Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Glider video

Lots of you folks have probably seen gliders buzzing the Whitney summit, but I’ve never seen them buzz LBSL……yikes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjTmNJmJXbk

woooooooooooooooow!

Whoa. Like one word is all that comes to mind....

OMG!!! WOOOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both awesome views and, from my perspective as a non-aviator, some pretty close calls, esp. threading the needle down through that final drainage chute what looked to be VERY close to the ground at times!!

CaT

I was on the summit on August 20th, and as I was walking out of the shelter I was startled to see a glider come so close to the summit I think I could have looked in the cockpit and identified the pilot.

I almost thought that this video was recorded on that day, but the sky was clearer on the 20th.

Honestly, I think it's crazy coming so close to Whitney or any summit in this area; the thermals in the Owens Valley can be unpredictable at times. If this continues, it's only going to be a matter of time before there's an accident. Hopefully it won't be on a day when there are a lot of hikers on the mountain.

That was FREAKIN COOL! Next best thing to a zip line.

that was pretty fricken awsome video right there. i dont know much about piloting and airplanes but it looked very dangerous though, haha.

nice !!

Outstanding. Excellent. Thank you.

I don't think that's too cool. It's insane and reckless. Not sure I would appreciate that if I were standing at the summit or LBSL when that thing whizzed by so low.

I'm with you, Quandary98. Many years ago, I was standing on top of a popular San Diego County peak (elev 5730') with 15-20 other people when some fool in a single-engine plane like a Cessna buzzed the summit so close I could clearly see him laughing at us as most of us ducked instinctively. Wish I'd had the presence of mind to get his registration number and report him to the FAA for his dangerous and illegal stunt.

I'm sure this is still the rule for all aircraft. Some others may know if there are different rules over National or State parks.

The FAA requires pilots to maintain a minimum altitude of 500 feet above vehicles, structures, and people. In congested areas it requires an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

As a quondam sailplane pilot, I can assure you that the plane wasn't as close to the ground as you might think. When it was traveling down-canyon, over LBSL, it was gaining a lot of speed, which allowed it to gain plenty of altitude to surmount the final ridge.

The Duo Discus, which has a wingspan of 65.5 feet, is a two-man plane with tandem seating and a glide ratio of 44:1--that means it can lose as little as about 2.25 feet for each 100 feet of forward travel. Given the steepness of the terrain in the LBSL area, that allowed a good margin of safety, even in a downdraft.

By the way, the strange sound on the video was the variometer, a device that measures to what extent the air mass you're in is moving up or down. A high-pitched sound means you're in rising air; a low-pitched sound means you're in sinking air. A separate instrument, the altimeter, tells you whether the plane itself is going up or down relative to the ground.

(You can descend in air that itself is rising but pushing the plane's nose down, and you can ascend in a downdraft by pulling back on the stick--provided you've built up enough speed, of course.)

I for one would love to sign on for a flight like that!

Edit (after reading below): Doggone, Beach! That looks like the best place to snorkel. Incredible pictures!
I'll sign up for one of those trips, too.

That is darn cool. As a professional aviator, but not a glider pilot, I would trust the judgment of that glider pilot. He was obviously experienced..you don't fly over that terrain with the kind of comfort level he was exhibiting without a good bit of experience. He had an obvious knowledge of the capabilities of his aircraft..although I'll asterisk that with the known fact that mountain turbulence can be unpredictable and can quickly "smite thee". Judging from the video though..the guys had a ton of kinetic energy at their disposal throughout the video..and particularly during the run downhill through the North Fork. Again, not being a glider pilot I wonder if they had to use speed brakes or lift dump devices in order to actually maintain speed below red-line during that steep descent. If so, they had even more margin for error with regards to kinetic energy since cleaning up would have made them even more slippery (if they did indeed have a drag device out).

What I'm curious about..is how they got up to 14K+ in the first place. I know sailplanes are easily capable of that..but I'd be interested to know how high they were towed initially (unless it is a motor-glider?)..and from what airport they departed and landed.

In any case..sign me up! Man..what a cool ride.. And a sailplane is far less obtrusive than a piston or jet aircraft. It would be wonderful to see one from anywhere on the mountain. But then again - I'm biased..

Regards...
Chris

(Yeah..I'm doing great! Marisa and I went to Puerto Aventuras for a little excursion last week..photos here: http://tinyurl.com/rcjbyh )

Rock on glider pilot!

Great photos Chris!

When I saw the glider on August 20th, I didn't see where he started from or how he initially got to that elevation, but I watched him for a while after he left the summit area. He went back over the Owens Valley and started climbing again in a spiral pattern.

I couldn't believe how much higher he went! The glider was so high I could barely see it when he stopped the spiral climb and then headed south.

However, whether he had 500 feet clearance when he flew over the summit, I don’t know… it was pretty disconcerting to see something appear like that so unexpectedly.

AV8R,
Wow, your Caribbean photography is spectacular!
The turtle photos are surreal.
Do you mind sharing what type of equipment is necessary to get such great underwater pictures?

AV8R, Great pics. A few IDs; French Angel (not Queen), Honeycomb Trunkfish, Bristleworm/Fireworm, do not touch! Extremely painful. Nice turtle pics.

Thanks rosabella. Good post.

Many--maybe most--of the sailplanes seen over the Sierra take off from Minden in Nevada. The place is famous for flights in the Sierra wave, smooth air that you ride up like an elevator, while your sailplane seems to be stationary over the ground. Sailplanes have reached 40,000 feet in the wave.

No, the Duo Discus is not a motorglider, and it certainly would not have been towed up to Whitney's height because the cropduster-style planes used to tow sailplanes would have trouble reaching that height. Probably the sailplane was towed no more than 3,000 feet above the elevation of its airport, and from there it only would have needed one or two good thermals--or one wave--to get to 15,000 feet.