In this conversation Gordon Boettger discusses an extraordinary gliding adventure that took he and his copilot Bruce Campbell across the Rockies in mountain wave in an Arcus glider from Minden, Nevada to Dodge City, Kansas- 1112 miles on December 19th, 2025. Gordon shares his lifelong dream of soaring high (max altitude was near 28,000 feet!) and downwind in mountain wave and the technical aspects of his wild flight, including the use of night vision goggles (they took off at 0300) and the importance of very specific weather conditions to pull it off. They delve into the planning and preparation required for such an epic journey, the use of skysight, the wicked cold, the experience of flying at night, and the role of technology in enhancing their gliding experience. The conversation also touches on the emotional highs and lows of the 11+ hour flight and the sense of community within the aviation world. This was a 40 year dream come true for Gordon, tuck in, you won’t believe it! Check out his flight track and data here.
Iced up cockpitCapital Reef National ParkNot a lot of handout options!LONG final glide!Sunset in Dodge City, KSZonal Flow pattern
Support the Podcast
A buck an episode, that's all we ask
If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a subscriber to ensure our high-quality content continues. You can also help contribute to a healthier, greener planet through our partnership with Our Forest.
See our donation and subscription options here.
Listen to the Podcast
Listen to us on all the most popular podcast platforms:
Gordon has been pursuing his dream of soaring high for over 40 years. The use of night vision goggles allows for flying at any time of the year. Weather conditions play a crucial role in planning long-distance flights. The flight from Minden to Garden City was a significant achievement. Technology like SkySight aids in navigation and understanding weather patterns. Flying at night presents unique challenges and requires careful preparation. The emotional journey of flying includes both highs and lows. support is vital in the gliding experience. Gordon’s flight was the longest downwind wave flight in the Northern Hemisphere. The adventure of gliding is both exhilarating and humbling.
Sound Bites
“I had the opportunity to go after it.” “I was very patient with the slow climbs.” “It’s a long ways, it’s a long ways.”
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Setup for the Flight 02:46 The Dream of Long-Distance Gliding 05:49 Flight Planning and Preparation 08:47 Conditions for the Flight 11:40 The Unique Weather Patterns 14:58 Navigating the Rockies 17:46 The Experience of Night Flying 20:38 Challenges Faced During the Flight 23:44 Post-Flight Reflections and Insights 28:35 Navigating the Wave: Flight Dynamics and Strategies 31:52 Communication in the Skies: Interactions with ATC and Other Pilots 34:11 The Role of Technology: SkySight and Modern Gliding 37:42 Exploring Geographic Limitations: Ideal Locations for Wave Flying 41:39 Record-Breaking Flights: Achievements and Future Goals 46:38 Reflections on the Journey: Emotional and Physical Challenges
Gavin McClurg (00:33.71)
Gordon, you're a mad man. I got the coolest message, that was about a week ago now, right? Maybe a longer. I got the coolest message, 19th?
Gordon Boettger (00:41.947)
Yeah, on 19th, yeah, just right before Christmas.
Gavin McClurg (00:44.334)
Yeah, I got the coolest message from a buddy of mine and he said, are you watching what your friend's doing? What friend are you talking about? And then as soon as he said your name, I just went, oh my God, me the link. Holy cow, man. So take us through it. Give us the summary of what you and Bruce just did. Set it up for how you saw it coming and.
Gordon Boettger (00:51.668)
I got too many friends.
Gordon Boettger (01:04.189)
Well, was so basically what this this is like been a 40 over 40 year long dream of mine. And that was to essentially get up as high as I can a mountain wave and simply fly as far downwind as I can. And, you know, I live in obviously a really good place that allows me to do something like that. So I've been I've been doing this, doing some of these attempts for years now. And the weather just lined up just good enough.
actually on the 19th of December for me to do this. And the fact that I have the night vision goggles, I'm not limited to daylight now. essentially any day of the year I can do this. So I've been just like hardcore. I've done some big flights in the wave along this year and I've done some downwind attempts in different gliders, but I've never gotten east of the Rockies. That was my goal is to get as far as I could east of the Rockies. And there was a gentleman by the name of Jaak Kutner, who was
with NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research. And he was part of the Sierra Wave project. And he was essentially the guy that invented or not invented. He discovered mountain wave in Germany. He passed away a years ago at like 103 years old, but was still very, very active with with mountain wave. And I met him several times and and he had this whole idea of, know, that's I think this idea goes way back to the 50s and 60s of
getting up as high as you can in a glider and end up in Kansas. And that's essentially what I did is I fulfilled his dream, I fulfilled my dream and a lot of other people's dreams. So it's really freaking cool, you know, it's awesome. you know, and I think bottom with this whole flight, the reality came true, the dream came true. And I also realized that we can go further.
Gavin McClurg (02:41.048)
This is some Wizard of Oz shit, dude, seriously.
Gordon Boettger (02:56.626)
With this using a few different methods and one of which is utilizing thermals way down wind, know, east of the Rockies, because obviously east of the Rockies, you know, the waves, there's nothing else to generate wave for the most part east of the Rockies. so that would mean gliding from the Rockies from a wave situation like I did into central Kansas and then using thermals from like noon on and to fly another four, 400 miles or so. So.
Two different methods.
Gavin McClurg (03:26.688)
So what time did you guys take off? How far did you fly? What was your average speed? Give us some of the nuts and bolts here.
Gordon Boettger (03:34.13)
So we took off at 3.09 local Pacific standard time in the morning. Yeah, yeah, we, you're used to that, right? You've done that with me. So you know what that's like. So we took off at 3.09 in the morning. The intent was to try to get off a little sooner, but as you know, because you've been there, the equipment issue, and it's just ridiculous the amount of stuff that has to go in the cockpit.
Gavin McClurg (03:41.73)
That one you and I did last winter.
Gavin McClurg (03:56.908)
So much stuff.
Gordon Boettger (04:02.802)
So you can't, you really can't rush anything, but I had filed a flight plan with ATC and had a flight, an IFR flight plan in the system. And I don't know if people are aware, but I do have a...
Gavin McClurg (04:14.208)
Yeah, let's look at so ATC IFR just to explain those real quickly for the non-collider folks listening.
Gordon Boettger (04:18.401)
So, yeah, so for the non fixed wing folks that don't fly higher, you know, basically what I'm having him do, anytime you're flying from 18,000 feet above, you need to be on an IFR clearance IFR flight plan. So that means you have to file put a flight plan in the system and activate that system and you're basically under the control of under air traffic controls.
you're basically under their control. exactly. So class airspace. Yeah. So class a was, it begins at 18,000 feet goes on up. So, since this flight stuff, this, this wave stuff does happen above 18,000 feet. worked years ago to get some letter of agreements with, the centers, know, Oakland center, Salt Lake, Denver, and then Seattle center to go operate a glider, you know, VFR.
