The High Road To Buffalo

In August, I usually head to Big Spring, TX to fly in some of the best conditions in the world. The west Texas high desert is ideal for flying big miles in smooth strong lift. The predominately southerly winds bode well for pushing us deep into the panhandle. However this isn’t about Big Spring. Last year I spoke with Greg Fergus who tows hang gliders in the Dallas area. He told me about the flying there in August and asked me to stop on my way west to fly with him. It turns out that Finney airfield was only 20 minutes from my son’s house so I took him up on it. Greg Chastain and I attempted the local challenge flight to Buffalo Mtn in Talihina, OK but were stopped by unusually wet conditions in the Red River valley. Later in the week I attempted a 100 mile triangle in much better conditions to the northwest but a persistent 10 mph SE wind stopped me 20 miles short. The two flights were enough to get me excited about the potential of the area and I vowed to return next year to give it another shot to be the first into the Kiamichi Valley.

Greg moved his operations to Caddo Mills northeast of Dallas this year and mentioned that the airport was home to a sailplane club at one time so the soaring conditions there were conducive to hang gliding as well. I studied the route from Caddo up through Antlers and on to Buffalo Mtn (133 miles) and concluded that the route was very doable with one challenging area between Antlers and Clayton, OK. This 45km leg was over the start of the Kiamichi Mountains leading to Buffalo. The mountains run to the northeast from Antlers and there are two valleys that parallel them; the Kiamichi River valley on the northwest and the Big Cedar Creek valley on the southeast. In my planning I concluded that the Big Cedar route would be best with an 8km hop over the end of the valley to Clayton, OK. I looked hard at the Kiamichi route with its’ wider open valley but concluded that it would be safer to stay to the southeast.

On my drive down to Dallas, I decided to take a route through Talihina, spend the night there and then scout the Kiamichi River valley on my way to Caddo Mills in the morning. Unfortunately my plans to stay there didn’t work out and I drove through the valley in the dark to stay in Antlers. It was a short drive to Caddo Mills and I met Greg there at 10:30. I had been checking Thursday’s weather for three days using my familiar tools (XC Skies and Skew T diagrams). It was looking like an epic day with decent southwest winds, lift in the 800fpm range and later in the day top of the lift greater than 8000’. By 11:00 the clouds were popping and already lined up in streets to the northeast.  James Race was going to be there at noon and the plan was to do an abbreviated talk on flying xc and weather predictions but alas work delayed him until after I launched at 1:15.

I pinned off at 700’ (gotta stay on a little longer) and climbed out in good lift at up to 500fpm to cloudbase at 5800’. Heading downwind the clouds were lined up right on courseline, the lift was consistent in the 400-500fpm range and every cloud was reliable all the way up to Antlers (145km). I couldn’t believe my good fortune, it was hugely gratifying to fly deep under each cloud and feel the surge of lift increase 200, 300, 400, 500fpm then bank hard and climb rapidly to base. The frequency of the clouds was short (3 to 8km) and each climb to base was higher than the last.  By 3:00 base was over 7000’. At Honey Grove (~20 miles south of the Red River) the conditions really improved as I didn’t dip below 5000’ for the next 57 miles (took 90 minutes).  The best climb of the day was at Soper peaking at over 800fpm. This really was an epic day!

Heading into the mountains northeast of Antlers I was concerned about the route through Big Cedar. What looks so good on Google Earth from a 20 mile high view takes on a whole new perspective when you’re at 5000’. The crossing from the end of the valley over the Kiamichi’s to Clayton now looked daunting. I flew under three clouds and stopped to climb in a couple but wasn’t hitting the solid stuff like before. I figured I was now in the mountains where the lift would get stronger but it wasn’t happening. I was down to 4000’ before I recognized my error and put the brakes on to grovel on the edge of a thermal. I was hesitant to go into the mountains to the north but eventually climbed up to 6000’. From there my confidence returned and I headed north across the mountains to a nice that took me too cloudbase at 7800’. I was now over plentiful landable fields on the edge of the Kiamichi River valley. A nice cloud south of Clayton rewarded me with a smooth 300 fpm climb to base at 8552’ my high for the day. Off to the northeast, Buffalo Mtn looked like a small ridge only a 7:1 glide away. I yelled a big “wahoo!” it was now in the bag. The glide across the valley was under a nice cloud street welcoming me to the Buffalo LZ. I checked the wind direction down below and didn’t like the westerly flow. From 4500’ the wooded area on the northeast corner seemed to cut off the approach for that direction, so I got a brilliant idea that I’d just fly to Heavener where there would be a better LZ right into the wind. Hah! The only problem was that I didn’t put Heavener into my gps and had no clue where it was. I climbed out over Buffalo to 7600’ with a spectacular view of the mountains to the east northeast including Mt Magazine way in the distance! I spied a southwest facing mountain due north and thought for sure it must be Heavener so burned off my altitude passing up lift along the way only to find that this mountain wasn’t it. I spiraled down anyway next to a town and landed at the big ranch on the west end after 5:12 in the air. I met the rancher, 80 year old Don Lessel (sp?) who just so happened to own the club’s north training hill in Red Oak, OK. Total distance just over 250km (~155 miles).

Now for the retrieve. The area north into southeastern OK doesn’t have very good cell service. I was able to talk with Greg via radio all the way to Antlers. Greg had a glider set up in the hangar for James to fly.  I saw his truck down below as I climbed out in the first thermal. He got up off of tow and I talked to him on occasion but his radio kept cutting out frequently clipping his communications. I was able to discern that he was doing quite well however heard that he had no waypoints so was flying by intuition. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but he ended up thinking he needed to cross a blue hole to get back on course line and it ended up putting him on the ground near the Red River. Greg ended up driving back south to pick him up so it was going to be a long retrieve.  On my drive down that morning, I had no cell service during halfway to Caddo Mills and had zero bars in the field I landed in. Thankfully, Don loaned me his phone (US Cellular vs my AT&T) and I made a quick call to Sue and my daughter Vanessa to let them know I was down safe and that it would be a long retrieve. I left a message with Greg to give my location and began tearing my glider down.  I knew that Kelly Merkle and Bruno Schnedl were flying at Heavener that day but had neither of their numbers. Luckily, Greg did and was able to get them to pick me up in their motorhome. Wow! That was cool as they were almost to Antlers when they got the call. Tom from Buffalo also called and said he’d come and pick me up too. Kelly and Bruno picked me up just as finished packing up. Kelly and Bruno were good sports and listened to my recapitulation of the flight all the way back to Caddo Mills so thanks guys for putting up with it. As it turns out, Kelly was high over Buffalo in his paraglider as I was climbing out over launch. Sure wish I had spotted him.

It was truly a magnificent day. There is a resounding peace that overwhelms my normal senses when I fly. Today I got to spend 5+ hours reveling in the billowing cumulus filled skies above juxtaposed with the panorama of the ever changing countryside rolling below. I am a lucky man.
 Greg Fergus has a nice operation at Caddo Mills. He has a big hangar to store the Dragonfly with room for many gliders. The towing is conveniently done on the paved taxi-way right next to the hangars.  The area around Caddo Mills is flat wide open country with innumerable places to land and the conditions in this area compare well to those I fly in west Texas. I look forward to coming back to explore the possibilities in the area even more. I can't thank Greg enough for giving me the opportunity to fly in north Texas. I am especially grateful for the tow into a nice fat thermal and then him volunteering to chasing James and I to the north. Can't wait to fly with others there the next time.