It was 8 AM on the first day of October, and with two days off, I was hoping for at least one good day of soaring.  I knew the previous couple of days had been dismal, and I had no reason to suspect things would be any better today.  I went to the internet at my weather page at www.soaringnet.com/~pk/tswxlst.html , and hit the link to Dr Jack W. Glendening's BLIP and TIP pages (see the link for definitions).  Both products said it was going to be a better than average day, so I clicked the links to the pressure charts, soundings, and forecasts.  The pressure charts were a mess, with no clear weather flow patterns.  The pressure gradients were all light, and what little flow there was indicated the wind would be from different directions at various levels.  There was a slightly higher pressure overhead, the Low over Baja was dissipating, the Low west of British Columbia was strong but not approaching too quickly, and the High west of us had various ridges and trofs poking into California. Like I said, it was a mess.  Sure, the Reno soaring forecast had lift to 18,000 at 1400 feet per minute, but the sounding showed the air mass was unusually warm, and due to the irregular flow, I couldn't tell what the air would be like by the afternoon.  All I figured was that Dr Jack's model had somehow made a mistake – man, was I ever wrong!

At 11:40 AM Kenny Price phones me at my home in Vacaville, Ca - some 50 miles south of the glider port, and advises me there are beautiful cu clouds at 12,000 ft all along the Mendocino Mountains.  Five minutes later, I receive a  phone call from my wife Linda Kelly and she suggests that I go soaring, saying it looks like a very nice day.  With that, I don't even waste time looking at a satellite photo, I just start throwing stuff into the car.

Rick Ogden was launching as I had arrived at William's, and after Kenny returned and he was helping me push my glider to the launch point, he told me about the three ships from Crazy Creek that were already over the hills.  Rick Indrebo and Paul Kellas had each taken low tows into strong thermals and Rick's Dad, EJ Indrebo was in the two place right behind them.  They had only launched 45 minutes earlier than me, but Kenny said they were already past Goat Mountain. I was jazzed.  I told Kenny to go for speed, and not for altitude on the tow, and I released at 4,600 ft on the ridge east of Goat.

The cloud above me was massive – a good mile wide and at least four miles north to south.  Feeling extremely confident, I circled once to slow down, hoping I would climb, and decided to select Letz Lake as my starting point.  I then headed north, figuring Id contact lift any second.  Then, for the next 15 minute, I humbly worked a half knot thermal from tree top level on the south side of Snow Mountain struggling to climb.  Thanks, I needed that.

File photo of Peter Kelly "PK" by Milt Hare.
 

Note:  On most all of these photos and graphics - click on them to see a larger image.

It eventually turned into a nine knotter and at 13,000 ft I cruised northward.  As I approached my second thermal at Eagle Peak, I heard Rick Endrebo crossing Redding eastbound, Paul Kellas was at T-15, and Rick Ogden was crossing T-13 northbound.  EJ, in his new DG-505 was climbing above me near the top of the thermal there at Eagle Peak.  By the time I had climbed to 15,000, EJ was already headed southbound.  It was already past 2 PM. Id never catch Rick Endrebo if I went north.  I needed to get maximum altitude out of this this second thermal and started to consider crossing the valley.

I did a few quick calculations, and figured I could cut across the valley, and intercept Rick as he turned southward.  Rick had already said he was going to try for Minden.  I crossed Interstate 5 just south of Red Bluff at 12,000, and finally arrived on the east side of the Sacramento Valley and was under some weak cu before I got down to 8,000 ft, less than 40 miles from Chester near Lake Almanor.  If I hadn't made that lift, I would have been gliding southwest to the fields just north of Chico.  When I left Eagle Peak, Rick was probably somewhere near Redding.  He was traveling at high speed.  In this graphic, my flight trace is in red, and Rick's flight trace is in blue. The altitude depiction of these flights is shown as a note at the end of this article.

Graphic created by Jim Darke.

