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Each year the Soaring Society of Boulder runs a Summer Soaring Series. The purpose of the series is to encourage cross country soaring by SSB members of all abilities and to select a club champion.
Last Update: January 26, 2002
SSB Summer Soaring Series 2001 - Flight Stories
Gold
Mark Terry (2021)
5/13/2001 Ventus B
318(sm) 286(points)
Remote start at Nederland then into Laramie Vally to Lake Hatti and return, which was 300k then up to Halligan reservoir. Turned that in virga and sink, limped out Fort Collins at 7000' and thought I was going to have to visit Downtown Fort Collins. However found a thermal over town which started weak but got me up to 11,000 - then worked my way back. The last turnpoint was Gross Reservoir but I arrived close but looking up at it from Boulder Canyon, tried to skirt round the Flatiorns to find a thermal in Eldorado Canyon that would give me a shot a the turnpoint, but no joy.
Anyway I was glad escaped Downtown Fort Collins.
Colibri worked most of the time - I have to keep it in the back out of the way of the radio. If I can fix the loose connection it may even get to be mildly unreliable.
6/10/2001 Ventus B
320 863
Declared Out and return Gross Res-Laramie Peak and back for a diamond distance. It was good going up to Laramie, after that the clouds were less frequent and gliding in to get the turn-point there was sink. I thought I would be landing at Wheatland for the first time this season, however circling around Laramie Peak I found some bumpy thermals that were going to 13K so I started to head off back to Laramie. After about 20 miles or so I again hooked up with thermals going to 15K.
After leaving Laramie valley there were lines of virga west to east, however there was a hole in the virga line and I approached cautiously and cashed cash in a year of clean living and ploughed through. After that I skirted around Longs Peak for a great view of the glacial lake and then dove for Gross Res and home.
Took 7 hours longer that I wanted but it was fun.
6/17/2001 Ventus B
318 856
Yesterday was a very strong day but I had orders not too land out so I opted for a wimpy W 500k
Nederland-LakeHati_Nederland-Halligan-Gross_res 511k.
The lowest point was the ridge just west of Lake Hati at around 11,300' - there was lift all around but somehow took far too long
to climb back up after getting low - the valley looks OK from 17,000 but starts to look ugly when you drop below 12,000. For the first time there was lift all round Haligan reservoir which made the last couple of legs easy.
6/29/2001 Ventus B
313 281
1000 K O & R Jamestown - SantaFe - Jamestown 1006k
Took off 10:30 and took pic of Jamestown at about 9000'. Climbed to 11,000 over goldhill then to 17,000 at Nedrland and headed for Nash. As I neared 11mile res, virga was coming down west of Pikes Peak so headed for Salida. Decided the lift looked better on the west side of the Sangre's and started
cruising down the ridge. I had thought it would be pretty easy at this point but it started to get black with virga coming down from the clouds- I was mostly at 12,000 to 13,000'. The middle of valley looked good - at Alamosa I got to 16,000 (about 3 hours), after that it did OD and I was rained on as I opted to go for Taos, then turned back for Questa and was considering landing (9000' at this point) - but since it looked a long walk into town worked 1 knot to get back up. At this point there were rain showers in the middle of the valley and lightning in the virga but lift was getting stronger. At 13,000' I was high enough to move on and basically flew cautiously to Taos, then San Juan and then SantaFe. Landed there about 5:30 in a horrendous Xwind (it was good it was a very wide runway).
The area between San Juan SantaFe is basically unlandable, definitely need to have the glide made before setting out. It was supposed to be an O&B and would have liked to have started back, but the cloud picture didn't look that promising and the terrain factor was saying 'land and get a beer'.
7/22/2001 Ventus B
336 302
I was attempting a 1000k and it was a good day but I was just too slow for the day - my excuse is this was the first time I had gone due south so I was exploring - of course I forgot to put in Denver Chart and was just following my GPS - got low behind Peaks pike somewhere near Cripple-Creek grave yard - there supposed to be an old airstrip near there but did not see it. Got good lift further south and then fly fast towards Spanish Peaks
Turns out Spanish Peaks is a good sized strip (near Walsenburg) - next airport on the way back is Greenhorn Valley right on 25 next to a truckstop (this is for sale and it might make a good glider port for anyone who has a spare $200,000) after that I must have been dozing since I got quite low near Pueblo and spent 1/2 hour climbing up while watching the traffic go into Pueblo after that I headed up to Colorado Springs - then got rained on a little - talked to flight service (122.0) to get Colorado Springs frequency just in case I had to land although I think I would have put it in at IronHorse military field (does anyone know if they shoot you when you land?) or
Air Force Academy rather than CS. Climbed up again over Garden of the Gods and then headed for Centiennel, another climb there while watching their traffic and then did some sight-seeing over Denver. By the time I got back to Boulder I was too low to recontact the lift over
the foothills so was not able to continue up to Laramie.
