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July 24, 2005
Roy Mahoney
I didn't expect much, I'd been to Buffalo Friday when it OD'd across the valley over Kiamichi, and again on Saturday when it OD'd again only bigger and all over the place. So I thought the sky might blow up again Sunday, but I was hoping there might be an outside chance that some wind could ward off the T-storms and maybe organize things into some cloud streets. What worried me was NOAA's previous forecast for Friday and Saturday was for light winds turning South 10 in the afternoons, but they had been saying Sunday would be South 10-15. Well, Sunday morning they backed it off to South 10 in the afternoon, same d-a-m forecast, so, I was only hoping it wouldn't turn out like the previous two days. But this time around I planned to get to Buff a little earlier and set up in slightly cooler conditions and shade, maybe get off before the sky got too big.
Warren Flatte called just before I headed out the driveway. He gave James's report that it might be a big day to go long, and that Mark Poustinchian was planning to go long off of Mag with James chasing. This is sounding a little more promising! Warren offered his truck as a chase vehicle if we could come up with a driver. Warren was gonna be about an hour behind.
I got to the mountain - Mel had left his Laminar set up from yesterday. Kevin Connaughton was down from Tulsa to try to get a maiden flight on his new T2, but that was not to be after he got a phone call and had to leave to get back to Tulsa. Mike Kelsey showed up, then Warren, (and later Jason after I'd launched). Dave opted out, citing light winds, and would chase along with Dianne, using Warren's truck.
I was set up and ready by 11:45, wind was light with cycles out of the West, sometimes SW, with some clouds that were looking like they might get big. Watched it a while. Shade from some of the bigger clouds shut down the launch cycles. Shade went away, cycles came back, light wind out of the SW, but increasing cycles, so I got ready to launch. With the light wind and west component, I'm thinking maybe a goal flight to Heavener would be good. Had to wait on launch for some swirly thermal cores to move on back, but once it smoothed out a little, I launched. Time 12:50 pm.
 Flew into a strong core out over the headwall to the right of launch, after centering it took me to left of launch, and about a grand over. Pretty rough air hoping it will smooth out as I get higher. I noticed good clouds toward the East end. So I headed due East and circled on up to the clouds there. As I circle up I'm thinking to myself that today I should get high and stay high, 'cuz my previous XC whenever I got low I spent alot of time trying to get back up and would finally get the most help from cloud suck. (I'll later realize this was the wrong strategy on this flight). I wasn't thinking it could be a record day, I just wanted to beat my personal record of 65 miles.
The clouds were trying to line up into streets, so forget the goal flight to Heavener! I could go directly downwind which would take me NE toward Sallisaw, but the clouds were spotty that direction, so I take a more northerly track with a little better clouds. It's looking like I'll hit the San Bois (15 mi downwind) about a mile or so East of Red Oak, but as I worked about half way that direction, the clouds broke apart, and now there was a really solid street West of me, extending from middle of Buffalo to West of Red Oak. But I was too low to adjust to the West with trees below me and needing an LZ, so I headed right for Red Oak, with the next cloud forming just NNE of there.
Got down to my lowest point 1200'agl just South of Red Oak, where I entered a nice whirlwind of a thermal with lots of buzzards and hawks to mark it, ...took it to the cloud. I can now see a really nice street of clouds way to the East of me across the blue where I might have been if I'd gone directly downwind. In fact, Mel is now on his way downwind and says we need to go toward Poteau & Hwy 59. I tell him it's too late for me, the best clouds for me are to the West, and I'm going to try to eventually get lined up more with Hwy 2. There's only two ways for a chase crew to get to I-40, either Hwy 2 which is on the West flank and runs towards Muskogee, or Hwy 59 on the East flank that runs toward Sallisaw. So Mel goes with my track to keep from splitting Warren's truck in half. :-)
From this cloud just North of Red Oak I start to make a shift to the West to get closer to that better cloud line, but changed my mind halfway there and headed back NE to a cloud over Butch's place (on the San Bois Mtns North of Red Oak). Got that one. It's looking even bluer downwind from here, the better clouds keep saying move to the West, so I keep veering more to the West whenever I can.
Somewhere along this time I hear Warren is finally up and headed over the back. Warren is an hour behind but in race mode trying to catch us. We never hear from him since his radio batteries are too low. He said he'd hit a cloud and stuff the bar to the next one. With the Talon he was probably doing 60 airpseed between clouds. I never got much over 40 because above that the U2's extra drag deteriorates the glide.