I arrived on the west side of Chester as Rick was approaching it from the west.  I headed south, taking some turns in weak thermals north and east of Quincy, and cruised over Sierraville, and then over Truckee. The lift wasn't nearly as strong up in the Sierras as it was  in the lowlands.  At Truckee there were only three glider trailers on the ramp.  They were closed for the approaching winter, and here I was cruising overhead.  After leaving the shore line of Lake Tahoe at King's Beach, I entered the state of Nevada.  There is a beatutiful small lake along the crest of the ridge on the east side of Lake Tahoe, called Marlett Lake.  The fall colors are already showing, and we haven't even had much in the way of out first frost......

Photo by Jennifer Ware.

Two miles south of Marlett Lake I crossed Highway 50 at Spooner Summit and picked up my speed as I dove into the Carson Valley for my landing at Minden-Tahoe Airport, Nv.  Meanwhile Rick had passed north of Chester, and took a course well east of my track  passing near Susanville, Herlong, Beckworth, and Reno, landing shortly behind me at the Minden-Tahoe Airport.  Rick had taken the long way, and must have had some very high ground speeds on his way up the hill.

File photo of ASW-24 "99" by Connie Indrebo

The first time that flight from Crazy Creek Glider port, Middletown, Ca, to Minden, Nv had been accomplished, it was by pilot Lee Halleberg in the mid-90’s, and Rick Endrebo is now only the second pilot to ever accomplish that feat. Rick was flying Chuck Griffith’s ASW-24 on this trip.

I found myself a parking spot on the ramp at Minden, and was soon met by Jim Herd who had just returned from a round trip to Bodie Ghost Town, Mina, and back to Minden-Tahoe Airport.  He was feeling pretty good about his flight until he got talking to me, and then when Rick arrived from Crazy Creek, all Jim wanted to do was hear about how we did it.  We all went to Dinner, including Jim’s wonderful wife Jennifer, and Ret – the Crazy Creek tow pilot who had arrived shortly after we landed.  Tony Sabino, of Soar Minden, was quick to provide a car to Rick for the evening, and after dinner we found ourselves a room at the Holiday Lodge in Minden.

The next morning, October 2nd, we were all  up early.  Rick returned the car to Tony, and I helped Ret and Rick position the ships for takeoff.  I connected the tow rope from the Pawnee to the ASW-24, and they launched at 7:30 AM in the cold, still air of the high desert.  They needed to have the tow plane back at Crazy Creek Soaring, Middletown, Ca for the first customer on the schedule at 9 AM.

I was busy all morning visiting with everyone, and enjoying the moment.  Jim Herd and Jennifer Ware treated me to a Celebratory Breakfast at Heidi’s.  Steve Eddy ensured I had a full load of water ballast and full gas tank for my planned trip back to William's.  I visited with Andrew McFall, Bill and Tom Stowers at High Country Soaring, Pete and Charm William's, Tupper Robbinson and Frank App, and many others.

Photo By Jennifer Ware.

As we planned our flight, Jim Herd, a real “mover and shaker” kind of guy, wanted to get a photo of our three DG-800’s, so we posed on the ramp before engine start, with Jennifer snapping the photo.  From left to right, Peter, Jim, and Steve, with Spooner Summit in the background.  Note the absence of clouds.

Photo By Jennifer Ware.

We then jumped into our ships, and prepared to start our engines.
As we taxied out, Dave Bingham joined us, now making it a record gaggle of four DG-800B's and Jennifer snapped a shot of the four of us taxing towards the end of the runway.  Still no clouds to the north.

Photo By Jennifer Ware.

We typically taxi with our canopies partially open.  All our DG-800B's are in the 18 meter configuration, with winglets.

Steve was the flight leader, making the radios calls, with Jim as number two, me as three and Dave Bingham as number four in the formation takeoff.  We self launched with four second spacing on runway 34, full length.  I'm sure it looked spectacular – like the first attack wave forming up as we climbed into our first thermal on the northeast side of the aerodrome.