Gavin McClurg (04:48.974)
Because you're in class A airspace. mean, I look at your flight law, you're basically the whole way.
Gordon Boettger (05:16.749)
in class airspace. So I'm operating under a letter of agreement, but filing an IFR flight plan per the LOA and operating VFR in class airspace with under the control of ATC. So I'm squawking, I'm talking to them and they're assigning me blocks of altitude and I do file an IFR flight plan. So that IFR flight plan I filed was
basically followed the route that SkySight showed where there would be adequate wave to climb the continued downwind. And I actually declared Garden City, Kansas and I actually made that, actually that's an 18. Yeah, anyway, yeah, we'll get into that.
Gavin McClurg (06:00.2)
That's just ridiculous. You're giving away the goods right off the bat. That's just ridiculous. my God, that's crazy. you called it. That's where you called it. That's where I'm gonna land.
Gordon Boettger (06:12.912)
That's what I accomplished my goal and I over flew it. And I was talking to Kansas City Center, actually they were so, so awesome. So I overshot garden city at like 11,000 feet went through my finish gate, which is a thousand meter line. I went through the finish gate and hit my, was a 1700. Well, it was, it was a 16, it was roughly 17.
Gavin McClurg (06:13.951)
hours after you take them.
God.
Gordon Boettger (06:41.644)
It was Minden to Garden City was 1661 kilometer declared goal. Pretty cool. And then I continued on to Dodge City because what I can do for an FAI, so I can get two records out of this. So I qualified for two records, distance to a goal. So that's a pre-declared goal that I put in my flight logger, right? And then I had a free distance, which was essentially Minden to
Gavin McClurg (06:47.074)
And then, and then did Bruce say...
Gordon Boettger (07:11.118)
Dodge City where I landed. so I qualify for two continental records out of that.
Gavin McClurg (07:16.942)
How does it work in your world? In our world, we have to have an observer.
Gordon Boettger (07:21.966)
Right, same thing. Yeah, so we have a day logger and so the observer who was Jeff Resnick, he was there for the launch and so he observed everything. And then we had landing witnesses and all that logger stuff is preserved in the logger and.
Gavin McClurg (07:23.47)
Same thing, OK, gotcha.
Gavin McClurg (07:42.574)
Those of you listening, you can't see this, I'm doing that whole thing where you put your hands on your head and you're going, mind blown. It's just insane. And you set off your friends the day before you even took off for the retrieve, right? Or something, you sent them out Thursday?
Gordon Boettger (07:51.92)
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Gordon Boettger (08:00.386)
Yeah, because it's yeah, this thing covered some miles. So so it was a little kind of a ballsy move. So first of all, I had to find a crew and you know, like 100 % of this stuff is on me. I don't have a team that's doing the flight planning or any of that stuff or getting the glider ready. It's just the it's a ton of work and it's it's absolutely exhausting. And part of you there's that devil on your shoulder that's wanting to
the weather to kind of fall apart so you can just go to bed and forget about it and not have to spend five days prepping and losing sleep because I, yeah, you know the deal. And so, you know, then the other party is going, I want to go for this. So, Gary Ittner, who happens to be 17 time national soaring champion here in the U S he, he actually called me up and said, I'd be happy to do it. get nothing going on. So, yeah. So I said,
Gavin McClurg (08:30.882)
Right, yeah. Every pilot knows about that. Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (08:55.244)
run retrieve. So he told he told the trailer out there and everything.
Gordon Boettger (08:58.829)
Yep. So I went down and met him at the at the Minden airport, got the trailer ready because, I never use the trailer. You know, I hardly ever use it. So I had to get the trailer ready and get my truck ready and fill it up with gas. I said, all right, here's the here's the deal. We're not taking off till Friday, but I want you to leave on Thursday and head east as far as you can, because we'll probably catch up to you. And and that's that's exactly what he did. He blew out of here on.
on Thursday, we flew on Friday, he blew out at like 6am on Thursday, I got a call like at 8pm on Thursday night, and I'm trying to get some sleep. I'm not sleeping, but I get a text from him. goes, Hey, I made it to Grand Junction overnight in Grand Junction. So I'm going holy shit. hope I did. Right. Yeah. So that and you asked me that earlier. It's like now I'm fully committed. And I think that was kind of a good thing in a way because now you're
Gavin McClurg (09:41.634)
Now you're vested though, that's kinda cool. Now you can't back out. Now you and Bruce, you're in, you're going for it.
Gordon Boettger (09:52.003)
You're really driven. like, okay, I got to get this. I got to at least get that far, you know, to, grand junction and, hopefully don't land 50 miles East in the desert. You just don't know what this game, you know, the deal, you know, so,
Gavin McClurg (09:54.125)
Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (10:03.566)
Yeah. Hey, so we covered this in the first show. And those of you listening, I highly recommend you go back and do that. That was the 3000K, know, 17 hours up and down the Sierras. And you explained, Wade, but give a quick recap on the conditions you need, the conditions you had. Why does this set up?
it just keeps going. And the first thing I was thinking about when I read this, you and I could see it that night. We could see these wave harmonics with the clouds and then clear and the cloud. it just went as far as you could see off in Nevada with the night vision goggles that night. I could see it. But I think a lot of people have a hard time imagining what.
really what happened here. You're not flying up and down the range in wave like you normally do or down in the Perland Project down in the Andes. You're just sending it. And that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Gordon Boettger (10:46.21)
Yeah, so mean, simply if you
Right.
Gordon Boettger (10:54.542)
Yeah, you're what you're doing is you're using a different wave system every time you climb. And unlike riding up and down the Sierras or riding up and down the Andes, as soon as you turn tail, you're out of here, go eastbound. It's like you're looking for a whole nother wave generator, a mountain or something to generate that wave. And for those people that aren't aware of how mountain wave works, basically you get high velocity winds that are running for the most part perpendicular to some type of topographical feature being, you know, it's
let's call it a mountain just to be simple, because that's what it is. But that air rushes up and over the mountain and it basically spills down the valley floor and causes a bouncing effect, a lot like a boulder when you see a boulder in a river or a submerged rock. And you can see the harmonics when that water flows over that boulder downstream, you'll see harmonics. And that's exactly what's going on with mountain waves.
The unique thing about the 19th is that what we want to look for on a downwind flight is kind of what we call a zonal flow where the jet stream runs pretty much, it's like a 270 flow all the way to the Rockies and that hardly ever happens. It's very rare, know, dead west. to get it to get it to run, give you a base, for the most part, westerly flow from
Gordon Boettger (12:49.741)
Wow, this thing's actually going zonal here. know, this is this like I gotta keep an eye on this. A lot of times, historically, I've seen it go zonal and then within a day or two, just it's whacked, you get this big dip in the, you know, in the low pressure system. So.
