AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 78
" Night is very good for soaring, even without thermals...There's mechanical lift,
convergence, and mountain wave. A self-powered glider with turbine reliability
puts all of that within reach. " -J.P. Stewart
" The controller asked me to confirm that I really wanted the
lights turned all the way off, -and I assured him that I did, " said
Stewart, owner and pilot of the high-performance, self-launching
glider that he mostly flies at night. " Once he received that confirmation,
he went ahead and killed the lights-and that was a big
help to me. I really appreciated it. "
Stewart, 29, is one of fewer than five U.S. glider pilots approved
to fly with NVGs. Before landing at night, he could simply remove
the goggles and fly visually like other night-flying pilots. But after
hours peering through NVGs, his eyes would have had to start
adapting to darkness from scratch, and his glider's avionics are
coated with a film that makes them easily readable with NVGs
and opaque without them.
" It takes a long time for your eyes to adapt to darkness when
you remove NVGs, " he said. " It's way better to keep wearing them
if you can. "
Stewart often flies the German-made Arcus for several hours
at a time, and his typical flight profile would be out of the question
for just about any other aircraft.
Getting airborne
He straps into the glider's reclined seat at Manassas, starts its PBS
TJ-100 jet engine, and crab-walks along the taxiways with the glider's
main wheel at one edge of the pavement and a much smaller
wheel that droops below a wing rolling down the far edge. The
glider tilts hard over toward the low-wing side throughout the
taxi, and the wing-mounted wheel transmits every crack in the
pavement. The Czech-built PBS engine consumes about 14 gallons
of jet fuel per hour at idle on the ground at sea level, and the
glider only holds 23 gallons, so Stewart tries to get airborne as
quickly as possible.
Once cleared for takeoff and aligned with the runway centerline,
he adds full power and the jet spits out about 254 pounds of
thrust. Initial acceleration is slow, and the ailerons become effective
at about 20 knots. Stewart levels the wings with full aileron
deflection, then raises the tailwheel with forward stick pressure.
The takeoff roll takes about 15 seconds and covers about 1,500
feet on an 80-degree-Fahrenheit evening with a 5-knot headwind.
Stewart lifts off at about 60 knots and keeps the glider accelerating
in ground effect for the next 1,000 feet, then pitches up about
10 degrees and climbs at 82 KIAS.
He raises the landing gear at 500 feet agl and shallows the
climb to 5 degrees as the glider accelerates to 105 KIAS while
climbing about 800 fpm.
It takes about 10 miles to escape the Manassas Class D,
Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area and the Washington
Class B airspace. Then Stewart aims for the Blue Ridge Mountains
and shuts down and then retracts the jet engine. When flying
under power, the jet engine is amazingly smooth, and the faster it
goes, the more powerful it gets. When Stewart shuts it down, the
noise level inside the aircraft goes from a banshee shriek to calm
and quiet, and the two Bose ANR headsets are no longer necessary.
The sun is setting and the outside air temperature is dropping,
so there's no rising air from thermals for the glider to ride
78
AOPA PILOT / October 2024
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024
Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 9
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 10
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 11
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 12
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 13
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 14
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 15
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 16
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 17
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 18
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 19
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 20
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 21
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 22
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 23
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 24
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 25
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 26
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 27
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 28
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 29
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 30
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 31
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 32
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 33
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 34
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 35
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 36
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 37
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 38
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 39
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 40
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 41
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 42
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 43
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 44
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 45
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 46
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 47
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 48
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 49
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 50
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 51
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 52
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 53
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 54
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 55
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 56
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 57
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 58
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 59
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 60
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 61
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 62
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 63
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 64
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 65
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 66
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 67
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 68
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 69
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 70
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 71
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 72
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 73
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 74
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 75
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 76
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 77
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 78
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 79
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 80
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 81
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 82
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 83
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 84
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 85
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 86
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 87
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 88
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 89
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 90
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 91
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 92
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 93
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 94
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 95
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 96
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 97
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 100
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 102
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 106
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 108
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 111
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 112
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover4
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