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Mike Soderstrom made his first trip to King. Here's his report. BTW, he took 2nd place in the Recreation class, and he helped E.C. get the driver award by being picked up on Saturday at 4 Corners.
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This was my first time at King Mountain. The day before the competition I
did an out and return along the main ridge and landed at Mike O'Leary's
estate in Moore close to the city park where I was camping. I got to break
down in the shade and green grass next to my tent.

On Monday, route 3 was called which meant I had to go over the back of King.
I was a little nervous because I never flew over the back of anything.
Fortunately, there were plenty of experienced pilots to learn from. After
getting up over 13k above King, I followed a group heading towards the first
valley. There was some sink and turbulence as expected for a few miles.
About 1/3 of the way to the next mountain range (the Lemhis), I found some
light lift and drifted with it until it petered out as I approached the
middle of the valley. By then I knew I could make it to the Lemhi range, so
I went on glide to Saddle peak. Once there, I climbed to over 16k under a
nice cumulous cloud. Since I didn't have oxygen, I had to leave the lift
early and went on glide and made it to the next range. At that point I
headed for the Dubois airport, since the route would take me over highway 22
for an easy retrieve. I'm now in the flats, so I don't find much lift, but I
manage to land 10 miles short of Dubois for a 51 mile flight. It's my
longest flight ever and I'm stoked.

Tuesday, route 1 is called. There is a strong south wind which should make
it easy to go down the range. Once I get to 12k, the lift is smooth and the
air is buoyant. I don't know if it is convergence, shear or just ridge lift,
but I drift past the first canyon without losing much altitude. I go down
Sunset ridge and top off my altitude before crossing the elbow gap near Pass
Creek road. This is where some pilots are going down, so I pick my path
carefully to minimize my time in sink. I get to the other side at about 10k
and get stuck there for a while, trying to get higher. I finally figure out
where the thermals are and make it to Invisible mountain. From then on, I
just top off on altitude at the peaks and go on glide to cross the gaps. I
make it to Mt McCaleb and notice a lot of dark clouds ahead. There is virga
at my altitude and I'm starting to get twanged. I don't like it. A rigid
wing to my left has started to head towards the valley and I do the same. My
VG is full on and I have the bar stuffed as I try to outrun the nasty air.
The Mackay airport is the closest bonus LZ, so I head there. I land right on
the tarmac followed by six or so other gliders. It's only 18 miles, but I'm
confident I made the right decision to land.

Wednesday, route 3 is called. I feel more confident now that I have flown
this route before. Most of my flight was similar to Monday's flight except I
tried to stay in the foothills instead of the flats when flying towards
Dubois. This seemed to be a good idea as I was able to drift with some
thermals after leaving the peaks of the 3rd mountain range. As I'm flying
over the terrain, it occurs to me that there aren't many roads within a
glide of my position. Fearing a long hike or getting lost in the middle of
nowhere, I chicken out and head for a main road, hoping to get as close to
it as I can. I pass over a few other gliders already on the ground and make
it to the highway with a few hundred feet to spare. It's my longest flight
ever (again) at 54 miles.

On Thursday there is some grumbling from the pilots after route 2 is called.
It's a real pain for the drivers because the route doesn't follow any main
roads. I launch and get up to 12.5k before crossing Rams Horn canyon. There
isn't much lift on Sunset ridge, so I fly back and forth around 11-12k
waiting for something to take me higher. As I'm looking around, it's not
clear to me where I should start to go over the back of the ridge. I decide
to wait for some other pilots to catch up and show me the way. A glider
shows up at about 13k and heads over the back a few miles before Sunset
peak. A few minutes later, as I'm climbing, I see him coming back low, just
barely making it over the ridge. After seeing his failed attempt, I decide
to stay put until I get to at least 14k. Within a few minutes I hit my goal
and took off for the valley. There is a lot of hilly terrain between me and
a place to land, which had me second guessing my decision. Fortunately, I
didn't encounter heavy sink and was able to glide out to friendly territory.
My gps pointed towards the LZ at Pass Creek road which was under a big dark
cloud with rain/virga. There's no way I'm going to fly through that even
though I have the LZ on glide. I spin down to lose altitude and land in a
field next to Little Lost Highway for a 20 mile flight. About an hour after
I landed, the t-cell moved to the east and I kicked myself for not waiting
it out in the air.

On Saturday, route 3 was called again. It wasn't looking so good as far as
soaring conditions, blue sky and very few cycles on launch. The day didn't
turn on until about 3pm. It was easy to stay above King at around 11k but it
took a while to get up to departure altitude. Once I got above 13k I started
looking for other pilots heading over the back. I saw two gliders below me
heading out so I decided to use them as lift/sink detectors and followed. I
managed to find light lift in the valley and worked it as long as I could
and made it to the Lemhi range at about 10k. I searched for lift to get me
over the top, but instead I got drilled and had to follow a spine all the
way down to about 7k. At this point I thought my day was over and unzipped
my harness to get ready to land. I had just enough altitude to reach a house
where two other gliders had just landed. About 30 seconds after I headed out
to land, my vario gives be a few strong beeps. What the heck, I'll turn in
it and see what happens. I go up a little and down a little. This continues
for about 10 minutes before I start getting more up than down. Eventually
I'm going up 100' and down 50' until I get to about 9k and head for this big
rocky spine I got up on a few days ago. Sure enough, I find a weak but
consistent thermal that takes me to 11k. Finally I get a chance to zip up my
harness as I head towards Saddle peak for the second time. It was late in
the day, so I didn't expect to be hit by what was the strongest thermal of
my flight. It took me to over 15k and guaranteed me another 10 or so miles.
After working so long to get up, I'm tired and decide to glide to the 4
corners LZ for a 32 mile flight and call it a day.

Flying King Mountain was a great experience. I had my longest flight, my
highest altitude and participated in my first competition.

http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.soderstrom/KingMountain2008

Michael Soderstrom

Some pilots gave me their track logs. In particular, Bill Soderquist and Ben Dunn gave me their 100 mile flights to Salmon and Henry's lake.

If you go to the flykingmountain website and download the non-photo placemarks, you'll be able to review their flights, along with a few others.

Here's a link to that web page: http://www.flykingmountain.com/ge.html

Well, you just look at them. Turn on the track log for Bill's Henry's Lake flight, then study it by spinning around, panning, zooming, etc. See where he went to find the lift, where he deviated from the straight track to Henry's etc.

GE isn't as good as SeeYou for re-playing a flight, but it's nicer for studying it.