I must have been driven to those clouds. The previous day they were 80 miles away, and this day they appeared to move in closer. Their bases looked well over ten thousand feet. So, again through lots of blue, I made a wild dash for them. It turned out to be a test of my nerves. Thermals were a bit stronger than the day prior, and I made good progress until Nills Corner. There I had minor difficulties, and while the clouds were then only about fifteen miles away and almost within reach, I noticed that they were drifing east. I abandoned my effort to reach them in the area of Moses Mountain. Instead, I let my adventuresome other half convince to change course and head for the clouds over Methow. This meant that I had to cross the wide Okanogan valley. I took the risk. In one long glider from Nills through dead air I flew to north of Anderson, keeping that airport as my alternate. I passed the space telescopes, nothing, pushed on farther northwest, doing a lot of final glide calculations in the meantime. Within three miles of my turn-around point and landing out at Anderson, a burble came. I made a turn, nothing, so pushed desperately on, two more burbles and futile turns, three miles passed but there was a stirr in the air. At three and a half miles finally - bonanza! Paydirt!! Up we go!!!

I carefully centered the precious vein of squirmy lift and held on to it for another thousand feet, before I allowed myself to pull out the camera and snap a picture of Brewster and the plateau beyond it, extending towards Mansfield. Then I transitioned farther into the mountains, gradually bumping my way up until I arrived under the first cloud, expecting the long awaited award of running into a boomer of a thermal and instant hoist to ten thousands of feet. What a disappointment it was. The cloud fizzled. I moved on, and the next one fizzled as well. And on and on, for another fifteen miles. I was frustrated; almost angrily I decided to cross Methow valley in search of the elusive cloud lift. I covered another five miles and took another picture, looking southeast along Methow River towards Pateros, the sky devoid of any clouds. I realized that the clouds were just quickly cycling and not sustaining as I believed they would. There was an apparent street leading towards North Cascades National Park, really luring me in, but the lift under the first one of them was so unreliable, and, furthermore, there did not seem to be more good looking ones along my intended route back to Wenatchee (by way of Chelan Mountains and Entiat mountains, which did have clouds), that I decided to turn around here. I headed then directly south, towards Chelan Mountains which I reached comfortably high, for a change, and much to my delight finally got rewarded by the kind of lift I anticipated to get once I would get to the clouds in the first place. In the vicinity of these lakes I got boosted to my highest point of the trip, 13,970', comfortably high enough for a final glide all the way to Pangborn, and perhaps even some other legs. And indeed, I arrived over Twin Peaks west of Wenatchee at 6,600' and while I did not find any lift there, I found it four miles farther south, and rose again to 10,000'. This was high enough to go as far south as I could, mindful of the OLC leg rules (this was my third leg). I turned around by the last whisp south of Mission, and spotted some dying clouds over Badger, just south of Waterville. I milked the Mission thermal to 10,500' and then started a long glide across Colombia valley northeast.

My intention was to go as far north as possible and then start a final glide into Pangborn (with a kink around the Badger mountain by Orondo, so as to clear the rim of the Badger plateau, and finish the final glide along the ridge between Columbia and Badger.

The plan worked, sort of. I did connect with the thermals above Badger mountain from 6,200' and climbed again to 10,500' (in the meantime, the time was already well into the evening, it was a quarter past seven). I continued on the course to the northeast, constantly keeping an eye on the final glide calculations. I went over Douglas, and finally six and a half miles northeast of Waterville I chickened out, still at 8,500'. I was 24 miles from Pangborn via direct route - but a mountain ridge stood in the way - I had to clear it by way of Orondo and Rocky Reach, which was 29 miles. That's why I turned around at that point.

By the time I arrived over Orondo, it became apparent that I would again overshoot Pangborn, as so many times before. I therefore changed my plans. I figured if I stayed on the same course, I hoped to clear Burch mountain and then I could extend the final glide into the Wenatchee River valley perhaps over Cashmere and then into Pangborn. So that's what I did.

The problem with these kink-leg final glides is that you don't see well the angles, as you do with the straight final glides, for you are flying away from your goal first. By the time I turned around, I was truly horified by the extremely shallow angle at which now Pangborn appeared way out on the horizon. I was down to 4,650' MSL and 18 miles from Pangborn (see photo). This means that I had 3,400' at my disposal - with no reserve for the pattern altitude. My glide calculator told me I could make it, and still arrive with 500' above the field. It was just very hard to believe. I just had to trust the calculations, and hope that I would not run into any major sink along the way.

I knew I had one good thing in my favor - about a ten knot tailwind from the northwest, both according to the ASOS at Pangborn, as well as based on my estimates of how I was being drifted in the last thermals. So I struck out, leaving the safety net of Cashmere airport behind me. It only took twelve minutes to Pangborn, but it seemed like eternity.

Near the confluence of Wenatchee River with Columbia I hit sink, By the time I arrived by Fancher, the field almost disappeared behind the fields ahead of it. But then the wind hit the slopes under Fancher, and created low level ridge lift, and I rode that for another couple miles which enabled me to arrive above Pangborn at unbelievable 2,425' MSL .. still 1,200' above the runway.

The software I use for flight analysis (SeeYou) calculated that overall, over a 19.3 mile segment I gained 220 feet, lost 2,665 feet, flew with a ground speed of 93 mph, and at a glide of 41.5 to 1. In the sinking section of the glide, 17.4 miles, my sink averaged 2.3 knots and my glide was 34:1.

With hindsight, I may have flown a little too fast... but who can stand the agony of limping to the goal when the ground is so close???

Well, there is still so much to learn!