Kelly Cooper:
Well yesterday turned out to be a fun day soaring around our playground. Brett, Tim and myself found a little patch of wave near Mount Hood topped out at 7500 ft. We got a call on the radio from Greg that he was in the Underwood wave climbing through 8000 feet. Tim flew directly there, but I had to stop to refuel on the Ridge. By late afternoon, I heard Brian on the radio reporting that he was at 11,000 in the Underwood wave. Eventually, we all made it into the wave. Tim topped out at 15k. I made it to 13k. We both flew north in the late afternoon light and had a rare tour of Mount Adams. Landed before sundown. It sure is fun when we have multiple ships in the sky.
Greg Traeger:
When you have a nice windy day and are about 4000 feet on the ridge at the notch you can head west-northwest across the river to the foothills of Underwood and you can see how windy it is on the river - all 3 days it looks like it’s 20 - 25+ knots on the river on the northern edge so that is confirmation Underwood may be working.
I think westerly wind down low hits Underwood pretty square on. Heading towards the power line cut approaching the junkyard seems like a good place to start and I think at 3000 feet you may be too low to enter so 4000+ seems to work better. Going to hospital hill to gain more altitude if needed is a close place to top up.
The wave seems very localized over the junkyard and working it north and south worked for me. It seems like if you get too westerly closer to Underwood it’s sinking so fly east until your back in.
Yesterday it got stronger higher and I quit at a little over 13,000 but it was still working 2 - 4+ knots.
I like that it’s an easy out back to 4S2 but with that much altitude you can go around Mt Adams like Kelly and Tim did and go a long way.
Brett Russell:
I took off at around 1:30pm and worked the east ridge, then attempted to ‘go around the corner’ to Baldy but had to return to the ridge. Conditions were beginning to improve, and got to 5k in the dog bowl / ranch area, so worked my way along Neal Creek and got halfway to Baldy before hitting sink. Made it to Baldy at 4k and worked my way back to 5k and slowly worked my way south toward Cathedral Ridge. Kelly went south ahead of me, but I was slower as I wanted a little more altitude. By that time, Tim radioed that he had made it to Lookout Mountain. I kept working my way south gradually gaining altitude but eventually decided I wouldn’t have enough to comfortably make Lookout Mountain, so decided to look for lift near the new radio tower southeast of the Rte 35 S-turns. Kelly and Tim joined me and we started looking for wave. My back was starting to ache, so I left the group and headed north toward 4S2 to land. A short while later I found myself in smooth lift that topped out around 7.5k. I just kept flying north and stayed in the wave for a good 5 minutes, not gaining or losing altitude. Air was quite smooth throughout the Parkdale valley as I headed north. Unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of further scouting out lift conditions with Tim and Kelly, but I know from experience that when my back starts hurting it is time to land.
Brian Hart:
Last Sunday, September 21, had revealed the portent of bigger things to come as our fall wave season begins to work. Morning tows under a 4000-foot ceiling still yielded moderate use of the wave, and as the day cleared, we were finally able to do a couple of instructional wave flights up to about 5600’. But then came Thursday. This day, for me, began with ground school from 07:30 – 09:30. Ground school included a close look at weather, and particular note of developing wave conditions. We headed up to the gliderport with the expectation of great things to come later in the day.
After morning lessons, my suspicions—that this day was to be the first great wave day of the fall season 2025—were confirmed when I saw Tim & Kelly getting ready to launch. All that time spent watching the weather, and all I really had to do was watch Tim & Kelly! By mid-afternoon, Chase Drum and I were climbing from 5600 to 9200 over Underwood in the wave. After that, Noel Proctor went up for his first wave flight since he began soaring half a century ago. We were limited on time, though, so after half an hour climbing from 5600 to almost 11,000, it was time to head back. And with only 12 minutes until the next lesson with Emily Paxson, we spent the entire time in a spoiler-assisted slip, practicing turning slips at over 10 knots’ descent rate all the way down to the pattern and then another practice slip from downwind through base and final—arriving at the airport within our 12 minutes from 11,000!
Then came Emily’s lesson: we launched to 5600 over Underwood and over the next two hours, Emily practiced slow flight and wave navigation just at stall speed as we climbed gently in the wave between the Columbia River and beyond Schweizer West to BZ corner and up to 12,800. We looked down perhaps a mile below us at Kelly climbing over the White Salmon River—as anticipated, eventually higher and farther than us.
I spoke briefly to Seattle Center before heading south on a long descent south over Parkdale Valley, followed by more slip-and-spoiler emergency-descent practice from Middle Mountain to the IP and another slip to land in order to get tied down and over to the training center in time to get dinner and ground school started at 17:30.
