Antares 23 at the Worlds.4

2022 february 12

HIGH PERFORMANCE SAILPLANES

planeurs de grande finesse

LANGE AVIATION

ANTARES 23

The ANTARES 23 in the World Gliding Championships, Uvalde, TX, 2012

Peter Harvey, member British Gliding Team, © Lange Aviation, 2012

but within 20km chose a differing route. Once again, I paid the price for flying alone and missed bubbles I just knew were close by. The frustration increased as I glided lower into the hill country. With few landing options and the lift broken, I was forced to take a poor climb from bottom of a stack of 20 gliders. Interestingly, the circling gliders were spread – not packed tight into a thermal core, but over a large area. Indeed, there seemed no strong core, just broken general lift, in spite of good clouds above. The pattern continued as I remained low, unable to find an elusive core to climb into the better, upper air mass. Approaching the north-west turn, Michael and Tassilo were exiting high and fast, already far ahead, while I was entering low and slow. Some days are like this.

Pushing across the hill country, the poor lift and frustration continued, albeit in good company with another eight open class for company. Two more small bubbles and I once again missed the cores, falling back still further. The final straw was three good clouds in succession failing to give a climb and everyone else disappearing into the distance. Nothing was working. AAAHHHHHHHH!

Well some days are like that too

I gave up. Sat back, had a drink, admired the view and wondered what it was all about.

So the clouds aren’t working. Solution? Aim for the blue of course. Silly, but if all else fails, do something different. A minute later and I hit 4.5m climb. That’s better. Ten minutes later another 4m climb, then a fantastic run of 120km towards the easterly turn along a developing street to the south everyone else missed as they flew towards the nearer clouds and the increasing overdevelopment. We’re back in business.

With the next turn shrouded in heavy rain under a gigantic Texas cunimb and with another heavy rain shower fast approaching, there seemed just a small gap to squeeze into the TP. Under a flat, wide, ominously dark storm cloud, the race was now to find some lift,get the turn and get out before it got too horrible. Often the best lift is next to, or in the rain of a storm, so I pushed carefully towards the wall of rain. As I approached, the two rain

showers were closing together, blocking the turn completely. With time running out, I pushed to the turn and the final 2km in heavy rain and sink.

And what rain! It was like flying in a bath. It poured in the cockpit from everywhere. The vents were closed, but still it came. The noise was deafening. The darkness like night, the turbulence extreme. Nothing on the radio over the deafening noise and then I realised it was 50% hail. Just the thin canopy protecting me from an ice pounding. I slowed. That’s not so bad, because heavy rain means heavy sink, but hail often means lift.

However, this was going down fast, so with a quick log in the TP zone it was time to escape back towards the light to visibility, to safety, to possible landings, to life.

Why do we do these stupid, stupid, STUPID things? Thank goodness this glider is so strong. Just into the clear air with a huge, black rolling ceiling of cloud above, a wall of rain behind, myheart rate going off the scale and lightning bolts cracking past the wingtip.

Then lift, wonderful lift. 2m, 3m, 5, 7m up, up, up! Yes, yes, yes! 7m yeeeeehaaaa! I put the Antares on a wingtip, give thanks to the maker (not you Axel - the big cheese) and screamed skywards watching the altimeter spinning and trying to clean up the cockpit, where everything had been thrown in a mess. Still racing upwards and with 500m to base, I pushed for the south and the edge - freedom. At 200kph, I skipped clear of the monster, skimming the wisps and thankful of the great escape - high and fast.

Some days are like that ;-)

One more towering cunimb to dance around to the south, then push gently to the blue and a completely stable airmass. It seems strange a day can change so quickly, but with 700km to task, perhaps not so surprising. Eventually I met up with Oscar Goudriaan and Laurent Aboulin, then Michael and Tassilo scratch in beneath us as we tip toed homewards in the smooth, blue evening bubbles. We knew the day winner would be within our gaggle (Oscar by a few seconds), but the art was to work together and get home. Finally, the gaggle

climbed up onto glide and with a wave we shared the long glide home and a cold beer. Magic.

I wish more days were like that

We flew everyday, except the mandatory rest day. Over 7500km of tasks, at high speed in thermal, sheer wave, storm and blue. The big Texan smile spread to us all and we did ‘have a nice day’! The Texans made us very welcome, the organisers were superb and once again, we shared one of life’s great experiences with our friends from around the world. A true privilege shared.

The Antares is a dream to fly and with the longer 23m span and higher loading, its beautiful wing forms a most graceful and recognisable curve. The turbo option is beautifully engineered, powerful and yet simple, so will offer many years of reliable, lower cost performance - a real alternative. As a team effort, we showed what can be done with these modern machines.

So Axel, you have produced a world class glider, 15m handling with proven top class performance. Above all, it was fun.

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