Roy Mahoney <<rmahoney>>
writes:

There were records broken this past Sunday, Jim Steele flying a
T2C and Britton Shaw flying an Ozone R11 paraglider, both launching from Mount
Magazine in Arkansas, Jim setting a new Arkansas state flex wing distance record
approx 130 miles and Britton a new USHPA Region 6 PG record approx 144 miles.
Below is Jim's post to the Region 6 forum about the flight, late Sunday night.
The satellite loop noon thru 5:45 pm, notice the area in central Arkansas thru
southern Missouri,
here.

In the satellite loop, I should have said notice the street development in the
area from west central Arkansas due north into southwestern Missouri. Britton
landed at Springfield, MO.

Jim writes:

Well, it was a great day. We dropped Britton off at his in-laws
place in Conway, and got home a little after midnight. The conditions were very
good. It was rough at times, smooth at times, but the one consistent factor all
day long, even as we were landing, is there were lots of thermals, and they were
STRONG.

At this point, I haven't even downloaded my tracklog, but I did pull a distance
measurement on Google Earth. My flight was almost 130 miles. Britton's looks
like it was almost 144. My flight time was 4 hours and 39 minutes, I think.

I got well over 10,000 MSL. Not sure yet how high exactly, will check my 6030 in
a bit. I think I heard Britton say he got to 11,000 MSL near the end of the
flight.

Crossing the Ozarks, a big obstacle to any long flights heading north from Mag,
was not a problem for me?I went in high south of Oark, made it to the Oark
valley, and then climbed to about 8000'. From there, I had visible LZ's on the
other side on a glide. Britton hit the mountains lower, and that separated us. I
saw him working low, drifting toward the Oark valley, and lost sight of him.
Next thing I knew he was at cloudbase and coming across. But from that point on,
I never had a visual on him.

North of the Ozarks, base was approaching 10'000. It kept getting higher, the
farther north we got and the later in the day it got.

The biggest pucker factor for me was crossing Table Rock lake and the Branson
area. I think I hit the lake at possibly the widest part, just a couple of miles
west of Branson. On the north side, a pretty darn vast expanse of populated area
and wooded area, and no landing fields for a while. I got down to 5500' going
across, then found a screamer right over the middle of the lake, and my anxiety
vanished.

After Branson, there was a monumental cloud street. At that point, I believe we
could have flown till dark. We didn't land because of conditions It was still
ripping. I made the decision to land out of exhaustion and a bladder that was
about to burst. Britton echoed those sentiments, and so I went on a final glide.
Flew straight through fat thousand foot up thermals and landed on the south side
of Nixa Missouri. Britton had been some distance behind me, and intended to land
with me, but with my Garmin batteries dead, I really had no idea of where to
tell him to find me at. Couple of guys rode by my landing field on bicycles, and
told me it was Nixa, but by that time, Britton had already flown past.

It's been a long time since I flew this far. My endurance is low, and I'm not
willing to push myself to keep going as hard as I used to. If I could have found
the strength and willpower to continue, I'm pretty sure that cloud street would
have sustained us for a while.

Britton writes:

A big thanks to Donna and Jim for the fun and epic XC record
setting adventure! It is so awesome that hang gliders and paragliders can make
these trips together. :)

That record day started out early for me. I had PPG students launched by 6a and
then I flew two tandems before 8a. Started traveling home around 9am. Some of my
other students contacted me about the possibility for training hill flights
later in the afternoon/evening. Likely a good activity but I needed to check
weather. When I arrived at home I checked XC Skies and saw an epic Arkansas
soaring forecast (Oklahoma was too windy for my bump tolerance, but Arkansas was
perfect). The previous days had been too blue for my bump tolerance. (I have
much more comfortable flights on days filled with nice clouds). Phoned Wispy to
find out who might be flying that day. Was told that only one person was in
pursuit of XC miles, and it was Jim Steele traveling to Mt Magazine. Yee Haw!

My PG gear stays packed and ready to leave on a moment's notice. Rebecca and I
reviewed my planned route to Harrison, AR. She and the boys would wait at home,
monitoring my progress, until I activated the SPOT upon arriving at my final
destination, then she would come retrieve me. I got in my truck and started the
journey. Made contact with Jim to verify his intentions. We spent a few minutes
discussing the epic forecast, and pondered these reasons why others weren't
getting out: Are we XC animals, or do the others just not see what we see in the
forecast.

Arrived at launch, 12p. Jim was already setting up. There were cummies
everywhere. Stepped out of the truck while a cycle was blowing through. Felt as
if I was to stick my arms out to my sides, I could have been lifted off the
ground. :P Fortunately, the air between cycles was smooth, not ratty. And, the
cycles were close together. I felt good about the conditions and felt it would
be a BIG day. Just didn't realize that I would be flying for so long…

Donna was operating as support that day. She also aided me during my launch prep
(holding my wing down during cycles). Thanks, Donna!

I launched first, 12:39p. Flew into lift a few hundred feet in front of launch.
Tried to fly through it, around it, but it was 1,200fpm, wide, smooth, so I
committed to circle in it and took it to 6,600msl. The sky was epic as far as I
could see and the lift was nice at altitude so I planned to fly fast.

Well, it didn't take long for me to run into sink, which was more massive than
the lift. 1,800fpm down, sustained. Geesh! Wound up slightly north of Cove lake
at 1,100 AGL. I was frantically searching sky and ground for signs of lift,
all-the-while getting tossed around in bullet bubbles of lift. The fear of
having to land in these conditions was the motivator to find something to keep
me up. Couldn't locate any wide lift, and I was too low to be picky, so I
committed to the next bullet. For those that have flown the desert conditions,
you know the stressful feeling of fighting the turbulence and G's when entering
the lift, attempting to maintain the correct wing and body position, and bracing
for the impact. It's kinda funny at times,,, I found myself taking several
inhale/exhales similar to a woman in labor, then I chuckled at myself which
relaxed me a bit.

