Record Flying

Fred Hermanspann

Washington State soaring records used to be quite an incentive for pilots to push their limits and to attempt noteworthy flights.  Since the advent of the OLC and its ever increasing popularity with its user friendly documentation record flying (not only in Washington) has faded somewhat in significance and visibility and the last records were set years ago by John Gilbert and JC Hauchecorne.  On the other hand, the soaring achievements from Arlington have increased year after year and John Gilbert has repeatedly challenged Evergreen pilots to apply for records.  So, earlier this year I took up the challenge and prepared for some records.  This requires some familiarity with the regulations, having a valid logger, capable official observers and – for declared tasks like goal or speed tasks – pre-flight declarations.  And on the fabulous June 8 and 9 weekend, when Richard VanGrunsven, Dan Housler and Paul Adriance made their outstanding flights, I made 2 flights that resulted in 4 Washington State records (in Multi-Seat and Sports classes).  While these records are not particularly impressive, they are the first ones set for flights from Arlington and may be for Western Washington.  Unfortunately Dan and Paul did not make the necessary preparations, or they would also have qualified for several records.  Now Noel Wade has also gotten the bug and applied for a whole slew of Washington State records for his August 12 Out and Return flight from Ephrata to near Tonasket.  I personally hope, that this will inspire all our XC pilots to try for state records.   The record books for Washington State have been neglected too long and don’t reflect the performance of our better pilots.  There are many records that have never been set and are asking for some entries.  Admittedly the flight preparations are more involved than for point collecting OLC flights and the paperwork associated with record applications is cumbersome but the required discipline makes each flight effort more focused.

By the way, the current record books are incomplete and contain numerous errors; an update is currently under way (and will be announced when completed).  For example, altitude records are no  longer carried in most classes (with the exception of Open Single-Seat and Open Multi-Seat classes).  Another point – while it used to be that one flight should only be used for one record (at least for a given class) there is no limit for the number of records possible for a given flight.  For example, in the July edition of SOARING there is the approval for a total of 6 Tennessee State records in 3 classes by Linwood Stevenson in a single flight on April 17.   And no Washington records have yet been set in the Ultralight class.  The IGC definition of “Ultralight” is not the FAA definition (not more than 154 lbs. empty) but a total mass of no more than 220 kg (or a weight of 484 lbs.).  With other words, this is not just for the Sparrowhawk but possibly also for some of our lighter pilots in the Apis (which has an empty weight of 336 lbs.).

So now, that the 2010 season is coming slowly to an end, it is time for some dreaming and planning for the next season.  And hopefully that will include some ideas about putting some more records on the Washington State soaring record books.