One of the most striking visual differences between a normal glider and the pressurized Perlan2 is the windows instead of a canopy. Dennis Tito’s DG 1001 has a huge canopy with excellent viz, whereas the Perlan2 has 6 view ports and two transparent top hatches. So on Wednesday we masked the front cockpit of the DG to simulate Perlan’s viz. The back cockpit for the co-pilot remained clear. Jim declared the viz totally acceptable. The Redmond Airport folks have given us awesome support. Leading Edge Jet Center has been super in providing a hangar to work in.
We did 3 truck tows on a wide closed runway at the Redmond Airport on Thursday. They did not go airborne, just got experience with towing and taxing with the Perlan2 viz. Jim was test pilot, Morgan Sandercock was co-pilot, Doug Perrenod was the observer from the truck, Stewart Tattersall was wing runner and Jackie Payne was the NASCAR truck driver. This was also a test of a Bonehead helmet which will be used with the Perlan. This was also the first time we used the special built tow bar created for Perlan by Silvio Ricardi of SoaringNV. Silvio will be the tow pilot for the upcoming first flight.
