The Street From Culver's Place

I can't believe I have to work on a day like this! It looked soarable all day long. As you can see though, I'm ready for a quick gettaway.

OK, here's what the Doodlebug is all about for me. I launched at 4:30 and headed for Novelty hill to get under the cloud street that likes to form up and down the plateau. I hit a thermal right away and shut off the engine. It stayed off for a couple hours.

I slowly worked my way to the south toward Fall City, shown here in the foreground.

I had to jump one street to the west to hook up with the one that goes over Tiger Mt. Not a hard jump this day. You can see the street continuing south to Enumclaw.

I soared over Tiger a bit to say hi to friends there but the air wasn't as nice there for some reason so I didn't stick around too long before I hooked off toward North Bend. I confess that at this point I turned the motor back on for a few minutes just to make sure I could get past Rattlesnake Ridge, then I shut it off and glided to Mt Si.

It took a little searching to find the lift at Si but when I found it (over a group of Vultures) I blasted up to 6,200' or so before bailing to stay legal and warm. I was going up in a rather boisterous and strong thermal which hit a thousand fpm but with this harness was able to fly with one hand and take pictures with the other. Cross controling is not a possibility in this harness and by bending my legs over the base tube I can get extra airspeed effortlessly. Certainly in this position there is no chance of the bar being ripped away.

Here's looking east up I90 toward Snoqualmie Pass.

I can glide a long way back with the altitude I get here before starting the engine again and motoring home up the valley. BTW that tall looking crop below is actually the fast growing Cottonwood trees that they grow around here for wood pulp.

I did this same flight last week. Is it becoming a "milk run"? Ha!