Well, Tony, I'm behind in reading "Soaring". Guess I spend too much time
reading RAS - it's certainly more entertaining!

I've flown 3 safaris and am constantly trying to get folks interested in
giving it a try. It's similar to your long flight, but you do it every day
for a week or so and try to end up back home.


"Tony" wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, July 9, 2013 10:57:44 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Excellent story! This is what I'd truly love to see in the pages of
"Soaring". "Tony" wrote in message
... RAS, Since
many of you have been long-time followers of my free distance attempts
(that's you, Gapa Geezer), I felt compelled to report on last weekends
Kansas Kowbell Klassic. Saturday was the day and there were 4 of us at the
field to vie for the Kowbell. Me in Kate the Cirrus, Jerry in his Zuni,
Bob in the ASG-29, and Keith in his PW-5. The forecast seemed to indicate
that downwind was NOT the way to go for distance today. As is often the
case on Kowbell, a crosswind or even into the wind flight would probably
yield more distance. Cloud possibilities to the south, even to the south
west, while they looked very good to the west and northwest. The only
challenge would be bucking across a ~15 knot north wind. In the past with
a north wind Kowbell, the best route has been to roughly follow US Highway
54 across Kansas, gradually drifting south into the Texas Panhandle and
maybe as far as New Mexico. With this in mind I declared Clayton, NM as my
goal. On course it was obvious pretty soon that going much further south
than due west from Sunflower would lead to the blue. So west I continued,
following the general path of US Highway 50 out of Hutchinson and out
towards Garden City. Garden City was the last time I had radio contact
with my trusty crew Leah. Climbs were pretty good and the low points
weren't too low. There were lots of dust devils the further west I went
and once or twice I was actually able to find one close enough to be able
to use it. I noticed that the wind had started to swing around from NW to
more of a NE heading. By now I was at the Kansas/Colorado border and
further out to the west I could see a North/South line of thunderstorms
and I was rapidly approaching its shadow. I turned to a more northerly
heading over eastern Colorado to stay out in the sunlight. Once or twice I
actually had to cut back east a bit to stay out of the shade as I tracked
north towards I-70. I was able to get a few texts out to Leah to let her
know about the change in course. She was glad to hear it as the emergency
alert had sounded over FM Radio warning of strong winds and hail from the
thunderstorms that I was going around. Past the 5 hour mark I started to
wonder how much longer I would be able to fly. I was already past my
personal longest duration flight in the Cirrus and my all time personal
best has been 6.5 hrs. My speed wasn't really great, averaging about 40
mph, but while the day had started to soften a bit, it really didn't seem
like it was dying anytime soon. I kept pushing north and eventually
arrived over I-70, right as it was possible to turn west again as I had
cleared the storms to the north and had endless sunshine to the west. Now
was decision time. This area of Colorado features endless landable
terrain, dirt fields as far as the eye can see, relatively flat, and
almost no paved roads or towns of any kind once you are away from the
interstate. The wind was still out of the NE and I had flown about 280
miles. I was pretty confident in getting the Kowbell and my only real goal
was to find a way to get over 310 miles, Diamond Distance. To the NW the
flight would be crosswind in dying conditions, but with a relatively
constant ground elevation. To the west I could follow I-70 but have to fly
uphill, potentially shortening my distance flown. I initially started to
head NW but then found a very smooth 1-2 knot thermal. By now I had been
in the cockpit a LONG time, over 7 hours, and I knew that it was time to
excercise some real patience and take every climb as high as it would go.
We ground away as we drifted west and the airport at Limon, CO started to
seem like a real possibility. I was slowly drifting west and decided that
I would probably have enough altitude to make it over 500km even with the
uphill run and if I could just find one more weak thermal I might even
make the airport at Limon. I hadn't actually communicated with Leah for
hours and had every reason to believe that she was hours behind me. The
idea of a real airport with a town, hotels, restaurants, etc, seemed
really attractive. Off we went on a best L/D glide in smooth evening air.
I decided to stick with interstate and as I came upon Genoa, CO I had not
found a bump. I had a few thousand feet, enough to make it halfway or so
from Genoa to Limon, but decided enough was enough. I had cleared the
magical 500km line and figured a landing next to a town on the Interstate
would leave me with the most enjoyable possible retreive. I landed on the
north edge of town in a field which I believe had freshly sprouted Milo in
it, only a few inches tall. The locals were really friendly and helpful,
offering beer, water, calling the sheriff to assure them that a plane
hadn't crashed, and contacting the owner of the land. Master chase crew
Leah was a mere 40 miles behind me on the Interstate and was there within
the hour. We had Kate in the trailer before sunset and were headed towards
home. Spent the night in Goodland, KS and made it back to Sunflower by 1
PM after watching excellent cu form over much of Kansas starting at 10:30
AM. Diamond Distance has been my goal for a long time and I never imagined
it would happen this way. Uphill, Upwind, and in a Std. Cirrus. It was
always supposed to be a downwind dash in the Cherokee so I'll have to keep
working on that. I won the Kowbell on my 5th attempt which I am pretty
proud of and am looking forward to getting the paperwork submitted for the
distance, then I'll only need altitude. The total flight time was 8 hrs 10
minutes, by far my best to date. It was proof that you can either fly slow
for a long time or fast for a short time.

Hi Dan, I did have an article in Soaring, Feb 2012 I think, titled "Too Much
Fun" which I co-wrote with RAS regular Bob Whelan about our adventure on a
free distance flight from Dalhart, TX to Goodland, KS that I made in the
Cherokee.

Free Distance flying has never been dead but it seems to be really alive and
well this season. Gordon and Hugh's amazing flight from Minden to Colorado
early this year followed by the duo from Caesar Creek who made it to
Blairstown really set the tone for the season. Kowbell was a general success
with 3/4 of us making it over 200 miles. We can only hope that the Dust
Devil Dash is as much of a success as it was last year when Kevin Wayt won
the Barringer Trophy.

Nothing beats the feeling of leaving the airport and saying "self, i don't
know where i'm going but i'm not going back there!"