Gavin McClurg (12:51.118)
This is unique.
Gavin McClurg (13:05.816)
What do mean by that zonal? Explain that. is that when you and I flew, it was kind of southwest, as I remember. It wasn't zonal. It wasn't like that. But then we got hammered by kind of an atmospheric river. And that shut it down. Is this pre, post? What are we looking at here?
Gordon Boettger (13:15.821)
Right, So this is, so yeah, it's a prefrontal type system. And usually when you have a, like when you and I flew, we had a pretty deep trough that came through. We had a southerly, kind of a southwesterly type flow this year, which is favorable for this year, but within, you remember when I said we've got to be on the deck before one o'clock, because it's going postfrontal. In other words,
we're going to start getting a northwesterly flow. you know, that's so the whole direction of the flow changes and you really don't want that on a downwind flight because you know, the winds are so strong and you can't to deal with 60 or 80 knot cross winds and you know, and a lot of times it shuts the wave down. And another big issue is the moisture content, you know, and so there's been, there have been so many days where it looked good downwind.
But you go, all right, once I get to Utah, the whole Wasatch is completely clobbered or the West end of the Rockies is completely clobbered with moisture. And that's obviously a dangerous situation you don't want to get yourself into. you don't even do it. So this day was lined up in the sense that the flow, the jet stream was basically running. It was just running in a straight line from West to East, for the most part, a 270 type flow.
all the way into Kansas. And then the other good thing, the advantageous thing is that there was very little moisture. So those two things combined, that's when you start kind of locking on and then you start looking at sky side and seeing how feasible this is between getting from here to the Rockies, because Rockies typically generate very good wave, the Sierras generate very good wave, but it's the in-between points and that's exactly what we had on this flight where
there were some soft spots and sky site just fricking nailed it, you know, and those soft spots mean you just, you have to change gears. You have to slow up, be patient, take the slow climb, get high. And then, cause getting to the Rockies, you got to be high at those big peaks, you know, and, and with those types of winds, think, I mean, I had people from Denver saying that stuff was, you know, I mean, they had gnarly, gnarly winds, you know, that day. So you don't want to be in a, in a glider over the Rockies.
Gavin McClurg (15:20.568)
Love this.
Gordon Boettger (15:40.267)
you know, with 70 or 80 knot winds over the over the peaks, you know, that gets to be really dangerous. So that's.
Gavin McClurg (15:45.998)
And what did you have in general? You said about 60 knots, kind of mostly throughout the flight. So 80 miles an hour.
Gordon Boettger (15:49.364)
Yeah, 60, 65 knots, you know, and yeah, which is good. when you're, you know, just same thing with, you're flying at a much slower speed than you would flying up and down the Sierra. Like when we flew, were, I mean, we were just lighting our hair on fire. It was insane. Whereas this, you really want to stay up high. Your true air speed is much higher. Your ground speed is going to be much higher with that higher tailwind. And the higher you are, typically the higher the tailwind, the higher the
Gavin McClurg (16:06.766)
Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (16:18.895)
the wind speed will be.
Gavin McClurg (16:21.454)
What was your kind of average when you were going on glide, when you were leaving the wave for the next one? Give me an idea of your glide ratio. What are you getting?
Gordon Boettger (16:32.509)
with a knot tail when you're, I mean, you're over 100 to one. Now it's insane. So, yeah, yeah. And that's, know, Gavin, that's the difference between like when you're going up and down the stairs like we were, I mean, you're just, you're trying not to pull the wings off because you're, it's so strong sometimes. Whereas this, you're flying it for the most part at best L over D speed because you're letting the wind do the work. So you're
Gavin McClurg (16:38.062)
you're just eating ice cream.
Gavin McClurg (16:51.106)
Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (16:57.986)
Mmm.
Gordon Boettger (16:58.379)
you're typically like 60, 65 knots, but you're clipping along with 160 knot ground speed or something, know, 150 knot ground speed.
Gavin McClurg (17:04.978)
And would you say the overall experience is less intense or more intense? Less intense, really.
Gordon Boettger (17:10.153)
Yes, yeah, it's, it's less intense in the fact that you're not you're not operating. You know, it's like taking a skateboard down a hill, you know, and you're just about to get speed wobbles, you know, when you're going up and down the Sierras when it's that strong. And you're like, you're just you're just right on that line of, you know, V &E and you don't want to hit turbulence, you know, so you're kind of, you your hair standing up on the back of your neck going I hope I don't hit any bumps, but
Gavin McClurg (17:24.398)
Mmm, you're just right on the edge.
Gavin McClurg (17:35.104)
Yeah, OK.
Gordon Boettger (17:37.109)
going downwind, it's relatively comfortable and you're not getting the air leaks in the cockpit that you get when you're 150 knots indicated, know, 60, 65 knots downwind is very, very comfortable. The stress level that you do have to deal with is like, okay, now I'm looking for a different wave source, right? Because as soon as you go downwind.
Gavin McClurg (17:50.741)
Mmm.
Gavin McClurg (17:58.606)
Yeah, well, you were talking about you've got this area that you've got to clear. mean, the main spine of the Rockies, Colorado, where you knew you were going to have this zone around Monticello. Yeah, never made it before. But you also got on Skysight, which I understand was just dead on. Amazing. Shout out to Matt Scudder putting these things together for you guys. you had this area that you knew, OK, we're going to take hours climbing there if necessary or something. said, right? You didn't have to do that.
Gordon Boettger (18:05.631)
yeah. And I've never done that. Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (18:14.868)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gordon Boettger (18:25.812)
Potentially, yeah. mean, and it's...
Gavin McClurg (18:28.57)
but you were willing to, you had to get super tall.
Gordon Boettger (18:31.762)
Right. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, and it's wild. Looking back, everything was just so textbook because even three days out, I go that three days before the flight, said that wave in Monticello west of Durango, because that whole area was soft. I'm going to have to take a client if I don't get up there. I'm landing in Durango 100%. You know, and, and that's
Gavin McClurg (18:54.382)
What does get up there mean? What, like 28 grand? How high? What are you shooting for? OK.
Gordon Boettger (18:58.89)
I think 24 would have been fine. The other option for way before I crossed into the Rockies, I told you earlier, to go Mount Peel, which is south of Moab. It's a pretty big individual peak out there and that was forecast with similar type strength of Monticello, maybe a little stronger, but that being further north means that you're
jumping into a wider expanse of the Rockies and that just to me was gnarly. And I go, I don't want to, I don't want to do that. Cause if I don't, if I don't catch wave and I end up down at 16 or 17,000 feet, you know, with 70 knot, ridge top winds or whatever it was bad, bad place to be, you know? So I, I, what I did is I tracked, took the Southern route towards Durango and then jumped in kind of on the Southern end of the Rockies there. And then, cause I had fallout areas to the South.