540K on track
Colin Barry (1060)
6/1/2001 Discus B
188 530
Declared and completed Gold Hill, Crystal Lakes, Idaho Springs, Pinewood Springs with finish at Boulder (300K goal).
This flight had everything, beautiful cu with a strong wind component from the North. Got wave, bumps, strong sink and 1000 fpm climbs to 17,500. Every cloud I went to worked.
6/10/2001 Discus B
188 530
The sounding looked great so I got to the airport early and put water on the Discus B. The clouds were building over the mountains so I declared a triangle of Boulder, Crystal Lakes, Kremling with a remote start/finish at Gold Hill. I delayed my tow until the conditions looked perfect and launched around 12.30.
85F had a hard time climbing on the hot day but as soon as we got over the foothills it was screaming. I released at 9000 and averaged 6 knots to 17,000 feet. I dove into the start and was able to take Boulder and head up to Lyons where I contacted the next good thermal. I worked this back up into the strongest band of lift that was from 14,000 to 17,000. I was then able to fly straight to Crystal working only thermals > 10knots.
After Crystal the terrain on the direct course is quite foreboding with maybe 30 miles of peaks to cross with a bailout to Granby airport, which looks a long way away. I was at 12,000 feet so I took a slow thermal (3k) to 17000 to give me some breathing room. I then contacted a cloud street that enabled me to make Kremling. The conditions on the West of the divide were perfect and I made a final glide to Gold Hill.
Time on course was 2:41 with a speed of 70.01 mph, which is a new state record for the 300k triangle.
Silver
Rod Smythe (458)
7/8/2001 Grob 102
149 156
Dalhart:
I declared a 300km goal flight to Guyman, OK and Middle Water Ranch. I asked Elliott to tow me on the west side of Miller Field. He went west, and west, and west, the first good lift being a cloud on the west side of Dalhart. Since the good clouds were all to the west and north, I abandoned my declaration and decided to try to follow Oak Smart and Bob Whelan, who had set out on the five state traverse. It got better as I went, and I turned Clayton, NM at 13,000', and headed for Boise City, OK. Nearing Boise, I decided to skip Campo, CO and head directly for Elkhart, KS. About 10 miles beyond Boise City, Oak reported that he had turned Elkhart, and the route back to Miller didn't look too good. I decided to head straight back to Miller, which I did, for a total of 148.6 undeclared statute miles.
7/11/2001 Grob 102
148 155
Dalhart:
I again declared a 300km Goal flight to Guymon, OK and Middle Water Ranch. After having ingloriously landed out the previous day, I used a less aggressive strategy to climb on route, and got up to 13,000' by Texahoma. From there on it went well with strong lift to cloud base (14.000'). After turning Guymon and heading back, the lift got weaker around Stratford and I got lower. Near Miller, I just couldn't get back up, although I managed to edge around the west side of town. I abandoned the task and landed back at Miller, with a total of 147.6 undeclared statute miles.
7/12/2001 Grob 102
105 110
Dalhart:
Without too much in mind, I set off on a nostalgia trip to Cluck Ranch. While returning from Cluck Ranch four years ago in N134BC, I experienced my first land out. I climbed to 12,500' east of Miller Field and set off on a twenty mile blue glide to the next cloud, south of Sunray. I got stuck there for nearly an hour, but finally the lift built up and I turned Cluck Ranch, returning via Stratford. Although the lift was getting stronger, the sky was very dark to the north west, so I decided to call it a day. It was a very enjoyable flight of 105 undeclared statute miles.
9/2/2001 Grob 102
140 147
Salida Camp
The flight started inauspiciously, as I nearly fell out. I was down to 1000' agl, and had announced my intention to enter the pattern, when I bumped into a thermal. Phil Eckland and Alex had just launched 13K and were also climbing in the area. While I was putting on my oxygen mask, they disappeared, and I was unable to contact them by radio. I decided to head south down the Sangre de Christos, and started from a point 2 sm north of the field (n 38 33.97', w 106 2.54'). I found a strong and violent thermal just south of Methodist Mountain which took me up to 17,000'. Cloud base descended as I went south, forcing me to go lower or around the clouds on the east side. I had trouble picking out land marks, and decided that I shouldn't go further without being able to identify the known airports in the Wet Mountain Valley. After 25 miles, at Nipple Mountain (n 38 15.51', w 105 48.63'), I turned around and headed back north. Going back, I was able to identify Villa Grove on the west and Cotopaxi and other places on the east. After 13 miles, as my orientation improved, my courage returned, and I again headed south at Hunts Peak (n 38 23.99", w 105 57.49'). I hoped to reach Crestone Peak, if possible.
