Flying 1000km in Namibia with a glider

During the European winter several gliders are sent to Namibia in containers to enjoy the great gliding conditions during the December to January months. The glider i am flying is a Schempp Hirth Arcus M (Self-Launcher) with 20m winspan for 2 persons
On some good days its possible to fly 1000km and it happened to be such a day. Take-off around 10:30 and landing back at 19:40 (just after sunset)
Flight track:
www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0...
www.weglide.org/flight/230572
00:00 - Intro clip
00:49 - Takeoff from Kiripotib
02:55 - Cooling and stopping engine
05:18 - Arriving at first clouds near Rohoboth
07:00 - Turning south near Gamsberg
08:15 - Strong thermal routing south
10:22 - After 330km heading north again
11:10 - after 800km back north and heading NE
12:10 - Long final glide
13:45 - Sunset landing back at Kiripotib
Music:
Song: INOSSI - Moments
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Creative Commons - Attribution 3.0 Unported
Video Link: • INOSSI - Moments (Vlog...
Time by ASHUTOSH
/ time
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - (CC BY-ND 3.0)
Music promote by AT Audio library No Copyright Music
• Time - ASHUTOSH (No Co...

[@macguy531]

Africa is an aviators paradise. Stunning terrain for low level flying.

[@thekruizenga]

indeed. low level relative for us gliders as we prefer to stay high, but not as high as commercial airliners ;)

[@shinchikichin]

That's awesome mate!! Happy to see you're keepin' your interest alive !

[@AceSyntaxx]

Great flight. I was there over Christmas, my first time in Namibia, I'm looking forward to next Christmas!

[@janbruinenberg5767]

Gave vlucht Sven. Had van Diederik al in geuren en kleuren van jullie avontuur gehoord. En nu met de beelden erbij helemaal compleet. Kunnen jullie af en toe nog even lekker op "nasudderen". We zien elkaar!!

[@davidkotze4140]

Amazing !! 👏👏❤

[@gerdhermle5347]

Congratulation!

[@rodsemple382]

I especially loved the transition section between powered flight to pure gliding. Stunning video!

[@thekruizenga]

Thanks a lot, yes left that full section in as you dont find many videos online showing that

[@markburton5170]

@@thekruizenga In my Arcus M when I turn the ignition off the prop stops immediately. Before switching off you cooled with lower rpm than I do - the manual says 20% throttle, I cool at about 4k rpm.

[@thekruizenga]

@@markburton5170 yes speaking to experienced Arcus M pilots they reccomended the following. we simply pulled the throttle back to nearly idle and watch that the temp drops at least 10c degrees after which we switched the ignition off. manual says cooling 1 min but most important is to see the temp going down before retracting so thats why we applied the 10c drop criteria, especially important in Namibia with the high temperatures

[@TYCL]

Lekker bezig Sven

[@PilotJan]

Mooie prestatie en Landing Sven, like en subscribe ook al gedaan 😂 Dat is een hele andere Delta Kilo dan de mijne. Great video, motivating

[@blubb9004]

Awesome video, thanks for taking us along for the ride. Just my personal opinion: I'd prefer the video(s) without music. What do you guys think?

[@PureGlide]

During time lapse, that would be silence. You can simulate this by turning your volume down during those bits!

[@salaadino]

You wanna hear a secret If u fly west and slightly south across the coast of Namibia for 2500km. You'll see a hidden island whose part of Terra Vista.

[@micco54]

In this movie you were flying NE in Namibia, but as I seen, the shadow of your head was on instrument panel. Can you explained me?

[@thekruizenga]

You can see my exact track i flew via www.weglide.org/flight/230572 the first part was West then SSE and back up North before extending the flight to the NE for the last bit. Hope that explains ;)

[@5ial57]

I'm wondering how did you take off ? Does it have an engine ?

[@thekruizenga]

yes the glider has a retractable engine behind the cockpit that is strong enough to take off. you can see it spinning in the clip in the small mirror on the right side of the cockpit. after takeoff the engine can be retracted to make it a pure glider again.

[@justcommenting4981]

Are those larger wheels for landing on rougher fields?

[@thekruizenga]

the wheels on the picture are just for ground transport. during take-off and landing the plane has the same configuration as when we fly in europe no modifications done to it

[@justcommenting4981]

Whats up with those wheel assemblies?

[@thekruizenga]

The wheels are just for groundtransport, otherwise no modifications to the plane just the same configuration as it flies in europe

[@johnfoster1201]

What an amazing flight! Are you flying your own glider, or renting?

[@thekruizenga]

Thank you. Rented this glider, i dont have a self-launcher and to Namibia they bring almost only selflaunchers as its easier for the infrastructure

[@blubb9004]

@@thekruizenga What are the rates for those planes? Do you have to be a millionaire or is it doable once in a while for us 'mortals'?

[@thekruizenga]

@@blubb9004 Its certainly not the cheapest vacation but then again neither is going for a ski trip so all depends on what you consider expensive. what does help is going with 2-3 people and taking turns to fly as you can then share the plane rental between yourselves. For more information i suggested looking at www.kiripotib-soaring.com/en/ .

[@hedonzx822]

With a Motor Glider…

[@thekruizenga]

But the engine was only used for taking off, the full 1000km was flown without the engine. Check the flight track via the links in the description.

[@hedonzx822]

@@thekruizengaDag Sven, het idee blijft natuurlijk om plezier te hebben in je vlucht. Waar het mij om gaat is het feit dat je in een self launcher of thuisbrenger de kans op een verre late buitenlanding bijna altijd uitsluit en met dat gegeven heb je een operationeel en psychologisch voordeel. Ik heb niks tegen een gemotoriseerd zweefvliegtuig maar wel in competitie of voor records en badges. Je ziet gewoon in de statistieken dat bijna alle 1000km diploma’s de afgelopen jaren werden gevlogen met een gemotoriseerd zweefvliegtuig. En geloof me toen ik op 1 dec 1999 aan mijn laatste 255 km van mijn 1000km laat in de namiddag begon was het met een klein hartje 😇 Een buitenlanding toen zou zeker een nachtje slapen zijn geweest in de Australian outback. Mvg Frank

[@thekruizenga]

@@hedonzx822 ja daar ben ik het zeker mee eens. 250km uit zonder motor verdient heel wat meer respect dan met een motor achterin (al kan je nooit 100% vertouwen dat die het doet). in Namibie is het ook voor veiligheid want buiten landen is moeilijk en gevaarlijk dus een betrouwbare motor dan beschikbaar hebben is fijn en vind je dus ook bijna geen pure gliders hier. Deze 1000km was niet gedeclareerd en dus ook niet zo speciaal maar voor ons beide de eerste dus maakte het wel een mooie ervaring.

[@stevenkenney9473]

Cheater!

[@thekruizenga]

Which part is cheating?

[@hedonzx822]

Engine of course 😇

[@thekruizenga]

ahh yes but only during take-off all the 1000km flight was made with the engine stowed, otherwise it would indeed not count as pure gliding@@hedonzx822

[@hedonzx822]

@@thekruizenga Cheating is somewhat exaggerated but with an engine as a back-up you do have an operational and psychological advantage 🤗 I truly believe that in competition and for records&badges there ought to be separate categories. But the main thing is to have Fun and personal fulfillment 😇

[@thekruizenga]

fully agree flying long distances especially far away from your homefield without an engine is certainly an even bigger achievement, however flying in namibia without an engine would increase the risks to much for an outlanding or a very long retrieve hence why you dont really see that. saying that you can never fully rely on the engine and you should still fly the same way you do as without but i get your comment thats its not exactly the same@@hedonzx822