Author: Dave Garwood
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/08
Page Numbers: 115,116,117
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Radio Control Slope Soaring

Dave Garwood [[email protected]]

The joy of travel for Slope Soaring

"THE WHOLE OBJECT of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land." — G.K. Chesterton

Travel invigorates the soul. Travelers get to see what is on the other side of the mountain, meet new people, and take a break from their day-to-day routines. Slope Soaring travelers have a chance to sample new topography and different winds, and they may advance their flying skill by learning from local fliers they meet on the trip.

Even those fortunate souls who have primo Slope Soaring sites close to home can enjoy the benefits of trying new and distant slopes. Even if you live in Kennewick, Washington—a half hour from Eagle Butte (which some call the best slope-flying site in the lower 48 states)—you might find a trip to Point of the Mountain in Sandy, Utah (a Soar Utah site), or Port Orford, Oregon (the Cape Blanco Slope Fest site), worth your while.

Jan Carstangen lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (which Dave Sanders has called "a skateboard park for Slope Soarers"), and he’s happy he made the trip to the Midwest Slope Challenge in central Kansas. Brian Courtice’s home lift is the tradewinds of Hawaii, and he travels to fly in the inland desert for the Southern California PSS Festival year after year.

Events are a natural focus for Slope Soaring trips, but vacations planned around exploring new hills and flying new places can be some of the most memorable experiences in the sport. A pair of New York Slope Dogs took a mid-February trip to Northern California to get a break from winter. That mission was accomplished because we evaded the 2007 Valentine’s Day snowstorm that nailed the Great Northeast.

"I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." — Mark Twain

Jim Harrigan and I flew into the San Jose International Airport on a Saturday in February for a week of driving up and down the Northern California coast in search of slope sites, and we found plenty of them. We knew February does not bring huge winds for NorCal, but the air temperature was about 40° warmer than in Albany, New York. Sure, some experienced readers will be chuckling at the "quality" of some of the sites we flew, but to us they were wonderful when compared to the tree-covered hills and mountains we have in New York and New England—especially with three feet of snow covering the access trails.

We flew every day but one, and we flew at approximately 12 sites that week, from Fort Ord Dunes and Sunset Beach State Park south of Santa Cruz to Davenport between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. We spent the bulk of our time north of the San Francisco International Airport in the Sonoma Coast State Beach and Goat Rock State Park.

My OFB (old flying buddy) Jim did a wonderful job of picking the week for our trip—for the weather we experienced. He did it 12 weeks in advance.

Jim will pick your week for a 25¢ fee, and if you're not pleased with the weather you encounter he'll refund the fee. Send him your list of possible dates, your intended destination, and the fee via email to [email protected].

This itinerary passed 20 or more places where we could park the car, walk to the ridge, and toss off into the sea breezes—perfect for a low-key driving vacation. That's something we don't have in New York or New England, but Greg Smith tells us it's true about Wyoming, and Terry Dwyer plotted 40 flyable sites along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

We had spotted promising topography in Goat Rock State Park using the online California Coastal Records Project website, and we spent the better part of a day there flying different sailplanes from four different hills. That website is a superb resource for flying-site searches, as are the Google Earth service and the DeLorme Topo USA software for personal computers.

During our travels we met up and flew with Reed Sherman. He gave us a superb demonstration of energy flying. We also swapped stories, tips, and techniques with Dave Reese, who gave us a dynamic soaring (DS) lesson at Sunset Beach in Watsonville. The site is on the backside of a ridge that did not look DS-able until Dave demonstrated how to do it in a small area between trees.

Another benefit of traveling is the opportunity to meet new and interesting people. Dave Reese is a top-gun flier, photographer, and videographer who produced the Lift Ticket Slope Soaring and travel video. Reed designed, flies, and promotes the JART slope model. I met and flew with Dave more than a decade ago at Sunset Beach in Watsonville, and I met and flew with Reed many years ago in the San Bernardino National Forest at the Southern California PSS Festival. Those guys know something about the joy of traveling to fly slope.

It was a fine trip and I’d certainly do it or something similar again—I hope before too much time passes. Some ideas to make your trip more convenient and productive follow.

Selecting a destination

  1. Start with Slope Soaring events such as the Tri-Slope Six-Pack in Washington, the Cape Blanco Slope Fest in Oregon, the Southern California PSS Festival, Soar Utah, or the Midwest Slope Challenge in Kansas.
  2. Add a few days to your trip for exploring nearby flying sites. Ask event directors and local fliers where additional worthy flying sites are.
  3. Use Internet resources to locate flying sites, starting with avid traveler Greg Smith’s slopeflyer.com and Soaring-club websites. Use the "Flying Sites" section of slopeflyer.com to see photos and descriptions of more than 100 proven sites.
  4. The "Links" section contains Soaring-club sites, which often list flying sites. Club websites tend to link to each other, and you’ll easily find plenty of potential destinations.

Choosing a sailplane

  • It’s good to have light, medium, and heavy gliders on your trip to make use of a range of wind conditions and to fly from large and small hills.
  • Consider building sailplanes with removable wings and tail parts because they pack smaller and you can take more with you.
  • Bring EPP-foam sailplanes. These tough models shrug off collision or landing damage and allow you to spend more time flying and less time repairing.
  • Do bring a repair and parts kit, though. There is no sense in having an unflyable airplane for want of a control horn or a clevis.

Picking transportation

  • Purchasing airline tickets in advance often yields lower fares and more flexible flight-schedule selection.
  • Renting a minivan is economical and provides plenty of hauling capacity for sailplanes and luggage. National Car Rental offers the Chevy HHR, and that retro vehicle has lots of interior space.
  • Some fliers are happy to take their sailplanes in SporTubes as airline checked luggage. Jim and I shipped our models out in advance by UPS to avoid the potential problem of arriving at the destination with lost luggage.
  • Consider shipping in advance to a local flier’s home or to a Mail and More packing-and-shipping store.

I have flown sailplanes in nine states, and I hope to double or triple that number before I’m done. I have yet to fly at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, the buttes of Montana and Idaho, or the plentiful hills of Wyoming.

"Voyage, travel, and change of place impart vigor." — Seneca

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.