Mt Whitney Roller Coaster....

vontresc

vontresc

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vonSegelGoober
Whoa, Just saw this on the Soaring news group. this is pretty nuts...

 
vontresc said:
Whoa, Just saw this on the Soaring news group. this is pretty nuts...

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Shew doggie! Gonna wear out that variometer.

I don't know about the 'pull the spoilers we aren't close enough to the rocks' style of flying...
 
Hard to say from the vid but likely a well executed but riskier than "necessary" maneuver. Not saying I wouldn't do it but perhaps not a good example to display.
 
You've never flown around Mt Whitney.. it gets from Real High, 14,491MSL, to real low, 3680MSL at the Lone Pine Airport.. only 10nm from peak to airport.

And in the video they only went down to 9KMSL... a 5000ft drop in less than 5nm.

The pilot is an expert on flying the Desert Southwest and the California Sierra's.
 
BillTIZ said:
The pilot is an expert on flying the Desert Southwest and the California Sierra's.
Click to expand...

Great. I'm sure he knew what he was doing. I hope he gets to keep on doing it for a long time.

I'm not adverse to risk. I risk my life for a living. But I get $150 an hour to do it and I do it alone.

Hey at least it's better than those wingsuit guys bombing down the mountains!
 
The beeping noise at the beginning is the audio vario. Later in the flight when they are skimming the ground, the pilot pulled the airbrakes to remain below Vne in the descent triggering the gear warning system.
 
I believe you are referring to the gear warning horn or perhaps the audio VSI. They had the airbrakes open quite a bit during the descent and whenever you open them without the gear being down you get the horn. The audio variometer (VSI) makes a less alarming but more singsong up and down noise. Without the audio on the vario, glider pilots can tend to stare at the instrument which is bad since it can't kill you and there are a number of things OUTSIDE the cockpit that can.
 
I doubt they pulled the brakes to remain below VNE. I think it more likely the brakes were out simply to adjust the glide angle to more closely match the terrain. In other words, to get lower. Might be a combo.

When I was ridge soaring the costal ridge in NZ we'd pull the brakes half a mile out over the ocean to lose altitude so we could buzz the highway and scenic overlook pedestrians on the ridge 800 feet above the surf.
 
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