Glider Across the Country

My name is Riley Speidel and I recently turned 14. This allowed me to solo in a motorglider and then a week later I flew solo across the country from California, where we currently live, to Maine, where we used to live. This trip took over 18 months of preparation to be able to have the skill to complete it safely. I trained in aero tow gliders and single engine airplanes as well as the motorglider.

My Dad is my CFI-G (glider CFI) and he taught me how to fly the Pipistrel Sinus that we own. Once we had the idea for this trip we decided that we would have to start flying a lot more in order to be prepared for my solo and journey. This lead me to get 140 hours in this glider from January to June! Part of the training we did was go on a cross-country in April that was the first half of our trip over the mountains. We would fly most days after school for a few hours. We are based at Marina airport (OAR) in northern California. There always seems to be a strong crosswind there which leads to lots of strong crosswind pattern work and landings. Getting used to landing all the time in strong crosswinds was helpful on my trip across the USA.

We choose the Sinus because it is one of the best touring motorgliders available. It cruises at 110 knots and has negative flaps to allow it to be that fast without damaging the wing from all the generated lift. It has a Rotax 912 engine with 80 hp. The wings are 49 feet long making the glide ratio 27:1 with the prop feathered. It also has air brakes for landing. Finally, it has a ballistic parachute if needed.

On my 14th birthday I left school at noon to go to the airport and solo. It was cloudy so we waited two hours for it to lift high enough for me to solo. It didn’t so me and my Dad got in the glider and flew together to a nearby airport and did some warm up landings while my family drove out. Dad got out and I did three solo landings! The glider behaved very differently without the weight of my Dad by taking off really soon and floating a lot on landing. I added the amount of airbrake I used and was able to adjust to this new performance. Once Dad cut my shirt tail, the clouds in Marina had gotten way worse so Dad and I flew into an airport slightly inland of Marina and picked up the glider the next day.

We had planned to do the trip in ten days, but thanks to some great tailwinds I arrived in Maine after only nine days. Besides my glider, we had two more airplanes on the trip; a 1981 Piper Tomahawk and a 1968 Beechcraft Baron. My dad flew the Baron with my Mom, Brother and another friend. The Tomahawk was flown by my Dad’s friend (Trent) and his wife. We mostly flew early every morning when the air was smooth leaving near sunrise. The Tomahawk would take-off 20 minutes before us so he could report turbulence and weather back to us and also be at the destination airport first to find out where we should park the glider and its 49 foot wing. My Dad was usually behind me in the Baron and would do a race-track pattern so he wouldn’t pass me. He would have to do a turn every ten minutes or so to stay behind me. It was fun with all three of us talking on an air-to-air frequency while on the trip.

DAY 1: My last day of school was June 7th and we left on the trip straight from school which got out at noon. We have a lot of fog in our area so our first day was only 100 miles, flying inland to Visalia, California. This would allow us an early morning departure the next day without worrying about fog. The first leg went great, I was so happy to finally be on the trip we had been working on for so long. I also decided that it would be fun to fly out over the Pacific coast on departure from California and the Atlantic coast before landing in Maine. The Tomahawk battery died once we had landed so we had to find a new battery and replace it. Luckily my Dad is an A&P.

DAY 2: The next leg I flew to Apple Valley, California at an altitude of 7500ft, departing right after sunrise. I flew south over Palmdale before turning East to avoid the large restricted area near Edwards Air Force base. On the way into Apple Valley I flew over Victorville and saw all of the parked unused airliners. I have flown to Apple Valley a lot with my Dad and know the winds get really high in the afternoon, so it was great to land early. Another one of our friends flew his Cessna 182 into see me land and we all went out to breakfast. Later, the local California Pipistrel dealer flew two other Pipistrels, a Virus and an Alpha, and took me out to dinner. They were very excited about my flight!

DAY 3: We woke up early and did what was starting to become our usually morning routine. Eat, review weather, airspace, airports and the rest of my flight plan with my Dad and Trent. My Dad would then sign off my logbook for that day’s cross country flight and we would head to the airport. I would then prepare the Sinus while everyone else packed or prepared their planes. I left early and flew to Cottonwood, Arizona. This would be one of the two highest legs due to mountains. It was the first time I flew solo out of the state of California! Cottonwood had lots of airplanes in the pattern when I arrived so I had to do a spacing 360. After we landed we fueled all of the aircraft, borrowed the old cop car courtesy car, and had an amazing Mexican lunch.

DAY 4: Was another early morning, but I was really excited to be flying to the first towered airport of the trip-Santa Fe, New Mexico. I have flown there a bunch with my Dad and really enjoy the city. I swung by the rocks of Sedona on the climb out of Cottonwood and climbed to 9500ft. It was a beautiful smooth flight the entire way, until I switched to tower frequency. I heard Trent in the Tomahawk talking to tower that the Tomahawk engine had quit on roll-out after he landed and could not get it started. He was going to pull it off the runway by hand! This of course backed up the inbound traffic and tower had me extend my downwind leg. It was pretty gusty on landing, but mostly down the runway. I was thankful for training in those crosswinds at my home airport. My Dad looked at the Tomahawk later and found nothing wrong. We think since Trent landed with full mixture at the high altitude airport it just flooded after landing. The control tower did invite us to come up and take a tour, so we did! It was a great view up there and fun learning about what a tower control does during a typical shift. After we left the airport we found another great restaurant and had a fun day in Santa Fe.

DAY 5: I left in mid-afternoon on Day 5, since the winds were forecast to be too high at my destination-Liberal, Kansas until later in the day. I took off from Santa Fe and decided to climb to 11,500ft to find cooler, calmer air. It was by far the roughest flight on the trip. The glider loves thermals for soaring, but not so much to fly straight through at cross-country speeds. This turbulence required me to slow down 30kts to prevent the glider from being damaged. This was also the first time since my solo I was nervous by myself. I knew that if I flew the turbulence penetration airspeed the glider would be fine, but it was a lot of work keeping it upright with no one to give me a break.

I radioed Trent and my Dad that I needed a break, so we decided to stop at one of our contingency airports. As part of our morning preflight planning I came up with airports that we may have to stop at for a break or weather reasons. Dalhart, Texas was one of them and it ended up being a great choice! Some old friends from Maine were flying their motorglider from Mexico and met us there! After a lunch break at the great airport cafe, we checked the forecast and the wind had calmed down enough to go to Liberal, Kanas. The short one hour flight was mostly smooth until the descent and I used my crosswind skills to land right on the centerline of the runway. We got to the hotel and learned that the internet and cell phone coverage was down-ahhhhhh! It was like going back in time. No data to check weather and check-in with people.

DAY 6: I woke up with enough cell phone data to check weather and make a flight plan with Dad and Trent. We went from the southwest corner of Kansas to Ottawa, Kansas on the eastern border of the state. I had been in contact with the Aviation Explorer Post in Ottawa and if the timing worked out I was going to give a presentation to their group about my training and trip prep. The airport manager, who is one of the Explorer Post leaders, met me when I landed, got our group a car and gave us directions to his favorite restaurant-Sushi! Later that night I did my presentation to the Explorer group and showed them my motorglider.

DAY 7: The plan was to fly to Litchfield, Illinois and land at a small uncontrolled airport. At Litchfield the winds were high when we were en route but were supposed to be calmer by the time we got there. In the glider I use Foreflight with a Stratus for maps and weather. As I got closer, Trent radioed back there was a cloud layer developing and that I should probably descend to 3500ft from 7500ft. I then checked the weather on Foreflight for our destination and saw the winds were up to 24kts with a 14kt crosswind component!! As a student I’m only signed off for a 10kt direct crosswind so this was not going to work. My contingency planning had paid off again and after talking to the other two planes we decided to land at a towered airport instead-St Louis Regional, which had lighter winds that were within my limit. After an uneventful landing I was happy to discover there was an airport restaurant on the field and we had a good lunch there. Trent also had family in the area so they joined us for lunch and I gave their kids a tour of my glider. One of the fun parts of this trip is meeting people we knew along the way.

DAY 8: Was an early departure with once again smooth and clear skies. It was amazing that I had been basically following the same high pressure system across the USA giving me near perfect conditions every day! We were going to Sporty’s Pilot Shop, the stop all the pilots were most excited about! The flight was slightly bumpy because we had to go down low to cut under Class B airspace. The pilot shop was huge and had all the stuff from the catalog there. I got a new kneeboard and mint oxygen. I also met the lady who runs FlyGirl and did an interview with her.

DAY 9: At 10 AM I did another talk at the Explorers Post at Sporty’s and then left. The night before we were all looking at the weather and realized that we could make it all the way to Maine in two stops with the 40kt tailwind we were supposed to have! We also saw that Maine was supposed to get bad weather the next two days so we would be stuck otherwise. We decided we would do it in two 2.7 hour legs and make it into Maine around 5 PM. After we left we flew to Pennsylvania and met Dad and Trent’s old friend who flew out to meet us. After a quick stop we headed to Maine! It was almost as bumpy as day five and was a very tiring flight, but on descent I really got excited since I started recognizing landmarks from when I lived there. On the way in, I flew over the beach and the Atlantic ocean! I had flown coast to coast! I was the last to land out of our group in Maine and met all of our old friends at the airport for dinner and cake! Both sets of my Grandparents even flew out too see my arrival! We had dinner at the airport restaurant and then went to stay at a friends house.

In nine days I flew 29.1hrs, burned only 96 gallons of fuel and flew 2,554nm! The weather was amazing and besides some high winds we had to work around there wasn’t that much else to worry about. After we arrived in Maine the next day the ceiling went IFR for two days. We hung out in Maine for almost a week, spending time with friends and I even did some local solo flights.

If you are interested in getting into flying, glider flying is a terrific way to start. The Soaring Society of America has a lot of great scholarships for youth and there are glider clubs everywhere. The SSA website (www.ssa.org) is a good place to look if you want more information about flying gliders.