“There’s Gold In Them Thar Hills”
For far too long I have traveled through southeastern Oklahoma on my way to visit kids and grandkids in Texas without stopping to fly in the mountains near Talihina. I was aware of the excellent flying in the area and once on a company visit to Russellville, Arkansas flew from Nebo and Petit Jean. Five years ago or so, I flew from Finney Field near Sherman, TX with Greg Fergus who extolled the good conditions there in the summer. He was offering a case of beer and a trophy for the first pilot to fly to Buffalo Mountain. The flying there was fun but the conditions weren’t conducive for any long flights. The next year I visited him again only this time we towed out of Caddo Mills, TX on an epic day and managed to fly to Red Oak, OK almost 150 miles. The track took me right over Buffalo Mountain. I decided to keep going as the size of the LZ (from 7000+’) and southwest winds pushed me to look for larger pastures. I could finally say I flew in (over) the mountains near Talihina but….. it wasn’t the same as launching there. So last year on another trip to Texas I made it happen and flew from Buffalo on four days and Panorama on two. Conditions weren’t the best but I got to speak to and fly with a few of the locals; friends Mark Stump and Greg Chastain, and new friends Britton Shaw and Ken Cobb. They have a wealth of knowledge on the sites there and openly shared their experience with me.
On September 9th, Sue and I drove down to Texas again to reconnect with our kids and grandkids after her mom passed away. At the end of our visit she decided to fly home to meet with her best friend and celebrate their birthdays. I relished the opportunity to get a flight in on my drive home! Fortunately the weather was shaping up for some soaring at Panorama. A call to Britton confirmed that it was looking good. After 45+ years of flying hang gliders, it still gets my adrenaline flowing anticipating what the next day will bring when flying from an unfamiliar site. Most of my experience is on the end of a tow line these days so mountain launches have my undivided attention. Throughout a restless night and on the drive north from McKinney, the Stump mantra to “be safe and have fun” kept replaying through my head. Finally upon entering Oklahoma, I began to relax and focus on having a good day.
The drive from Stringtown east through the valley toward Clayton is mystical. Leaving the main highway, the heavily forested terrain with few open pastures and the hills slowly rising higher on either side is like driving back in time. Soon in the distance the western edge of the Kiamichi Mountains rise into view and then heading northeast from Clayton the first real town in 40 miles, Buffalo Mountain appears beyond the Potato Hills, 5 miles long and over 1000’ tall! The town of Talihina sits on the east end of Buffalo in the valley and Panorama is a short drive northeast of there on the Talimena National Scenic Byway. The easterly launch is 1200’ above the groomed landing field. To see it from launch generates some apprehension as it looks like a postage stamp in the forest below with no bailout options. It is however 1000’ long and 500’ wide so is definitely a safe place to alight.
Britton was on launch when I arrived at 9:30 helping other pilots get off of the mountain in good early morning conditions. Cumulus clouds were already forming along the mountain range. It looked like an excellent day was shaping up. I watched all of the launches while setting up my TIII and took up some of Britton’s busy time asking questions about the site. He cautioned not to launch too early (before 12:30) as there is typically a flush cycle late morning even though the winds and clouds look good. He also stated to get high on the ridge, ~2000’ above before going over the back (dependent on wind and glider type). Looking at Google Earth, there are ~5 miles of trees before a decent hang glider landing field. Lastly he mentioned that there are big fields in the potato hills that look inviting but retrieve in that area could be difficult. He did a formal briefing with all of us pilots at 11:30 and shortly after noon he was getting ready to launch. I still wasn’t sure about going cross country even though Britton offered a body ride back with his son who was driving. Several pilots asked what my plan was, and I responded that a good launch and landing and some air time on the ridge would suit me just fine. Britton launched about 12:15 and as I was getting suited up my friend Greg Fergus offered to pick me up in my vehicle! That took a load off my mind as Britton was specking out over the ridge.
