Final Glide into darkness | Believing the numbers | RAW

I've had a lot of requests for a RAW, slow-time version of this final glide, so here it is! DO NOT CLOUD FLY UNLESS YOU ARE SAFELY TRAINED TO DO SO. Do NOT try and teach yourself. As we set off, the sunset was chasing us home, and at first, the margin looked generous—enough not to worry. The plan was to climb on the wave bar along the way, but reality had other ideas. Climbing wasn’t an option, and as the margin shrank, it became a pure numbers game. I was flying with a 6-knot MacCready on the LX and a 3-knot setting on the Oudie, with the 0-knot MacCready as a reference. The real question was: would the numbers hold? As we pushed through the cloud, the unknowns stacked up—what would the cloudbase be? Where would we pop out? Flying over high ground added to the complexity, but thankfully, the terrain sloped down towards the airfield. Icing was another concern, but everything played out as expected, and I landed straight back on the runway. This was a calculated glide, requiring solid decision-making rather than blind faith. If things hadn’t worked out, I had plenty of landing options and a retrieve would have been the worst-case scenario. If you enjoy high-adrenaline, real-world gliding experiences, make sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell so you don’t miss the next adventure! #Gliding #Aviation #FinalGlide #Soaring