Re: IFR for sailplanes

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Here's an interesting story I am recollecting from the annals of
Soaring Magazine 1944.

It is illustrative of what went on before. I am going to tell it by
recollection. For the story itself from the words of J. Shelley
Charles contact the National Soaring Museum for the Soaring magazine
article.

This is illustrative, for in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and somewhat into the
1970s it was not too uncommon to fly gliders into cloud climb in US.
Thus, this recollection of his story may be interesting.

Shelley Charles set a US National Altitude Record and World Altitude
Record for glider with this flight of 1944. It remains still as the
currently standing Georgia SSA State Soaring Record, Absolute Altitude,
and Altitude Gain, record in Open Class.

It was set in 1944 by Capt. J. Shelley Charles, flying his Schempp-
Hirth Minimoa glider from Chandler Field (now Atlanta Hartsfield
International Airport). He set the only US National Soaring Record in
the WWII years with this flight.

He launched in his beautiful Minimoa glider on a nice looking August
day 1944 at Atlanta. He was towed aloft by biplane airplane launch
from Chandler Field.

He released very low, as I recall it, at around 400-500ft AGL. Thence
he caught an upwind at Chandler Field and rose up toward a starting
fair-weather small white cumulus above the concrete of Chandler Field.

He entered cloud circling in normal fashion, using his pneumatic
syringe squeezeball for pumping his air-powered gyro turn indicator.

He used this squeeze syringe ball (like for a perfume spray bottle of
the time), instead of the venturi orifice windpower source. This was
because those ordinarily located as an outside venturi would be
subject to clogging by water or ice, and he sought to obviate water or
ice into any external orifice of normal venturi powered turn indicator.

Thus, he had planned for this event and done such many times. This was
not an unusual practice for glider pundits of time. Squeeze the ball,
pump air thru to spin the little gyro, and get a turn indication.

Well, he had the dough for other instruments, for he was a hotshot
airline pilot Captain flyin for Southern Airways or Eastern Air Lines
(?) on the DC3 routes; so he could have bought an electric turn and
slip if they had one then that would run on low current draw.
Apparently they did not have such then. We do have them now.

He rose up into cloud on that day, in short sleeve shirt, carrying
barograph, and was witnessed properly for FAI, thinking he may try to
soar to Chattanooga that day. He had no supplemental oxygen
apparatus.

He climbed nicely. Then his rate of climb began increasing,
strongly. It was not too very long before it increased to fiercely
climbing well in cloud, darkening. Rate of climb indicator, variometer,
becoming pegged early. He was operating on needle, ball, and airspeed
and magnetic compass only. He had radio too.

He climbed easily past 4000, 7000, then 9000ft.

The cloud had darkened and had no visible limits or portions of light.
It became dark dark so very dark in the blindness of cloud, and it
began to rain. He was blind indeed in rain not to mention the darkness.
Then lightning began to flash and thunder clapped and boomed. No
vision.

No up, no down. He only knew of turn by the turn and slip, and he kept
squeezing. Watch airspeed.

Magnetic compass not very useful in relatively high turning rates of
glider. Black. Flashlight?

Chase airspeed variations in increasing upsetting turbulence and
attempt to hold steady turning rates and airspeeed, but it disrupted,
then big swings of airspeed. G loadings felt.

Flash, boom !!!! All Black. No sight, no knowledge of up down level.
Only sensations not agreeing with instruments. G loadings
uninterpretable. Not making sense. Oh shucks.

No sight.

Flash flash Dang BoooooooM. Black. Flash poooowwwwwwwww! and BLACK.
Lightning. Much. UH, passing 12000ft, getting very cold. Squeezing
syringe. Airspeed indicator drops to nothing. Will not vary,,,must be
frozen over. Pitot froze up from water and ice. No substitute for
pitot.

Canopy, sheet-iced over. Could not see out, even if into clear. NOT in
clear. Black. Except in flash moments see that ice blocks vision of
nothing outside canopy. 14000ft. Cold. Shivering. Dang cold. Hail.
Hail!

Holy smokes, 15000ft black no sight, and wild airpeed variations. Then
no airspeed indication. Powerful noise all over plane. Hail. Hail.
Bad. Would canopy break? Terrible noise.

This highly experienced instrument pilot is seriously worried and the
aircraft is essentially out of control in black with no way to know
where he is nor his attitude nor any directional knowledge of cloud
boundaries nor where OUT nor where is UP. He thinks of losing the
wings off ship at any time now. Knows of German glider pilots being
killed in same situation from bailing out with parachutes in cloud only
to be frozen hypoxic then dead carried up in cloud. He has pulled
spoilers.
To no discernable effect.

Captain Charles does not know whether he is right side up or what. He
passes 17000ft, involuntarily. Black, in cloud with no limits of
cloud; it wont let him out, it wont let him go. No sight, so so cold,
and black. Out of control. He thinks that this may be his last flight
alive. At sometbing over 18464 ft mol he is tossed by the Hand of God
into some light as he considers this being his last flight alive. But
he cannot see. Canopy iced over 100percent. He is bitterly freezing.

As he is in clear but canopy iced over he gradually regains some sight
somehow. I have forgotten how he did it. Then he realizes he has
drifted somewhere over downtown Atlanta and is quite high, so
he "decides" to let off some altitude to get to warmer or less cold
levels by looping. He does celebratory loops. He does this in joyous
repeats of loops over Atlanta.

He reports in his account that undoubtedly he was hypoxic at the time.

In flight he did call Atlanta tower I think and report his altitudes
but did not know his location exactly.

Surviving the change from fair weather cloud to climb in cumulonimbus,
he made a World and US Altitude record in Atlanta. After landing he
witnessed much paint removal from his Minimoa by hail. His record, it
stands today as the soaring altitude record to beat in Georgia.

Later, in the 60s or early 70s, Ed Barnes flew a Georgia State
Altitude record and he flew in cloud which became cu-nim, and he
recounted his experience briefly and tersely to me as harrowing.

He was an experienced competition glider pilot and airplane instrument
rated pilot. Think he went to something over 14000ft in cunim in
Georgia in 15 mtr or Std class glider. The times he spoke to me about
it, he shuddered. He was not an easily frightened man, far from it.
There had been more fear there for him than he cared to tell about.
When I find my old Soaring Handbook I will look up these exact
altitudes and post the correct figures.

Maybe this will give you some insight into our soaring history in the
U.S. Yes, cloud flying is done ordinarily in UK and much of Europe,
and was done pretty regularly in the USA.

I know a few who had electric artificial horizons, running off 12v
direct with an inverter, in gliders. Tommy Elmore in Florida is one.
He is an experienced airline captain, now retired, and was a regular
sailplane racing pilot, and is one of our senior masters of the old
school of soaring in America.

Dancing on clouds,
Keep it up!

Jim Culp USA

_____________________________________________________________________

In article <93d2v4$a018r$1@ID-59847.news.dfncis.de>,
"Mark" <mark@marknorris.com> wrote:
> I helped set up a standard class Cirrus for IFR flight in Florida. We
> contacted the local ATC and asked them what they needed to make it
work for
> them. They said a working transponder with or without mode C and a
good
> radio to keep in touch. We also installed a turn and bank. That was
it in
> 1975. No approach capability but adequate ability to penetrate
clouds and
> go for an altitude record. All of this was powered from a gel cell
> (battery). We had to get a large enough battery to power the radio
and the
> transponder for the anticipated 10 hours. Today I would add a hand
held GPS
> too.
>
> Think smart and have fun.

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