Monday, January 11, 2010

Flying a New Site in January

Eagle Caves is a little site just above the town of The Dalles. I must have driven past it 50 times on the way to Cliffside but I've never flown it.

Today's forecasts in the gorge were reasonable, but it wasn't clear if it was a hiking or a flying day. The west end of the gorge had decent hiking forecasts (somewhat clear but windy) and the east end seemed better for flying (gray, cold, damp but soarable). Forecast meet reality as I drove through the Gorge and the result was disappointing.

Even the west end of the gorge was gray and cloudy and the east end was even worse. Nowhere looked to be fun for hiking but Eagle Caves was out of the clouds and seemed to be soarable. So that's where I ended up with (thanks to cell phones) a handful of other pilots.

It was cold, damp, gray and grim. But it was easily soarable, and that's hard to turn down in January. You couldn't go anywhere except soar the ridge just above the town. Everything was a shade of gray - like watching television when I was young. After around an hour's soaring I stopped fighting my frozen fingers and headed out to land.

Not exactly classic flying, but it's always nice to fly a new site and to get some airtime in winter.

Some black and white photographs -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/EaglesCaves10Jan#

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