Final Glide Through Lightning - Scary Thunderstorm in the Mountains!

Cockpit view from one of my scariest flights in a glider as I have to cross a line of thunderstorms over the Rocky Mountains on my final glide back to the airport - conditions are quickly deteriorating and there are now many storm cells with rain, lightning, thunder, and hail in the area that I am looking to navigate around, while also trying to stay within safe gliding distance of landable airports or fields. Watch my other videos:    / chessintheair   Check out my Website: https://chessintheair.com/ Follow me on Facebook:   / chessintheair   The video depicts the third leg of a flight on July 31 2020 during an attempt to complete my first-ever declared 750km task. It starts just as I am about 430 km into my task, having made excellent progress with an average task speed of 125 kph. So far I have kept my hopes for a successful task completion alive. But now it is quickly becoming obvious that I will not be able to complete my task and must shift my focus to safely returning home to Boulder. My flying buddies are in similar situations as we seek to advise one another on the best course of action to take. The video provides a cockpit view of the flight with detailed commentary about the critical decisions along the way so viewers can consider their own choices. I also added some commentary at the end that discusses how and when I might have been able to avoid getting into this situation to begin with. Seeing the lightning right in front of the canopy amplified my stress level, which was already high as I tried to weigh the decision whether to continue or try to hold and wait for the storm to pass through. I can now say from experience that high stress levels really do limit one's cognitive abilities, especially with respect to complex tasks such as piloting a plane. (Look up Yerkes-Dodson Law.) Deep breathing can help reduce the stress and bring it back to a level where one can function well. This flight was about 1 1/2 years ago and I was long unsure about whether to publish this video at all. I ultimately decided to do it because I think there is a lot to learn from this flight. If it helps anyone become a safer pilot this would far outweigh any harsh criticism that I may get. Editing disclosure: I did not hear the thunder claps following the lightning flashes that you can see on screen; I added these sound effects to emphasize the psychological impact that the lightning had on me. The video is as recorded by the GoPro camera mounted inside the cockpit on the right side of the canopy. I slowed down the play back speed of the video during the lightning flashes to make them more visible. My glider is a Ventus 2cxT 18m high-performance sailplane from Schempp-Hirth. The flight originated and ended at Boulder Municipal Airport (KBDU) - an ideal soaring location for exploring the sky above the Rocky Mountains. All music is from Epidemic Sound. The full flight trace can be found here: https://weglide.org/flight/20716