Crazy Creek to Minden - A Historic Dream Flight Come True

I first started soaring in 1984 at Calistoga, California, 90 miles north of San Francisco. E. J. "Jim" Indrebo, owner/operator of Calistoga Soaring Center, and other pilots who flew there often talked about the possibility of soaring from Calistoga to Douglas County Airport at Minden, Nevada. The challenge of such a flight was to get across the Sacramento River Valley from the Northern California coastal foothills with enough altitude to work into the Sierra Nevada Mountains north of Reno. At that time, my idea of a cross-country flying was to the 1,500 ft ridge three miles northeast of Calistoga and stay up as long as I could in a rented 2-33 or Twin Grob or later, in an ASK-21.

When Jim and Connie Indrebo opened Crazy Creek Soaring, twelve miles north of Calistoga and two miles north of Middletown, in 1990, the idea of this flight burned brighter as this new location had the weather potential to provide excellent cross-country flights to the north and east. By that time, I had my glider add-on to a power ticket, and was flying my new ASH-25 and an ASW-20B, both with the performance that could make this 319 statute mile historic dream flight come true

In the spring of 1990, before the official July opening of Crazy Creek, Reno weatherman and good friend of soaring, Doug Armstrong, advised the weather pattern and soaring conditions just might be right for a Minden attempt. Monday was the day to try and Jim and I planned to man the ASH-25 and go for it. The weather was good but the flu bug downed Jim (you know he is really sick if he does not want to fly) and I lacked the confidence to go solo. Thus, the ASH-25 arrived in Minden via trailer. Other attempts were not successful and only a few actually crossed the Sacramento River. The challenge was still there.

On Sunday July 10,1994, I was flying my ASW-20B north of Crazy Creek under beautiful cloud streets that seemed to stretch all the way to Mt. Shasta. I could also see streets on the Sierra's. I was tempted to head for Minden, as the clouds were not overdeveloping, but realized I was not totally prepared. I landed back at Crazy Creek after a 160 mile flight and vowed to attempt the Minden flight on Monday. After loading my water ballast and inserting many waypoints in my GPS, I towed to 2,000' agl out of Crazy Creek, at 30 minutes past noon and began the flight. After struggling north for 2.6 hours and finding the usual lift producing areas were not really working that well, I remembered Carl Herold's advice (with his twice around the course exercise, at the Air Sailing racing camp) that every day is different.

I was only 82 miles into the task near Eagle Peak at 12,000 msl when I swung east to cross the Sacramento River Valley. Here goes, I thought. Now or never. It was dead smooth. Not a ripple as I eased along at best L/D 70 KIAS. Finally, over 50 miles of smooth air gave way to lift and I slowly climbed to 9,000' msl from a low of 5,500'. This was the moment of truth, as I had set a minimum altitude of 5,000' msl (based on my distance from Red Bluff) that would permit me to return to a suitable landing spot in the valley. I was now on the foothills of the Sierras and moving to the east and north toward Chester and Susanville, California.

Over Truckee, California was the route I wanted to use to get to Douglas County Airport, but the street of cumulus I was working pointed at Reno and that's where I went, passing Herlong at 14,000' and then Nervino at 13,000' near Frenchman Lake. As I neared Stead Field north of Reno, I could see it was going blue south toward Minden. I turned toward a cloud south of Air Sailing as a last choice for thermal lift. It was near 6 p.m. and maybe too late to get good lift. As the 20 eased past Nevada Flyers, I knew I could land at Air Sailing, or Stead, if the cloud did not work. At 9,000' msl, I contacted solid lift and topped out at 14,500' and headed toward another cloud near Tracey Power Plant, ten miles east of Reno. This cloud took me up to flight level 140 again and the glide computer said I had altitude to spare for a final glide to Douglas County Airport. No longer tired, cold or concerned about making it, I enjoyed my first grin attack of the day. The historic dream flight was coming true.

The Douglas County Airport (Minden) was a deserted field at five minutes of seven in the evening and big Mike "Mad Mountain" Harbison of High Country Soaring was my witness of arrival as we tied the 20 down. I had actually made it, the big one west to east that many had thought of but only a few had tried. The speed of 50.3 mph didn't matter. My aching bones didn't matter. I made it!!! It was a fun flight. Including the crossing of the valley, I was never low relative to an airport and the GPS was a great comfort as I always knew where I was relative to several airports.

My only claim is bragging rights until someone does it faster, and bragging rights for being the first to do it after that.

Special thanks to my good friends at Minden, Max Skoovgaard, founding president of the Minden Soaring Club for a ride home in his Cessna, and Pete Williams, president of the Self-launching Sailplane Pilot's Association for his valuable comments in preparing this article.