File photo of Steve Eddy "E4" over Minden, By Jim Herd

We climbed overhead Minden, and we subsequently thermalled to 12,000, but the air to the north was not looking good.

File photo of Steve Eddy "E4" heading towards Mineral Peak, By Jim Herd

It was thick hazy air below about 10,000 from the northwest through the northeast for as far as you could see.  There were however, good cu’s to the south, but petering out northward along the crest of the Sierras as you looked west.  I decided to go to the hills 10 miles east of Minden  - the Pine Nuts, then to south end of those hills, and west to Alpine County.

File Photo of Steve Eddy "E4" over Heavenly Valley, By Jim Herd.

Crossing well south of Heavenly Valley, on the southeast corner of Lake Tahoe, I proceeded westbound.  North of Kirkwood Ski Resort, a few miles southwest of Fallen Leaf Lake, Jim snapped a few photos, but unfortunately they didn't turn out, but I can assure you it was a beautiful sight.  I had never been over there before, and with the sun to the southwest, the view of Lake Tahoe was spectacular.  Emerald Bay, lying in the south west corner of Lake Tahoe looked tiny from 15,000 feet.  As I crossed over the bare Granite face of Desolation Wilderness, Jim headed south with Steve to enjoy the lift that was everywhere to the south.  Dave elected to circumnavigate Lake Tahoe on his way back to Minden, and accompanied me as far north as Squaw Valley.  It was a safe journey thus far, with an easy glide to Truckee Airport, and since we were operating between 14,000 and 16,000 feet, we were probably always within glide distance of Minden Airport on the first hour of this flight.  Proceeding north bound over Interstate Highway 80, crossing directly over Donner Summit, I had been following small wisps of clouds for the past 20 miles.  I wasn't really getting any closer to William's by traveling northward, but it eliminated a possible flight through the Sacramento ARSA, now called the Class C Airspace.

Graphic created by Jim Darke.

Looking ahead, there was a single small cloud over Yuba Gap, about 15 miles west of Sierraville. This was the last lift apparent to the north, so I figured I would have to make the best of it.  I was about 80 miles out of William's, and Brownsville airport was a useable field, nearly directly on my proposed track.  My computers said I could make it with 3,500 feet to spare, but I was concerned.  The streaks on the lakes below me showed wind from the west at 10 to 15 knots.  Recalling the pressure patterns and weather forecasts, I began to feel more confident as I reassured myself that the winds should be nearly calm in the Sacramento Valley. The  air ahead certainly looked dead.   I was not organized enough to tune in ATIS/AWOS reports in the valley, and I certainly didn't have the time to have a chat with Flight Service.  It was a well considered decision, and I felt it was safe.  It was now or never.  I had the same feeling when deciding to jump from the high dive at the swimming pool when I was a youngster.  There were butterflies in my stomach.  Once you make the move, there is no turning back.

At first I was flying at 80 kts, but my height margin was decreasing.  Jim Darke had taught me to display the differential altitude on the Pocket Nav Display.  It was very revealing. When I started this final glide I had 3,500 more than I needed, and now, less than ten minutes later, I was going to arrive with only 2,500 feet over William's, and the same over Brownsville.  I decided to concentrate on Brownsville.  If this trend kept up, I wasn't going to make it.  I remembered Pete Alexander saying how he slowed down to best glide speed to make it 50 miles back to Crazy Creek during the Regional 11 Contest this last Springtime.  I displayed my L/D Ratio on the Cambridge L-Nav.  I played with my speeds, bringing  the glide ratio to something in the mid - 30's, and finally the differential between current altitude and altitude required stopped decreasing.  I settled on a glide speed of about 65 knots.  As I passed overhead Brownsville Ca, my margin was again more than 3,000 feet. That is, I would arrive at destination with 3,000 feet above  pattern altitude.  My thoughts drifted to the view. I thought of Les Arnold, Soaring Pioneer, and founder of Sky Sailing in Fremont, California, well over a half of a century ago.  Last time I heard he was still living there in Brownsville.  He would have to be well into his 80’s by now.  He would have enjoyed a flight like this, but I'm sure he'd been there and done that, having flown the 1-26 on many similar flights  - just a different scale.

