Overnight the NOAA Spokane soaring forecast perked right up (top of lift 10,000…. 500fpm climbs). The plans for a day at lake Chelan changed. My drooling over the soaring data caused Mia to give the old man one more opportunity to extract a few more K’ms out of the Columbia basin…. she agreed to run the rig! (I was wondering if this was going to cost me another bottle of Johnny Walker Blue?)
Like the “Flash” I had the glider loaded and by 11:30 we headed out (an early start). Along with a dramatically improved soaring forecast we saw cumulous development over the flats….. things where looking up!
It was NE at the tow site. Dang… a short low tow? To improve my odds, we moved the setup 2 miles further south to newly cut crop. Sure enough, 12:30, 2100ft agl tow, released into some nice smooth 200… then 300fpm up, let the games begin!
The first plan, establish wind direction. Looked to be a 6-12mph NW? … so it was a quick run to Wilson Creek, classic glides punctuated with well placed climbs between 8500 and 9500ft asl. From Wilson creek I decided to tack on a little extra OLC distance by continuing on to the Hutterite community to the SE, climbed out and turn North East to Sherman (near Wilbur).
The run NE was also classic but the Q’s were not as well defined and would often just disappear… or appear randomly. East of Wilbur, I was having to work to find lift. Winds had switched more westerly and climbs stopped being reliable. I bailed on the Sherman turn-point and turned in the direction of L-Road. At nearly 3 hours and 110kms into the flight, I knew this late season flight had potential to come of the rails… sure enough it did.
NW of Wilbur I had one last climb that was the highest of the day just over 10,000ft asl (forecast was dead on!), after that everything ground to a crawl. Good dust devils no longer marked strong lift, short climbs, needed longer and longer glides. At this point, Mia joined up as my ground support (driving up from Almira , NE to the Highland silo landmark). From here she encouraged me to press on. The further west I pressed the lower the climbs topped out. By now it was a luxury to get over 7000ft. Once I was as low as 3900ft asl (1500agl). Looming ahead…Banks Lake.
Mia kept up the encouragement, I kept up digging up scraps to stay aloft, all while Mia waited at the exact field I had landed the day before. One last climb to 6100ft asl, right near the edge of the lake. From here it would be at least a 12km glide (and only 3500 agl to work with). This would of course not only include the lake crossing but to also reach a good LZ. Inspired by Mia’s previous day crossing of 5600ft asl (at the east side edge) and slender weak looking dust devil under the power lines on the West side SE of Mold cemetery, I went “for it”.
Of course I had to show off, I was even lower then Mia's flight, starting out on the east side at 5200ft asl (now only 2700ft over and still 10km’s to travel). Fortunately, the tactic of getting to the West side of the lake paid off. With a very light NW surface the weak lift seemed to break with a little more strength over the cliffs on the west side of the lake and I was able to re-establish some improvement in my gains. One weak thermal on the edge to 6700ft agl let me push on NW, One more glass smooth 200fpm up allowed me to get over 7700 and suddenly, my glide to goal numbers turned in my favour! At 14km’s out I went on final glider to arrive at L+13 1800 ft agl. And that was it, not an inch of air was moving up, the day was done.
With a few tips about landing in the back of my head (from Andy Long, ATOS guru landing expert) and Mia (the worlds best grounds crew and a great pilot to boot) now at goal with a limp wind sock and kicking dust, stall alarm set, I pulled off one of my nicest no wind landings ever (thanks to both Andy and Mia!)
Undoubtedly one of the nicest September long weekends in years. This last flight was the “Icing on the Cake” for this years season. In the distance we could hear the lonesome howl of some local coyote's, the sun was setting , Mia and I with bottles of Becks in hand took out the lawn chairs and enjoyed the last few moments of season (taking the glider down had to wait). This is a spectacular place to fly !
Cheers.
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