This Saturday my flight almost ended as quickly as it had started. Flying over our "home ridge", I wandered which task to take this day. Some cummulus started popping over Mt. Stuart, and so I thought I'd try for the mountains. I climbed to what I thought was high enough over the plateau before crossing Columbia River to Jumpoff (climbed to 5,500'), but soon after passing the radio tower on Jumpoff it became apparent that there were no thermals there to sustain me. I headed directly back to Pangborn, and ended up overflying it at a mere 2,600' MSL. One and a half miles north of our grass runway, over the water tank, I ran into a saving thermal which enabled me to eventually climb back up above our "home ridge". Then I spotted a glider circling about two and a half miles north of me.

It was my fellow club member, Laviniu Tirca, who flew his Cobra 35, with its distinct red lines dashing its wings, making it recognizable from a distance. We met in a thermal above the Pocket. This time, I decided to team up with him. We were in good radio contact (Laviniu's call sign is VM, "Victor Mike"), and after climbing to 8,200' we agreed to strike out towards Waterville. There was a lot of lift over the Badger Mountain plateau, and so we were able to fly straight and actually gain in altitude as we crested Badger Mountain. We traded the extra height into a long glide, way past our first turnpoint, Waterville. While heading east, we spotted a huge dust devil. It lifted us to over 10,000'.

We continued then on to Mansfield, and arrived there at 7,200'. Right over the town there was a nice thermal. We took it, and made sure we stayed well away from the racing oval northwest of town where hordes of rocket launching fanatics were gathered shooting up their creations into the sky (there must have been over five hundred vehicles there).

Then VM and I got separated. I announced that I went south, for about three miles, and parked there in another thermal while awaiting VM to meet me. Apparently, VM's concept of which direction is to the south did not quite coincide with mine; later on, we tried to team up over where a farmer's tractor was kicking up a lot of dust, and each of us found a different tractor. The upshot of it was, that VM headed southwest, more or less directly back to Wenatchee, while I ended up zig-zagging, going gradually from south to southwest. I hoped to team up with VM in Wenatchee but we never connected for the rest of the flight.

After climbing up high over Badger plateau, I picked up another 500' just before crossing Columbia en route to Twin Peaks. I thought there would be a thermal there but the air was dead still. I turned south towards the ski area, and strangely, right over the middle of the valley over Mission Creek, there was a good thermal. It gave me a 2,000' boost and I rekindled my hope to make it to the Enchantments after all. I headed in that direction, past Blewett Pass. But alas, no more thermals. I was 18 miles west of Pangborn and dropped to 7,800', so I turned back. I heard Echo Yankee on the radio. That was Thom Walker in his Cirrus. He was in the vicinity of Twin Peaks. I turned and headed his way. Soon we teamed up in the same thermal, and after topping it, continued across the valley to another, over the town of East Wenatchee. I was hoping EY would stay with me when I announced my plan to head east, after we climbed again to over 10,000'. At this time I hatched a plan to fly to Beezley, then perhaps return via the same route, and fly off the altitude in a more daring final glide than the day before.

The flight to Beezly seemed to be an exercise in optimizing my glide by dolphining; I didn't stop for a single thermal to turn; however, about half-way I did mark one on my GPS so that I could (and later did) return to it after Beezley. So, I glided straight for 21 miles. At Beezley I spotted a glider slightly below, it was Chris Gunther in his LAK-17A, call sign GU. We turned together for a while, and then from 7,700' I started another straight glide, via a return track. While my marked thermal on the east rim of Moses Coulee was still there, I did not stop for it, instead continued on towards an active dust devil 20 miles west of Beezley but only 4 miles from Pangborn. So I could afford to arrive at the dust devil without my usual conservative altitude reserve. At first try I missed it, overflew it by a mile and a half; but eventually found it and rode it out to 10,600'. From there I started my final glide practice. I decided to glide smack in the middle of the valley of Wenatchee River towards Leavenworth, as far as I should be able to and still have a glide back to Pangborn. As I started the glide and was passing Pangborn, I dialed into my final glide calculator the altitude where I was at that time, 10,300'. I already had preset an arrival altitude over goal for Pangborn, to 2,300' (with a 1,000' reserve for the pattern altitude, for Pangborn is at 1,300'). So, I had 8,000' to glide off. I wished at that moment that metric system were already introduced in America. It would make calculating by heart so much easier! Instead, I had to resort to "rules of thumb", such as... 5 mile glide for each 1,000' of altitude... so, that means I could fly 8 x 5 = 40 miles!!! The calculator said even more; and that bothered me. Nevertheless, I set out with the intention to fly exactly the half amount of miles that the calculator said I could, and then turn around. Forget that 5 mi / 1K rule for a while! I said to myself. So, I flew for 21.5 miles before I chickened out. I could have flown much farther; as evidenced by the fact that at the end of my return leg (which from the far point seemed awfully flat to me, with Pangborn way high and flat on the horizon) I arrived above Pangborn still at 5,000' !! while when I began my 21.5 miles return leg, I started it from 7,300'. This clearly shattered the rule of thumb mentioned earlier; because for each 1K of altitude I glided 21.5 divided by 2.3 is ... is... oh come on ... my head aches, where is the metric system??@&$#! is it eight miles? nine? Awfully flat, I recon. There must have been some thermals rising me above the idealized, totally still air path.

Well, what to do with those extra feet? Simply go on, I told myself. The track has to look good for OLC scoring, so continue on the same course past Pangborn, again as far as you dare before you must turn. So, from 5,000' over Pangborn I glided another 9 miles and at 4,200' when I was way past Rock Island Dam I turned and headed back to Pangborn.

I still was way too high, so I finished my approach with a high speed pass, after first advising Wenatchee traffic of my position, path, and intentions. The only two people who still were at our clubhouse were John Roskos and Stony who heard the whistle of CD rushing over them, and came out to look. (After I landed and was tieing down the glider, John said he was hoping to see a looping.)

Later, when I reviewed my final glide trace, I was astonished to discover that I made a 61 mile long glide!! I made long glides before, but this one beat them by a ratio of 3 to 2. So, it was pretty exciting.

Dr. Jack Blipmap from about 10AM for this day: