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Hi All,
Had a great flying day Sunday June 10th in the Sequatchie
Valley. Good number of pilots showed up to fly at Henson's. It
looked nice driving over, but the cummies dried up and the wind seemed
to be a bit higher than the forecast suggested. It was cycling in now
and then, but, no birds were climbing up and it was looking less and
less lifty. Greg Heckman launched first around 2 PM in his mighty S2
after being patient as long as he could. There were really no signs
of sure lift when he launched. He sledded after missing a few
opportunities in little thermals. Wayne Walker got him back up to
refly quickly. Greg can set up faster than anyone I know.
After about 3PM or so we gathered courage and got ready. Steve Lee
launched first and turned right to hit a little lift in the bowl area
that faces NNE. I was soon behind him and ran off with a little tail
wind to find ratty lift right in front of launch. It was tight and
tricky. Eric Donaldson launched and helped me sort it out right in
front of the ramp. I think it went tail for a while cause Baby Bird
stayed on the ramp for a pretty long time. Kathy Lee eventually
launched as did Greg Heckman, Buddy Cutts, James Anderson and David
Kissick. I managed to get a few hundred over in the nasty pops, then
hooked onto a very punchy, but strong piece of lift and got about a
thousand over take off. Steve was climbing out, but I couldn't move
to use what he had, so I hung on to the snaky thermal and climbed.
The others had all bailed off and were struggling at launch height or
lower.
Steve climbed great as usual and announced he was 5000' over and going
down the valley. I was 3000' over take off and stayed with the now
solid 400fpm climb. I tried to find Steve, but couldn't twist my neck
up that far. I think Steve took the valley route while I stayed along
the ridge line or back on top a little as we ran toward the south. As
I dumped flaps to leave, I saw Kathy super low and expected she would
be landing soon.
Steve and I found each other to work the too often weak and sometimes
punchy thermals in the totally blue sky as high cirrus moved in to
shade things. I'm not sure why we split up, but I think we split near
Dr Dale's. Anyway Kathy, Greg and Eric had all found their lift
tickets and were in pursuit. I was climbing in punchy weak stuff too
much. Almost every time I searched around downwind or up wind of the
crappy stuff, I'd find a better core and climb pretty well. The lift
got squirrelly near the inversion layer which was bout 4000' over take
off and later was higher at almost 5500' over takeoff. I rarely pay
close attention to my altitude unless I'm about to land, so others may
have more accurate info here.
Steve had crossed the valley to the west side and looked super low
south of Whitwell. At one point, he called in a 'likely to land
report' for our super driver Wayne. Meanwhile, I was doing pretty
well on the edge of the Henson's side plateau. I never got seriously
low and finally found a nice climb a little north of Inman's Point.
Terry Presley was on the radio checking up with us. Terry, James
Stinnet, and Campbell Bowen were climbing out after towing at LMFP.
They were thinking of hooking up with us as we headed on to Lookout.
By this time I was climbing well as was Steve. He'd survived the
knuckle dragging and was moving across the middle of the Valley toward
Lookout after climbing from low between Whitwell and Jasper. I topped
out pretty high (6500msl) and headed toward Lookout. It seemed I had
a head wind every way I turned, but it was pretty easy to move toward
Lookout. I cut the unlandable woods, TN River Gorge and Nicajack Lake
corner. The crossing route started just near Inman's point and split
the difference between Big Daddy's bail out field, the fields on top
of Sand Mtn and a direct line to Lookout. I was high and always had
good landing options within glide, but it sure felt spooky when I
looked straight down.
I caught a decent thermal half way there, climbed, then glided toward
the Lookout valley. I found choppy weak lift over I 59 on the western
edge of Lookout Valley. Terry Presley on his T2 was pulling the two
stiffies and dove in under me. It was a slow climb, but soon Campbell
Bowen on the Monster Glider (50'+) ATOS and James Stinnet on the
Robert Reisinger VR came in and we centered up a little better. I was
pretty excited cause with these guys helping, I might be able to pull
off the elusive Henson's to Lookout and back flight. I caught a
decent piece of lift and climbed well enough to leave the climb, run
across the Valley, snag the Lookout Launch Ramp turnpoint and head
back to the thermal area without getting too far behind the others. I
love my ATOS!
I found the lift again with the 'last thermal' function on the 5030.
As I climbed up again, James Stinnet joined in near me. He wasn't
able to transmit, but made the sign for 'out and back' so I was even
more stoked to try it! Turns out James could hear, but not transmit.
