Peterson Butte

We can only fly Peterson Butte in the late fall / winter / spring months because of fire risk. It's a bit of a drive from Portland and if it is working, Chehalem (our nearest site) is probably working too. This means it isn't flown that often. Today looked like a S or SW, unstable, spring, showery sort of day. Chehalem and PB were the two obvious places to fly today and (because I fly it less often than Chehalem) I wanted to fly PB.

Jim Baldo and Joe Stermitz came to the same conclusion, so we headed to PB when the lemmings headed to Chehalem. It was very gray on the drive, the rain started just S of Salem and continued to launch. Had we made a mistake?

Shannon joined us, we headed up to launch when the rain stopped but it was gray and the wind was SSE - not the best direction. I launched, Joe followed, we tried hard but were flushed, and headed back up the hill just as Pete Reagan arrived.

Back on launch, things looked better. The sun was out and Jim and Shannon were soaring in thermals. Pete, Joe and I joined in the fun. The thermals were good, but they were tracking quickly back over the summit. We all top-landed together when the lift seemed to weaken.

Jim took off and went up, I chased him and we got high. The thermals were stronger now, so you could get high without getting flushed over the back. Around 1,300 feet over the summit I headed N and landed a couple of miles N of highway 34. For much of my flight, I was trying to find the least muddy field to land in! I had a really pleasant hike back to PB - lambs, farms, showers, daffodils; as I got nearer I could see Pete soaring just as the other were leaving.

Spring has sprung!

Pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/PetersonButte21March2009#