I crossed the Sutter Buttes above 5,000, made a jog over the top of Rex and Noelle Mayes' house in Colusa and dumped a bit of water so they could see me, in the event they were looking skyward.  I then pushed it over and started the high speed glide to three low passes at William's, ensuring that all 80 liters of water were dumped before touching down.  Sergio Colacevich was on hand to offer his congratulations, and assist me in putting the ship back into the box.  It was only fitting, since I had been there for him when he completed his record setting 1,000 k flight out and return to Truckee Airport less than a month earlier.

Who would have thought you could fly from William's California up to Minden Nevada one day, and back home again the next – and certainly no one would expect those type of conditions to exist on the first two days of October!  This is another "First" for William's Soaring Center, but standby, I'm sure there may be a lot more next year.  In summary, let me show you this beautiful graphic that Carl Herold created, that displays both flights on the same terrain chart.  The light blue line is the ground track of the flight up the from William's, Ca, to Minden, Nv,  and the red line is the flight track on the return flight the following day ---

Graphic created by Carl Herold.

I want to encourage each  glider pilot to be ready for the day.  I had been wanting to do this flight for years and I would have missed the opportunity if Kenny hadn't called me from William's.   My thanks to Kenny Price, to Rick Endrebo who was enroute before me, and to the various members of the Minden Soaring Club for their hospitality and assistance with logistics on my short visit to Minden.  And, thanks also to all who provided photos and graphics for this article.
 

About the Author:  Peter Kelly retired from the Air Force after 22 years of service to our country, accumulating over 10,000 hours of flying time in various type of aircraft. For the past 14 years, he has worked as a commercial pilot and will soon retire as a Captain from American Airlines.

 File photo of Capt Kelly at the controls of the American Airlines MD-80 by Tim Whitlock.
 

Note 1 :  Here  is additional  info about the glider

Group of four photos  by Key Dismukes
 

Note 2 :  This flight was recorded using the Cambridge GPS-NAV System.  The file was created by the datalogger, otherwise known as the electronic flight log, but it could not be read by the Cambridge DOS-based software when I first tried to review it.  The Cambridge site at www.cambridge-aero.com posted a fix for the software.  So if you have any flights since early September, that you want to review on your home computer using Cambridge DOS-based software, you need to load that fix.
I believe Jim D. used "Strepla" and Carl H. used "Seeyou" to review the flight traces.

Note 3 :  If you are interested in seeing the altitude recorder, here are the traces from the altitude recording devices on  both my ship (PK) and on the ship that Rick was flying (99).  You can see we launched at different times and landed at different times.  Rick flew a much further distance since he launched from south of Clear Lake, and circumnavigated the Sacramento Valley by flying overhead of Redding., and north and east of Mt. Lassen and Chester.  Rick's flight time was about four and one-half hours, while mine was three and one-half.  In spite of all of the differences, the altitude traces are remarkably similar.

This fist "Vertical View" is a depiction of Rick's altitude trace.  Note his long 25 minute glide past Redding starting at 2:50 P.M. (14:50) to 3:15 (15:15), where Rick goes from 13,500 feet down to about 6,000 feet.

This second "Vertical Trace" shows my altitude.  Note the same long glide as I traveled across the valley without encountering any lift between 2:55 P.M. (14:55) and 3:30 P.M. (15:30), gliding  forward, but downward from 15,300 feet down to about 8,000 feet above sea level.

Note 4.  The photo by Jennifer Ware showing the colors at Marlett Lake is a combination of two of her excellent photos.  With skillful manipulation and enhancement, Jennifer placed the glider and the lake in the same photo.