We climbed well together and headed out towards Big Daddy's kinda
low, but with lots of confidence. It was getting late. We hoped
there were still thermals happening in the Sequatchie. Steve Lee had
run hard to Lookout and was kinda low so he ended up landing there.
He was pleading with us not to do the trip without him, but we were
already on the way.
Kathy had Eric Donaldson in tow and they were coming East toward the
lake as we headed back West. I stopped for a climb over the island
right in the middle of the lake and Terry Presley dove in below me.
James found a climb to the south of us and we all slowly climbed in
weak, then better lift. Greg Heckman came diving in from the
Sequatchie side to join the nice climb. When we got what we could out
of the thermal, Greg headed toward Lookout while Terry and I moved NW
to the little hills along the West edge of the lake and found a very
sweet climb. We got pretty high there. I was determined to push on
though there was a steady 6 mph headwind and the day would be ending
soon. Terry decided to head back toward Lookout, so I was hoping to
get with the remaining stiffies. James had been climbing in our area,
but to the south about a half mile or so and was a bit below me. It
was time to move on.
James was coming along to help, but was still a bit lower and a little
behind. I didn't know what had happened to Campbell. He probably got
tired of orbiting above the action and moved into the Sequatchie
before we even started the lake crossing from the Sand Mountain side.
Anyway, I hit a good climb near Inman's point again. It got me
pretty high to maybe 6700' msl and I headed on toward Henson's. James
found a nice climb behind me, but I didn't think it made sense to back
up 2 miles to join him.
It was a slow trip up the Valley with almost no hints of lift. I
tried the Valley and the edge of the ridge with nothing better than
reduced sink to help me. As I passed Dr Dales grass strip, I was
below ridge height. I tried to float around the corner and into the
gap to the NE of Dales hoping to find a hidden thermal or a little
ridge lift to hang with and climb again. It teased me a little, but
in the end I had to bail out to the valley. Sure was smooth! Always
a bad sign for XC!
I floated back around the corner towards Dale's then thought better of
it and headed north. I found a few bubbles and climbed a little with
lots of drift. As I backed up in the climb with the NE wind, I
noticed I'd gained only 200' above the altitude I had as I flew by
Dale's the first time! I'd backed up about 1.5 miles for 200'! I flew
on towards Henson's LZ knowing it would take some really good luck to
get there. That's when I saw an ATOS circling ahead of me!
I floated under him milking my altitude for all it was worth. We were
both seriously below ridge height, but I never think I'm gonna land
while flying one of these super ships. I did careful searching turns
below him and found nothing. At first I though James had caught me
from behind, but it was Campbell on the Monster Glider! He was
somehow hanging on in the nothing lift! There was no climb under him,
so I decided to try following the weak lift string upwind toward
Henson's LZ hoping to run into some reasonable lift. Nothing doing.
I was losing it, and had to start 'search and try not to land' tactics
over the good LZs.
I moved over East Valley road and circled in 0 sink at 300 to 400' agl
as I searched for anything. Finally had to land. Put the Blue Bird
down neatly in a newly harvested wheat field with no fences 50' from
East Valley road. I got unhooked and looked around for Campbell. He
was still circling, but much lower now. He finally ran out of options
too and came over to land with me. James Stinnet landed at Matthew's
grass strip (Johnny Laughton's place) a couple of miles to our south.
Terry on his T2 and Greg on the mighty S2 made it to the Lookout LZ.
Kathy and Eric ended up landing at Big Daddy's bail out next to the
lake. Our super driver Wayne was there to watch them land.
A one way trip to Lookout is 32.5 miles straight line. There and back
is a 65 mile flight. This doesn't count the dogleg miles necessary to
negotiate safely around the TB River Gorge and Nickajack Lake area.
Cambell and I were about 5.5 miles short of Henson's LZ!
This was one heck of a flight on a day with no cummies and only
mediocre lift for much of the trip. We started late and had
unfavorable, though fairly light winds. I'm sure we'll make this huge
out and back trip very soon. It is one of the prettiest XC routes
around and really challenging with the barriers of the TN Gorge,
Nickajack Lake and the doglegs necessary to stay in reasonable glide
range of good LZs. The first weekend day with good lift and light
winds out of the west, Steve, Kathy, James, Terry, Carl, Eric, Dave
Giles and I should try it together. What fun that would be! I would
have listed Greg Heckman in that endeavor. He's one hell of a XC
pilot. Greg passes on the out and backs with the mighty S2, but he
can go downwind like nobody's business.
I sure love flying in this great place. Hope we can do it again next
weekend.
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