The last week of July 1994, Kansas City had weather that looked like classic spring time post-cold front soaring. All week I watched those great looking Cu's, and I resolved to do something in the way of a cross country flight on Friday if the weather held out. Gerry Aksamit agreed to crew for me, so I got out my maps and planned a Diamond Distance flight that would land me at Sunflower. (No, I didn't really think the odds of making it were very high.) Gerry came over Friday morning and we rode out to the airport together. As Gerry helped me get ready to go, Frank said that as good as the day before had looked, it was dead and thought it was due to the smoke off the forest fires out west. By then the sky was full of good looking cu's and I just couldn't believe it wasn't at least a fair day. I told Gerry I would try to go to Hutchinson, and if the weather was really good I would press on west in an attempt for Diamond Distance. Gerry agreed to wait in the office for me to call after he was done flying the 2-22.

I launched at 12:15 and the tow seemed very smooth, too smooth. The first climb was 200-300 foot per, but the second was 600 fpm up to 6000 feet. I headed for Hutchinson. I went south to Winnebago lake and then turned around west. The clouds were close together and the lift strong. By the time I got to the Kansas border, cloud base was up to 6500 feet msl. I made good time and pressed out to Ottawa without any real trouble, mostly staying between 4000 and 6000 msl. At Ottawa, cloud base made an abrupt drop of about 500 feet. West of Ottawa, the Cu's just didn't look as good. As I pressed on toward Emporia the conditions gradually deteriorated. I found myself working between 3500 and 4500 msl (2500-3500 agl) and not climbing much better than 200 fpm. I struggled on to Emporia often eyeing possible fields for landing. West of Emporia on course there was only one more Cu in sight. Cirrus or Smoke overcast seemed to have killed the Cu's. The sky ahead was quite dark. With 80 miles to go, no sign of lift and only 3500' agl I decided not to chance crossing the flint hills and conceded that I would not make it to Hutchinson.

I decided to try to get back to Grain Valley. As I headed back east the sky perked up a little between Emporia and Ottawa. I got to cloud base twice and at Ottawa the sky really started to get good again. The cu's were mostly working and close together. I made great time to Louisberg and even had a 2 minute climb which measured at 700 fpm on the barograph. About then the proverbial lift switch seems to have been shut off. In about 5 minutes all of the Cu's between Louisberg and Grain Valley dissipated. Maybe I would be lucky just to get home. I headed for home in a clear blue sky but with enough altitude only to get to Riordan, a private strip south of Winnebago Lake. I arrived there at 1800 agl and found a very weak thermal. 15 minutes later I was high enough to make Stafford airport. I arrived at Stafford at about 1500 agl and found a weak thermal over the rock quarry. 10 minutes of circling here got me up to 2500 agl and from there I came on back to Grain Valley. The flight lasted 6 hours and 15 minutes and covered about 250 miles.