Alpine Soaring Mission

[Guest LTn]

Yes, way too high at WPT9. 11,000 feet is enough. Just finished (after a million tries) at 1:04:40 withstart at 3,900 feet. The briefing says: "Skill level: beginner"and "estimated time to complete: 50 min". Is this going to be some dream goal? LarryT

[VIPERGTSR01 22]

>start at 3,900 feet. The briefing says: "Skill level:>beginner">and "estimated time to complete: 50 min". Is this going to be>some >dream goal? >>LarryT Yeah thats wierd, it says beginner and est 50 minutes to complete in the briefing but on the main mission page it says its a "intermediate" level and the description says:"Fly a challenging real-world soaring course in Austria. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 30 minutes."

[Guest b21]

LarryT - if you only climb to 11,000 feet in the stonking thermal before WP9, how fast do you cruise to get home? I know I could improve the time by a couple of mins, but not much beyond that. Do you ridge run all the way to the West and take your first climb just before crossing the high ground to the North. Do you use the flaps? I tried negative flap at high speed but the glide ratio seemed to get *worse* so I've stayed in zero flap. Any other tips?

[Maxloading 0]

1H03:48The key to this record is to arrive asap to Wpt 8 with 10000 feet in hand. Turn left heading 070 towards the ridge at speed of no less than 80 knts. As you get closer you will encounter strong sink, then buffeting and when you thought it was over, the ridge lift will appear. From now on you will never use another thermal; it will be straight all the way to the finish.Flaps to negative and turn slightly towards Wpt 9 and you will be flying all the way along the ridge. There will be 3 waves, your speed will never be less than 90 kts and on the last one you come out at 15200 feet at 110 kts. Always have your next waypoint slightly to the right as they all turn right. Now speed will be on average 110 kts and VNE on the last leg. I wonder who will be the first to crack the Hour !!!For those who thought they are a bit low coming out of WPt 9 (7000 feet circa ); head 180 , speed 80 kts towards the valley. On approaching the ridge on your right you should see a brown patch in the forest. When you are level with it turns towards WPT 10( I know the hill is higher than you), slow down to 60kts flaps down trim the glider. You should get 600fpm and climb over the top of the hill right up to Wpt 11. Isn

[Guest b21]

Haha thanks maxloading - I turned 070 from WP8 and picked up the ridge/wave lift near the north ridge as described, but a little later along the ridge I was perhaps a little lower than you, and never-ending sink just dumped me into the valley - I had to follow the contours of the ridge down, just hoping the ridge lift would pick up, but it never did, and I sank like a rock. I ended up following a road along the valley staying just above ground until a field landing by the river right at WP9. I'm probably the only pilot who's seen WP9 up close... It's a shame because up to there I was haulin ####. And no-one witnessed my miraculous field landing.

[Maxloading 0]

I kwnow that's why it is important to have 10000feet in hand. If you are too low you will not make it. There is a small rock on the left and on the right the beginning of the ridge. Once the wave start, turn towards Wpt9 to continue into the wave. You should be at 14000 feet at the end of the first wave.Stay around 90kts with negative flaps as you will encounter strong sink between wave.The rest should be history.Save the mission at WPT8 with 10000feet. Keep heading 070 until you hit the wave.Keep on trying you will get it in the end.Good luckAlain

[soaring_penguin 428]

Hi,made it the first time with less then 10000 between the eight and ninth, made it just over the coll, practically fell down together with the slope towards the ninth turnpoint, got something above the the ninth, but not enough, so started gliding towards tenth turnpoint, looking for a landing field and luckiliy got a small beep (b21, you must have seen me real close passing over your landing field). Finally made it home with a lot of sweat and clocked just under 2 hours. At home, they call me the Lord of the lower regions :-) .So I could not let that go, second time made sure I was high enough (14 000 ft to be on the safe side, did not read the spoilers above) and made it home 1:07:23 minutes. So there two challenges left : do it within the hour ( I made some mistakes where I could have gone faster ) and disable the thermal markers (wished they existed in real live). regards, Jan

[Guest b21]

Time to clock stop: 01:04:05* immediate start, 3900 feet* no 'save flight' used* bizarrely this time I got the 'mission successful' message on landing but I don't think I did anything different than the other attempts.So maxloading still has the world record I think.jh71 - this time I turned WP8 at 11,400 just to make sure, and got the wave(s) over the North ridge without a problem. When I tried it lower before and ended up lower than the ridgetop, trust me I didn't get a single sniff of lift all the way down to the valley floor.I circled three times in the flight - just before WP4 to 14,500 feet (you get the 'telemetry shows you going up like a rocket' message), then just after WP6 to 14,500 feet, and a little top-up just before WP8 to 11,500 feet. All those thermals were off-the-clock. Using the wave above the ridge is great advice as that saves a climb just after WP8 on the South side of the valley. I reckon I left the wave to run to WP9 at about 15,500 feet.I reckon I could have avoided the couple of turns before WP8 and shaved off a minute, but cracking one hour looks fairly challenging. And as they say in gliding, just because one person does it it doesn't mean it's possible.I haven't discovered how close you have to get to the waypoints to trigger a successful switchover to the next. I lose a little time moving out from the ridge for WP1 but I'm not sure I need to.It's a shame these missions aren't on multiplayer...

