Ramsey's Space -> Ramsey's Gliding Page -> 500K Triangle from Tonopah
These renderings were created by Charlie Thaeler (charlest@soar-high.com) from a GPS data log of a flight I made on August 8, 1998. The renderings were produced (along with many others) for the 1999 PASCO Cross Country Soaring Seminar (which happened on February 21 and 22) organized by Carl Herold. Charlie used Kinetix (Autodesk) 3D Studio Max, USGS 1:250000 digital elevation model data, and some custom add-on software to generate the images. The elevations of the terrain and flight traces are exaggerated by a factor of 2. All images are Copyright © 1999 Pacific Soaring Council, Inc., used with their permission.
The flight was over a (non-FAI) triangular course with start/finish at Tonopah Airport, Nevada, with turns at Eureka Airport, the center of the town of Austin, and Goldfield Airport. The total distance was 327 miles (526 kilometers), which I flew at an average of 77 mph. I had approximately 300 lbs of water ballast in my DG-303, for a wingloading of 10 lbs./sq. ft. I did not have a flight computer installed when I made this flight. I used a Cambridge GPS-NAV for basic navigation and flight recording, a Borgelt B40 electronic variometer with audio, a Sage SV 2.25 mechanical vario, and a printed table of speeds to fly. I highly recommend both varios.
Here is an overhead view (North is up):
The flight trace changes color on the hour. The first turnpoint, Eureka Airport, is at the top right. The second, the town of Austin, is at the top left. The final turnpoint, Goldfield Airport is at the bottom left. The takeoff (and finish) point at Tonopah are the tangle of lines just above and to the right of Goldfield.
A perspective view from the southeast:
The small red loop in the trace is the takeoff and tow out of Tonopah. After that is a short climb, then a much better climb closer to the first hills. At the top of that climb (when the trace turns from red to green), I turned back to make my start over the Airport, then flew back out to the hills for another climb. From there I followed the ridge line towards the first turnpoint at Eureka (120 miles). Climbs for the first half of this leg were 10+ knots, my cruise speed was around 100 knots. Following the climb at the midpoint of the leg, I reached a well developed cloud street, so by slowing to 70 knots I could maintain altitude at 17,000 ft. for 20 or 30 miles. Things were downhill a bit from there, but I was able to pick up another thermal in the hills just south of Eureka, climb back up to 17K, then glide out and around the turnpoint.
Another perspective view from the north:
After leaving the turnpoint at Eureka (at left), I had to fly west between the ridges through an area of weaker lift. You can see two tentative climbs in some poor thermals, I was getting worried that I'd be unable to reach Austin without a climb in between. In fact, I was only down to 13K when I made the turn at Austin, then almost immediately picked up another 10+ knot thermal which took me back up to the comfort zone at 17.5K.
Finally a view from the south:
I followed a cloud street along the ridge south from Austin, stopping only at the end to tank up before crossing over to the hills west of Tonopah. I needed only two more climbs at the beginning and end of the hills, then it was an easy loop out an around Goldfield and back to Tonopah.
Ramsey's Space -> Ramsey's Gliding Page -> 500K Triangle from Tonopah