*** More flights to be added as time permits ***

Significant flights

July 5, 2007: World Record Out and Return. Story here. Info here.

September 5, 2004: Kagel-->Mount Wilson-->West Towers-->Kagel. Daughter nearly born on mountain.
50 miles round trip. My first time to Wilson from Kagel and my first time from Kagel to Wilson. Flew right past my work at JPL (twice).

Early 1990s: Albuquerque-->Near Texas Border (180 miles)
During an open-distance competition. Got high right away. In 2nd thermal (10 miles down-range) decided to land from 14k because I was tired. Realized I was hypoxic. Looked and noticed my O2 had gotten bumped off. Turned it on. At 40 miles, got low and never really got high again. Scratched my way for the next 140 miles with only occasional altitudes over 3,000 above ground. Patience. Persistence. Encouragement from my wife who caught up with me at about the 80 mile mark. Landed just before legal dusk. Almost made it into Texas.

March 24, 2008: Kagel-->Crestline
First time for that too. Wasn't even going to go XC. Scavenged a ride & launched 1/2 hour after the others. Nearly sank out several times just short of Cucamonga. Near the end of the flight, I was cutting it very very close, so I stopped in 50 up with a slight tailwind gaining several hundred feet altitude and a mile of distance. Then I ended up having trouble getting down at the Andy Jackson Landing Zone. Go figure.

Other memorable flights

First XC: Sylmar 1500-->Big T wash. (9ish miles)
Sank out. Sniveled a ride to the top from a wuffo. Took off again and chased the others. Barely made the LZ at Big-T. Twisted ankle after breaking down. Sniveled a ride back to the LZ.

Second XC: Gunter-->Independence (47 miles)
Was going to the restroom when everyone exchanged phone numbers. Nearly sank out. Spent 2 hours and gained 3 miles getting back up. Then flew S alone. Blew off altitude to land (it was very late.) Landed just SW of town. Hiked gear into town. Didn't get picked up until midnight. Learned two things: Persistence & Preparedness. Never flew XC as unprepared for retreival again.

First flight at Yosemite So beautiful.

First flight at Big Sur So beautiful over the water (and intimidating.)

First 100 miler: Horseshoe-->Janies (103 miles)
Promissed myself I'd not get a Janies t-shirt until I landed there from Horseshoe. Dave Boyer and I went inside Janie's Chicken Ranch (a house of ill repute) to get a shirt. We were teased unmercifully by our drivers. But I got the shirt. I've made this flight many times since, but this one really sticks in my mind.

Summer 1988/1989?: Horseshoe Meadows-->Chalfont (75 miles)
This was my longest for quite a while. Borrowed glider. Uneventful flight and crossing. Got to Gunter & noticed that the N end of the Valley (30? miles away) was under a T-storm. Noticed a dust-devil from ground level (5800') to cloud-base (16k'+). It was black. Dust-devil? Tornado? I don't care, I'm landing. So I flew out and a bit farther to Chalfant and landed in a 2-3mph S wind. Broke down quickly but not furiously. Set my glider on the fence. As I stepped on the fence, wind was still S at 2-3. As I set my foot on the other side, the wind was 30-40+ from the North. You bet I was glad I'd done the smart thing and landed.

Summer 1991: Horseshoe Meadows-->Luning, NV (141 miles)
Launched and flew for 7 1/2 hours. Lost ground crew due to silliness by other pilot on the truck. Flew on alone. As I arrived to set up my landing NNW of Luning, my driver arrived. She jumped out and held up a streamer. Then I heard her on the radio: Look out, there's another glider! I glance over, saw him and adjusted my approach and landed. He also adjusted and landed in the field across the highway. A white van pulled up and 3 other guys got out. They packed up, loaded up and left before I was fully out of my harness. I hadn't seen another pilot for 5 hours and 70 miles. Yet I almost had a mid-air on landing. Another lesson learned. (I suspect he launched as I passed him at Gunter or Paiute - he certainly wasn't on launch at Horseshoe.)

Winter 1995: Point of the Mountain-->Little Cottonwood-->I15-->Point of the Mountain
Scratched my way up on the Wasatch. Flew N to the ski resorts. Was planning on flying to U of Utah. Saw snow showers there. Flew out to Hwy 15. Turned S and went back to Point of the Mountain (N side.) All this in Jan or Feb.