Gavin McClurg (19:44.174)
Mmm.
Gordon Boettger (19:56.05)
Durango being one of them and a few other spots. And so that was the safest route, I think, and it actually it worked out absolutely freaking beautifully, you know, so.
Gavin McClurg (20:06.606)
And from your track log, which is really cool, as you're listening, this will all be up on the post. You must go check all this stuff out. It'll all be there. on the track log, didn't look like you didn't have a low save, right? I mean, it was pretty textbook, like you said.
Gordon Boettger (20:22.076)
No. Yeah, it was. It was. stayed high. took the I was very patient with the slow climbs because I expected it. Impatience would have put me on the ground and way short of my goal. know, this being a another thing, Gavin, I want to point out is is the. know, if if you don't have, you know, if you've got to land by sunset or if you can't go into the evening time, then you're pressed, you know.
And you can't be patient. say, you know, have to say, well, I need to press because I need to be down before dark. Well, I've got night vision goggles. So in my mind, I'm like, OK, if I land in somewhere on the east of the Rockies, it's totally flat, right? If it's 10 o'clock at night, I could care less. You know, it means I'm up for 18 hours. You know, it's a long flight, but I'm willing to do that. And the fact that I had the goggles to put on.
again, you know, if I needed to was was very comforting. Yeah. You know, if I if I had because I'm losing two hours a day like going east, too. So that's not it's not in my favor. So I'm running against the clock, so to speak. So that that kind of hurts you. And before the before the NVG days, you know, this downwind flight, I never would have made an attempt because the days are way too short. Right. So so my my downwind months before the night vision goggles
Gavin McClurg (21:20.12)
That night, yeah, right.
Gavin McClurg (21:25.228)
Right. Yeah, of course.
Mmm.
Gavin McClurg (21:42.126)
That's so cool.
Gordon Boettger (21:47.208)
My downwind months were limited to pretty much, you know, end of March, April, May, and that gave me long enough days to do that. then, oh yeah, now I've got a two and a half month window versus basically a 12 month window now. I I took off, what, three days before the shortest day of the year, you know? So it's insane, you know? I mean, we're...
Gavin McClurg (21:57.582)
So it just totally opened up a whole new world of these things. So awesome.
Gavin McClurg (22:11.79)
It's crazy, it's crazy. So as a newbie, I've only done this once with you. And you had me walk around in your backyard with them and it was just, makes you wanna go have a party. mean, looking through those things is incredible. Yeah, they're nuts. But you've got the experience now. Is there any difference for you in terms of comfort level between daytime and nighttime? I mean, is flying at night just...
Gordon Boettger (22:28.04)
yeah. That's nuts.
Gavin McClurg (22:41.93)
standard operating procedures, there's no increased risk of, not risk, but is there any added intensity to when you're flying at night? has it just become part of the, because they're beautiful, but for me, it was super disorienting. I mean, it's beautiful, but I was like, what the hell is he doing? Which way are we pointed? The whole thing.
Gordon Boettger (22:57.159)
It's.
Gordon Boettger (23:00.528)
it, it, it, yeah, it's, you know, if you do it infrequently, it's, it's very intimidating every time you do it. Because you're like, Whoa, it's, you know, as you know, it's, it's a very claustrophobic feeling, you have a much narrower field of vision, you have to keep your scan going. And it takes a couple hours actually to feel like, okay, now I'm getting in the groove. These, these are, this is comfortable now.
Luckily, what I did four or five days before the flight, I took the NVGs and I took my buddy up and, you know, it was just dead calm, but we flew up and did a touch and go up into Lake Tahoe Airport, pitch black, you know, and, that gives you a sense of comfort. But the key with these things, you can't ever let your guard down, you know. And one interesting thing about this flight, and I talked to Walt Rogers, and who's a meteorologist, I talked to a few people about
Gavin McClurg (23:40.717)
Okay.
Gordon Boettger (23:57.288)
the strategic preparation of, okay, when do I take off? Because this wave was working for like 24 hours, right? It was working for a bit. So I could have taken off at 10 o'clock at night, two in the morning, six in the morning. But what I was thinking about, where do I want to not be with those night vision goggles? And one of those places, because I hadn't been over the Rockies was
over the Rockies. like, I don't want to end up there. I didn't want to take off at like six in the morning at a minden and go shit now. Now I'm crossing the Rockies at frickin six o'clock at night in pitch black. You know, I just, I just I was just a little
Gavin McClurg (24:35.278)
so finding a bomb out or an airport or something, it just adds too much. All right.
Gordon Boettger (24:41.935)
Yeah, and then plus you don't know what's going on with the winds. I could have a 30 knot crosswind and that's typical with wave conditions. You don't know what you're dealing with, you know, with the winds. It's just, and I've had some gnarly landings on the goggles and I'm sitting in the back seat, you know, just because I'm much taller. There's a lot more room in the back seat, but, and it's...
Gavin McClurg (24:58.542)
Hmm.
Gordon Boettger (25:04.141)
It's gnarly. know, then you're fatigued, you know, and you're landing in a crosswind. So I didn't want to put myself in a situation where I'm crossing the Rockies. I mean, it was gnarly enough to cross all of Nevada. You know, we got to Ely and finally the sun started coming up, but the freaking cockpit was completely iced up inside, you know, like, Jesus.
Gavin McClurg (25:04.256)
Yeah, that's... Okay, I got you.
Gavin McClurg (25:09.973)
smart.
Gavin McClurg (25:20.388)
yeah, I wanted to ask you about that in some of your pictures. So how does that work with the NVGs? I know you don't like to scrape on that stuff. These are, yeah.
Gordon Boettger (25:26.458)
Well, had enough of a enough of a no, you can just that just makes it worse. So what happened the clear vision panels typically work really well this time. There was a little leak between the clear vision panel and the canopy there was a little you know, in the foam or whatever. It had separated so moisture had gotten in between the clear vision panel and the canopy and that essentially stayed there for most of the flight. But yeah, it was you talk about disorienting it's pitch black and you got the
you know, the ice encompassing most of the most of the canopy inside. And that's another thing that you got to really be careful with because, you know, know, NVGs are aren't going to get you through a fully iced up canopy. Now you're flying on instruments, you know, so that's kind of what was what was happening. So I'm flying in wave, I'm flying on instruments going from 160 knot ground speed to all sudden a five knot ground speed parking in the wave. And it kind of threw the Alex computer office going, what the hell is going on? So I was looking at the computer going
why is the map doing that? Then I had my foreflight telling me I was doing something totally different. your brain is over-processing the stuff and it's really fatiguing and you have to stay totally focused. And now you're still trying to talk to, you're talking to ATC, you're trying to stay in the wave, and there's just a lot going on. You've got the O2 thing going. So the first three hours was pretty hectic.
