wave soaring

[tonycondon]

i took the Cirrus to oklahoma last weekend for a gathering of about 10 glider pilots from the region. we flew weak thermals on saturday. sunday by noon the ridge was working but i had to land so took my second launch upwind towards another ridge that was making wave. I had an awesome flight, covering about 240 km in about 2.5 hrs and only landed because i was facing a midnight arrival home if i landed at 5 PM, could've easily gone until sunset.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2829373

picture is of sardis lake as i headed westbound at somewhere around 7000 or 7500 ft.

 

[Bill Watson]

Never knew that there was wave in OK

 

[tonycondon]

this area is still being explored by sailplanes. the closest club is in tulsa and the main guy who does most of the organizing of trips to Talihina lives there. otherwise people drive from wichita, tulsa, dallas, austin, etc. to enjoy some winter soaring.

hang and paragliders have been ridge soaring this area for decades but we've only had about 5 yrs of recent sailplane exploration. there used to be a club in Mena, AR back in the day but no one has been able to find any info on how far west they went into the ridges here.

 

[rottydaddy]

Our gliders are stashed in a shipping container right now... I hate you.

 

[Matthew]

We just had our first club flights of the season, but nothing like that.

 

[tonycondon]

you need to tell Ernst and Sebastien what we're up to. They should come down and join us. I think we're going back in 2 weeks

 

[Matthew]

you need to tell Ernst and Sebastien what we're up to. They should come down and join us. I think we're going back in 2 weeks

I'll let them know now. I'm in a hotel room with nothing better to do.

 

[tonycondon]

Here is the article I wrote for our club newsletter.