Double-Cascades Crossing: #2 from Washington

Thanks everybody for the interest and nice comments about my recent flight across the Cascades. I viewed the flight today on the IGC re-player myself just to see what it looks like, and yes, that viewer makes things appear crazier than real life. It should come with a warning. Certainly there were a few times I had to bare down and work hard, but in general, it was a pretty easy flight due to the higher than normal cloudbases. I have done a fair amount of flying on both sides of the route and have become pretty familiar with the terrain and drainages. It was not really as courageous as it looked, due to the higher than normal altitudes. I always felt I had a safe glide to a good place to land. No brass body parts required.

RC
77

Congrats to Ron Clark on his Great flight.

I too have made a Double Cascades Crossing. Flying my Std Libelle Old Dog from Issaquah Gliderport on June 4th 1978. It was an exceptional soaring day with a Monster Cloudstreet starting at Mt Si and running to Crescent Bar Washington. I flew off the end of the cloud street at 13K ft and on to Ephrata before turning back. The Street was still there and working well to the Snoqualime Pass area. From there it was an easy glide back to the Seattle Area making my final turn over Mercer Island before landing back At Issaquah. All in all a very easy day as I was High all day.

This was my 2nd (and 3rd) Cascade crossing as I had made a flight from Ephrata to Monroe previously

Paul Cordell
Scottsdale AZ

Nice, Paul!
Thanks for adding those bits of history to our knowledge-base up here.
It sounds like you had some great adventures with OD. Dave Reusch still gets her out all the time, on both sides of the mountains.
~Travis


On Sunday, May 18, 2014 10:45:00 AM UTC-7, Paul Cordell wrote:
Congrats to Ron Clark on his Great flight.



I too have made a Double Cascades Crossing. Flying my Std Libelle Old Dog from Issaquah Gliderport on June 4th 1978. It was an exceptional soaring day with a Monster Cloudstreet starting at Mt Si and running to Crescent Bar Washington. I flew off the end of the cloud street at 13K ft and on to Ephrata before turning back. The Street was still there and working well to the Snoqualime Pass area. From there it was an easy glide back to the Seattle Area making my final turn over Mercer Island before landing back At Issaquah. All in all a very easy day as I was High all day.



This was my 2nd (and 3rd) Cascade crossing as I had made a flight from Ephrata to Monroe previously



Paul Cordell

Scottsdale AZ

Yo Old Dog Call me 541 601 0960 I am recently retired and just bought a cream puff 201 Libelle to race in Ephrata.
Dale Bush

On Sunday, May 18, 2014 1:07:12 PM UTC-7, TravisBrown73 wrote:
Nice, Paul!

Thanks for adding those bits of history to our knowledge-base up here.

It sounds like you had some great adventures with OD. Dave Reusch still gets her out all the time, on both sides of the mountains.

~Travis





On Sunday, May 18, 2014 10:45:00 AM UTC-7, Paul Cordell wrote:

Congrats to Ron Clark on his Great flight.







I too have made a Double Cascades Crossing. Flying my Std Libelle Old Dog from Issaquah Gliderport on June 4th 1978. It was an exceptional soaring day with a Monster Cloudstreet starting at Mt Si and running to Crescent Bar Washington. I flew off the end of the cloud street at 13K ft and on to Ephrata before turning back. The Street was still there and working well to the Snoqualime Pass area. From there it was an easy glide back to the Seattle Area making my final turn over Mercer Island before landing back At Issaquah. All in all a very easy day as I was High all day.







This was my 2nd (and 3rd) Cascade crossing as I had made a flight from Ephrata to Monroe previously







Paul Cordell



Scottsdale AZ

Here's some more west-side history:

I did a double crossing in my ASK-14 with no restarts after shutting down near Sultan, crossed the columbia after seeing if any of my hang gliding friends were on top of Chelan Butte, made a turn-point at Mansfield and then headed towards Leavenworth. Scratched for a long time on the ridge just North-West of town before getting high enough to start hopping peaks towards home. It was a long trek against a headwind but finally had final glide back to Harvey Field. Never felt it was a worthy task since I did it in a motorglider.

Brad