I was waiting for Laviniu to arrive, so I did not launch early.

It was a record-setting day again, cu's popped and were workable at 9 am already.

But this day I had another training flight in mind; to fly with water and pick up cross country speed.

Laviniu had an assignment to pick up strawberries for Emily and me, to make freezer jam. He had to wait 40 minutes in Monroe until the farmer picked them, that put him behind, plus almost to the date from one year ago, on the way to Wenatchee he again got a speeding ticket. That annoyed him so much that he didn't feel like flying when he arrived at twelve thirty (he eventually went up in the club's LS-3A, which was available).

In the meantime I applied new foam sealer tape around the perimeter of the canopy of CD, put in all the gear, and filled wings with 14 gallons of water.

Winds were from the east so we had to push down to the intersection of Rwy 25 with Rwy 30. Mike helped me to push and launch. Thanks, Mike!

Launching was a little hairy. Due to the new runway incursion rule we launched at an angle from 25 onto 12, meaning that the glider had to make about a 30° turn while still on the ground but rolling at already a pretty good speed. With the increased inertia of the water in the wings, and the tipping, glider directional control is a lot harder than when dry. Soon after we started rolling, the glider started tipping to the right, in the opposite direction it was supposed to be turning, and veering more and more away from the centerline of Rwy 12. I almost released. Finally the ailerons started working, and I was able to tip the glider in the desired direction. There was still one high speed bounce; at an angle since we had to be crabbing. But that was easily corrected; we had enough speed already. The conclusion: When launching next time from the intersection with water, I'll simply announce that we are taxiing and staging directly on Rwy 12/30, and launch without any turns.

After the release at about 3,500' near the Pocket the climbing up seemed to take forever. Thermals were narrow, and I kept flying out of them. Looking at a lot sparsely-spaced cu's than the previous day, I started wondering if it was a good idea to fly with water at all.

But after five climbs, the last one netting 9,500', I was glad I kept the water and did not dump it prematurely. In that last thermal I had great lift all around my circles, and thereby a proof that I could climb well even with the extra weight. I reset my counter and picked out Anderson as my first turnpoint. Third time is the charm; this time I rounded Anderson without any delay, and nicely high so that I could continue to the next turn, for which I decided about five minutes before getting to Anderson: Davenport. I launched late; at 1:20 pm; so I had no illusions that I could produce another distance record flight; and instead concentrated on practicing how to increase my cross-country average speed. It would be nice, as an added bonus, to fly over 500 km, since that could solidify my standing in our OLC league. Going to Davenport was pretty much like the first leg, with a small exception of having to cross a wide gap over Banks Lake. No delays were enncountered; and after the experience of the previous day, I kept my overzealousness under control; kept returning to known lift and "tanked up" altitude before longer crossings. I stayed high.

When coming upon Davenport I took a few pictures.

The clouds were just here and there, but evenly spaced.

Here's looking at the scene of my prior day drama, at the bend of Columbia and Seven Bays.

Rounding Davenport from the north. No skydivers were up when I was there; nice that they get on our frequency to announce their launches.

Looking into the sun, to the west, there were several streeting possibilities. I took the one more or less heading towards Waterville, and kept that as the next turn. By the time I got south of Hartline, a big wide blue hole formed ahead and especially to the south. Clouds started drying up. I made a jump across Banks Lake near Coulee City, veering off to the northwest, and connected with another street that took me to Waterville. There, in the middle of the runway I saw a glider - and its trailer - disassembling; it was a little odd to block an entire airport! So, I told myself, caution is in order.

Past Waterville, at the edge of Columbia, I thought that was it over with for flying with water. My climbs were not effective any more, and thermals narrowed considerably. I dumped about 2/3 of the ballast - the glider became much nibler and bouncier - and I continued on the previous heading which took me over the Entiat mountains.

There were some pretty intimidating clouds with very dark bases, and huge, tall tall tops. From broadcasts by ZH who was there just minutes ago, there was incredible lift "everywhere". However, the clouds were just on the verge of bursting into a squall - or not yet. It was a guessing game. The clouds over the Enchantments and Chiwawa's were dumping rain already. My plan was to "hang right" at the Entiat Ridge when under the clouds and head north until I would be 40 miles from Wenatchee. Why 40 miles? To get far enough so that the total flight distance would be at least 320 miles, for a 500 km flight.

Peeking over the canopy while in a tight turn, Eagle Creek is on the left, Lake Wenatchee on the far right.

Lake Wenatchee and Fish Lake.

This is what it was like while heading north. An incredible cloud street enabling cruising around 100 mph while maintaining altitude. I decided to stay 1,000' below the 9,000' cloud bases, to minimize shocks to the glider's airframe (and mine) from the rapidly alternating ups and downs. I wished then I still had water on board; going would have been much smoother, and perhaps I could go right under the cloud bases at even higher speed. (With a new glider, yes.).

The clouds were just awesome and still working full blast. That was my problem. I could have gone to Stehekin or Glacier Peak (in photo) and likely not have to turn for thermalling; but I was worried that the clouds would overdevelop and my return route would be shut off.

With a hind sight, I should have flown farther. However, I turned back.

This was the view in the opposite direction, towards Wenatchee. I was wondering which way to go for the "trace" to be the longest; at first, I thought I'd go to Mission (on the right) and then on farther south. Eventually, however, over the Burch Mountain I decided to opt for the more reliable-looking route heading southeast towards Quincy over the plateau east of Wenatchee (see clouds in the photo in the far left). Then it was just riding the thermals to the last visible sign of convection, calculate the final glide, and head a little farther. At 21 miles out from Wenatchee, by Quincy, I turned and headed for home, stretching the final leg, conservatively set at MC 6 (there were huge sink pockets around). I was able to fly another 5 miles past Pangborn, over the confluence of Columbia with Wenatchee River, and then "head for the barn."

I was very pleased when I finally downloaded the flight to discover that it was 540 km, optimized for OLC. Counting all the zig and zags it was close to 580 km. Not bad for a 1:30 pm start!!!

A few technical notes:

A "Plus" - the canopy sealing worked out great! No more whistling!

A "Minus" - my transmissions were not heard - there was something wrong possibly with the mike, or the connections. Have to fix that. Could hear everyone, but could not talk to anyone.