remaining at a constant-ish height. This allowed them to go forward at Warp 9 (in glider terms) while giving them a safety margin to convert speed back to height and climb clear of the cliffs if for any reason the rising air they were running in, err, stopped rising.
Blimey @ 5:10...
speedtwelve said:
They had looooooooads of ridge lift from an onshore breeze (wind comes in from sea, hits cliffs, rises, glider wants to rise with it). Enabled them to convert all of that lift-energy into airspeed, i.e. instead of using the rising air to lift the glider, a lower nose attitude uses it to make the glider fly faster while remaining at a constant-ish height. This allowed them to go forward at Warp 9 (in glider terms) while giving them a safety margin to convert speed back to height and climb clear of the cliffs if for any reason the rising air they were running in, err, stopped rising.
My concern would be not height but being slammed sideways into the cliff by turbulence or a sudden change in the terrain. Wouldn't they need a bootful of rudder to keep from being blown sideways into the cliff? One wingtip touch could slew you straight in.Simpo Two said:
Blimey @ 5:10...
Don't forget the wind is being deflected upwards by the cliff face at that point, so it's not as if it's 100% wind into the cliff face. You can see the amount of reflex on the inner control surfaces (they are pointing upwards for most of the slope runs), so that tells you there is tons of lift - he's effectively making the wing lose lift in order to gain more speed, and he's still not losing altitude.speedtwelve said:
They had looooooooads of ridge lift from an onshore breeze (wind comes in from sea, hits cliffs, rises, glider wants to rise with it). Enabled them to convert all of that lift-energy into airspeed, i.e. instead of using the rising air to lift the glider, a lower nose attitude uses it to make the glider fly faster while remaining at a constant-ish height. This allowed them to go forward at Warp 9 (in glider terms) while giving them a safety margin to convert speed back to height and climb clear of the cliffs if for any reason the rising air they were running in, err, stopped rising.
My concern would be not height but being slammed sideways into the cliff by turbulence or a sudden change in the terrain. Wouldn't they need a bootful of rudder to keep from being blown sideways into the cliff? One wingtip touch could slew you straight in.dr_gn said:
Don't forget the wind is being deflected upwards by the cliff face at that point, so it's not as if it's 100% wind into the cliff face. You can see the amount of reflex on the inner control surfaces (they are pointing upwards for most of the slope runs), so that tells you there is tons of lift - he's effectively making the wing lose lift in order to gain more speed, and he's still not losing altitude.
Yep, I know the up/down bit is sorted but the wind isn't going straight up; you'll need a lateral input too.Simpo
I agree it looks bloody turbulent, and it does look like the lead is cutting his margins quite fine with the wingtip clearance on the ridge. I wouldn't like to judge the separation on a 50-60'+ wingspan that close to a ridge myself.
Haven't done any civilian gliding myself, but a fair bit as a cadet in the distant past. Been ridge soaring a couple of times, and did get eye-poppingly close to some granite to stay in lift. Don't recall much lateral turbulence, but it was a lot smoother than it looks in the video.
I agree it looks bloody turbulent, and it does look like the lead is cutting his margins quite fine with the wingtip clearance on the ridge. I wouldn't like to judge the separation on a 50-60'+ wingspan that close to a ridge myself.
Haven't done any civilian gliding myself, but a fair bit as a cadet in the distant past. Been ridge soaring a couple of times, and did get eye-poppingly close to some granite to stay in lift. Don't recall much lateral turbulence, but it was a lot smoother than it looks in the video.
Edited by speedtwelve on Saturday 6th August 23:32
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