The next bullet was a good one, strong, smooth, small, but large enough that I
was able to throw in a ~60 degree bank and take it to 6.8K. On the climb up I
was able to make contact with Donna and Jim, and relay my position. Jim had
already launched and was very near my latitude, west of me and high.

Once at altitude the air was nice again. Found myself farther east than I had
expected, approaching the river bridge at Scranton. Then, just like the massive
sink that I had just escaped, I found myself in 1,500fpm down. Yikes! This was
going to be a roller-coaster day! I applied as much speed as safely possible to
escape the sink. Ended up 300AGL on the north side of the river. DANG… Scratched
at 300AGL for 15 minutes between the river and the interstate. Worked every lift
line and bubble available. Hot, exhausting- mentally and physically. Donna
transmitted the encouraging comment, just at the right moment, which was nice to
hear during those struggling moments.

I committed to the next strong bullet and rode it to near base. Jim was working
his way towards me as I was climbing. We ended up circling together near
Harmony, AR. It was a great feeling to have another glider in my sight.
Although, we were making slow time to have a long XC. The day would need to get
much better to yield a record flight.

At one point, Jim circled just below me for the Hollywood `money-shot' but my
camera was off. Jim quickly climbed away from me and flew NNW to Oark,
AR, the holding point before crossing "no-man's-land" to the north.

Of all things, I sunk low, again, and got stuck in the valley between the Ozark
foothills and Oark. While I was fighting to stay aloft, Jim was gaining more
altitude near Oark. He announced his altitude and intentions to cross the
massive area of forest. Depending on the wind speed and altitude, crossing this
area can be hazardous, but only if low and without a nice tailwind. Jim had
plenty of altitude, a good cloud street, and a nice tailwind, so he had a easy
and safe route north.

It was a nice BIG fat thermal that raised me to 8,700msl, just a few miles south
of Oark, and it was drifting me NE. This was a straight line to my goal,
Harrison, Arkansas. From that thermal until the end of the flight several hours
later, I spent most of my time between 8,400 and 10,500MSL, climbing as high as
11,150 (between Branson and Springfield), and never saw less than 6,500MSL (over
Branson).

The air was super nice for me. I was able to fly straight 20-30 mile stretches
on 50% speed bar. Ground speeds 40-50mph. On several occasions I was able to fly
hand's-off, and took the time to use my camera that was mounted on a telescoping
pole (video to be posted on YT soon).

With so much altitude, there was one point during the long stretches of flight
that I began experimenting with various locations under clouds (testing sun-side
versus shaded side), so I was venturing through some areas below clouds that I
typically avoid due to turbulence. This experiment resulted in a big whack that
folded ~40% of my right wing. It was a very fast collapse, but benign enough
that I was able to maintain a slow spiral. At 9K msl, I had plenty of altitude
to sort things out. However, I did wonder if the wing was going to fully recover
so I mentally rehearsed a possible reserve deployment, and felt the reserve
handle, too. After a few more control pumps the wing fully recovered, and I
decided that was enough `testing' for the day. ;)

When I arrived over highway 65 (between Harrison and Branson), Jim announced
that he was over Branson, and I realized that he was only 10 miles north of me,
and about 5 miles west of my longitude. I decided to follow the highway, but it
would take me over the new Branson airport, which is now controlled airspace.
Not an issue for me, as I was cruising between 8-10K, so didn't need clearance,
but a courtesy call doesn't hurt, and I never knew when massive sink might
strike again. I called Jim and Donna and let them know I would be busy on the
aviation frequency. I applied as much speed as possible then continued north.
Jim and I both watched a few jets pass under us for their final approach into
Branson.

After 5 hours of flight I was getting tired. Jim called and expressed the same
feeling. The cloud bases and streets were beyond epic and continued to stretch
as far as we could see. I was holding out for that 100 miler. Radioed Jim and
asked him for a mileage check, and inquired how far until we reach the 100 mile
marker. Jim called back and said "Man, we passed that 100-mile point way back
there!" We chatted about our physical condition and both agreed to start looking
for a nice LZ.

Jim located a spot in Nixa, MO. I thought it would be awesome to land in the
same field. And, the possibility of him filming my landing. Unfortunately, we
were not able to locate each other. I continued to follow highway 65 north to
the downtown airport (very large area with an easy retrieve).

With lift in abundance it was actually difficult for me to find sink. I had to
fly several miles out from under the cloud street before I could get sink. There
is no doubt I could have stayed under the street and flown for another 1.5
hours. That's how epic the day was!

The downtown airport approach was a neat experience. There was no one around.
Came in for a nice landing in 8mph winds.

I got plenty of video documentation, including narratives, still pictures, and
evidence of the evening cloud streets that stretched as far as the eyes could
see. To date, the most visually rewarding XC for me. Definitely a flight memory
that will last a lifetime.

Been resting a lot. Hopefully have a shot at the Oklahoma state record in a few
days. Will launch somewhere in Oklahoma during the big BMF Fly-In. Need
manageable surface winds, higher winds aloft, and lots of puffy clouds. Thursday
at Heavener might be the day. Sure would be nice if other experienced pilots
would join me on the adventure. ;)

Mt Magazine to Springfield, MO Duration: 6hrs 4minutes Distance: 143 miles
Altitude: 11,150 msl