I went to the east of the interstate in the Marana area to thermal with motor-tow on Saturday from one of my favorite valley sites. It abuts miles of saguaro filled desert on it's east side and miles of irrigated farmland on its west. I arrived at around 2pm.

The wind was going from gravity sock to 12 mph in long cycles that had significant turbulence in them, and from all directions. I set up with an eight mile per hour east wind blowing and wagging the streamers, but by the time I was ready to go, the wind was from the north at around 4 mph. I forward launched into the cross wind and turned with the glider to run to the north.

I climbed easily in the low portion of the cycle, but the turbulence was significant. I was glad I had decided to wear my helmet since I thought about only wearing my earmuffs. But then I realized I did not have my helmet on! I decided I would continue to fly without it because I only wanted to land in the turbulence once. But then I realized I also did not have my reserve! That, I decided was unaccptable, so I worked my way around and descended back through the turbulence to land.

After donning my reserve and helmet, I relaunched, this time in a strong cycle of maybe 15 mph from the west. I was in a huge sinking cycle (as is always the case at the peak of a cycle in the valley) in which it was impossible to climb above about 50 feet. Even worse, I began to sink out down to around 10 feet and seriously thought I was going to have to land. I used up the whole half mile of clearing to the north and was about to cross the barbed wire fence into the desert to the north with all the palo verde.

I had almost made a decision to land in the clearing to avoid a possible landing in the desert when I finally hit lift that sucked me right off the surface at a rapid clip. I stayed in the throttle to 400 feet in order to get to tossing-altitude quickly because of the turbulence, at which time I went to idle. About 30 seconds later I killed the engine as I passed through 700 feet agl.

All this took place in about 5 minutes. I flew an additional 50 minutes, engine off, and made it all the way to 3992 feet agl in a single thermal without seeing more than 200 fpm down. Lift was relatively mellow and strong, sometimes consistent for 10 or 12 seconds at 800 fpm.

I had drifted to the south about 2 miles at my highest point and thought I was going to make it well above 4,000 feet agl, judging by the strength of the lift. But, all of a sudden, at 3992 as recorded on the vario, I fell out the bottom and was drilled with 800 fpm down for a full 360 degrees as I looked for an escape. I was drilled long enough to pass back down through 1500 feet, hands up back toward the truck, before hitting another single bit of lift.

The next thermal was a little more turbulent, but with only inconsistent 200 to 400 fpm lift which I worked for quite awhile to eventually get back above 2500 feet.

I again fell out the bottom and got drilled down to 700 feet, but I decided that I would not restart if I sunk out and would take whatever I could get. It was apparent I wasn't going to make the truck until I managed to get a low save at around the 600 foot mark and made my way back up to 1500 feet, which gave me more than a sufficient glide back to my truck. Landed dead stick about 30 feet short of my glider bag at 3:50 pm.

At one point during my initial climb up, a beautiful, healthy looking hawk was below me and slowy making his way up to me (assuming it was a he). He circled right up to my altitude and them flew directly at me until he was about 40 feet right in front of me. He suddenly veered hard right (his right) with talens outstretcthed and his head alternately looking where he was going and looking at me. I could see every detail on his body. Awesome experience. He fell below me slightly as I suppose I had scared him out of the core (I can imagine his surprise in recognizing an ugly human hanging beneath his huge, red cousin), and for a brief moment, I outclimbed a hawk! But only briefly. He worked his way above me and I eventually lost track of him.

Very nice flight.

Altitude at idle: 400 feet
Altitude at engine off: 700 feet
Engine off climb: 3292 feet in a single valley thermal
Max height: 3992 feet
Total cumulative climb: 7459 feet (according to my vario)
Total time of engine-off soar: 50 minutes
Total time of flight: 55 minutes