I saw a promising forecast for Jacks on the weekend as early as Wednesday 4/16. I was looking to finally run that dang ridge after a few futile attempts in the past. The last time I flew Jacks was May of 2004, and I landed again at the 322 gap. I arrived at 10:45A to find a cleanup effort ongoing in the slot, scheduled to be finished by 12 noon. I started setting up the glider just after 12 noon, as conditions got stronger. By the time the first pilot was trying to launch at just before 1P, the conditions ramped up dramatically, with little dust devils marking thermals popping off from the parking lots. Had to attend the glider to make sure it didn’t move too much. After waiting for around an hour, it had calmed down enough to enable me to launch at 1:45P. Turned right into the south cross that had been indicated by the vultures soaring around launch. Headed down to mark a remote start point at the power line clear cut that is 6 miles SW of launch. The lift was plentiful, albeit ratty, and I stayed between 3K’ and 4K’ MSL the whole way down. Saw a sailplane heading NE on the ridge coming back from Mt. Union. He was down on the deck, must have seen me, and pulled the stick back and climbed up at a 45 degree angle to a couple hundred feet below me. That was cool! Turned around just before the power line clear cut and enjoyed the tailwind back to launch. Caught another nice thermal right in front of launch and got to 5K’ MSL. Made it up to just before the Rt. 322 gap at 3700’ MSL. Made the jump over the gap, fighting a stiff headwind from the ESE across. There was a field right by 322 in front of the gap that was easily reachable had I not been able to make the jump. Lost a bunch of altitude down to 2K’ MSL when I reached the radio towers on the other side, but the ridge lift kicked in and I gained back to 600’ over the ridge. The fields are far out from the mountain in this area. Dolphin flew for the next 15 miles, fighting an ESE cross the whole way. Saw a forest fire on the ridge across the valley. The smoke reached across the whole valley as I flew into the hazy smoke and out of it. The first sizable gap is just past Bannerville. Thermalled up to 4K’ MSL and I jumped both gaps with ease. Up ahead was the sea of trees where the mountain jumps back. There was no way I was going back there since there was no place to land. Conditions got lighter as I approached the end of the ridge, so I just burbled out into the valley with the hope of catching another thermal to link up with a good piece of the ridge two miles away. Didn’t find much and put down in a nice flat field at 4:30P. Flew over some cows in a corral on my downwind, and when I started carrying the glider towards the road, they looked like they were ready to stampede. I felt like Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers with the coffee grinder
. And lo and behold, as I’m about to set the glider down by the road who shows up but my man Shawn Ray in my truck, bearing gifts of beer. Unbeknownst to me, he had shadowed me the whole way from launch to the out landing, 38 miles from the remote start point. Now that is timing! I had asked Shawn for a retrieve with a hand drawn map thanks to Mapquest. It worked out perfectly. Shawn chose not to fly and drive retrieve. Thanks Shawn! We packed up and headed back to the top of the mountain to retrieve Shawn's car. Hit the road with a big grin. I had been looking for this flight at Jacks since 2001.
Bacil