Gavin McClurg (26:53.73)
And how cold was it compared to our flight?
Gordon Boettger (26:57.726)
Um, was, yeah, it was, it was, was definitely colder, you know, because we are, are, we are up higher. Um, we were operating, it seems when I get, whenever I get, it seems like the 24,000 foot point when I'm above 24,000 feet, it's just like, it just gets like exponentially colder. And then we get down to 20,000 feet. I'm like, ah, it's nice and toasty. It's nice down here. So it is nice to get low sometimes just to
Gavin McClurg (26:59.566)
It's cold. I December 19th.
Gavin McClurg (27:12.664)
Just an icebox.
Ugh.
Gordon Boettger (27:23.449)
kind of recalibrate your body and go, man, you know, it's not, not so bad. But, yeah, it, it, it was pretty, the, the first three hours was pretty, pretty gnarly. And there was the, the tow out was, you know, we, actually got ready in the hangar and got in, got in the glider in the hangar this time. So we're not having stuff blow away on the, on the runway and stuff. And then Melissa was out there helping. And so we had three people out, supporting that the launch and
Gavin McClurg (27:23.905)
up a bit.
Gavin McClurg (27:29.891)
Y-
Gordon Boettger (27:53.19)
we took off on runway one six and when we pushed out the winds were like five, nine, was like nothing. And I go, Oh my God, this is so rare to take off such a pleasant way to take off and no wind. And as soon as we got to the end of runway, it was, it was like a winds were two 30 at 18 gusts and a 32 was fricking howling. It was just like, Oh, and I go, man, I can't believe this. You know, I got to take off in this crap. And so, so we, you know,
Gavin McClurg (28:12.91)
Gordon Boettger (28:22.091)
we had two people holding the wing down because it was like a 70 degree crosswind. It was just howling. And so I got the motor started and then I'm going, okay, what do I, I'm listening to the AWOS, listening to the winds. go, what do I, do I just sit here and wait for the winds? he it's not going to die down. So I said the hell with it. And so, you know, I just took off and then we just got the crap beat out of us and the rotor just, it was right into it three in the morning. You know, I hadn't slept in probably two days and I just go, this is
Gavin McClurg (28:42.924)
Right off the bat.
Gordon Boettger (28:50.213)
Why do I need this? And then the wave was really funky out of here, you know, so was a really slow climb and, you know, probably three knots, you know, probably, you know, one and half meters, you know, per second, you know, one and half meters per second climb initially. And then finally we got up into the flight levels above 18, got my clearance and then kind of worked our way down to the southeast and picked up a couple of key point climbs at SkySight was showing and those actually worked out well. So, so it wasn't, you know, I
Did a little deviation of the southeast for us to get a climb over Mount Grant, out by Walker Lake, by Hawthorne.
Gavin McClurg (29:25.11)
And talk me through, so when we did it, was you're flying in the wave. I mean, you're just in the wave. And then so when you ping off and go downwind, you're making the jump to the next big feature. In this case, the Toyavis are the next really big feature. We alluded to that when you were showing before we started recording. And you're getting over it. You're diving off into the lee. You're finding the wave. And then what are you doing? You're just pointing right back upwind and just.
Gordon Boettger (29:31.82)
Right. Right.
Gordon Boettger (29:42.68)
Right. Right.
Gordon Boettger (29:52.322)
Yeah, yep. Yeah, you have to be really, you have to be really. So typically when you leave the way, you'll hit the down cycle. So you're going to hit that strong sink. So you got to push over. You got to, you got to speed up through that and get out of there because you could be going down, you know, know, 10, 15 meters per second. You know, it's just, it's crazy. So you got to, you got to get out of that as quick as you can. And then, and then, so you negotiate your speed based off of your, your sink rate. So, you know,
Gavin McClurg (29:53.646)
And what...
Gavin McClurg (30:02.882)
Yeah. Okay.
Gordon Boettger (30:21.592)
Like I said earlier, we didn't have too many massive sink rate situations and we actually deviated around some of that stuff based off what sky site was showing. And it was interesting because the deep blue areas that sky site shows, that's heavy sink and that's always on the leeward side of the lift. It's always downwind. And so what I would do is, what Bruce and I would do is we would fly, just like to the.
softer sink or whatever and then go downwind. So there's a lot of kind of shucking and jiving. Yeah, yeah. And then I've got to tell, yeah, then I've got to talk to ATC and say request deviation left or right of course for weather 10 mile or whatever. See, because you're on an IFR flight plan and they actually expect you to stay on that flight plan. They can, they'll let you deviate from that base of that line that you filed to be on.
Gavin McClurg (30:52.078)
So there are still some going north or going south. You're still perpendicular to the wave.
Gordon Boettger (31:14.817)
they'll let you deviate, but you gotta tell them that you'd like to deviate, because there could be traffic, you don't know. So you can't, it's instrument flight rules, so.
Gavin McClurg (31:20.27)
does IFR stand for?
instrument flight rules. Okay, so you've given them a line with a bunch of waypoints all the way to Dodge City.
Gordon Boettger (31:28.976)
Yeah, and that's essentially what I did. And those waypoints were those lift points that SkySight was showing. And so I had probably 18 points in my IFR flight plan all the way to, all the way to Garden City or Dodge City. And I pretty much flew that route, you know, plus or minus maybe 10 or 10 miles left or right of course, you know. So.
Gavin McClurg (31:34.028)
Okay.
Gavin McClurg (31:44.824)
Crazy.
That's so nuts. That is so cool. And so one of the things that I always, when people ask me about our flight, I always, I say all this stuff that you'd expect to hear about it, but I always talk about the comms with the tower. That was one of my favorite things that night was not only the comms with the tower with Oakland, but it was talking to the other jets. And at one point somebody, you know, United 908 or whatever going into San Francisco gets on and he goes, Hey, wait a minute, what?
Gordon Boettger (32:07.831)
Yeah, right.
Gordon Boettger (32:13.027)
Hehehehehe
Gavin McClurg (32:16.11)
You're in this on purpose and you don't have an engine? I mean, that was awesome. was just, he was like, wait, wait a minute. It's the middle of the night and you're out here because you want to be? What the hell's wrong with you? That was so cool. So did you have any fun chats like that as you're riding halfway across the United States?
Gordon Boettger (32:19.107)
That's right.
