I got an earlier start than on previous days; was airborne at 12:30. I took two short thermals after the release at the Badger Ridge and at 12:45 immediately started heading out north east, with only 5,500' on the altimeter.

I don't know why I struck out so eagerly, perhaps I was lulled again by the promising Dr. Jack's blipmap for this day. It showed very good lift in our area, and somewhat lesser lift in the southeast portion of the state.

Nevertheless, the fact was that about nine miles away from Pangborn I was down to 4,500' on the flanks of East Badger Ridge, looking from close range at sagebrush and reading the terrain for any possible clues of lift. I shifted to an area which was strewn with volcanic boulders, hoping that it would radiate some heat, and after a little bit of searching located broken lift. It was bent over by southwesterly breeze, which helped to drift me up to the summit of the small ridge. There I found another thermal, which buoyed me to 5,800'. Undaunted, I continued in the easterly direction, where I hoped to find some dust devils. Over Douglas Creek I found another thermal, that one got me to 6,100' and so I thought - I'm on my way. Half-way to the US2 Intersection turnpoint I found another, but that was the last good one. I started to veer off north, so as to stay west of Moses Coulee. Then came the fifteen miles of agony. I started dropping in altitude. At 13 miles I committed to glide and land at Mansfield, if I could not find anything. At 10 miles south of Mansfield I was down to 4,700'. I circled twice and couldn't find lift. The airport looked awfully high on the horizon then (it is at 2,280' elevation). My computer was saying that I should be able to make it; one thing in favor was that I was being drifted in that direction. Once I made the firm mental commitment that if I wouldn't find any lift, I'd land at Mansfield, I was able to relax. I kept to best glide airspeed and concentrated on spotting any stirring dust devils. I worked anything that I came across. Analyzing my flight track, that was not always the best method. In one instance I started working a thermal from 4,300', drifted one mile towards Mansfield, climbed one hundred feet but then exiting from the thermal dropped all gain and resumed gliding at 4,050'. Drifting across that one mile while circling took me 6 minutes. Had I instead flown straight, I would have probably lost less altitude - and certainly less time. Realizing this, I resumed cruising and another mile further, then at 3,800' MSL (1,500' above the ground level, and still five miles from the Mansfield airport) I ran into a thermal which in ten minutes boosted me to 5,700'. I sighed with great relief; even if I would not find further lift, the glide to Mansfield would certainly not be as hair-raising as I imagined it would be otherwise. I arrived over the town at 4,900' and still had enough time to scout out the area for any lift. I spent five minutes and made eight circles, still at the same altitude, before I finally cored a good thermal, and rode it to 6,400'. Encouraged, I turned my back on Mansfield and started heading towards Waterville, becoming somewhat cocky. I heard over the radio the floundering attempts of Ephrata pilots, and my alter ego was saying, ...."ha, there they don't dare to go farther than five miles from their airport, while I'm here forty miles from mine".... I don't know if this presumptuousness made me determine that I wouldn't land out, ..."just to show them that it [cross-country soaring in today's conditions] can be done!" Well, whatever the motivation, I concentrated on spotting any new dust devils in the new direction I was heading. Going that way was more challenging because I was heading into the wind. Eight miles southwest of Mansfield I was down again to 4,800' but that was the last time I dropped that low on the Waterville plateau. In fourteen turns I climbed up to 6,400' and headed west, dive-bombing every dust devil within two miles - now it actually became a lot of fun - and eventually arrived under a cloud marking the presence of a very powerful devil underneath. Indeed, that thermal hoisted me to almost 8,000'.

The circling was over, I declared, and in one long glide flew from eight miles northeast of Waterville all the way to Rocky Reach Dam, and onwards to the Pocket, arriving there at 4,000' after a 26-mile long glide. (That translates to a 6.5 mile glide per 1,000' of altitude drop got to remember that. What glide is it? Calculator, please! Answer: 34 to 1 L/D. Well, let's account for the headwind... again, analyzing my track... in that last thermal in 3 minutes I was drifted 0.58 miles downwind... what speed is that? 60 / 3 x 0.58 = 11.6 mph. I flew the 21.1 miles to the Dam in 24 minutes; my ground speed was therefore 60 / 24 * 21.1 = 52.8 mph. I should add to this the wind speed, unadjusted, because I flew directly into the wind (verified from the drifting trace of the last thermals), so my true airspeed was 52.8 + 11.6 = 64.4 mph.

In still air then, if I flew 64 mph (or 56 knots) for 24 minutes, I would cover a distance of 24/60*64=25.6 miles. I arrived at the RR Dam at 4500'. So, in 25.6 air miles I lost 8000-4500=3500 feet. What was my glide ratio then? 25.6 / 3.500 = 7.3 miles per 1000 feet drop; or 25.6 x 5280 / 3500 = 38.6 L/D glide ratio. [Comment on working with miles and feet... did I hear anyone say, ..."when will we switch over to the metric system with its far easier speed to distance conversions?"]

O.K. ... I got to remember, for my ship, if I fly it at about 56 knots in still air, I cover 7.3 miles for each 1,000' drop. Let's simplify it even further, so that I can remember it better: 60 knots 7 miles 1000 feet. DONE. Let's see how it applies in my future final glides!

Back to my flight. Once at the Pocket, I picked up a good thermal and rode it to 5,000', transitioned down the ridge and joined Dave Goetsch in the Russia, we circled and took pictures of each other.

I then crossed the Columbia River to Jumpoff Ridge, purposely crossing low (from 4,300') to see if I could reconnect at Jumpoff. I got there at 3,800' by the aluminum plant, but a series of small thermals buoyed me again to 4,300' by the radio tower; then I ridge-soared twice "uphill" towards the main ridge of Mission Ridge for about 3.5 miles, trying to get higher;

I then gave up and departed from there towards Pangborn; intending to land.Pangborn was 8.5 miles away and I was at 4,000'. I crossed Pangborn at 2,800' and continued past the water tower almost to the power lines, just to see if I could reconnect to a thermal. In the meantime, I noticed that the westerly wind picked up dramatically; I was then at 2,500' and 2.2 miles from the airport, basically downwind. The decision tree called for either immediately turn to the airport and land, or instantly find a good thermal. The latter prevailed and a very rough and strong thermal lifted me in 4 minutes from 2,500' to 4,200'.

I then I dove down to the ridge and raced it at high speed along with John Roskos in the Lark. I made two passes from the north Lookout to the South Ridge, to see how quickly I could cover the 10.2 miles. With the wind, it took 7 minutes and 30 seconds (that's 81.6 mph), against the wind it took nine and a half minutes (64.4 mph). The 10.2 miles is not quite a level race course; the south end is at 3,400' while the north (upwind) end is 500' higher.

After landing, I was for a while basking in the "fame" of being the only local pilot (including the Ephrata bunch) who went cross-country. Later, while checking the OLC (on-line contest) I noticed that "50" Mike Newgard also went to Mansfield; but he went later; when thermals started cooking also around Ephrata;... so I still felt quite pleased with my accomplishment of the LOW LEVEL CROSS-COUNTRY to Mansfield and back.