To borrow Tom's phrase, soaring is a sport of skating on thin ice. We aren't flying around in a 182 going for a $100 hamburger! When I see the wave stretching south to the Grand Tetons, I have to limit my soaring risks to minimize the legal risks. The only responsible way to carry the adventure further south is to land, clear customs, and fly on.


How much of the US portion of the flight put you out of reach of a port of entry?

Under good weather conditions, a flight like mine is always within glide slope of the border, and if you get low way south, you have Helena and Great Falls. Can't penetrate west to Helena? Run east to Great Falls. Landing at a port of entry is still some sort of violation - this needs to be pre-arranged with customs. What would Customs do if they didn't want you in the country? At the border, they can just tell you to turn your car around. Still, landing at a Port of Entry is vastly preferred to landing at an unsupervised site. My discussions with CBP in Great Falls give me a sense that this might be forgiven.