Distance in the Winter

“Are you serious?” was my greeting from John Wells.

“I’ll go if you’ll go,” was my response.

On my way home from the SSA Convention, my friend Pete VonTresckow had alerted me that Thursday was looking like a potential day for a downwind dash. So I had sent John and KC Alexander a fishing email to see if they might be available as crew. We decided it might be fun to try a downwind dash in February—as far as we knew, no one had done that. Plus, it seemed like a good way to warm up for the spring.

Early arrival at Sunflower was in order since the day was forecast to begin early. Launch was planned for 11:00 AM. Cumulus clouds had already begun forming by 10:00, which led to a slight change of plan: instead of declaring Fort Smith, AR, I switched to Talihina, OK, directly downwind and familiar territory.

The Flight South

At 11:03, we rolled. The sky was starting to become overcast at Sunflower, so I took a higher than usual tow and released in a weak thermal. By the third thermal I was south of Cheney Lake and back into good sunshine, under fantastic cumulus. The wind was steady around 20 mph, cloudbase started at 6000 feet and rose as I headed south. I was able to stay above 5000 feet, usually working strong lift and bumping along nicely under lines of clouds.

I was quickly past Wichita, Wellington, Ponca City and Kaw Lake, and waving at Tulsa. Average speed settled at 70 mph. Things were ticking along smoothly and I nearly reached 7000 feet at the high point. It was becoming apparent that unless something went wrong I would arrive at Talihina well before the soaring day ended.

The only part of the flight that felt like a struggle was passing Lake Eufala. I was down to nearly 4000 feet, pondering why the wind line seemed to line up with every lake in Kansas and Oklahoma. I diverted toward the airport at Arrowhead State Park, the last airport before Wilburton. Thankfully a decent thermal materialized. I settled in, promising never to do that again, and enjoyed the wind drifting me toward my goal. Soon I had Talihina in glide and arrived just after 3:00 PM.

Mena—Diamond Distance

Along the way I pondered my next move. Options downwind included Broken Bow, OK or my old friend De Queen, AR. But I wasn’t keen to continue south of the Kiamichi Ridge—cloudbase was down to just over 6000 feet, the wind had turned more westerly, and I couldn’t see any landing options among the trees.

Then I set Mena, AR in the Oudie. Mena was Diamond Distance from Sunflower: 501.8 km exactly. The idea of a February Diamond flight was very attractive. And I couldn’t help thinking about the warm FBO there and my frozen toes.

Off I set, flying high above the Kiamichi Ridge, still above 5000 feet most of the way. The route took me back into thicker cumulus and generally better lift. I soon had glide to Mena. As I passed Rich Mountain I could see snow on its top. Soon Mena was in sight, and after a few minutes of loitering to extend the flight over five hours, I made a nice landing there.

John and KC were about three hours behind. I had kept them updated by text message during the flight. Several people had been following the flight online with the SSA’s Sailplane Tracker, so I had plenty of messages when I landed. The FBO was friendly and helpful. The crew arrived, the glider was in the trailer, a gourmet dinner at McDonald’s was procured, and the long drive home commenced.

This flight was intended to be a warm-up lap for the spring go south season. What a warm-up lap it was! We got experience putting together these kinds of flights, the glider and trailer were ready for the rest of the spring, and we got valuable practice in all the aspects involved. And somewhere in there I picked up Diamond Distance—in February.