1985-2014 : The Two Stories Of The Exceptional Pilots Who Flew Over Hi

[Administrateur]

Communiqué FAI

 

 

Dear IGC News Readers,

The Himalaya and its vast territories, gigantic mountains, spiritual
people and wild beauty have long exerted extraordinary fascination -
which is far from fading. *

Ever since the 19th century when Europeans were increasingly present in
the region, adventurers coming from all around the world strived to
understand its culture and conquer its vast lands and high summits. The
tops of Kamet, Minya Konka, Kabru and Annapurna were the first to be
reached in the 30s and early 50s, and in 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary and his
Sherpa Tensing Norgay ascended the tallest of them all, the Everest. The
immense worldwide impact of their successful expedition, which instantly
made of Hillary and Tensing Norgay living legends, contributed to fuel
the myth of the Everest and of the whole of Himalaya. Since then, all
the mountains of the Himalaya chain have been climbed and thousands of
hikers and trekkers come to Nepal every year in search for adventures
and challenges.

But the fascination for the Himalaya carries far beyond mountaineering.

Just as Tensing Norgay who titled the account of its trip with Hillary
“A Dream Comes True”, aviators also had theirs to accomplish. As early
as 1933, thus 20 years before its overland conquest, a formation of
aircraft from the Houston Everest Flight Expedition flew the top of
Everest and over the Himalaya.

The gliding community were not to be outdone, though it took until 1985
to see the first motor glider, a Valentin Taifun 17E, fly over and
across the Himalaya with the authorisation of Nepalese Authorities. To
achieve this unprecedented exploit, Spanish FAI Director, engineer and
pilot Alvaro De Orleans Borbon teamed up with leading aviation
authorities such as Dr. Manfred Reinhardt from the DFVLR (now the German
Aerospace Center - DLR). As this adventure was a dream, yes, but a
purposeful one, the expedition also included NCAR meteorologist and
atmospheric scientist Dr. Joachim P. Kuettner, who famously headed the
Mercury space project which led to putting the first American Alan
Sheppard into space and Dr. Bruno Neininger from ETH - Zürich, who later
became a leading expert and operator of advanced atmospheric and remote
sensing platforms aboard small aircraft. Indeed, above the pure
adventure and technical exploit stood scientific objectives improved
meteorological knowledge thanks to the electronic recording and precise
measures of altitude, position, temperature, humidity and wind above the
Himalaya: /“Installing the most advanced navigational equipment
available at that time in a small plastic aircraft had never bee//n
attempted before and taming the unexpected electronic interferences took
weeks and required more art than engineering”/, recalls De Orleans.

The next gliding flights over the Himalaya took place almost 30 years
later in January 2014, when a far more ambitious expedition, the
Mountain Wave Project (MWP/OSTIV - Organisation Scientifique et
Technique Internationale du Vol à Voile), performed an airborne
measurement campaign. The challenge was to fly for the first time with
two motor gliders over the Annapurna - Everest region and the
exploration its diurnal wind and lift systems. The flights were
successfully performed by three German pilots: multiple world record
breaker Klaus Ohlmann, Jona Keimer and MWP Director, GEO-specialist Rene
Heise. One of the scientific goals they achieved is the first advanced
digital aerial imagery campaign carried out in this region, in
collaboration with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR): several areas,
including Kathmandu and the Everest were translated into virtual high
resolution 3D-terrain models for security research, whose aims include
the creation of a high resolution database by monitoring glacier changes
and thus helping research about global warming, as well as predicting
flood impacts and improve disaster response. This expedition also
included high altitude physiology research with the Centre for Air and
Space Medicine of German Air Force to answer the question of early
detection of oxygen deficiency for pilots in a cockpit (in-flight
measurements). As a basis for planning flight over the downdraft risk
area over the mountainous area of Himalaya safety was used a new high
resolution weather forecast model with turbulence parameters and
vertical wind patterns.

The fabulous images of the Mountain Wave Project are shown in a film,
whose premiere took place a few days ago in Berlin. FAI Director Alvaro
De Orleans, who closely followed these outstanding achievements, was
among the string of aviation personalities attending at the event. He
commented:

/“The beautiful film strongly enhances the value of the expedition,
because it inspires many more young people to dream about such
scientific adventures; ultimately, such attitudes translate in higher,
country wide rates of innovation, a socially and economically very
valuable outcome.”/

As for Rene Heise, he emphasised the appropriate role of OSTIV to
exploit synergies of air sports and the sciences regarding the
exploration the atmosphere and ecological monitoring for sustainable
research as well as developments.

The story of gliding in the Himalayas is yet to continue, and we can
only hope that these fabulous /“useful dreams”/, as De Orleans describe
them, will induce other pilots to achieve outstanding performances while
pursuing scientific progress.

The film of the MWP expedition, " Von Strausberg zum Mount Everest -
Forschungsabenteuer im Hightech-Segler ” is currently available in
German on the internet:


* Part 1


* Part 2



An English translation is underway and the DVD of the film will soon be
available.

Pictures of the two expeditions are available on Flickr
.