Helmuth Fischer smashes world 1000km record at Gariep
This is truly one of the greatest world records flown in recent times. Hans Werner Grosse set the previous record back in 1979. Helmuth’s 169.7kph was an improvement of 14%, equaling many 300km and 500km triangles speeds of that time. He has again shown that Gariep Dam, South Africa has the finest soaring conditions in the world.
Helmuth said that he had woken that morning with the intention of going out to break the world 1000km triangle record. The day before, he had flown a national record in the ‘free distance category’ with a flight of over 1111km. The first turnpoint (TP) of this flight was identical to that of the record flight. The second TP was close enough to that of the second TP of the record flight to allow him to assess the weather situation in that area. At 18000ft (5400m) he had noticed that some of the clouds started to precipitate and this was a clear sign of the deepening of the trough over the interior of the country. This trough is a regular feature of the weather cycle in summer and had produced many spectacular flights. The next morning many of his thoughts were confirmed and backed up by the tephigrams from the South African Weather Bureau.
Helmuth had worked out that a trigger temperature of 36 deg C was needed and that by 10:30 am this would happen. However it wasn’t until after 11 am that the first wisps of clouds started forming. He launched soon after that and called for a start and went through the gate at 11:22 am. He ran more than 15km before he hit his first real lift and centered with the averager on 4 m/s. Climbing as high as it would take him, he was now firmly on his way, only stopping at 4 m/s. Two more 4 m/s thermals and he was at the first TP, Rouxville.
Other pilots were now also reporting 5 to 6 m/s averages. Shortly after the first TP, he picked up a cloud street at 17000ft and ran under it for more than 100km. After crossing the Vaal river, the thermal strengths were peaking at around 7m/s, with the best he saw for the day at 8.4 m/s; and the base moved up to 18000ft.
Although the thermals were very strong, he very rarely exceeded 220kph and flew mostly between 180 and 200 kph. The first short leg, his average speed was only 140kph. However, the second moved up to over 164kph. At the halfway mark he had averaged 157kph.
Staying high was very important as to accommodate the long runs looking for the 5m/s+ thermals. In fact when the lift dropped below 5.5 m/s he moved on. One must also bear in mind that there is a big speed advantage at the higher altitudes and he was extremely conscious of this fact.
After turning at Britstown at 3000m agl Helmuth’s speed for the second leg was 174kph giving him an average speed of 160.1kph. The last leg was only 193km and he knew that this was going to be even faster. He set off on the final leg and approximately 140km away he started final glide. Most of the way he ended up doing Vne and still had 700m agl when he crossed the finish line. It took 51 minutes to complete the last leg, an average speed of 227kph.…
Weather Conditions Terrain & Task Area
Generally, Gariep and the Karoo has outstanding weather conditions for gliding. Summer temperatures regularly reach 35 deg C and quite often 40 deg C. Cu is typically 1/8 to 4/8. Cloud base is normally from 12000ft to 18000ft amsl.
Click here for today’s gliding weather, click ‘central Interior’ and check the expected thermal strength for any given time. The map shows Gariep.
There are no coastal effects in Gariep’s task area. During December and January the relative humidity is low, but occasionally there may be isolated thunder showers in the afternoon. Mostly showers and storms are localised, and are of no concern to glider pilots on long flights. Gariep and the Karoo is much drier than the northern parts of South Africa, such as Mmabatho in summer, which often suffers from moist air masses originating in Namibia.
Winds are normally from the NW or W and may be up to 15 knots during the middle of the day. With an airfield surrounded by grassland and a nature reserve, plus tarmac runways, airfield dust is almost zero.
Left Photo: DG505 cruising under heavenly skys.
Thermal strengths are often over 6m/s on the high cloud base days. This means very high true airspeeds and record breaking at Gariep is a common occurrence.
On most days soaring starts at 10:30 and lasts until 19:00. 1000km flights have been started as late as 11:30 and some very long flights have been started at 09:30. Its not uncommon to fly two 300km tasks the same day.
You don’t need an open class glider or thousands of hours experience to fly long, fast tasks at Gariep!
Typical Cu at FL150
Final glide at 1930
TERRAIN AND TASK AREA
The airfield is situated in a wide grassy valley next to a few small hills on one side and a man-made lake on the other side. The lake affects gliding operations very little, but is a beautiful landmark.
Tasks are mostly to the west and as one flies further in this direction the grassland become progressively more arid, until after a couple of hundred kilometers it begins to look like a semi-desert.Further west the grass is replaced with scrub and rock.
During any flight, the scenery is constantly changing. You fly over lakes, rivers, rocky mountains, little old pioneering towns, until far in the west one is climbing on Kalahari dust devils to 4000m above the ground.
Outlanding opportunities vary according to the direction and distance from Gariep. In some areas there are suitable fields almost everywhere (usually to the wetter north and east), and sometimes suitable fields are 20 kilometers apart, but this is not a problem when the cloud base is say 15000ft ! Good airfields are usually less than 50km apart and we have marked all these on a map. In the last 15 years we have experienced no serious outlanding damage. Being far away from the big cities, the local country people are very friendly and helpful if you land out. Entertaining a foreign glider pilot could be the year’s highlight for a Karoo farmer’s family and his staff.
Cellular (mobile) telephone coverage is suprisingly good over most of the area. 4×4 Vehicles are not normally required, the road network is good and trailers don’t fall to bits on a retrieve! Unlike some other sites, you don’t need a motorised open class glider to operate safely from Gariep.
These tasks are mostly set south of Bloemfontein and Kimberly, since afternoon thunderstorms are fairly frequent from Bloemfontein northwards, and the airspace becomes complicated. Our tasks therefore stretch as far west as Olifantshoek or Prieska and as far as Victoria West to the south. We have a huge uncontrolled airspace available to us and for those who don’t mind chatting to our friendly ATC, possible task distances exceed the daylight hours available. Transponders are only necessary if you want to be able to divert into or over the busier hubs. (also see The “Magic” of the Trough Line )…