536
km Free Distance on the PW-5
on May 7, 1997
Fri, 9 May 1997
From:
YankeeChas@aol.com
To:
tsielicki@tchr.org
Tomasz,
My new PW5 , N202HB, has had good exercise during the last month at Keystone, PA --- 58.6 hrs of ridge and thermal flying.
7 May, I flew a declared Free Distance of 536 km via three turn points and a photo 'land out'. The flight was Keystone - Hwy 869/Ridge top - Pine Creek/Susquahanna River junction - Hwy 220 overpass near Bedford and then north past Keystone to the Hwy 220/Hwy 80 junction.
The flight was ridge on the first two legs in a 20 to 30kn crosswind. Then it became very turbulent as thermals powered up and so the rest of the flight was flown on ridge generated thermals that had lift of 5 to 11kns max to heights of 7 to 9,000 ft.
The whole flight took 8.33 hrs. It could have been done at least two hours faster if I had had sufficient ridge flying experience. When the photos were developed, they showed I had gone a bridge too far and missed the Hwy 220 overpass (actually flew about 25 km further than declared) -- next time.---
It clearly suggests a PW5 can accomplish 600 to 700 km here on a good ridge day. Will try again next Spring.
Off to the US PW5 competition at Mifflin County Airport tomorrow -- starts Sunday.
Cheers
Charles Yeates
yeatesc@ra.isisnet.com