Quit the Job

Buy a new wing, quit your jobs, and go flying everyday it's good - that is my advice. I live on the wrong side of the cascades, at least with gas at $3.35 a gallon.

Several days ago the forecast for Eastern Oregon started looking really promising. I adjusted my schedule and based on the forecast, I picked Thursday as the day to sit behind the wheel. I called the most addicted East side locals and planted the seed - I said it had XC written all over it. Getting away from the mountain turned out to be the hardest challenge for the day.

Because the wind was light, we decided to go to the Observatory launch just to scope it. Beautiful Cu was forming really high over Newberry crater, well above 10k. A long and straight up cycle suckered us into setting up, and then it switched to over the back. We packed up and got back in the truck.

Once at the West launch, the strong cycles made Wade and I jump asap into a cycle that drifted us south and got us to almost 10K. We then headed towards Antelope hoping for a big core but found just light lift. Wade went lee side into the SE bowl and didn't find a climb - it didn't seem fair for such a good start. I had enough altitude to glide out over the electric spine and got to the end of it quite low - I was thinking what a shame to dirt when the day was obviously so good.

I hit some lift just south of the end of the spine and began to work the crappiest thermal of the day as it drifted hard to the south. It finally organized and I started climbing more than drifting, and many minutes later I finally had enough altitude to work with.

The wind was north down low and SW aloft so I decided to head for highway 20 - I had a pretty bad cold and didn't feel like enduring an epic retrieve.

Highway 20 runs right past Pine Mountain and continues SE towards Idaho. As Highway 20 disappears from view, there appears a large mountain on the horizon which is called Glass Butte. Glass Butte gets it's name because of the large quantities of gem quality obsidian that can be found there. Glass Butte is actually several Buttes, the tallest is just 100 feet lower than Pine Mountain. I have always wanted to fly to Glass Butte which is at about the 50 mile mark.

I was using the SW flow up high to assist my glide towards the highway. About halfway there I found a thermal that had nice CU above it and I wanted to see if I could get to base. At 14,500 I was at least 500 below base and the climb slowed to almost nothing so I decided to go on glide. I now had 10,000 ft between me and ground - this is as close to a full tank as a paraglider can get....

The tiny town of Brothers is 15 miles from Pine and I made it there with plenty of Alt in about 15 minutes. I think Brothers is a great trigger because I found a nice thermal just south of the buildings.

Three more thermals got me to the town of Hampton which is about 35 miles out - I was a bit lower during this section and made the mistake of getting low to the south of the highway so I wasted some Alt while using a lot of speed bar to push into the north wind to avoid a walk out if I landed.

To the north of Hampton is Hampton Butte, a long ridge of good sized hills that should be triggering nicely, so I used some Alt to fly over a prominent peak and was rewarded with a nice climb.

In the 30 mile stretch from about Hampton to past Glass Butte, I got below 10K only once. This is where the day really started to show it's colors... It was really nice to watch Glass Butte coming at me and to be looking way way down on it as I flew by.

Steve Roti was chasing me and said he was stopping in Hampton to buy me a beer. Then he radioed and said they ran out of beer and that I would have to fly another 40 miles to Riley if I really wanted one... Another seed got planted...

At about 6pm I passed the 60 mile mark, and I felt like I got the best of the day, so I set up to land. I flew through some lift and picked an LZ. About 2k over the ground I hit a big fat and friendly core that I couldn't pass up, and I rode it back up over 10k. I spent 16 minutes and over 30 turns in that last thermal (data from compgps). I went on glide for 13 miles and the tiny town of Riley appeared, at the junction of Highways 20 and 395.

Even though all around Riley is lush and green, and it's flat as a pancake, the air was going up everywhere, I did some spirals to get down, and landed right across from the general store. Steve walked up with a cold beer in his hand - it doesn't get much better than this. A huge thanks to Steve for the retrieve.

Thanks also to Tim for driving us up the mountain. I hope to fly XC with the East side locals once again, soon I hope. You can view the flight on Leonardo here.