Finally, I could easily recognize the outline of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle, both of which I had climbed many years ago. The clouds were lower, so I went past Crestone peak and turned west to enter the observation zone on its south side (n 37 57.28', w 105 34.77', 37 sm from Hunts Peak). I could only tell that I was in the right spot by GPS, as the clouds obscured the peak from the "observation zone", but the EW flight recorder testifies that I was indeed there. Coming back, I stayed on the east side of the clouds and gradually climbed from a low of 15,500' up to 16,500' again.
Arriving back near Salida, I headed for the Chalk Cliffs, but turned around at Three Mile Creek ( n 38 38.93', w 106 8.02', 57 sm from Crestone Peak), and returned 9 sm to land at Alexander Field.
Bronze
Date Glider Miles(sm) Points
Pedja Bogdanovich (1177)
5/26/2001 Grob 103
128 404
Duration 5:30
Turnpoints: BFF (Scottsbluff), TOR (Torrington), 7V6 (Camp Guernsey), BFF
Although it was a great day, I stayed high (except on the last segment) so that I was within the glide range of either TOR or BFF. The thermals were not really strong at that altitude. Cloud bases were at 12Kft. At one time I managed to get a little above cloud bases to 12.5Kft on the leading edge of a cloud. On the way back, just over Torrington, I did not have enough altitude for the glide back to BFF, and thermals were not working anymore (late day cycling). It was either I stay and land at TOR, or try to fly back and possibly landout in a field. I decided to push toward BFF since the sky was looking most promising in that direction, and if I landout I get a shorter retrieve (there are plenty good landout fields around). Nothing was really working, I had my field(s) selected, until ~12nm away from BFF at 2000' agl I finally got into 0 sink, which after a while became smooth 1kt and eventually 2kt. I climbed unnecessarily high, glided back towards BFF, flew around over the city to get rid of the altitude and landed. This was my first xc flight.
6/10/2001 Grob 102
155 589
Turnpoints (all): 1V5, Idaho Springs, Estes, Red Feathers Lakes, Estes, 1V5
Turnpoints (for silver): Idaho Springs (remote start), Estes (remote finish)
Released just above pattern altitude. Took forever to get altitude and to get going towards Idaho Springs (remote start). Flew over continental divide and Longs to Estes Park (remote finish). From Estes, flew to Red Feathers Lakes. Conditions deteriorated in the direction towards 1V5. Flew around virga, but it still got me and I lost 2-3Kft for that. Managed to get 1500' in a thermal just over Estes which got me backhome. This flight gets silver distance, duration, altitude, and gold altitude.
6/16/2001 Ventus B
155 139
Local Fourteeners
Turnpoints: Mt Evans, Grays Pk, Keystone, Granby (small lake), Longs Pk, 5mi N of Estes
Description: Launched earlier that day to 9Kft, but dropped out. It wasn't really
working below 11Kft. On the second tow released at 11Kft, found a thermal that got me to 18Kft. Stayed high for the rest of the flight. Tourof local fourteeners (Mt Evans, Grays, Longs). Great day --- great lift everywhere. Over Estes it OD'd (again). As the lift started dying I flew around virga at good distance back home.
6/23/2001 Ventus B
205 184
Turnpoints: Kossler, Halligan, Bailey, Kossler
Description: I picked turnpoints so that I can do 300km triangle and yet always be within glide distance of 1V5. Learning from the previous two flights, the first tp was Halligan (N), since there was a tendency to OD around Estes. This turned out to be a good decision since later in the afternoon it looked pretty bad in that direction, much worse than to the SW. Great streets everywhere with cloudbases above 18Kft. GPS batteries died on Halligan-Bailey leg; GPS would not stay on around Bailey tp. OD'd in the direction back to the field (i.e., SW of the field), and the ceiling was getting lower to 13-14Kft. Got around it at the safe distance. After finishing the triangle, played around in house thermals for another hour or so.
Saturday, January 26, 2002
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