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I had many wonderful adventures with my Aolus learning cross country in Owens Valley in 1981. It was the second prototype. Carlos Miralles taught me to fly it off Cuesta Ridge in San Luis Obispo, California, and sold it to me for $500. After many hours, I took it to John Reisig at Spectra Aircraft who sleeved its already massive frame it and smoothed out the leading edges. It was a superb thermalling machine. In a strong, smooth core, you could push out past stall and flat-spin at 2000 fps. Unique and unbelievable. With that reflexed tail, it gave you a very secure feeling that it would recover from going over the falls in violent thermals. And fast landings in high-altitude-density air were helped by that bowsprit. When it dropped, you'd fly through the bars and hit the sail (no keel). My buddies who flew their Aoli in Owens Valley were Carlos, Bob Dunn and Mark Hanley. But the thing that made the Aolus such a great thermalling machine, that huge tail, may have kept it from attaining the best l/d between thermals. After I'd moved on to Comet-clones, I loaned it to Bill Dodson around 1985 and he made its last flight from Horseshoe.
-- Rick Masters, May 30, 2010
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Flight log of Rick Masters
Gunter #3 8200' White Mountain Range Owens Valley, Ca
Spectra Aolus 170 proto #2 Other pilots Mark Hanley, Don Partridge
Date Aug 30, 1981 Launch time 13:50 Landing 16:20
Duration 2 hr 30 min Distance 32 mi Nevada line
Wind T.O. Sw 10 mph Wind Land N 10 mph Temp 80 deg / 75 deg
Clouds Clear
Quality No wind at altitude.
I flew to the Nevada line. It was my best distance flight. I was the last man off Gunter after Mark Hanley sank out and landed at Don's Ranch. I followed, sank down to the side of Katie's Tit, working close for lift. I caught a gentle thermal and I could hear Mark yelling, just a few hundred feet below, when I started climbing. Don Partridge was under me but he left for the "Scareport." I rode the first thermal above the main spine of the Whites, turned north and did the Aolus Boogie. A second thermal took me over White Mountain Peak at 14,000'+. I ran the Pellisier Flats north but sank out in front of Boundary Peak in a light north wind. I just made it crabbing to the state line on Hwy 6. Perfect landing.
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Unofficially, that broke the world altitude gain record, but a lot of us were doing that on a regular basis.
Some, like Chris Arai, were reaching the middle 20s in those final months before the FAA altitude restrictions went into effect.
One of my fondest memories was flat-spinning that wonderful bowsprit through the center of a gaggle of sailplanes at 2000+ fps.
I killed them. It was unbelievable. At first, I was looking up at them - then I was looking down on them like little bugs.
"Gee," they don't turn very tight, do they?" I thought.
They didn't stand a chance against that wing in a thermal core.
Yeah, you needed to use adverse yaw technique with the Aolus for the best performance in a thermal.
I'd slow that thing down and twist my body parallel with the wing and load up the outside wing with weight shift, then return to center and push out a bit as it began to turn.
It would hold a turn wonderfully in a core.
