Soaring – Chess in the Air

Ten days ago, on Aug 1, 2026, Zach (YA – Nimbus 4) and I (CC – Ventus 3M) flew the first declared 1000+km “Quadrilateral” task in Colorado.

On July 8, 2025 I completed a flight that set new Colorado State Records for Longest Declared FAI Triangle (1111.1 km distance) and for Longest Free FAI Triangle (1159 km distance).

(Correction: an earlier edition of this article incorrectly stated that in scoring flights for the Williams Trophy Glider Handicaps would be only used for for the Speed Score and the Total OLC Score but not for the scores for Away-from-Home Distance and T…

Most recently I explained why I chose a V3M as my first self-launching motor glider.

Now that my Ventus 2cxT has found a new home, I’m ready to share the reasons that led me to buy a new Ventus 3M directly from the factory.

Edit (November 2024): V1 has found a great new home and will continue to soar high above the American West.

After another successful soaring season in 2022, here are my goals for 2023.

A little later than planned, here’s a review of my progress against the soaring goals I had set myself for 2022.

A few weeks ago I had a scary situation when towing fully ballasted behind a Piper Pawnee.

There’s been a lot of interest in my recent accident analysis “Invisible Trap Kills Glider Pilot – How To Avoid Microbursts.”