We at the Soaring Café were deeply saddened by news of Doug Armstrong’s passing last week. Doug was a professional meteorologist and was world-renowned in the soaring community for his weather forecasting at U.S. regional and national contests and in support of many records flown in the Sierra Nevada wave, especially those originating near his hometown of Reno, Nevada. Doug was a true soaring icon, whose contributions to the sport range over many decades. He will be sorely missed.

Doug passed away on March 5th, after a nine-day stay at the Renown Medical Center in Reno. He is survived by his son, Andrew Armstrong, with whom Doug was living at the time of his admission to the hospital. According to Andy, his dad collapsed in the hospital while on a walk around the nurses station and the medical staff were unable to resuscitate him. No further details were provided.

At this writing, we have no firm information about memorial services or other events to honor Doug’s memory; however, we understand that Doug told Andy that he wished to be cremated and have his ashes scattered over a peak in the Sierras.

We can think of no more fitting tribute to Doug than sharing recollections from those who knew him best. Thanks to his many friends for sharing their memories of Doug. We owe a special thanks to Mitch Polinsky for keeping us informed on the progress of Doug’s last hospital stay and for helping collect the thoughts, memories, and photos that constitute this tribute to Doug’s life in soaring. Pete Alexander, Gordon Boettger, and Neita Montague were especially helpful in providing thoughts, photos and personal recollections.

If readers have more information about memorials to Doug, or would like to add thoughts about Doug or update or correct any errors in this post, please feel free to post a comment.

[Neita Montague, March 5 – Note: Mark is Neita’s husband] “Mark was 16 when he went to his first PASCO Wave Camp at Minden with Doug Gray and another member of the Cal Condors and Don Burke of BASA. Minden was then (1973) a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere. Carl Herold had identified this place as THE place to go for wave soaring and a good place to fly the Sierras and the Great Basin. Carl said that he planned the Wave Camps for the Easter weeks and his purpose was have the pilots get proficient/get sharp for the coming summer thermal soaring season. At that time there was nowhere else for a western glider pilot to go.

“So many of the pilots whose names came to be well known, from the 1970s through the mid ’90s were there for the Wave Camps: Ray Gimmey, Carl Herold, Alex Burnette, and Marcel Godinat are a few of the people Mark remembers.

“Mark, Doug Gray and the other Cal Condors members were all going to stay in this little house trailer on the airport. In those days that third runway was still active. Various trailers were lined up on each side of the runway. People camped in tents and walked across the airport to the pump house where a few minutes each hour water would come out and you could catch it in whatever container you had.

“Before Wave Camp officially started, there was a BASA briefing/cocktail party in one of those little motels in Minden (they had had already told Mark that he could not attend the camp at Minden unless he had his glider license). At the party someone handed Mark a Coke bottle with the top still on and locked him in the bathroom. If  he couldn’t figure out how to open the bottle using something in the bathroom and without breaking the bottle by the time they opened the door, then he couldn’t fly.

“Doug Armstrong had convinced a number of his fellow meteorologists to go down to Minden with him for this Wave Camp. Doug would do a daily briefing by reading out to the glider pilots the soaring conditions he and others had forecast (there were 86 gliders and 120 pilots registered). At that time the weathermen had little experience with soaring forecasting.

“Doug would then solicit rides for the other meteorologists so that they could observe what the weather was like. The weathermen were intrigued to find that a batch of pilots were that interested in weather.

“Doug had these forms with graphs on them that the flying pilots filled out each day. The pilots copied the daily forecast on the form and then after each flight they would fill out more of the form noting what the lift was over the course of the day: how high and how strong each hour. The weathermen could then compare the forecast to what people actually observed and the meteorologists could make corrections and fine tune their forecasting models.

“This is the genesis of the Reno Soaring Forecast that we get today.

“Mark remembers that at one of Doug’s morning weather briefings he announced in his deadpan Boy Scout voice, that before they got down to the weather, he had a few administrative details. He unfolded his notes, looked up, then looked down and announced that today was shorts changing day (remember, at that time everyone was camping on the field).

