After another successful soaring season in 2022, here are my goals for 2023. If you’re interested in setting your own soaring goals, you can find some tips towards the end of this article from last year. 1. Stay Safe by always heeding my own advice. This goal remains unchanged.  Flying safely is essential and the pre-requisite for anything else.  Pilots often let their safety margins erode as they gain experience.  I now have more than 1000 hours in gliders and I know that I must not let that happen.  Here are the metrics I will  continue to use: Zero accid ..read more

A little later than planned, here’s a review of my progress against the soaring goals I had set myself for 2022.  Overall, I am pleased with my continued progress. My 2022 Soaring Flights – the map shows the flights during the 2022 OLC season. Not shown are my three flights from Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban in Provence, France where I did not have a suitable flight logger.Goal #1 – Stay Safe by Heeding My Own Advice I think I can give myself an “A” on this one.  In 2022, I flew more than 23,000 cross-country kilometers including 14,500 FAI triangle kilometers in 210 flight hours withou ..read more

A few weeks ago I had a scary situation when towing fully ballasted behind a Piper Pawnee.  I had my camera running and published a short instructional video about the incident. I hope that it helps others avoid similar situations in the future.  Here is the video: The comments indicate that these incidents are relatively common and occur most frequently when the tow pilot is used to pulling very light gliders that only require a low tow speed. A clear and deliberate briefing of the tow pilot before the flight is essential. You can also find a similar incident in one of Bruno Vassel ..read more

It’s been a few weeks that our friend Shmulik Dimentstein died in a tragic crash of his HpH Shark just as he was about to land at his home airport Rifle in Garfield County, Colorado. As I’ve written before, soaring is objectively dangerous.  Per activity hour, the risk of dying is about 40x greater than when driving a car. However, we also know that it does not have to be so dangerous. About 90% of accidents could have been prevented by the pilot.  Most can be avoided by diligent pre-flight preparations; by paying attention to what’s happening around us; by staying disciplined and fl ..read more

I often assert that Colorado is one of the best soaring locations in the world.  Powerful mountain thermals, long convergence lines, and 20k ft cloud bases are common and quasi par for the course. Why then is it that no one has ever completed a declared 1000 km FAI triangle?* Gorgeous view of Crested Butte on the second leg of my 1000 km FAI Triangle on June 4. *An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there had never been any declared 1000 km flight in Colorado (with up to 3 turnpoints).  While none were officially recorded as a state record, this is not true.  ..read more

On May, 17, 2022, I became the sixth pilot to finish the Colorado Fourteener Challenge, which has been open to any soaring pilot since 2008.  It took me four years and one day to get it done.  The completion of this career goal is my most significant soaring achievement so far.   But before I tell my own story, let’s first look at what it entails. The Fourteener Challenge The highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains have long captivated all types of adventurers.  Intrepid explorers seeking to challenge themselves against the forces of nature.  Individualists relishing ..read more

Rigging my Ventus 2cxT, Victor One, for new soaring adventures in 2022. I made good progress against my soaring goals for 2021, so I want to continue to raise the bar for the coming year. So without further ado, here are my objectives for 2022.  If you’re interested in setting your own soaring goals, I have included some additional considerations at the bottom that you may find helpful. 1. Stay Safe by always heeding my own advice. This goal remains unchanged.  Flying safely is essential and the pre-requisite for anything else.  Pilots often let their safety margins er ..read more

Faster. Farther. Smarter.  Most of us want to become better and safer glider pilots.  But how?  I made it a practice to set specific goals for the coming year so I can monitor and track my progress.  As the year draws to a close it’s now time to review how I did against the Soaring Goals I had set myself for 2021. There’s a lot of ground to cover, literally and metaphorically. Map showing all my soaring flights in 2021. I flew more than 26,540 cross-country kilometers from five different locations: Boulder, CO; Salida, CO; Nephi, UT; Montague, CA; and Albert Lea, MN.Goal #1 ..read more

This year I flew my first three glider contests. The Region 7 contest in Albert Lea, MN.  The 20m Multi-Seat Nationals in Montague, CA. And the 18m Nationals in Nephi, UT.   While these contests are still fresh* on my mind, I want to share some things that I think every aspiring contest pilot will want to know well before they attach their glider trailer to head to their first contest site.  I learned some of these things thanks to the generous advice and coaching from highly experienced contest pilots, others through personal experience. (*I wrote this article right after ..read more

Three of my goals for the year were: to reach one additional state by glider from Boulder, e.g. Nebraska, Utah, or New Mexico; to complete a 750km FAI triangle; to complete a 1000km flight per OLC rules (i.e., maximum of six legs). Yesterday looked like a good day for soaring with cus, high cloud bases, and moderate winds.  There would be no smoke, no overdevelopment, and no thunderstorms.  Skysight suggested Nebraska would be doable (this isn’t often the case).  Maybe I could even complete a big FAI triangle.  750km seemed too far since there were no clouds projected to ..read more