October 24, 2007 was the first known ridge flight, flown by a
sailplane,
in the state of Oklahoma. We were flying out of the Talihina, OK
airport.
This area has been used by hang glider pilots for many years.
There are about 65+ miles of ridge line available when using the north
facing
ridge.
The first flight lasted 1:33 and distant flown was 109 miles. Since I
borrowing
a friends glider, I was flying very conservative and the flying time
was limited.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...tId=-717520068
Driving distance to Talihina, OK from:
Dallas, Texas 220 miles
Oklahoma City 180 miles
Tulsa, OK 165 miles
Memphis, TN 353 miles
There used to be a Wave Soaring Camp out of the Mena, Arkansas area
many
years ago during the Thanksgiving week. Mena is at the east end of
these ridges.
I keep hearing rumors that flights to 17,000 feet have been achieved.
We did see
lenticular clouds to the east of Talihina yesterday morning.
I want to thank Gerry Kieffer, Bob Thrasher, Grant Cheadle for making
this flight
possible! We will continue to watch the weather and we will be flying
in this area again.
Randy
N304RS