The GPS seems to be showing the wind is more SSW now, verses the SW initially at Buffalo. Across the San Bois I get a good thermal NW of Lequire. Next cloud is just SW of Stigler. After getting it, the best clouds are pulling me even further West, so I head NW and get the next thermal over the Canadian River. I can see the thermal core in the waters below, but climb is slow and I spend way too much time just drifting along the river, so I finally head NW again, seeing a cloud street running from just East of Porum, going NNE over the Muskogee Turnpike / I-40 interchange, and beyond. I remember looking at Google Satellite Maps for potential routes with good LZs, so I knew that was a good path, and the clouds that way looked really good.
I got down to 1500'agl trying to adjust under that street. Took a very long time of bouncing between 1500' and 2000' to finally get a good core a few miles South of the interchange. While doing this, Dave & Dianne take time to stop at a Mel recommended gas station grill in Porum (on Hwy 2 to the West of me) and get a hamburger. By the time I finally top out straight above the interchange, they've eaten and are back on the road.
Mel has caught up within 3 or 4 miles of me, but I can't spot him. 3 or 4 miles North of the interchange I get the next cloud, and Mel spots me from his position now at the interchange. I head North over along a long expanse of the Arkansas River that snakes North at this point, and get a teaser thermal just Northeast of the Webbers Falls Lock & Dam, again seeing a thermal core in the river waters but unable to make much with what I'm getting up here. Mel is chasing me at this point trying to catch up. As I turn & head North for the next potential LZ and forming cloud, I hear Mel at the Lock & Dam getting low and finally having to put it down on the NE side of the River. Dave & Dianne catch up to him shortly. He made 56 miles.
I'm thinking I just might have my 65 mile personal best beaten, as I drift in some light stuff across little Greenleaf lake. I head for the next potential LZ near Braggs & Camp Gruber. I get a little core that drifts me over Camp Gruber about 2000' before finding the good stuff over the middle of the military area. I'm wondering if I might soon be intercepted by fighters and forced to land, but I don't *remember* any restricted zones marked on the sectional map in this area. I think it's while working this thermal that I hear the chase crew has Mel loaded and they're on the chase again. The thermal takes me over the next expanse of hills and trees toward Hwy 62 that runs between Muskogee and Talequah.
I spend a long time in this thermal, sort of waiting on the crew but really wanting to get all the way to cloud base of this last well formed cloud. The LZ's aren't quite as plentiful running up the East side of Fort Gibson lake, and the clouds running that way just look like remnants. Also I'm beginning to think this thermal might be my last, so I want to work it as high as possible before heading downwind to max out whatever final glide I might have. Smelling some smoke is helping me stay cored, but ultimately I can't seem to punch through 4500'agl. The cloud looks at least another 2000' higher. After tons of circling and adjusting, getting teaser cores then getting dumped, I hit what feels like a good core that gets me almost to 5200' but then I quickly loose back to 4500' when it dumps me once again.
No more of this, all this circling and I'm only barely north of Hwy 62 now, so I head NNE again toward the next cloud that's pretty scraggly looking. But this line is pretty much the only clouds in this part of the sky by now. Little did I know these clouds are getting smaller and wispier because it is getting later in the day and base is climbing. I think they got over 7000'agl or higher, but I never again broke thru 4500'. But low and behold, I wasn't loosing all that much as I scooted along the East side of the lake, along the cloud wisps spaced about 4 or 5 miles apart, that lined up nicely toward the NNE. I'd get down to 3500', hit the next thermal, jump up to 4500', and head toward the next wisp. I should've been doing this all along! Making much better time. (Actually I flew the first 70 miles of the flight to Ft Gibson averaging just over 15 mph ground speed, and the final 50 miles of the flight I averaged almost 27 mph ground speed. Some of that may have been a little wind increase, but the bulk was just turning downwind sooner instead of burning up time circling!)
Now at this point the chase crew is driving the windingest road of the day between Ft. Gibson and Hulbert, so I get way ahead of them. North out of Hulbert is even worse. They were following "Lost City Road". I wonder if they ever found Lost City? Somewhere along here I think is when they received a call from Warren that he's landed at the Talequah Airport, which is about 10 or 15 miles to the East. An 81.5 mile personal best flight for Warren!
I came up on Hwy 82 which runs NW toward Locust Grove. I've lost down to 2000' and considering running on up this Hwy as far as I can, however, there are no clouds in the sky at all in that direction. The only clouds are just the few dots to the NNE of me. That direction I see hills & trees, then a remote LZ, then hills & trees, and beyond that I can barely make out what I'm sure is the Hwy 412 turnpike. Hey, I remember! Hwy 412 marks the 100 mile point! I'm going across the hills & trees toward an LZ in the middle of nowhere hoping to catch something along this "cloud" line along the way. I radio to Mel that that's my plan. He says "You need to land along the highway - we have no cell phone service". I say "Too late now, I've got a remote LZ made but I hope to make it across to 412!!!". I think he heard me say "412!" Surely I'll find something to help me cross the rest of the distance to Hwy 412?
