Diamond Goal Flight in Annebula - 1984

On August 15^th 1984 (a Wednesday, all good soaring day's seem to be Wednesdays) my brother Steve and I go to Sunflower Aerodrome. I declare a 203 mile flight; Sunflower, Kanapolis Reservoir, Anthony and return. Steve really doesn't expect me to make it but, I have the confidence born of youth and inexperience. A few minutes after the first cumuls forms, I launch. By the time I release, the sky is full of beautiful cu's. The very first thermal takes me to cloud base at 500 ft/minute and puts me at 7500 feet AGL. I head north with a 10 mph tail wind, the lift is so strong that I do not circle in anything less than 500 fpm up. The first forty miles north to Kanapolis take about an hour.

As I approach Kanapolis, the clouds look weaker. I get down to 3000 feet AGL but get another thermal. Quite low enough for me, thank you! In fact, that was as low as I had been since release, and for the first time I climb slow enough to notice the wind drift. As I head south on the second leg, the lift is very consistent. Being chicken-hearted, I stop to work every cloud that hints at good lift, the "Get High and Stay High" principle at its best! Passing Sunflower on the way to Anthony, I talk to my brother on the radio. "Cheer up" he said when he got my position, "You're half way home!" If my smile were any bigger, the canopy reflection would have blinded me! I had already flown farther than I ever had before.

A short time later I hit a cloud street that is absolutely beautiful. Huge dark Cu's all line up, not quite large enough to threaten overdevelopment and storms, but massive and powerful. For a long time I do not circle. I make dives from one cloud to the next at 80mph, under each cloud, I slow to near stall and am sucked into the base of the cloud at 1000 fpm!!! The cloud street takes me about 20 miles with no loss of altitude. I make a straight glide of about 10 miles to another 500fpm climb to cloudbase. Another 10 mile glide and another 500fpm climb puts me in sight of Anthony.

Anthony, however, is in a blue hole. I get down to 3000' and there is sink all around when I take the turn point picture. I botch the first try and have to circle and take another photo. There is a very tempting airport below, but to get back up clearly I must press on back to the clouds. I nervously watch for a place to land as I press on north. At 2000' agl I get a 300 fpm climb. With the wind behind me and the thermal strength clearly weakening, I take anything over 300 fpm. About 30 miles out I set up what I hope to be final glide. I run through a bunch of strong sink over the next 10 miles and have to stop and work one more thermal 15 miles out. I arrive back at Sunflower with 1000' to spare.

203 miles at an average speed of 45mph is not too bad for an old wooden bird! I get a call on the radio asking me if the barograph is still running. It would be a shame to mess up my gold distance with a baro failure after the finish but still I just don't want to come down. Safely home and with the pressure off, I fly for another hour and a half getting back to 7000 feet.

I was richly rewarded for this flight. I won the KSA's Wooden Wings Trophy for the longest flight in Kansas in a wooden wing sailplane for the year, the KSA Governor's Trophy, Diamond Goal/Gold Distance and VSA's Harland Ross Memorial Trophy. All this was thanks to a fabulous soaring day and a pair of wooden wings that were built by my Dad!