144 Miles Record X-C Flight From Nebo

On Sunday, 9/12/2004 I got on the road to go to Nebo based on the forecast of 5-10 mph east wind. Once I got to the top, I realized that it had a little touch of south on it and very light. I was too tired to drive to Magazine because of a 5 hour flight on Saturday at Magazine and decided to just stay at Nebo and take my chances. I was really tired and as usual  was looking for motivation. I thought about Dave Hopkins from NE who is visiting us and the fact that he has been getting on my nerve on the radio. He made me hit the deck 2 days earlier when I flew 54.5 miles and he flew 74 miles :-). Every time I was talking to the driver and giving him information about my whereabouts and low altitudes, Dave would immediately jump in and tell us all about how high he was and how he was just cruising. I got so frustrated that all I wanted to do was to go over 51 miles (flown by Chris Price) which was the longest X-C so far this year and either land or just put a lot of distance between me and Dave by flying fast.

But that day (Last Friday) if you got low, it was almost impossible to get back up and no matter what I did, I could not break the 3500' barrier. So at 54.5 miles I was too low to go any further and landed. I was pissed at myself that I let this guy get on my nerves so bad. Dave, was poking along and making progress a slow progress towards Oklahoma. Anyway, that day he landed in Oklahoma and did a 74 miler. Good job Dave, but he is TOO SLOW.

The day after that on Saturday when we flew Magazine, we decided that we were going to fly directly south and cross the mountain ranges on the south side of Magazine and then go north east towards Danville, then to Nebo and then back to Magazine. It was a great day and the four ATOS gliders did great. I flew to the third ridge on the south of Magazine and crossed two valleys to get there. I could see Lake Ouachita to my south and the view was noting but spectacular. Mark Stump and Dave flew to the second ridge and then started going east towards Danville.

After flying east over the third ridge which was about 7 miles to the south of the second ridge, I flew to Danville and after that I crossed a big blue hole on my way to Nebo. I got over Nebo at my lowest altitude which was about 2200' agl. After some searching I found another thermal over Nebo  and got high enough to jump back to Spring Mountain. Over Spring Mountain it got good again and it was easy to fly over all them trees between Nebo and Magazine to make it back. I got back over Magazine about 7000' agl and it was very easy to stay high over no mans land.

 I flew over Magazine and started listening to Dave Hopkins again bragging about his altitude and his progress. He started right after Mark Stump and was a few miles behind at the beginning, but when I got back to Magazine he was over Danville and heading to Nebo. So he was about 30+ miles behind and he did not even go to the third ridge which was 7 miles further to the south. So, I don't know what was up with all the talk ;-). After he got to Nebo he flew towards his car at Tony Middleton's house and it was getting late. "OHHH my GPS battery is going down, so I guess I just bring it down to land" he commented on the radio. OK, so we need GPS battery to stay up. His skinny ass was sinking and he still could not shut up, LOL, I am just dying laughing in here.

Needless to say, I just could not get over all this talk. After he hit the deck and off the radio, thank God, I made sure to stay up as long as possible and talked with Wayne Hobbs on the radio often and made sure to announce how pleasant the air was at 6000' close to 6 pm. I was hoping Dave was listening and getting a taste of his own medicine ;-). I talked so much that my radio battery went dead ;-). Damn, now I could not brag about my landing approach at 6:30 pm to let him know how late I was landing, LOL.

Anyway, thinking about all this stuff, I got motivated to fly over 74 miles to put an end to Dave Hopkins flight. I knew we never hear the end of it if he walked out of here with the longest flight of the year. Man that really motivated me and he was already getting on my nerve again talking about how far he was going to fly that day. I got ready and jumped about 12:27 pm to get a good start. I launched into a nice sink pocket and immediately got low. Headed towards the spine and worked a light thermal to get over the top. There was a big difference between Saturday and Sunday . The thermals were not as strong and it took a long time to get to 4100'. I made a move towards Spring Mountain and dropped out of the sky like a bomb. Got over the east side of Spring Mountain and started the survival mode. I was not happy with my decision and I should have gone a little more to the north side to get under some clouds up there. But now I was in a blue hole and sinking. I looked towards the mountains which we flew over yesterday and had such a great flight. They looked good with nice clouds all over them but they looked far because of my low altitude.

