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What's Wrong With This Picture?

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Earl Zimmerman

Joined: 13 Jan 2006
Posts: 35
Location: Elizabethtown, PA

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:55 pm Post subject: What's Wrong With This Picture?

Yesterday I did something in a Kolb that I have never done before in the 

25 years that I have been flying. I had the GPS reading 15 mph in 

reverse and actually backed up for about 1000 feet or so. It was an 

interesting experience. The wind speed was about 60 mph. I was on the 

down wind side of a small mountain a couple hundred feet about the peak 

and I guess that I was in laminar flow over the mountain. It was very 

smooth and kind of fun but I had to be a little creative to get back 

home because home was straight into the wind. I turn to the left a 

little bit which was farther from home but it allowed me to cross the 

mountain and fly at a lower altitude back home. Wish I would have had my 

vidoe camara       ~ Earl



P.S. Don't try this at home!



Do Not Archive

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JetPilot

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1246

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:16 pm Post subject: Re: What's Wrong With This Picture?

 	  Earl Zimmerman wrote: 	
		   It was very 

smooth and kind of fun but I had to be a little creative to get back 

home because home was straight into the wind. 	




Very Cool Earl   



If you think that was fun, here is another new experience you can try with high winds over the mountain.   Get a little further downwind from the mountain, where the wind starts to get pulled back down towards the earth faster than your Kolb can climb   ...  The experience of sinking into the trees at full climb power and airspeed just cannot be beat    



All Joking aside, be very careful flying low over terrain like that with high winds, you can easily find yourself in a situation that no light airplane can survive.



Michael A. Bigelow

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_________________
"NO FEAR" - If you have no fear you did not go as fast as you could have !!!

Kolb MK-III Xtra, 912-S

pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:58 am Post subject: What's Wrong With This Picture?

I was on the down wind side of a small mountain a couple hundred feet about 

the peak>>



Hi,

you were very lucky. A bit lower and the downgoing side of the airflow would 

have put you firmly on the ground. A friend of mine when we were doing 5 

hours on a ridge for a gliding badge took a short cut from one end of the 

ridge to the other which took him back behind  the lift into the curlover. 

He went down in a cornfield absolutely vertically. The pattern he left in 

the corn was a complete outline of the glider, no run in or approach. He 

must have gone in absolutely flat . It broke the glider fuselage in half 

just behind the wing and gave the guy back trouble for a long time.



The sensation of flying backwards is really strange though. I have done it 

twice. Once in a glider where I launched up the wire, levelled out, dumped 

the wire and drifted backwards far enough to make a straight in approach to 

land without turning. Once when I was having a demonstration flight in 

gyrocopter. We climbed to about a thousand feet and then flew more and more 

slowly until we began to drift backwards. At that point the pilot said `I 

expect you are wondering what would happen if the engine stopped now`  Then 

he switched it off. In the sudden silence we fluttered down to a smooth 

landing right on the numbers.  Impressive but odd.



Cheers



Pat 



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Earl Zimmerman

Joined: 13 Jan 2006
Posts: 35
Location: Elizabethtown, PA

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:16 am Post subject: What's Wrong With This Picture?

pat ladd wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   

 

 I was on the down wind side of a small mountain a couple hundred feet about 

 the peak>>

 

 Hi,

 you were very lucky. A bit lower and the downgoing side of the airflow would 

 have put you firmly on the ground.


	


I meant to type "a couple hundred feet (above) the peak". I was about 

3-4 miles down wind of the mountain at about 1500-1700 ft AGL. At the 

point where I was backing up the air was very smooth. It reminded me of 

when you see a hawk (not Hauck) hovering motionless in the air. Farther 

down wind of the mountain it was pretty rough. I tighten me seatbelt a 

couple tugs, would have banged my bald spot if it were any looser.

I do understand what you are saying though, but I didn't think that I 

was that close to the mountain. Maybe I was in the next wave off the 

mountain. Sure glad I wasn't in a glider, but a 1000 fpm 582 powered 

MKII!       ~ Earl

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pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:58 am Post subject: What's Wrong With This Picture?

Maybe I was in the next wave off the

mountain. Sure glad I wasn't in a glider, but a 1000 fpm 582 powered>>



Hi Earl,

you might have been in the second wave. It is uncannily smooth. Super flying 

in the `up` section. If you had been in the downflow of a good wave your 582 

would`nt have saved you, and the rotor may well have banged your bald spot 

right through the canopy.



Pat 



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