As I write this update/end of camp report from safely back home in Austin, Texas I’ve had the time now to reflect on the past week of fantastic soaring and personal growth I’ve experienced! Nowhere in my wildest imaginations would I have believed I could have seen, experienced or accomplished so much in such a short amount of time!
Day 6 of the camp (July 18th) opened with the weather in the Dalhart area forecast to be touch and go, with a good chance of afternoon thunderstorms throughout the flying area. As a result, most of the folks here decided to keep their flying tasks closer to the airport so that if it started looking like the weather was deteriorating they could make a quick dash back and get things put away before it got worse. My thinking mirrored theirs, so for that day I planned to fly southwest of Dalhart towards Castleberry again (familiar territory from the day before) and then strike out north towards Clayton, New Mexico and see how far I could get. I made it down to Castleberry with no problems, but by the time I made the turn I could already see a significant line of weather heading down from New Mexico towards us. I pressed on a bit further finally aborting the task after flying about 1/3 of the way towards Clayton. Since the local area around Dalhart was fine with good lift in the area, I kept flying and decided to see if the weather would hold off long enough to be able to knock out my Silver duration requirement which I’d missed the day before on my landout by only 8 minutes! Working the lift I had, I camped out above 10’000′ the last 3 hours of the flight working a wonderful cloud street that I’d discovered that started about 15 south of Dalhart and must have run another 25-30 miles south from there. Just to be certain that I had the time I needed, I stayed up almost an additional 1/2 hour so as to not have any problems with the claim! For some reason, this requirement for the Silver badge had been a difficult one for me to bag and as I rolled to a stop and raised the canopy I felt very satisfied and happy that I’d finally gotten it done!
On the ground I’d found that most folks had kept it fairly close as well as the weather had “pop-up” thunderstorms in many quadrants about the airport and that there were no real clear areas for long flights.
That evening over beers back in the hotel, Lane Coleman (4Q), Dave Kammeyer (XLT) and I looked at the weather for tomorrow and commenced the soaring pilot’s version of “licking our chops”…the current weather pattern of T-storms and over-development would abate and excellent conditions should exist both Thursday and Friday! Dave started planning his 5 State 500k flight, Lane his Silver Leg and I was going to re-attempt the 300k effort with a Diamond goal flight.
Thursday dawned blue and clear, but by the time we got to the airport around 10am, the temp had already gone up enough to get the first few wispies visible and a good looking Cu field was starting to appear on the northwest horizon. My planned task for the Diamond was a flight northeast towards Guymon, Oklahoma (taking advantage of tailwinds on my longest leg) then due west to a point slightly west of Boise City, Oklahoma to make the FAI triangle work, then straight south back to Dalhart. I launched slightly before 1330 local and immediately ran into my usual problem of hooking up with a good enough thermal to let me start out on task. I had already tagged the start, but wasn’t able to finally get high enough to leave the local area for almost 30 minutes! Once on the way to Guymon, it was daunting to see myself heading into an almost entirely blue day to the northeast. In every other direction from my course line were clouds, but I ruled out deviating to get to them as I judged them too far off course. Swallowing hard and relying on my previous experience earlier this year at Caesar Creek’s XC camp of flying on a couple of blue days, I pressed on towards Guymon.
Happily, the lift was there, but not strong (by West Texas standards!) Feed lots, grain elevators and a new source that Camp Commander Joe Brack (DB) had pointed out-cattle/livestock watering holes proved to be reliable sources of 3 knot lift along the way, with stronger spots in places. Taking what was offered, I made the usual rookie error of too many stops on the way to Guymon, but paramount in my mind was not worrying about setting any speed records but just making it around the course!
Turning Guymon was a relief as I had now come far enough north to be in a good Cu field, the day was hotter, lift was improving and as I was closing in on Boise City I was starting to get climbs to 12,000′ and above. Turning south from Boise City I only needed a couple of thousand feet to make final glide and when I attained it and had a comfortable pad over it, I breathed a sigh of relief! Flying now into the wind was actually working in my favor as I was consistently running into lift streets or thermals being blown at me and the numbers just got better and better on my Oudie until I started converting some of it into speed as I homed in on Dalhart. Crossing the end of task line, it was satisfying to pull up onto downwind, drop the gear and roll out with the “mission accomplished”!
Pushing my glider back towards the hangar we were using, I was surprised to find it a ghost town…mine was the only glider back so far that afternoon. I had heard Gary Campbell (GC) announce and land and as I rolled out on downwind saw him in an odd position between the huge ramp we were using and Runway 17. Gary would later claim the record for the camp’s “shortest retrieve” when on short final for the ramp, one of the semi-trucks that the agricultural operation on the north side of the airport uses pulled directly in front of him, requiring a bit of quick maneuvering and a “Plan B” execution of a quick 1/4 turn and landing on a taxiway rolling off into the area between the runway and the ramp. He decided it was easier to de-rig and put his glider in the trailer than tow it in from where it was.
Out of the 8 gliders that had launched that morning, only Gary, Lane and I would end up making it back to Dalhart…everyone else landed out! Apparently, the forecast weather for the day had convinced folks to push themselves a little farther/faster/harder than how the weather that actually turned out could support. Instead of a peaceful evening at the hangar re-flying my day with my buddies, we were now in full-on retrieve mode as we scrambled to get everyone back to Dalhart. As myself and Gary headed north to Boise City to get Rod Smythe (G6) I got a call from Dave Kammeyer that he was on the ground east of us at an airport called Gruver. Joe Brack made it as far back as Miller Field on the northeast side of Dalhart and the others were scattered around the eastern side of the flying area.
We finally got everyone recovered and we headed back to the hotel stinky, tired and hungry. What a day!!
The next morning it became obvious that in fairly short order, camp would be disbanding as our Colorado compadres, with their gliders already ensconced in their trailers were not going to re-rig but would be pulling the plug and heading home. The four of us from FLF took a look at how we would support each other if another retrieve event like the day before occurred. We decided that given the conditions but lack of reasonable retrieve options and with no one interested in staying close to the airport we 4 decided to pack up and head home as well. Saying my goodbyes to the gang from SSB, I finally rolled into the driveway at home a little before midnight Friday; the end to one of the most memorable weeks of flying I’ve ever experienced!
In closing, I owe a great debt and thank you to the folks out of Boulder that sponsor this camp and welcomed us with open arms!! I consider myself privileged to have met them and consider myself lucky to have met and made so many fine new soaring friends!
I would be remiss too if I didn’t give a shout-out to Frank Paynter and the all the members of Caesar Creek Soaring Club in Ohio for sponsoring their XC Camp that I attended back in June. Their camp gave me the flying and decision-making foundation that I needed to launch out cross-country on my own, successfully and safely. Thanks TA and all the gang at CCSC!!
I have come back to my home glider club more convinced than ever that growing and mentoring XC pilots is one of the best if not THE best way of growing our sport and am determined to see a program developed at our club that facilitates that effort. Thanks for reading my Dalhart blog, and I hope that my musings will encourage those deciding on whether to try cross-country flying to “take the leap”!! You will never regret it!!
Safe Flying,
Rob Schroer
ZAP