Gordon Boettger (32:25.313)
Yeah, yeah, what is wrong with you? Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (32:31.267)
Yeah, I did. So yeah, I mean, it was fairly quiet to, you know, once I got into Denver, the chatter got to be a lot more and it was, it was really busy because being, you know, ski season, you know, had everyone flying into Aspen and all the big, you know, the private jets and then you had the commercial traffic too. But there was, yeah, there was a guy that
I, he was, I don't know if you're Southwest or something, but he goes, Hey, he goes, Hey, Denver, uh, you got, you got time for a question and you know, I'm just flying. he goes, Denver center goes, yeah, what's, what's up? He goes, Hey, that, that, that glider, is that a glider you're talking to? He yeah. He goes, where, where where did he start from and how high is he and where is he going? He goes, well, he, he started in the Lake Tahoe in the Reno area and he's at flight level two eight zero 28,000 feet. And he's trying to make it to.
Dodge City. That guy goes, holy cow. Yeah, it's unreal. He goes good on you. And what's interesting is one of that, like the Denver center controller, you know, because I've got the Instagram thing going up. I've got the star link in the, in the cockpit. And what's, what's really neat about this stuff now with the technology is we're able to share these like live feeds. I mean, I'm at the 26,000 feet doing a live feed. I boot up the star link, boom. Instagram says you're live.
Gavin McClurg (33:48.974)
Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (33:55.955)
And people are checking in from all over the world. mean, Australia, Norway, and you know, the Germans are all over it they're not getting any, getting any sleep, you know, these are nine hours later there and they're just, just, just floored by what's going on. so that this whole thing goes viral. then next year, you know, everyone's watching on flight aware, cause I'm on an IFR flight plan. So, so now everyone can see what's going on, you know, and they're going, holy crap, the guy's crossing the Rockies and the glider. it's, it's really getting everyone.
Gavin McClurg (34:05.1)
Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (34:24.109)
Ha ha!
Gordon Boettger (34:25.89)
It gives the gliding air, the soaring, really good exposure. It gives even pilots that aren't glider pilots, just blows their mind that you can do this in a glider. I think we talked about this before, but the point A to point B stuff is really cool because people don't understand the triangles. We understand it in the gliding, the PG world.
we get it, know, and the out and returns and that stuff, but your average show, they go, well, where are you going to go? Point A to point B is what they kind of expect, right? So this is a point, point A to point B. And so it was pretty, you know, spectacular for a lot of people, you know? And I mean, I still, I still step outside and I go, holy shit, I can't believe I just flew the single across the frickin Rockies, you know?
Gavin McClurg (35:04.408)
Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (35:21.021)
I mean, I remember getting out, was sticking my thumb out in Texas. We were down there trying to break the world record a bunch of years ago and this guy in a truck and his girlfriend pulled over and I was trying to just describe, you know, I was just in the middle of Texas. I mean, compared to what you're doing, this is ridiculous. This paragliding speeds. You know, I'd gone 300K or something that day. I mean, you do that in a blink of an eye. It is all relative, but he was, it was so funny when he was, you know, and I was explaining to him, okay, yeah, we took off in Hebronville.
Gordon Boettger (35:41.121)
But that's, I mean, it's all relative. It's huge, man.
Gavin McClurg (35:50.834)
down by Corpus Crispi, we towed up and then I flew here. And he was just going, so you jumped out of an airplane up above us and landed right here? No, no, no, no, was 300K south of here. And he's just going, wait, but where's the motor, man? Where's the thing? Where's the stuff to do it with? And I, no, no, it's on my back. say, just people just wait, what?
Gordon Boettger (35:51.307)
Mm-hmm.
Gordon Boettger (35:59.049)
Right, right,
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, if I could do what you guys do with the paraglider, in other words, just push the damn glider down a hill until it has enough airspeed to get off the hill and then get up and wave and do that. Could you imagine how cool that would be? Just completely motorless, you
Gavin McClurg (36:23.444)
my god, how you doing is pretty, hey, I gotta ask, you said something when we first started off and you said, you you might get one or two days like this with the zonal flow a year. So obviously really rare, really special, but also I'm trying to just think, I mean, I've been a lot of places on the planet. There can't be that many places on earth. How many are there that,
Gordon Boettger (36:35.873)
Mm-hmm.
Gavin McClurg (36:50.306)
provide for this kind of thing. mean, Nevada is the most mountainous state in the lower 48. I mean, second to Alaska.
Gordon Boettger (36:50.517)
Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a really, yeah, right. It's a really good, it's a really good question. So South America is out of the question because you'll end up in the water. Yeah. And so there's, as far as I know, there's no other place in the world that would allow you to do this on a downwind.
Gavin McClurg (37:03.618)
You got one. You got one range.
Gavin McClurg (37:10.038)
I can't think of anywhere, can you?
Gavin McClurg (37:15.67)
South Africa? No.
Gordon Boettger (37:18.112)
attempt going downwind, not crosswind and wave like in the Andes, but to use a full on downwind attempt. think this is probably the best place in the world. mean, from from logistics and everything else and just topography, the way it's laid out now in its
Gavin McClurg (37:21.244)
Yeah, sure.
Gavin McClurg (37:34.414)
I mean, guess topography wise, Canada's pretty similar. You've got all our ranges kind of extend up in there, but you don't have Nevada. don't really have, mean, BC, Alberta to an extent. Their Rocky's spine is the same as our Rocky's spine, but I just can't think of anywhere that this exists like this.
Gordon Boettger (37:43.059)
Right.
Gordon Boettger (37:51.828)
Yeah, I don't. It's yeah, if any anyone listening has any ideas, I mean, throw them out. But, you know, it's funny what I always mention to people. said, if if we can, if we just had one mountain in the middle of Kansas, imagine what that could have done for me. It go.
Gavin McClurg (37:56.75)
Yeah, let us know.
Gavin McClurg (38:07.766)
Yeah, you could go, could you go to the East Coast? Could you go all the way?
How far can you get from 30,000 feet at 101?
Gordon Boettger (38:14.656)
So let's, well, I mean, I went as far as I could because, you know, I got to, well, I got to 28,000 feet and, and there, might be a possible, a possibility for me to get up the re so let's back this thing up. I'm, I'm limited to 28,000 feet because flight level two nine zero 29,000 feet. There's this thing called RVSM reduce reduced vertical vertical separation minima. And that basically allows airliners or, you know, or traffic in that, in those altitudes from two nine.
from 29,000 feet up allows him with a thousand foot vertical separation. So because of that, there are tight equipment like stringent rules and on what's got to be on board, like dual autopilot, you know, and all kinds of stuff, which a glider can't have. And so when I when I established the letter of agreement that I have, they said, you're not going to be allowed in RVSM airspace. And so
Gavin McClurg (39:05.966)
Okay.
Gavin McClurg (39:14.742)
Okay, so 28's your limit.
