Sorry I didn't have my video camera running the 2 minutes before this video started but I was flying for my life. I was flying my high performance glider (sailplane) in the Salt River Mountains near Afton, Wyoming when I hit an extreme pocket of descending air that made me fly for my life out through a side canyon. Unfortunately the down air was also in the canyon so I didn't know if I would make it out for a little while. Luckily, my ASW27 is a very capable and high performance machine and I was able to fly to the safety of the valley below. I have several thousand hours flying gliders and planes in the mountains and this was a good reminder to not get complacent and remember that if you fly enough, you will encounter more extreme lift and sink at some point and to keep your margins plenty wide to handle any situation you encounter. Thanks for watching! Bruno
As a flatland pilot, I learnt about sink in the mountains in one of my first mountain flights. We were just flying locally on a ridge with its top around 800 metres AGL. Very windy, around 50km/h. We were at around 1000 metres when we let the wind push us a bit to the lee side. I was in a Blanik with a low-experience pilot, and besides us was a friend on a Cirrus. As we headed upwind towards the ridge, the Cirrus was some 50 metres above us. Suddenly we started to lose height very quickly, and it became apparent that we would not pass the ridge (the Cirrus had no issue whatsoever and barely lost any height). We started a shallow turn and the Blanik, one of the nicest gliders you'll ever fly, stalled badly and spun. By the time we levelled we were at 500 metres. I was already looking to put the glider in a small road that was below us when the other pilot noticed that some smaller hills behind the big hill were giving some lift. So we ended up riding the small lift and were able to "turn the corner" and return to the main ridge. Very very scary, and lucky in the end.
Wow what a story! I bet that took you a while to recover from. Glad it turned ok for you. Mountain flying is incredibly rewarding but at the same time is very unforgiving. Thanks for sharing!
Never fly a glider too slow. Especially not a Blanik in a turn
@@Fatamorgana7iflyMy friend, the Blanik is extremely forgiving and stalls gently unless you coax it forcefully into a spin (source: I've flown many hundreds of hours in it, both as a pilot and as an instructor). And we were not flying "too slow". The glider stalled because it entered the downwash on the lee side so the relative wind changed suddenly. We lost 500 metres in half a turn.
You have years of experience and a great ship! Glad things worked out in your favor!
Stay safe for us Bruno.
Congratulations you are now qualified for low level flying at the Mach Loop! 😊
Can be good to get a reminder that a few imperfect decisions can lead to an irreversible situation.
Glad you made it out!
Thanx for sharing B4!
Glad you're safe. Perhaps it was a good thing for us not to see that scary moment!
Scary stuff! Glad you got out of it.
Sometimes is better to be lucky than good!!! Nice save.
Man this is low. Glad you are safe.
Yaowzeers ! I was sweating right along with you Bruno !
That is why i am affraid of flying in the mountains...........first moment it is paradise and munute later is hell....greta it worked out for you Greatings from Slovenija
Yeah, really a pity there isn't video of what leads up to that, because at the start of the video it looks fine (certainly after ten seconds, when we can see all the way to the flat land), and at the end you're only a bit over 300 ft lower than at the start -- which is basically what two minutes of flying fairly fast in (on average) neutral air will do to you anyway.
Your vario wasn’t singing a great tune! Glad you made it out safely 👍🏻
new Panel, nice
You noticed...haha Don't tell my wife ;)
Man, 20-30 seconds at the start loosing 200ft after the drop heading about 80kn and still took another 20 kn and 20 seconds to find the lift crazy
Been there, done that... once or twice. Not fun!!! At least from the video, it looks like you can reach the flat lands even at 100 kts.
Fear is ok. Panic is bad.
What model sailplane do you fly?
Well…great job making out alive…you made it look easy as usual. We didn’t even hear any praying, crying or cussing. Lol 👍
No sign of Virga in the area? Something collapsed above you to create that much wide spread sink.
Super cool video. Did you manage to get back to altitude once you got down to the valley? Or did you end up landing out?
Got back up and then flew another 4 hours that day. Thanks for watching.
Scary indeed. Any ideas what caused this pocket of "extreme descending air".... given that the cumuli at the end of the clip look all sweet and innocent.
What if you had not made it out? Are there rules of thumb for where to "land" the glider in such terrain?
There is really no good way to land in terrain like that. If you have to crash, it's best to be going wings level as slow as possible. Flying up hill and into the trees might be the solution. Judging from the video, Bruno was in range of the flat lands even at high speed.
Gliders are so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A rotor.
You certainly flying too low with no way out of the long valley.
Was this recent…..like today?
A flight at the end of June
Consider adding an engine.,It can help you get out of these situations.
In theory, yes. However, the engines for gliders are heavy and quite unreliable. I've heard many stories from my gliding instructor who had flown hundreds of hours with pilot students in a Duo Discus with a sustainer engine. It takes at least up to a minute for the engine bay to open and the engine to start up and during that time there's hell lot of drag making the situation even much worse. Sometimes the engine fails or doesn't have enough power to actually maintain positive rate of climb, so you have to land out anyway. Keep looking for your field while trying to start up the engine 😅 Might be better if it's a self-launch capable engine, but sustainer engines are barely worth it I think.
I would not try to lift up an engine and have it running in strong sink and over an unlandable area. And if it is a sustainer, well, it adds + 0,8m/s at the best (personal experience of a few days ago in a Duo Discus XLT)
Consider beeing more cautious before entering a "no future path"