‘Today we all need to change our shorts.  I have a list here,’ he said.  ‘Ray will change with Carl Herold.  Carl will change with Alex.  Alex will…’

“Then without so much as a smile, Doug continued, in the same voice, ‘Let’s get down to the weather.’

“Doug was 35 years old then.”

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[Ed Lord, March 5] “Doug has helped many glider pilots understand the complexities, joys, and dangers of weather phenomena, whether it be preparing for a world record setting flight, a national soaring contest, or a ‘Just for Fun’ pleasure flight, Doug always did his best to ensure that we all had the best weather information possible, that would ensure that we would make it back safely to our home gliderport.

“The Nevada Soaring Association has permanently Assigned to Doug Armstrong, the Honorary Bird Call Sign: ‘Weather-Bird’…Dispensing weather advice to fledgling aspiring cross country glider pilots. Godspeed our friend!”

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[Gordon Boettger, March 6] “Thank you Doug for all that you have done for the entire soaring community. Whether looking for a silver badge or record made no difference to Doug.  He treated us all equally and devoted his time to anyone needing help with weather knowledge. I, as well as many others, have learned so incredibly much from Doug. He was a member of my team every time I flew. We will miss him deeply. I’ll miss the 5 AM weather briefings he gave me, the countless text messages and calls I shared with him during my flights, the funny emails. and the friendship and camaraderie we always shared together. Doug, I couldn’t have done it without you. You’ve been a wonderful friend to all of us. No more Golden Gate weather site, HRRR models, skew Ts, or satellite pics. Now our friend can line up the cu and lennie stacks and get us home at the end of the day as he watches from high above.

“We’ll miss you Doug.”

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[Hugh Bennett, March 7] “I was privileged to spent many dinner evenings with Doug and Andy at the Boettgers. Doug was an intimate part of all our wave flying. He was passionate about his hobby and devoted to his son. He was one of those persons you feel lucky to have known. We’ll miss him greatly.”

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[Jim and Jackie Payne, March 5] “He was the wind beneath our wings on many a wave flight. He will be missed by the soaring community. Our prayers go to Andy and the family.”

[Jackie Payne] “Jim and Dennis are doing an OLC speed run on the Sierra. They are reporting FL 230 with a Sage 2 clearance from Joshua. We really miss Doug Armstrong’s weather input but hopefully he’s looking down and vicariously enjoying the speed run. Does anyone remember the hymn, Nearer My God to Thee…I had to stop myself from emailing Doug for a detailed weather explanation of the high cloud overlay. What a gentleman he was!”

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[Gary Kemp, March 6] “My condolences to Doug’s friends and family; he was a great guy. He was instrumental in my task calling when I was a CD at Minden. I believed his forecasts and the result was a 506 mile task called for the Open Nats in 1984. He also helped me on many of the first record flights from Parowan, UT in the early ’90’s. He will be missed!”

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[Mike Koerner, March 7] “On April 17, 1984, Doug called Henry Combs and told him that the 18th or 19th would provide favorable weather conditions for a long downwind flight. It was a good call.

“Doug, with his expertise in soaring meteorology, was an integral part of Henry’s wave campaign. His knowledge, access to weather information and understanding of soaring were unparalleled and indispensable. And though Henry and I were technically competing, leap-frogging over each other’s records, it was a gentlemen’s competition to be sure. Henry shared Doug’s forecast with me.

“903 miles later, with what is still the U.S. distance record, I am forever indebted to Doug.

“I was fortunate to meet with him, for the first time in years, at the Reno Convention last February. I’m glad I took that last opportunity to again express my gratitude.

“Doug was a great source of lift for many in the soaring community. We’ll miss him greatly.”

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[Rick Walters, March 6] “We were lucky to have Doug involved in soaring for all these years. Very special to have him call one last open nationals at Minden in 2012. I always divided his lift strength forecasts by two, and that would be about right. He put a positive edge on any weather.”

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[Pam Sutton, March 6] “An homage to Doug from Mike Alger [of KTVN in Ren0] appeared in the [March 6 edition of the] Reno Gazette Journal.”