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The Big Downwind Dash: Minden, NV to Dodge City on Mountain Wave

December 19, 2025

On the morning of December 19, 2025, Tony Condon dropped a message on the KSA cloudbase list that set off a full day of live tracking and disbelief:

“Gordon Boettger is trying to fly from Minden to Garden City. This has been a goal of his for a long long time. He’s flying his NVG equipped Arcus.”
— Tony Condon, 7:12 AM

Gordon Boettger’s plan was to ride the winter mountain wave from Minden, Nevada—the soaring capital of the American West—all the way to southwest Kansas, using an IFR flight plan and climbing as high as FL280. Tony explained it to the curious:

“I’m sure he used the jet engine to self-launch but otherwise this is an unpowered soaring flight. He’s using mountain wave to climb as high as FL280. He’s flying on an IFR flight plan. The last big wave climb will come off the front range of the Rockies and from that altitude he should be able to glide into Kansas. Hence the goal of Garden City.”
— Tony Condon

Watching from the Ground

The club glued themselves to WeGlide all morning. Early reports were jaw-dropping. Doug Dutton checked in at 7:37 AM:

“He is at 27,500 over Nevada! He better have a huge O2 tank!”
— Doug Dutton

Doug had also found Boettger’s pre-launch Instagram video and shared it with the group. Meanwhile, Andy Arnold happened to be flying commercially and landed his Pilatus at Hays that morning:

“I just landed in Hays with the Pilatus, winds at pattern altitude were 56 kts from the west. Nice push on final glide for him. 15 kts on the surface.”
— Andy Arnold

Doug had already proposed a welcoming committee: “It would be cool to greet him in Garden City!”

The Flight Unfolds

The tracking reports came in like a play-by-play through the afternoon. By 3:22 PM, he had reached the front range of the Rockies. At 4:11 PM, Neal Pfeiffer reported:

“It looks like he pushed the nose over a bit near La Junta, CO and is on a final glide to Garden City…”
— Neal Pfeiffer

4:38 PM: “Just crossed the Colorado/KS border at 4:37 CST.” — Steve Seibel

Then ForeFlight showed a change in destination:

“According to ForeFlight he’s now going to KDDC.”
— Mark Schlegel, 5:00 PM
“Just passed KGCK at 13,000 ft going 103 kts!”
— Mark Schlegel, 5:10 PM

He flew right over Garden City—the original goal—and kept going. Tony sent the update: “Destination now Dodge City.”

Then, just before dark:

“Short final to Dodge! Down before dark! Way cool!”
— Doug Dutton, 5:43 PM

The Retrieve

Steve Leonard had driven west to meet them. Tony posted the WeGlide trace and added: “Looking forward to his report!”

The next morning, Jay Buchanan reflected on what had happened:

“Incredible—the logistics for this flight is a challenge in addition to the flight navigation itself.”
— Jay Buchanan

Steve Seibel had the same question everyone was thinking:

“Incredible. So he launched in the middle of the night. Wonder how he kept warm enough. And how big his O2 tank was. He must have been kind of exhausted near the end, no?”
— Steve Seibel

KSN News covered the flight. Bret Chilcott put it in perspective:

“This record-breaking flight is good for the soaring community as it promotes soaring.”
— Bret Chilcott
Flight trace: WeGlide — Boettger Arcus, December 19, 2025
KSN News coverage: Glider pilots break distance records in epic Dodge City flight