2013 Update of Joe Patton Milestone

Submitted by Fred Hermanspann on Tue, 11/26/2013 - 11:36

eGlidepath

Since 2005 Evergreen Soaring recognizes (and encourages) upcoming club XC pilots by listing the first reasonably documented soaring flight that includes a straight line distance of at least 50 km in Western Washington. This is in recognition of the memory of Joe Patton who very much encouraged such flying and who left us much too early.

This is really a somewhat watered down Silver Badge distance condition, generally regarded as the beginning of a XC soaring career. The DG-1000 group of the SGC Foundation requires actually the Silver Badge to fly the DG-1000 as PIC. And as an additional goal – nobody has yet gained the full Silver Badge on the west side.

Listing of these first tentative XC flights is meant to indicate that the pilot concerned has actively cut the apron strings that keep too many pilots in close vicinity of Arlington (or similar airfields) and documents a liberating step to west side XC flying.

2013 saw 4 new additions to this milestone list:

pilot	date	saiplane	from where to where
Travis Brown	May 14	Krokus	Cultus Mt. to Haystack Mt.
Movses Babayan	May 14	G102	Lake McMurray toSultan Ridge
Phil Rose	May 14	DG-1000	AWO to Stevens Pass
Chris Klix	June 22	LS-7	Suiattle Mt. to Mt. Pilchuck

Chris Klix has (of course) flown such a distance from AWO quite a few times before but never with any documentation.

So for all those that have made the list – don’t stop here; for all others, take this as an incentive to explore the beautiful surroundings of Arlington!