Lore from the Log of 4J

Each summer it seems that we have a couple of fantastic soaring days in September. This Year, September 10 was one of those days. The forecast looked promising with a good chance for Cu's so I got my stuff together early and arrived at Grain Valley at about 11:00 am, Cu's had begun to form to the south at about 10:00. By 11:50 when I launched the sky was full of Cu's. Off tow, my first climb took me to about 3000 agl at a steady 300 fpm. At 12:00, I crossed over Grain Valley at 3200 agl and turned south. It seemed like as good a day as any for a cross country adventure and I decided to try to go out and return to Butler for starters.

The first glide I held out for another good thermal and was rewarded with a strong climb by Stafford's place from 2000 agl to 3500 agl. By this time there was fairly solid cirrus deck to the west and south with some fingers of cirrus casting shadows as far north as highway 50. As I crossed highway 50 heading south I entered an area of definite shadow. The next 5 miles were very smooth. At about Riordan airport I came back into the light and climbed back up. From there on south past Harrisonville was easy going. I mostly worked between 2500 agl and 3500 agl under nice close spaced Cu's. As I pressed on south of Harrisonville the Cu's started to flatten out, the lift was pushing up against an inversion. From the town of Adrian I could see the runway at Butler, but there were no more Cu's ahead. 3500 feet is not nearly so comfortable if there are no more Cu's to mark the lift. The cirrus deck was also gradually growing and by this time Harrisonville was under shadow. I went east to the closest Cu's and almost headed for home, but about then I could see a row of thin whispy clouds formning in a line to Butler. I continued on south into the best lift of the day. At about 1:30 I turned back north over the south end of the runway at Butler, 50 miles south of Grain Valley.

The cirrus were becoming a real concern by now, I couldn't tell if it would be soarable or not back toward Grain Valley. By staying a little east of the course home I was able to stay in the sun back to Harrisonville and had easy going. There were no solid Cu's but each whisp marked lift without fail. North of Harrisonville was an area of dark shadow almost 10 miles wide. I climbed as high as I could at the edge of the shadow headed north for Riordan airport. I tried to concentrate on holding the yaw string straight at the speed at best L/D. For the next ten minutes I was a silent spectator in glassy smooth air.

After what seemed an eternity I emerged into the sunshine at Riordan airport with under 2000 feet agl, would I land there again? Finally I felt that little bump and the vario needle swung above zero! A few minutes later I was back to 3500 feet. I could see sunlight as far north as Stafford field. I breathed a sigh of relief, from there I could easily make it home. A short run with a few more thermals took me to Stafford's where I climbed 3000 agl. I glided under more shadows to the north and this time the air was not smooth, I found myself in sink. Grain Valley airport moved neither up or down in the canopy. Finally I ran out of the sink could see I would make it home easily. I hit sunshine and a thermal at 1200' agl about a mile south of Grain Valley. It was only about 2:30, and there were still Cu's north of the river, so I decided to push my luck some more and try for Lexington and return next.

I got to some really nice Cu's just south of the river at Wellington. From there I could see the runway at but the flood plain around Wellington had absolutely no Cu's over it. I would have to glide in 5 miles and out 5 miles in still air, and would end up low and away from an airport if I did so. The skydiver's at Lexington probably would not have appreciated it if I had stopped in their drop zone to make a long slow climb even if there was lift there. The sky back to Grain Valley was looking darker, and I decided to get home while the getting was good.

One more climb to cloudbase and I glided from Wellington back to Grain Valley. I lingered awhile thermalling with the 1-26 and 1-34. It had been a tremendous day, I flew 144 miles and got four hours of flying in. Visibility had been fantastic and the temperature comfortable at any altitude.