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Originally Posted by scaeagles
I'd like to see a myth from Flagstaff AZ tested. Huge hang gliding place up there near the San Francisco peaks with masive thermal air flows. The myth is that a hnag glider caught one went up above 18000 feet, passed out from the thin air, glided 300 miles into New Mexico, and woke up after he dropped below a certain altitude. Sounds completely ridiculous, but it is a widely believed story in the community.
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If it was a hang glider, the glide ratio is about 15:1 (i.e. 15 feet forward for 1 foot of altitude loss), so from 18000 feet, it could glide about 50 miles (18000*15/5280).
If he flew due west from flagstaff, it's about 137 miles to the New Mexico border.
If it were a high performance glider, the glide ration would be between 40:1 or 60:1 which would give a glide range between 136 to 204 miles.
All of these calculations are for dead air, if the hang glider found any lift during that 50 miles, he might be able to extend his range, but 300 miles would mean he found an awful lot of good lift.
I'd say the 300 mile range is doubtful.
If the hang glider pilot got sucked into a thunderstorm, he could get up to 18000 feet, and he could pass out if he didn't have any oxygen, so that is possible, but there's also a good possibility of freezing to death without proper protection. If he survived that, I would imagine his first thoughts would be to head for terra firma, not to go for a distance record in New Mexico.
I think this story could be possible for a regular glider, but not a hanglider.