[Maxloading 0]

Some, more discoveryThe 17 miles to go to WPt6 is quite a long way and you normally arrive a shade low and to catch the boomer above that rock, next to WPt 6 is tricky and nerve racking especially if you fly against the clock. So, I heading directly for that rock, keep it slightly to the left and I as got closer I aimed about 2/3rd so that I can enter it in a correct way . Just before, there is a ridge and when you cross it will give you a wonderful lift and deliver you straight into the boomer, up to 14000 feet in no time. Get out and go straight to WPt3 ( my time is 30mns from the start) which is 3.2 miles then onto 7,8 without circling.Wpt8 is well known for its SINK

[Guest b21]

quote.....14000 feet in no time. Get out and go straight to WPt3 ( my time is 30mns from the start) which is 3.2 miles...end quote...Did you mean "get out and go straight to WPT6" (not WPT3)?So are you taking the climb *before* WP6?Well done calculating the course length - I did wonder.

[Maxloading 0]

Sorry my mistake it is WPT6, and yes I take the climb before Wpt6.NEW RECORD 1H01:57 The only difference is I started at 10000feet. I only used the boomer on the rock,the rest is as I described before.I have not discovered anything new to Wpt5.It is important to get right in the boomer corectly and cirle at 60kts and also to get out asap towards Wpt6. Do not go round once more for luck you will waste time.The ridge is also crucial.On the second wave I cruise at 100 kts minimum. Keep the altitude about 13000feet and cruise as fast as possible keeping the vario at 0 fpm.I was doing about 120 kts. It is speed versus height.I used negative flat practically all the time except in the thermal. ON the last leg skim the hills; go slightly to the right just above the tree tops,I was flying VNE almost to the end.To go under 1 hour will be very difficult but I will continue to try, time will tell!All the best.Alain

[Guest LTn]

HiI meant that 17000 ft at wp9 was a bit overkill. From 11000 ft it

[Guest b21]

maxloading - thanks for the correction. The 10,000 start thing is a bit of a scam as the start height should have been limited in the mission as it always would be in a real competition. For our comparison I reckon the easiest thing to do would be assume a straight start from the start of the mission. Otherwise we'll get into that *other* standard soaring competition trick of coming through the limited start height gate at VNE. The solution to that in real comps is to limit the max height for a large area around the start. Well done with the latest time - I'm going to try and beat it but I don't see how!I'm not convinced the climb is best before WPT6 - I'm going to have a try with a high climb at WPT4.Larry - the flaps in FSX are F5=flaps up (negative) maximum F6=incremental flaps up F7=incremental flaps down F8=flaps down (positive) maximum i.e. landing flapI find it easier to use joystick buttons and watch the handle in the cockpit for a visual indication.The flaps in positive (handle back) increase the lift (and drag) and should be used when thermalling. The last flap setting (handle furthest aft) is just for landing. But on a fast glide they should be slid into negative (handle forward) so you have the minimum drag at high speed (go into full negative flaps at 90-100knots).

[Maxloading 0]

Yes I know but we have to try everything to beat the 1 Hour. I think I will go back directly to WPT6 to shave a minute off if I can. the other important factor is to center into the thermal as quickly as possible otherwise you lose too much time, 4 mns max.Don't forget that if get low (8500feet)at the ridge follow the contour you will get lift up to 12000 feet. It will be nice if you can post your timing at Wpt4,6,8,9,11. It takes 6 mns from 11 to finish at VNE, this will give us a reference to see wher we can impove our performance.

[Guest b21]

ah rats I just did 01:02:02.0 so you beat me by 5 seconds. That was with a 3800 foot start and just the one climb before WPT4 to 20,500 feet. Then straight to WP5 and WP6, dolphining through the strong climb 3nm after WP6, then on to 7,8 and the wave.Clearly sub-1-hour is achievable with a high start, as we only have to save 2 minutes, but I'm wouldn't count it as a comparable achievement.I'll note some WPT times/heights next time round.