The take off area is groomed and wide open with a perfect slope. Greg helped me launch in a good cycle and after a number of passes out front a nice thermal took me up to 4100’msl. It was just high enough to go over the back however it was my first climb and cloudbase was higher. During the climb Britton buzzed launch a few times probably communicating to the pilots below what the conditions were like. He headed off to the east so I followed looking for that second climb. We merged in a solid 350 fpm and took it to cloudbase just over 5000’. A nice line of clouds lined up into the valley over the back making the glide over the forest relatively easy stopping for a few turns in light lift along the way. I lost my visual on Britton so headed to the southwest to a building cloud street. The lift under the eastern edge was weak so continuing west southwest it took a bit of searching under the large flat bottomed cloud but soon found strong lift that averaged 498fpm to cloudbase at 5300’. Two thermals later just entering the Potato Hills, Britton was cranking it up (dude can climb!) out front and we left together at cloudbase (5450’).
Just prior to launch I switched my Yaesu radio to the USHPA channel all of the pilots were using but couldn’t transmit. Apparently it needed a mod to allow use of the business band frequencies. I tried talking to Britton several times and wished I could have as we headed west over the Potato Hills. He was off to my left and for a bit we stayed together on glide. The lift was better deeper into the hills but he couldn’t hear me as I tried to call him over to my line. This street produced two more solid climbs to base before I exited the hills. The clouds toward Clayton to the west were not as well defined however there was one building cumulus off of the west end of the Kiamichi’s. The thermal was the strongest of the day with chunks of lift up to 850fpm averaging 504fpm from entry to exit. Another cloud southwest of Clayton produced well however off to the east the clouds were much smaller and were dissipating quickly making climbs more elusive and not as strong. The distance between them was greater too. This required a downshift to a slower gear. Each good looking cloud would evaporate before topping out. This and the longer glides kept me in a lower altitude band with only one climb back to 5000’ just north of Eubanks. I kept looking for Britton zooming overhead but alas he was having the same issues as me. Far to the west the clouds looked robust again so my focus was to continue stepping through the valley to these clouds. Just east of the Indian Nation Turnpike and off to the south was the first good looking cloud. The lift there was meager but being low opted to hang with it back over 4000’. Another thermal south of McGee Creek State Park took me to 4700’ and then finally a sweet climb north of Lane put me back on the fast track (or so I thought) topping out above 5500’ the highest for the day. Tracking west again under several good looking clouds produced nothing; it was ten miles before I connected with 150fpm at 2300’. Leaving at 4300’ the clouds to the west were broad with dark gray bottoms. The next two climbs were a pleasure with no hard edges and decent lift. The strongest cores appeared to be on the southern side. Above 5300’ and cruising from cloud to cloud, I peaked at my GPS and saw that 100 miles was in reach. It had been over two hours since seeing the last town when far to the west one appeared on the horizon. Not entirely confident of my ride situation, I made the decision to take the next thermal to the top and glide to town. Of course after topping out at 5200’, three clouds were luring me further west over a vast open grassland. The sun was getting low in the sky making it difficult to see any appreciable distance, in fact it was difficult to spot any farms either so I committed to landing in the town (Connerville). Spiraling down it was evident there weren’t many amenities, no gas station or store just a large church. All of the fields were tight and ringed with power lines so I headed to a big ranch to the southeast and landed in a large pasture. Greg picked me up about 10:30 and we decided to head to McKinney, TX where he and my daughter live as it was closer than driving to Talihina. We made it there ~1:30, slept fast and headed back to Panorama as the forecast was looking good for two more days.
Epilogue: The straight line distance from Panorama to Connerville was 102 miles. The international flight tracking contest, XContest factored in the huge dog leg and credited me with ~120 miles. Time in the air was 5hrs 20 min. This day ended up exceeding my expectations 100 fold and wouldn't have happened without Greg volunteering at the last minute to drive (being not fully aware of what he got himself into). Also I want to acknowledge not only the group of guys mentioned above already but just as much to the extremely awesome group of pilots I met at launch and throughout the club. The mountain sites in southeast Oklahoma are the nuggets of the midwest. I will be heading back there soon and as Yosemite Sam would say “to search for more gold in them thar hills”!
