Fear of heights?

[Sv.grainne]

Keep it up Bobby you are doing great! I've been training for 10 years -- hard to admit -- and had to take a couple breaks too. Based on the videos you are posting you'll be flying up here in no time

Out of curiosity how far up have you gone so far?

1500' AGL when doing vertical descents.

 

[MikeBoyette]

1500' AGL when doing vertical descents.

Just remember the higher you go the smaller that seat becomes. I went to a mile high once. It was for no particular reason other than to go higher than pops. He chickened out at 4500. That seat felt like it was so small. The decent took forever.

 

[BUD ONEAL]

Well my Dad and I have always talked about flying over a sheer cliff. I know because of airspace restrictions it would be impossible but, the Grand Canyon would be the ultimate. Take off in the gyro flying just a few feet off the ground as you approach the rim then all if sudden you’re a mile up (or whatever it is). That would be a rush like no other.

been there done that Mike ! In Ala on sand mountain I flew to and over Wills Valley approached the brow at 150 agl and it was a rush to see the alt spin to 2500 so fast !

 

[BEN S]

I went up to a mile, it was 72 degrees on the deck, dsmn near froze my nuts off in a t-shirt! Made my eyes tear when I lifted visor
Mikes right...seat feels REALLY small.
you need to work up to it.
Bacon went twice as high!

 

[mark treidel]

Donatella Ricci (sp) of Italy is the world altitude holder at the moment I believe. She flew a Magni 914 to 27,7?? ft.
Then there was the Little Wing guy (Ron Heron??) at 27,??? and before that, my hangarmate, Dr. Bill Clem who flew
to 24,724 ft. in an open frame 914 Dominator. (I hope I have the order correct)...
During his record attempt, Bill heard a radio conversation go something like this....
'United 456 Heavy, Miami Control; Be advised traffic 9'clock, 4 miles passing through 24K is an experimental gyrocopter.'
United 456 Heavy..."Say What???"
I have been to 12K myself but that's only 6500' AGL here as my
base runway is 5512' AGL. I can only imagine the exhilaration each of them must have felt. As mike pointed out,
the seat definitely gets thinner as the pucker factor increases exponentially. I felt like I was flying on the business end
of a razor blade without any shaving cream!!

 

[WaspAir]

The Colorado state record for gliders is over 44,000 ft . If a mile high bothers you, there's a long way left to go. If you really want to feel high, take a small hot air balloon up a mile. There is no seat to feel small under you and no belts, and the basket sways back and forth while you stand in it, with only a thigh high basket edge between you and skydiving, sans chute.

 

[bell206]

Donatella Ricci (sp) of Italy is the world altitude holder at the moment I believe. She flew a Magni 914 to 27,7?? ft.
Then there was the Little Wing guy (Ron Heron??) at 27,??? and before that, my hangarmate, Dr. Bill Clem who flew
to 24,724 ft. in an open frame 914 Dominator. (I hope I have the order correct)...
During his record attempt, Bill heard a radio conversation go something like this....
'United 456 Heavy, Miami Control; Be advised traffic 9'clock, 4 miles passing through 24K is an experimental gyrocopter.'
United 456 Heavy..."Say What???"
I have been to 12K myself but that's only 6500' AGL here as my
base runway is 5512' AGL. I can only imagine the exhilaration each of them must have felt. As mike pointed out,
the seat definitely gets thinner as the pucker factor increases exponentially. I felt like I was flying on the business end
of a razor blade without any shaving cream!!

Wind is probably VNE for those machines.

 

[dabkb2]

It was 105° at El Mirage and I knew it was cool up there somewhere, took the Mac for a climb. At 12,000'MSL(9,000')AGL I was cold enough, very uncomfortable. Besides being cold and feeling like I was balanced on the end of a broomstick, couldn't tell my attitude, was I pointed up or down, left or right. No way to tell so it was time to get out of there. Probably could have gone higher, just no reason to.

 

[MikeBoyette]

The Colorado state record for gliders is over 44,000 ft . If a mile high bothers you, there's a long way left to go. If you really want to feel high, take a small hot air balloon up a mile. There is no seat to feel small under you and no belts, and the basket sways back and forth while you stand in it, with only a thigh high basket edge between you and skydiving, sans chute.

No thank you sir.

 

[Aerofoam]

I didn't know 20k'+ was possible in a gyroplane......

 

[Aerofoam]

There is an infamous story about one of the Horten brothers getting sucked up into a thunderhead in one of the flying wing gliders.
(I think it was an Ho2, or Ho3).
He passed out from altitude and woke up in a farm field 2 hours and 60 miles later. The aircraft was riddled with golf ball sized dents and tears and the altimeter indicated he had made it up to 37000'.
The airplane was stable enough to land by itself.....
Damn lucky there wasn't anything in the path....

 

[WaspAir]

The current world glider record is about 76,000 feet in the pressurized Perlan 2 glider, higher than the U2 spyplane can go. Just shows what you can do when you get rid of those heavy, noisy engines!

 

[FarmerTed]

We needed one of them to stick a needle in a balloon last week while they were up there.

 

[Tyger]

My personal high was 7,700 ft, or about 1.5 miles, crossing to NJ from DE over Delaware Bay. It was 90ºF on the ground in DE, and only about 60ºF up there. I found it a little disconcerting being that far above the ground. The horizon sort of curves away...

 

[WaspAir]

We needed one of them to stick a needle in a balloon last week while they were up there.

Yeah, using a sidewinder on it seemed like a sledgehammer to swat a mosquito. I wondered if a missile might just punch through the fabric without detonating, but I suppose the balloon would come down either way.

 

[BEN S]

Waspy, your analogy is incorrect.
Aim-9X sidewinder uses a Crow warhead.
Its job is to fly near the intended target, eith guided or fire and forget, and detonate a ring of shrapnel in a 360 frag radius.
They rip aircraft engines to shreds, which as I see on the "fear of heights" thread, you might be in favor of.
If I recall you can launch from almoet 20 miles out and as a ballon has a great return on radar, my guess is they would have kept the missile on lock.
They fly pretty quick too.
Interesting footnote on heat seeker development, in the easrly days of testing, a bunch would lose the targets in tight turns and fly off towards the sun!

 

[rcflier]

My personal high was 7,700 ft, or about 1.5 miles, crossing to NJ from DE over Delaware Bay. It was 90ºF on the ground in DE, and only about 60ºF up there. I found it a little disconcerting being that far above the ground. The horizon sort of curves away...

Last year, right after my flight test, I returned over water. So I flew at 6000 ft.
And I didn't like the way the ground began looking just like a map...

 

[WaspAir]

Waspy, your analogy is incorrect.
Aim-9X sidewinder uses a Crow warhead.
Its job is to fly near the intended target, eith guided or fire and forget, and detonate a ring of shrapnel in a 360 frag radius.

Radar proximity fusing isn't one of my areas of expertise.

Nor is armament in general, but I figured a .410 shotgun into the envelope would be enough to start a more gentle balloon let-down (with less damage on the spy gear we want to study), and quite a bit cheaper than a sidewinder (maybe $2 or so vs. $400,000 per shot, guessing at pricing?). A javelin would do it, too (the Olympic track and field spear, not the anti-tank weapon) Just gotta get close enough!

 

[Mayfield]

I also believe the F22 can carry an M61 type 20mm cannon. 1 round would have done it at considerably less cost.

Jim

 

[Aerofoam]

A close fly by towing a fish hook.......