Gordon Boettger (39:16.423)
that might, correct, that might change. And the only time I would need that to get above 28 is on that final stretch off either the Rockies or the Sonata or Christos. And if I get, if I really get above, if I get above 30, I'm going to need a different O2 system, which I have a pressure demand system, and I'd have to, can equip the glider with that. And so the possibility, if let's say if I, I, if I do
get into RVSM aerospace, basically I'm allowed above 29,000 feet, then I could essentially climb up to 38, 40,000 feet and go downwind from there. And then that's a whole different ballgame. Now you're clipping on another 10,000 feet on top of what I'm allowed right now. That's another, you know, at least 200 miles at least. so, yeah, so that might be
Gavin McClurg (40:07.95)
I was gonna say, yeah, 200, 400 miles.
Gordon Boettger (40:14.482)
That might be in the cards in the future. The other.
Gavin McClurg (40:16.878)
But as it stands, it's basically getting to Kansas midday on a thermal day. And then you can keep going. Then you fly thermals till the end of the day.
Gordon Boettger (40:27.184)
Right. exactly correct. So when you do that, you're going to have to strategically plan your takeoff time, right? So you don't want to get there. You don't want to get to Denver at, you know, six p.m. Because guess what? You're going to have to park in the wave all night long and sit there until the next morning. So now you're going to run into battery issues, two and then fatigue type situation. But if you were to take off, let's say at eight p.m. here,
Gavin McClurg (40:36.013)
Yep.
Gavin McClurg (40:46.19)
Right, yeah, right, see.
Gordon Boettger (40:56.959)
and then give yourself 12 hours to get to the Rockies or the Sangre de Cristos, climb up. So you're doing an all-nighter from all the way to the Rockies and then get to the, let's say the Pueblo area or something and get there at like eight or nine in the morning, take a climb up to 36,000 feet and then glide for two or three hours and then end up somewhere out in Kansas. Or the other option would be to run down.
run down the Songa de Cristos in the way crosswind, get in the Albuquerque region, climb as high as you can and then end up in Texas because the thermals will be a lot better. And then, you know, and then you're going to end up in east of Dallas or something like that. And then if you can do that three or 400 miles and thermals that way, then you're well over 2000 kilometers, you possibly 2500 kilometer downwind flight. 2300 kilometers roughly.
Gavin McClurg (41:50.818)
what's the record?
Gordon Boettger (41:55.794)
that was done by Klaus Olmond down in Argentina. But he flew along the Andes, so it wasn't, obviously it was not a downwind flight. So he flew from the southern end and flew.
Gavin McClurg (42:04.246)
but that's the longest one-way flight, but he was flying wave. OK. So was this flight that you and Bruce did the longest downwind wave flight that's ever been done?
Gordon Boettger (42:09.118)
Correct, that was all, yeah, yeah, it's all done in a wave. So.
Gordon Boettger (42:18.798)
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I never thought of it. Longest downwind, yeah. And I think it's, you know, it's by far the longest flight in the Northern Hemisphere, know, straight out anyway. But yeah, it's the longest downwind flight. Yeah, it's the longest downwind flight.
Gavin McClurg (42:27.181)
Yeah.
Right.
Gavin McClurg (42:33.314)
How much did this beat yours by? Because you've done some really long thermal flights.
Gordon Boettger (42:36.798)
I think, I, yeah, I mean, I've done some downwind flights in the wave and in my old duo disc and the duo discus glider. And then before that, I did some in 1971, Kestrel 17. I ended up in Steamboat, Colorado. That was a single place glider, but that was before we had sky site. And so everything was kind of just, you know, visual cues. mean, that's a whole nother, that was a gnarly flight with a holy crap. But that ended up, once I got to the Wasatch, the wave shut down and ended up in.
Gavin McClurg (42:53.304)
Hello?
Gordon Boettger (43:06.398)
end up thermaling the rest of the way from basically the wasatch all the way to all the way to steamboat with with that glider.
Gavin McClurg (43:15.022)
Any downside as a purist and someone who's chased this your entire life, is SkySight kind of like having Google goggles? New pilots come to me all the time. Wouldn't it be great if Google made goggles that you could see the thermals? And I go, no, that'd be awful. It would end the magic of this whole thing.
Gordon Boettger (43:27.739)
Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (43:35.483)
Right, I agree. well, it's, nothing's 100 % with these weather models, right? There are times where you look at something and you go, okay, well, it's actually a little stronger over here. So you just don't, you don't know. you know, we're kind of testing the, you know, a way testing the accuracy of sky site. I mean, it's, you know, it's never 100%, right? But on this day, was
Gavin McClurg (44:02.424)
Sure.
Gordon Boettger (44:05.277)
I would say very accurate. it's funny because if I start, you know, after this flight, I started really thinking deep about my past flights where I didn't have sky say we're old school, right? We're just we're looking out and going, okay, that peak right there should generate wave. You know, let's say there's no there are no visual cues like rotor clouds or lenticulars, which I've had a ton of times. I just I haven't had any cues at all.
Gavin McClurg (44:05.835)
Awesome tool.
Gordon Boettger (44:34.423)
of waves. I'm visually looking at a mountain going, okay, well, it's I think there should be some there and I'll cross over a nice solid range. go and there's nothing like what the hell's going on. There's why is there no wave here? Yeah, it's it's perpendicular to the wind. You know, and it's what's and so you keep you keep on going. But then you kind of think, well, I wonder if it was, you know, now I'm now looking back and having dealt with sky site, it could have been three or four miles.
Gavin McClurg (44:51.79)
Yeah.
Gavin McClurg (45:01.39)
Is it upwind? it north? Is it south? Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (45:04.198)
to the left or right of me. I don't know. And the number of times I've parked in, you know, a half meter wave climbing at half a meter, you know, now I'm going, God, I wonder if it was like going up like five meters per second, a few miles away. You don't know that. SkySaint aids you in that, you know, and going, okay.
Gavin McClurg (45:16.92)
something better.
Gavin McClurg (45:23.79)
So it's really sped you up. I mean, it's really helping you crunch miles. Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (45:26.236)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then especially at night, you know, it's a huge help because if you have no visual cues, you know, you're kind of doing on the night vision goggles, what you're doing, you know, back in the day and, know, when you didn't have sky sight, you're just looking out and you're trying to hit those peaks. Now, what what sky sight does, it's good, is you learn from these models. I'm looking at this stuff almost every day and you kind of remember like
that peak is always working. That seems to always work. know, like the Toyabes over near Hadley, that seems to always work. Wheeler Peak, southeast of Ely. I've gone downwind in the duo discus. We ended up in Gunnison, Colorado on that flight. And I used the same two points. This was 10 years ago or more. And I used the same lift points that SkySight showed me on this last flight. Just west of Wayne's Wonder Bryant Head Ski Area.
boom, it was going off. like, so, you know, once you start marking those points or remembering those, you can almost kind of count that they're going to work with that kind of a flow, you know, with that kind of a direction of flow. And it's pretty neat. And I think we can, you know, tap into this thing and go further and things like that. And I've got other things in mind, some three turn point, 3,100 kilometer flight. So, man, just.
