I recently realized that my last flight was the first week in July - about a month and a half ago! No wonder I've been Jonesin' for airtime lately!! I've been so busy with the family vacation, trying to stay caught up at work, long-runs on Saturdays, etc, that flying has just been squeezed out. So I started today with a not-so-long run, checked the forecast, and loaded up my glider to head to Short Divide!
The soaring forecast was respectable - showing potential climbs to 16K and higher. The temps would be in the upper 90's, with south winds 15-25 in the valleys, but stronger aloft! I set up, pre-flighted, checked conditions, and donned all of my XC garb & gear, resulting in immediate sweating. Without a wire assist, I had to "baby step-it" out to launch in the gusty 30-38 mph winds. I safely launched at 1:30 and immediately climbed out with full VG on.
In about 15 minutes I was over the top of Gunsight Peak, doing battle with a strong SSE wind and some grumpy-fickle thermals. After an hour of tiring glider-wrastling, I finally was able to climb above 11K. The headwind basically only allowed calculated figure-8's, as a downwind leg or two of a 360 would put me prematurely over the back!
Finally at 11,300', I found the top of a wind-shredded thermal, and decided to stop fighting it and turned downwind, heading due north along the mountain range, excited for the solo XC adventure ahead of me! About a half mile later, I found myself getting severely spanked in the lee-side turbulence of Gunsight Peak - even though I was still at about 10,800! I pulled in and scooted further north, with a ground speed of over 80 mph, until things smoothed out again. I slowed down and crabbed my way along, finding only moderate sink along the way. I realized that the winds aloft were actually very SE, which produced little or no lift along this west facing mountain range. By now I was too low to consider going over the back, so I just continued downwind into Idaho, stopping to try to find lift along some south facing canyon walls. I found pieces of broken lift, but the strong winds just shredded any thermals, rendering them useless, and leaving me closer and closer to the steep mountain faces, working hard to calm my occasional PIO's.
Down to about 1,000' over the deck, I headed west out over the valley, hoping to catch a thermal trigged by a farmer plowing a huge circle field. After finding no lift, I began scanning for a landable field, noticing the grass and trees below waving and bending in the stiff headwind. I was not looking forward to landing in the hot mid-day conditions! After my U2 tried to just run downwind, I reduced the VG to half, and finally got the glider pointed directly into the wind as I began my straight-down vertical descent toward a wide open field. The winds rocked me around pretty good, but I just focused on keeping my wings level, into the wind, and flying fast. Although it was a bit nerve-wracking, I executed a gentle no-stepper in the 40+ mph wind, and then instinctively stepped forward onto my control bar and grabbed my nose wires.
I walked over to a partial wind shadow behind the closest house and garage, where I could safely break down. The home and field owner, "Wes" came out to say "hi". I apologized for landing in his field, and explained that it was the best option around. He was fine with it, and said that I was lucky that his big bull was in a different field today! My GPS indicated 12 miles (as the crow flies) from launch. Certainly not what I had hoped for, but nonetheless a fun, safe XC adventure and some needed airtime!
Airtime: 1.5 hours!
