Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 4, 2013 - 07:21pm PT
I took a sailplane ride a decade ago. I was really happy when it ended because it felt like the thing was going to drop out of the sky like an anvil if we lost lift at anytime. I ran across this video by accident; I wasn't looking for porn... really. I can't believe this kid can do these things with such an aircraft. Wow.
He's just doing a series of basic maneuvers, nothing special.
One maneuver in the beginning looks like he departed from controlled flight, not a big deal in the right air frame.
One of the planes that I flew required 10,000 feet to recover if you departed from controlled flight. Obviously, in his glider it was no big deal to recover. It's all air frame-dependent.
I've been past Mach 1.0 and have pulled 7.5 Gs. Can't imagine staying awake for 9 Gs.
He's obviously pretty good but he's the big fish in a pretty small pond.
World champion glider pilots in the normal catagories are more impressive IMHO.
Flying the length of the Sierras or the South Island of New Zealand are
really damn impressive.
Let us know!