Gavin McClurg (46:51.63)
I know you do, I know you do. Like I said, my bag's packed right here, So what is it when you, you said for three days, basically, you know, the three days leading up to this, you got hardly any sleep, it was exhausting. I read your, you know, and we glad your flight report, just you guys were worn out, you know, and I experienced a fraction of that. mean, it's a lot, there's a lot going on. I wasn't even flying in there, I was just sitting there and it was tiring. When you...
Gordon Boettger (46:56.017)
That's right.
Gordon Boettger (47:09.356)
horrible.
Gavin McClurg (47:21.55)
A week afterwards, when you think back on these just monster objectives that are so bitchin', what is it that really stands out? Is it the chattin' with Bruce in the cockpit? Is it the challenge? Is it the visual? mean, your pictures.
Gordon Boettger (47:26.936)
Mm-hmm.
Gavin McClurg (47:39.15)
of the lenticulars and the ice in the cockpit. mean, you've just, you've been dazzling us on Instagram ever since I discovered you a while back. You flew over the swell this time and you flew over the Rockies. I mean, you're covering some incredible terrain. But what is it that sits with you? What do you tell Melissa when you guys are having one of your epic dinners, jalapeno poppers?
Gordon Boettger (47:55.247)
Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (48:03.419)
I'm still, I mean, still this they haven't been doing this for quite a while now, but I still am just blown away how, whether it's a paraglider or a sailplane, how we can harness this energy and take advantage of it and go as far as we can. mean, it's, it's, it's mind boggling. You know, it's just like, I just pinch myself and this is just fricking insane. It's nuts. And, you know, you know, we talk about
technological advances and things like that. And definitely we're using those to our advantage. I think it's kind of across the board and it hasn't taken any other reward out of it. But it's just mind boggling. The scenery and just the emotional ups and downs you go through, know, the holy sh... You know, that little devil is going, yeah, I don't want, I want everything to fall apart. So I can just not worry about this. I just want to be a lazy human and go to bed.
Gavin McClurg (48:59.47)
You
Gordon Boettger (49:00.429)
and not stress. But the reward, I mean, that makes that makes it that much rewarding when you go through that suffering, you know, those ups and downs, those low points in the flight, like, you know, holy crap, you know, this, know, because there's nothing ever runs perfectly smoothly, you know, and you're you're taking this, this machine, and, you know, harnessing the energy and flying as far as you can with it. And these crazy
in this just really extreme harsh environment, you know, when you're doing it, I'll call it relatively safe, you know, and it's relatively relative safety. But and then when you get to destination and then to hit a goal like garden seed, I've actually made that goal. I was like, you know, I was like, wow. And then when you touch down and go, I can't believe this, this thing's in like. Here we are.
unfazed, unharmed, no frostbite, the glider's one piece, we feel good. It's just, it's a really cool feeling, you know, and I think anyone that does cross country stuff realizes or knows what I'm talking about there. One of the things that was interesting, I, before I forget was, you know, we talked about Gary Ittner hauling that trailer out the day before, and we talked about yesterday on the phone, but I think one of the kind of the more
One of the most fascinating things about this flight is that, you know, he ends up, we end up landing and within five minutes of me getting out of the cockpit, I called him on the phone and keep in mind he drove from Minden, right? I called him on the phone. said, you know, how far are you? goes, five minutes out with the trailer. I'm like, what the hell? All the way, all the way to Dodge City, you know, so.
Gavin McClurg (50:49.528)
That's stupid, dude. That's stupid. That is incredible.
Gordon Boettger (50:56.473)
That was pretty cool.
Gavin McClurg (50:58.316)
Folks listening, if you're in Europe or something, pull up a map. They flew from California to Kansas. This is incredible. is amazing.
Gordon Boettger (51:07.715)
funny when I did I did this podcast or did a an interview yesterday with a couple German guys and you know, I said, you know, for the for the Europeans and you know, if you put it in perspective, that's like, you know, I used Frankfurt as kind of a start point. That's kind of our Minden. I said that's like flying from Frankfurt to Athens, or Frankfurt to Istanbul, Frankfurt to Portugal or almost Frankfurt to almost Moscow, you know, so
That kind of person, you know, Melissa actually thought about it. goes, why don't you put a ring or give the Europeans some perspective? Cause this fricking country is so bloody huge, you know, it just goes on forever, you know, but it's kind of neat to hit, you know, hit it halfway across the country. That's, it's just a, it's been a dream for so long and it's, it's pretty cool, you know, so.
Gavin McClurg (51:41.678)
That's what you need.
I mean, it's a long ways. It's a long ways.
Gavin McClurg (51:55.63)
That is really cool. Gordon, man, just unbelievable. So epic. What an adventure. was watching the whole thing going, gotta be, you just gotta be kidding me. You gotta be kidding me. That's what they're doing is impossible. But it's not, you're doing it. it's truly amazing. And I can't wait to fly with you again. Thanks for sharing all this, man.
Gordon Boettger (52:12.981)
No, no, it's-
Gordon Boettger (52:20.312)
Oh, yeah, I mean, I love your energy, man. I love your energy. I love it in the cockpit. It's just, you know, Melissa keeps going. If we got you got to get Gavin back down here. You two are like like brothers. You guys just get along. You guys have the same energy or just hooting and hollering just riff tearing through the sky. What do we have a 200 to something that grounds me that day to.
Gavin McClurg (52:30.701)
Ha ha!
Gavin McClurg (52:39.816)
my god, dude, 240. Remember, because the guy from Europe said, hey, you guys almost hit 300k an hour or something. And you went, yeah, no. And you said, you want to see something?
Gordon Boettger (52:47.158)
No, 400, I think it was, yeah.
Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, I won't get you up.
Gavin McClurg (52:54.348)
Yeah, that was cool. Did you do some loops at the end of this one?
Gordon Boettger (52:59.944)
No, I didn't want to screw up the data logger. That's right. Get it on the ground. hey, that's right. Yeah, that was kind of unexpected with you. Did I even tell you I was doing that? Probably not. Sorry about that.
Gavin McClurg (53:02.734)
Ah, there you go. Yeah, right. Yeah, well, that's you don't want me on those flights, because I would be, come on, man, give me some loops.
Gavin McClurg (53:13.704)
Well, no, that was awesome. No apologies necessary, I loved it. You can hear it in the video. Yeah! was awesome. Gordon, thanks man. I really have been dying to talk to you about this one and congratulations to you and Bruce and your incredible crew and your wife. Big hugs to Melissa. I can't wait to see you guys.
Gordon Boettger (53:18.744)
Yeah.
Gordon Boettger (53:22.232)
It's right.
Gordon Boettger (53:27.608)
All right, thank you, Gam.
