My Best Day

One Goal, Two Gliders, and Seventy-Five Hundred Feet

If I had to sum up this flight in three words, they would be: Lead, Follow, Thermals!

I arrived at Ken Jernstedt Airport on Thursday at noon. The sky was robin’s egg blue with no clouds in sight, and wind was barely a breeze, but I was fully prepared for the day ahead. Through a series of emails and weather reports, Brian and I had arranged a lead-and-follow flight today. It was a chance for me to refine my skills and push my limits while also not being thrown too deep into this stuff. When I first saw the conditions, I was very excited. In Hood River the two most common types of lift are ridge and convergence, wave following that and finally thermals. Dead last. So when I saw the Skew-Ts, I was very excited because they predicted thermals. And not just weak ones. These thermals were supposed to climb all the way up to 7,000 feet!

I met up with Brian, who would be flying his Libelle. He was my instructor for the day (I still don't have my private yet.) We quickly briefed our plan: fly west of Middle Mountain, search for thermals, and see what we could find. Brian took off first, with Zack towing, and began scouting the area. Brian had reported back that he had found some lift and as soon as Zack returned to the airport, I was ready to get up into the sky. The tow was short, and uneventful, but once I released, I immediately started looking for any lift I could find. At first, I was trying to use the little stuff, but as I stepped out, thermal to thermal, I learned to bypass the little lift and go for any of the 3+ thermals. As I continued on, I was heading toward Kingsley Reservoir in Brian's direction.

In hindsight, I realized this was my first thermal flight in nearly a year, and the last one had been with big, puffy clouds and strong thermals that practically oozed lift. So, when I hit 5,000 feet, on a blue day, I was feeling pretty good. Brian and I kept in contact, exchanged reports on our altitude and position, and kept the radio busy on 123.3. We circled over Kingsley and slowly explored the west ridge more and more with each thermal. Eventually Brian's luck turned—it was going to be one of us, but he went into the valley first and was knocked down by some major sink. He started getting pretty low, and instead of trying to catch up with him, I found myself not wanting to follow in his footsteps, watching as he descended into the valley. I had climbed to 6,000 feet then and I wanted to do something else other than circle in the same thermal area until Brian climbed his way back up. And so I found myself staring across the valley toward Mt. Baldy, a peak about 10 miles away, somewhere I had never yet flown past.

With enough altitude to make the journey, I decided to head toward Baldy. But, as I crossed Dee Valley, I lost nearly 1,000 feet of altitude and began to question my decision. However, I neared the southern edge of Middle Mountain and hit an amazing thermal that I was able to catch. It had shot me back up to good heights and I made a mental note on where it was in case I needed a little boost at some point. I didn't even need to circle again to reach Baldy. Once there, I turned my attention to the lava flow, thinking it might be a good place for thermals. But, as I flew over, all I found was sink.

I circled back toward Middle Mountain, hoping to find the thermal that had gotten me to Baldy. But when I arrived, I couldn’t find it. My altitude was now just 4,500 feet over Middle Mountain. I didn’t want to head back to the airport just yet—I knew there were thermals around the foothills of Kingsley Reservoir. Plus, Brian had just regained 5,000 feet and was in a great area for more climbing. So, I pushed on, over middle mountain and past Dee valley yet again. At the other side I started catching more thermals, and when one died out I'd find another. At 6,000 feet, I found myself alongside my instructor once again!

Back up at a good altitude, I decided to do a fly-by of Mount Defiance, an area Brian had always talked about being possible to fly to but it never quite seemed possible. As I flew over it, my wings felt almost level with the peak, though I was still more than 1,000 feet over it. Just as I started to circle back to find another thermal, my vario spiked like crazy. I knew I had found a major thermal. I pulled back on the stick to slow my airspeed and turned left to enter the lift and begin my corkscrew accent. Brian, who had also made the fly-by, found the thermal a few minutes later and we just harnessed it. I eventually topped out at 7,500 feet MSL, and the view was nothing short of breathtaking. From up there, Mount Defiance looked small, and I could see all the way to Portland, The Dalles, and even further mountains in the distance north and south.

With that altitude, I felt invincible. With Brian wanting to fly to Lookout Mountain, which was about 20 miles south of the airport, I decided to loop around the back of Mount Defiance before also heading south to Baldy yet again. So we both headed south together though I chose the east side of the ridge with Baldy and he chose the west side with the lava flow. If I were an experienced XC pilot, I might have soared right past Baldy after circling a few times, climbed back to 7,000 feet in some crazy thermal, and flown loops around Lookout Mountain with ease. But reality hit, and I still can't make full use of the thermals (especially with a year since I practiced). So while Brian climbed to 6,000 feet, I struggled at 4,500 feet, searching for any lift I could find. At that point, Brian—being an excellent lead and follow instructor—asked me what my attitude was. When I told him I was at 4,200 feet, between Baldy and the lava flow, he recommended I head back to the airport.

So, I turned around and began my journey back. Heading back after being that far from the airport was intimidating.