August 1963 - Author Unknown

(Editors note: Tow Pilot Ruth Petry mentioned in this story is the ASA member who recently contributed many of our missing newsletters.)

Saturday, July 27th, was a good soaring day at Prescott, the kind of day when the thermals go up and up and up". At about 3:00pm Jim Turnbow, with Wayne Price as passenger, took off in his LK with the parting comment "If I don't land back here, look for me at Cottonwood".

After releasing from tow the LK was seen to catch a good thermal and rapidly diminish in size. When last seen, about 15 minutes later, it was at a good altitude and heading southeast toward Dewey at top speed.

Jim and Wayne reached Dewey with 10,000, then headed northeast for Cottonwood, crossing Mingus Mountain near the crest in rough lift. Just beyond the crest 600fpm lift carried them to 13,0000. It seemed a terrible waste of altitude to land at Cottonwood-Clemenceau, "so why not go on to Sedona"?

Why not?

Three thermals later Sedona was reached with 13,900' in hand. It didn't seem right to waste all that altitude by landing, so why not continue on over the Rim?

At this point the course over the Rim toward Mormon lake was mostly in shadow due to a curving line of ragged clouds and a thunderstorm near Hutch Mountain, so it seemed wiser to head north toward Flagstaff along Oak Creek Canyon. This decision was reinforced by a boost to 14,000 just north of town.

For the next ten miles lift was very noticeably lacking, in fact, the sink

was heavy in places, so that halfway to Flagstaff Airport they were down to 9000 (only 2,000-3,000 above the ground). There was a good-sized meadow off to the left and they began easing over that away, just in case. Then a thermal to 12,000 changed the picture - they could easily make it into Flagstaff Airport, but why waste that altitude?

Turning east across the northwest end of Lake Mary they headed toward Winslow. The going was good for a while and soon Meteor Crater was visible in the sun on the far side of a large "hole". About this time rain, sleet and 1,000 fpm down were encountered 10 miles east of Flagstaff, so it was decided to go back and land there. On the way, at 6:15pm, a thermal carried them to 15,000 But this time, altitude or no altitude, they landed at 6:30.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch" the rest of the group began to wonder whether

Jim and Wayne had 1anded at Cottonwood yet. Finally at 5:30 Chuck Doty tried to call, only to discover that phone service to Cottonwood was temporarily cut off. Figuring that Jim and Wayne might be at Cottonwood-Clemenceau trying to phone Prescott, Ruth Petry took a towrope and set out in the towplane. From the shoulder of Mingus Mountain she could see no sign of a sailplane but flew on to the airport to make sure the LK was not parked behind the hangar. Still nothing, so she returned to Prescott, looking over the terrain carefully for a downed LK. As she taxied up to the flight line, Lang Weinberg and Chuck Doty came out wearing big grins - "They're at Flagstaff".