By this time Dave Hopkins was in the air and bragging already that he was getting to 6000' at the base. Man, there was not any getting away from this guy. That was all I needed to fill up my motivation tank to the rim. Now I just had to fly far and beat his 74 miler. However, I knew if I kept listening to him, I may hit the deck again. I got on the radio and told Ron that because of no drift I was going to do a triangle and will be turning my radio off so that I could concentrate on my flight, hehehe, I should have done that long time ago. Before I turned my radio off, Dave managed to get in there quick and make me more motivated as if i needed any more.

Now with full determination I started flying cross wind to get to the mountain range so that I could get on the sky highway to Oklahoma. I looked over back of Nebo and perfect cloud street had just formed and it looked like a fast run to magazine was a sure thing. But here I was in a blue hole about 10 miles away and slowly working my way to Danville. I was sure Dave will have an easy time to go to Magazine and beyond because of perfect clouds which just had formed. I eventually got to the ridge that I was after and entered the ramp to the fast sky highway.

As soon as I was getting close to the first peak the vario came to life and the VX started to kick my butt. But it was time to make some fast runs. As soon as I started to speed up I noticed that my flight deck hook was loose and it was rotated down a little and plowing into the high wind as if I was trying to go down. For the rest of the flight every time I went on a glide I had to hold up with index fingers. The forward progress towards Oklahoma got much better once I was able to turn the glider towards west and get going at high speeds. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, or something like that, well the picture below would give you so much information. Notice that the color changes to blue and dark blue as soon as I get on the ridge SW of Danville and it stays blue or dark blue all the Way until I get over town of Heavener, Oklahoma where it turns into a green color which is about 4000' agl. The color bar at the right hand side color bar would give you an indication of agl altitude.

Right after I got over Sugarloaf Mountain I hit the best thermal of the day after 3 PM and it was at 1500 fpm for several turns and it got me to 7976' agl. At about 67 miles from Nebo I knew that the 74 mile flight was history, but now I was not going to stop there and needed more motivation. So I decided to turn on the radio to fix that problem. I told Ron Sewell that I was going to cross Oklahoma border soon. Sure enough, there was Dave Hopkins instantly announcing " Hey Mark, I am right behind you heading your way at 6500' and 57 miles out." Damn he was not that far behind. The flight's beginning must have slowed me down big time. I turned the radio off immediately before I lost my nerves again and the motivation tank was back to full and over flowing. :-).

Below is a picture of me after the motivation tank got full and on my way to Heavener. I just had to put an end to all this and let the visiting pilot know that you just don't go on someone's turf and blow dust around. A lesson was about to be given, LOL. With that in mind, I focused on the last thermals and flew fast and efficient. The miles started to go by at a faster rate and now I was determined to do a 100+ miler.

The 100 mile showed up on GPS a while after that and I had to turn the radio on to get more motivation. "Hey Ron, I just crossed 100 miles and will keep going" I said on the radio. I don't think Ron was really listening, but I just had to say that on the radio to get Dave going again about his flight and his altitude. "I am getting low and looking", Dave announced with a lower volume and tone this time. Gee, maybe I leave my radio on this time. I am sure he won't be talking much now, LOL. When he was at 82 miles, his skinny ass again dragged him to the ground and he landed. Sorry Dave, it is all intended for fun. No offence, just fly and let the flying do the talking. The problem is that Dave does not really know me and how I use different things to get motivated. like betting for 6 pack or dinner or anything to just get motivated to fly far. He has no clue that what he is doing is actually the best motivation that I need to go very far :-).

At the end of flight when I was getting close to McAlester, I got low and about 1600' agl just north of Hartshome. I was at 135 miles and so close to breaking my Arkansas's distance record which was 137 miles from Magazine to Newport. There were lots of trees and the landing zones were far in between and smaller than what I liked. I had a great field below me and thought I may just go for a safe landing and be happy with 135 miler. However, I found a very light thermal close to 6 PM and started to work it to go for a new Arkansas distance record. I noticed that I was drifting to the NW and I was climbing ever so slowly. I did not mind to work the small thermal and it eventually got me to 2500' where it fell apart. I did another glide for about 2 miles and got low again and had picked a field ahead of me so that I have at least 138 miles for a new Arkansas record.

