Hoag, Grant () writes:

The records are already falling at Hurricane, and we haven’t even arrived yet. On Monday Len Clements flew 151 miles into Arizona from Molly’s Nipple, says Hal Hayden!

Is anyone game to try and beat that on our 4th of July fly-in? If so, then let me know that you are coming.

Len writes:

The short version:

Launch: Hurricane Cliffs, Utah Monday June 4, 2007 12:39 PM Arizona time

Landing: Shonto, Arizona at 6:00 PM Arizona time

LZ: N 36 35.294 W 110 39.250

Shonto is a Navajo Village, about 50 miles southeast of Page off of Highway 98

Fight Time = 5:21, DISTANCE = 151 statute miles, avg. groundspeed = 28 MPH

Max. Altitude = 17,208 Ft. Barometric; approx. 17,999 Ft. GPS

OLD SITE RECORD = 107 statute miles

Route: Hurricane to Colorado City to Coral Pink Sand Dunes to Kanab to Big Water to Page to Shonto

The details:

This was the last day of a spectacular, four day long road trip to southwest Utah. In attendance: Hal and Cathie Hayden, Ken and Christie Foote, Kris and Nicole Thomsen, Dave Conners and Family, Len Clements. We had already enjoyed a fantastic glass off, at Hurricane, two days of incredible flying off of 9100 foot Cedar Mountain and camping/hiking/exploring in Zion National Park. The weather was great, the flying was even better! What more could we want?

On Monday, Hal suggested that we try for a long XC off of Hurricane. I was not too optimistic, given the weather of the days prior seemed to favor the higher terrain to the north. However, since Cathie was driving.

Hal and I were the only pilots to launch off the Hurricane Cliffs at about 12:40PM Arizona time. We turned south, sinking slowly for a mile or two, hoping for a thermal. It was not looking too good. We did find weak, broken lift that did eventually get us up to about 9,000 feet, about 4,500 AGL. An approaching layer of high clouds, in advance of an upper level trough, convinced us to go over the back before everything was shut down by overcast.

We both struggled for the next 10 or 15 miles, encountering heavy sink. Just by dumb luck, I started finding decent lift, to about 14,000 feet. Hal ended up where I have been so many times: decked by the massive sink between thermals. I called down on the radio, offering to land but Cathie said, “Go ahead, Len, we’ll pick you up wherever you land.” Little did she know what that would entail!

I took a course line over the higher terrain, north of Colorado City and was rewarded with climbs to 16,000 feet. The price to be paid for the quick climbs was the crushing sink in between thermals. Northeast of Colorado City, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes looking like an inviting place to land, until I got low. Down to about 500 AGL, ready to unzip, the sand dunes were huge mounds with only a tiny parking lot that was flat, surrounded by a fence. Again, dumb luck saved the day when I caught a weak thermal that really turned on and carried me back to 16,000 feet! On glide now, past Kanab I enjoyed the beauty of spectacular red cliffs and canyons, In the distance, ahead, I could see Paria Canyon, the Vermillion Cliffs and Lake Powell.

Soon I would pass all of these incredible landmarks. I wish I had taken my camera but given the difficulty of staying aloft the camera may have been enough of a distraction to cause me to sink out. Just a few miles west of Page, I was down to 7,000 feet at 97 miles from launch. I really wanted to make at least 100 miles but I wasn’t sure that I was high enough to cross a narrow stretch of Lake Powell just upstream from the dam. The Page Airport, the next safe LZ, is on a mesa, on the other side. It wasn’t good enough to just barely make it across the water. The flat glide of my new Wills Wing T2 actually made the crossing easy but it was stressful inside my head! At 500 feet above the Page Airport, tired, cold and ready to land, dumb luck once again intervened.

A weak but wide thermal built in intensity and once again I found myself at 16,000 feet. Turning east, downwind, my GPS registered a groundspeed of 65-70 MPH: I had a 30-35 MPH tailwind for most of this flight. The leg from Page to Shonto was stress free at 13,000 – 17,000 feet in the late afternoon, buoyant air. Flying past the cobalt blue waters of Lake Powell and sandstone canyons, I felt overwhelmed by the beauty and privilege of this experience. At Shonto, in the fading lift and light, at the end of the paved chase route, it was time to return to earth.

Words cannot express my deep appreciation to Cathie and Hal Hayden! They gave up a full day of their vacation to make my flight possible. They could have been back in Zion, enjoying their time together. Instead, they were stuck in a car, getting back to camp at midnight! Many, many thanks to Cathie and Hal!

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