After another couple of miles while not losing more than 500 feet, I run right into a beautiful easy thermal and take it from 1500' to top out above Hwy 412 at 4500' again. I've got 100 miles now so everything else is gravy!
Mel/Dave/Dianne are getting close now, coming East out of Locust Grove. I spot them coming up on a curve about 3 miles behind me and I give them a land mark where to turn North. I'll be flying up the East side of Lake Hudson. I'm confused and think it is Grand Lake.
My GPS batteries went out way back South of I-40, and I've been able to turn it on every now and then but they only last only a couple minutes each time. Besides that I don't have any waypoints marked this far North! But Mel is helping me identify places as he's fairly familiar with this part of the country.
I can see Spavinaw Lake and a couple cloud dots NE of it. Headed for the spillway and a nice big field to the south of it. In the meantime the chase truck runs into an unexpected lake - dead end - at Chimney Rock Lake. They have to start back tracking. All I can tell them is to get directions to Spavinaw. I finally get there with a couple grand I think, and have a decision to make. I'm getting really fatigued and realize my decision making ability is getting kind of rough, so I need to make it easy on myself when it comes time to select a good LZ.
I see more cloud dots to the NE, but they head to more trees than fields and along or across the real Grand Lake. On the other hand, I see a highway running up maybe NNW to the West of Grand Lake dam, with a town there, and better fields to chose from, but it's all out in the blue. It's late, and I figure chances are I won't last that much longer, besides, I really really have to pee, really really bad, so I go off the cloud line and toward the community just West of the Grand Lake dam. Coasting up the highway, I'm finally over the town about 500', and I see the water tower painted with "Langley". So I try to radio Mel with the town name.... I can hear them, but they never hear me. (I need to get my dipole installed, I'm only running the rubber duck antenna. Later I hear Mel was using a hand held too, hanging out the window spotting me and to get a better signal.) I spot a nice pasture about a mile North of Langley.
Now I forgot to tell you I'd been having trouble with my harness "bay" zipper coming open in flight a couple times during this flight, so the last time I zipped up I pulled it really really hard by hand. Now over the field I find it's caught on something and I can't unzip. No time or energy to do anything else but come in zipped up. No wind at ground level, push out hard, hop hop FLOP! Fall on the basebar but at least it didn't nose in. Time 7:21 pm. I immediately called Warren per Mel's instructions and gave him my location. Then found a nice round bail of hay to water. Mel calls on Dianne's phone and gets my location.
They arrive before I can even start to break down. I check my GPS and it's 120.5 miles back to Buffalo. Time in the air 6 hrs 31 min.We find Warren at Talequah airport sacking out in the pilot's lounge. We get back to Buffalo a little after midnight. But it was a very enjoyable ride, the time flew as we recounted our flights.
Although the clouds pulled me West, probably if I'd "gone with the wind" I would have had a chance to cover more miles - taking the Hwy 59 route. Most of all, as strong as the day was and as plentiful the thermals were, I should have left them much earlier before they petered out, and went for the next. What worked for one day doesn't necessarily work for the next. Next time I need to do a better job of reading the conditions and adjusting for that day's unique conditions earlier on in the flight. Using only the meat of the thermals at mid level may have gained me an extra average 10 mph the first 5 hours of the flight, or potentially another 50 miles. Also, I probably could have launched an hour earlier and not have been too early. That's another 25 miles. Also, standing in the LZ at Langley looking back at the cloud line that I left, the clouds only got better defined. I think the lift probably lasted until well past 8:00.
If I'd stayed on line, I may have got another 20 miles to near sunset. Obviously too, if the day would have had an extra 10 mph wind drift, which is common at Buffalo, that could have added 65 miles on a 6 & a half hour flight. What does all this mean? That Buffalo has much much more potential than I ever realized. 200 miles is certainly possible in a flex wing. Who knows in a supership ATOS?
I've uploaded some files showing the flight track in the folder "Buffalo 258 mi day 2005_07_24", at this link:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Region6/files/Buffalo%20258%20mi%20day%202005_07_24/ .
If you have Google Earth installed, you can view the entire flight track by opening the .KMZ file. Google Earth lets you view the track and all the terrain from any angle from anywhere. (Green dots are track points at altitude, red line is the shadow). If you don't have Google Earth installed, you can download & install it from here:
http://earth.google.com/ . You'll be glad you did!
- Roy Mahoney
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