I found another light thermal and started to work it for more distance and now I am thinking I may just go for the longest flight for Region 6. Earlier I was talking with Dave Morton on the radio and he was at Buffalo's LZ. He asked me where I was and I was still too far from a new distance record and he rubbed it in that a flexi still holds the record for the longest flight. Well, that was good enough to motivate me but I did not think that I could glide that far for the longest flight. That thermal was good for 700 feet altitude gain. I was about 138 miles and at about 2600' agl. I saw a field so far away and figured that if I make it there I would have the longest flight. There were some small fields before that for emergency landing and with fingers crossed I started a long glide with possible bail out.

At about 141 miles and 1670' agl I ran into zero sink thermal and it put a smile on my face. Now I knew it was done. All I had to do was to drift with this one for whatever time it takes and as long as I was not sinking I would be turning. I actually managed to gain about 100+ feet and when I knew I could make the field with ease I went on the final glide towards the only field in the area. The GPS turned to 143 miles when I was less than a mile from this field. It does not show decimals when it goes over 100 miles. But I knew that I was very close to 144 miles. As I got closer, I saw stuff sticking out of the ground. Ohh no I had picked a cemetery to land in. Fortunately there was a small opening on the west side of it and I landed in it. But due to all the excitement of a small field, I ended up with a cross wind landing and bonked it softly.

I called Ron and Winnie and gave them my location and found out that Mr. Ron Sewell had done his best flight on his ATOS C. He landed close to the field that Dave Hopkins landed a couple of days ago and had himself a 75 miler for his best flight in Arkansas. This would be his first landing in Oklahoma, congratulation Ron, you are doing great.

However, when they picked me up on the way back, Ron chewed up my ass big time to vent out. He was asking why I told them I was going to do a triangle when I knew damn well that I was heading towards Oklahoma. Then Winnie could have driven my car which can hold three rigid wings instead of his car which can only hold two rigid wings. Damn it, he knows me well. I guess the answer is clear, for one thing I was trying to keep Dave's wimpy ass away from my ass and I wanted to surprise everyone when I was in Oklahoma. Sorry Ron, I won't do it again, until next year ;-).

We managed to put some 2X4 wood studs that Dave had got from the land owner where he landed at top of Ron's car and put all three ATOSes at top and brought them all back to Russellville. Thanks Ron and Winnie for the retrieval. Next time, I'll do the driving for Ron when he lands. Just call me and I'll be on my way.

Here is the thermal chart. Note that how the high ground pushes the thermals nice and high.

Here are some statistics for the flight. I think they are very interesting and I learn a lot from it. For example, with my old glider I used to have a better climb rate when I was turning right. With the ATOS VX I do much better when I am turning left, go figure. I think the reason is that when I turn right, I have to high side some to keep the inside wing from dropping and when you high side a rigid wing, you basically stopping the wing from going up by activating the spoilers.

The flight time was 5 hours and 47 minutes and landing at 6:14:57 PM.

After I down loaded the flight track log on the Garmin Program, I noticed that when I launched I flew 1/2 miles to the east before I found a thermal and had to dig myself out of the hole. So, my flight could actually start from that point when I was low and climbing. That would put this flight over 144 miles. But, it is just another flight, no big deal. It was not hard to do either. I just ran out of time after 6 PM and the drift was slow.

The conditions are huge factors for going far, wind velocity, high cloud base, lots of cummies, thermals' strength and visibility play big rule. On a great day, one can fly a plywood and go far, it would become a walk in the park. the pilot's skill and glider's performance are secondary factors for going far. I remember many years ago when I flew my RamAir from Pipe Line for 95 miles for the site's record. I think I flew less than 3 hours to go that far, got to cloud base over 7000' agl and all I did was turn and turn. I never got low to worry about using any skill to find the next thermal. I did not have much skill then anyway and I am still learning. I may have gone on less than 5 short glides from one cloud to the next and 4 or 5 thermals is all it took. The wind up there was over 25 mph. If you do the math, it is very simple to see that the wind is a big horse for going far. I may have glided for less than 20 miles.

A look at the above statistics shows that I glided for 3 hours and 34.5 minutes to get the miles and I fly about 40 mph. I thermaled for 2 hours and 12.5 minutes. It also shows that the distance flown was 155.3 miles when I was gliding. The dog leg to the south took a lot of miles without much help on distance to the west.

I hope to fly with you soon and see you at top of the mountains.

Mark Poustinchian

9/13/2004