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RIDGELY TO DUBLIN, PA May 13, 2004 The day began with a decent weather channel forecast promising south winds at 5-10. With a busy schedule full of family, flight training, taxes and an interview, the anticipation of my first XC of the year was great. My flight began at ten after one in tow behind the very capable Miss Windsor. After scratching around for a few minutes and losing about 1,000 ft., I began to head back to the runway for another tow. To my pleasant surprise, I stumbled upon a decent core that would commence my journey. I never dreamed how this day, which began with such humble beginnings, would end up. My first goal was to make it past the 5-mile radius from Ridgely which is the minimum distance one should fly XC to prevent bad blood with the locals.Fortunately I managed to scratch my way up to cloud base at 3,400 ft. and reset my goal to the 20-mile mark. I decided I could be happy with this achievement feeling quite rusty since not flying XC for over seven months. The joy of realizing my new goal was quickly squelched by an agonizing descent toward 630 ft. nearing Smyrna, DE. Thinking my flight was soon to be over, I unzipped my harness but continued in a desperate search for lift. This desperate mode would be revisited quite often on this particular day. With the help of a loose gaggle of feathered friends, Buzzards to be exact, I managed to scratch my way out of the hole. Passing through 2,000 ft. I radioed my wife on the 2-meter that I had placed in the dining room window that morning. I gave her an update on my progress and told her I thought I could make it to Middletown, DE, my newly declared goal. Having spent a lot of time on this part of the Eastern Shore, I found the sightseeing to be quite pleasant. Of particular interest was St. Andrews school, the setting for the Robin Williams' film, "Dead Poet's Society". Soon finding the ground too close for my comfort I had to abandon my tour and return to a single-minded focus on flying. After struggling to find a decent core for some time, I managed my best climb rate of the day at over 400 fpm on the 15-second averager. This success allowed me to again reset my goal to leaving the Delmarva, which I knew would occur around the 41-mile mark. Wow, this day was turning into much more than I had expected. After a joyful crossing of the C&D Canal, my next obstacle was to avoid the airspace around the Wilmington Airport. Feeling confident with a fortuitously timed climb to cloudbase which put me at 3,800 ft., I chose a coarse to the west of the nice looking cloud street passing over the middle of the airport. Fortunately this departure didn't put me on the deck as I had feared but allowed for a safe passing of this busy airspace. As I approached the suburbs of Wilmington the suitable landing fields began to be fewer and farther between. This was acceptable at first but became more disconcerting as my altitude once again began to diminish. Approaching West Chester I found myself gliding desperately towards a housing project under construction bordered on the east with a small ridge that I hoped would trigger some merciful lift. Here I struggled for what seemed an eternity in weak lift too low to move on. Most of this period was spent between 800 and 1,000 feet. As I slowly drifted northward approaching the end of the pseudo ridge, once again my feathered friends were instrumental in my successful escape from gravities pull. I was soon climbing towards 3,000 ft. realizing this flight was going to reach the 60-mile mark, my latest goal and a key number in the Region 9 contest. Wanting to share my elation and also get my retrieve started, I decided to attempt a phone call to my wife. At the risk of dropping my un-tethered phone from thousands of feet, I carefully speed-dialed my house. At this point I debated the sense of allowing this distraction at a relatively low altitude. Fortunately it wasn't long before I heard my wife's sweet voice and yelled into the phone, "Head to West Chester, I'm buying dinner!" After cautiously returning my phone to its place, I refocused my concentration on the task of miles. At this point in my flight I set my sights for the Ridgely site record of 76.3 miles. I began to realize some of my unexpected success of this day was attributable to my patience during this flight. I believe this to be a function of my lack of recent flight experience (4 local flights totally under 2 hours and no XC) and the overall average quality of the day. I mention this because I have a bit of a history of impatience with weak lift or zero sink, which has often resulted in a quick trip to the deck. This realization helped me to stay the coarse through some pretty frustrating and unnerving passages between less than ideal landing zone options. Some of these included soccer fields, football fields, fairways, construction sights, and large industrial complex lawns. Elated at the passing of the Ridgely record, I now set my sights on a solid 80 miler. This goal came and went relatively quickly as I began to notice a general improving of conditions. This realization and the subsequent climb to well over 4,000 ft. allowed me for the first time to fantasize about the 100-mile mark. Approaching 90 miles, I once again phoned my wife to update her on our evolving destination. I yelled into the phone, "Head to RTD's house", our dentist in Lansdale, PA and, "I think I can make 100 miles!!!" At first she wasn't too excited about the thought of the long drive ahead but quickly found some relief when she remembered our deal to split the proceeds from a 100-mile flight. My need for turns became fewer and farther between as I began to dolphin soar the last few clouds of the day. Ironically, the final cloud was located at 101 miles from Ridgely, MD and was to be my final climb of the day. I picked a town slightly east of my track for my destination and soaked up the peaceful evening landscape as a Beechcraft Bonanza buzzed by at a comfortable distance. What an overwhelming feeling of joy, blessing, and satisfaction was felt in that tranquil descent. I spotted a restaurant with a lot full of cars promising some of the best cuisine Dublin, PA had to offer. I continued my glide past the large field behind the restaurant anxiously waiting for my GPS to read 104 miles then quickly turned back to my LZ for a decent run out landing. I touched down at 6:24 PM for a total flight time of 5:14. My highest altitude was just under 4,700 ft. I phoned the crew at Highland with my news and explained that Karen was on the way. They couldn't help but prank Paul Tjaden who had graciously offered to pick me up if I happened to go XC. After already driving for hours to pick up Lauren, Marc and Steve, they told him that he had to come get me because Karen was out of town. Thanks for the offer Paul. We all owe you one. Karen and Jabin showed up an hour and a half later and we celebrated our day with a nice meal at Lamberto's Italian restaurant. We arrived home in Galena, MD around midnight where I tossed and turned all night reliving the wonderful memories of that amazingly unexpected flight. |
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