BUTTER VALLEY

I finally made a trip that I have been wanting to make for quite a while.  I flew to Butter Valley Golfport (7N8) in eastern PA.  Butter Valley is a golf course with a runway right in the middle.  It's a 252 mile round trip from my home base at Ridge Soaring gliderport (79N) and it's my longest trip in the Kolb to date.  I got a late start due to heavy morning fog.  The Bald Eagle valley where the gliderport is located really holds the fog, and it did not clear until after 10:00 AM.  Once airborne the sky was clear, except for some low clouds over State College as seen in the picture below.

I crossed the Susquehanna river a little north of Harrisburg.

And, continued to float over the Alleganys on my way east.  It took almost 2.5 hours to get to Butter Valley with a ground speed of only 56 mph.  The return trip was less than 2 hours averaging 70 mph.

Below is a shot if the forest and ridges between Selinsgrove and State College.  This is not an area that I am willing to fly over, but fortunately there are nice valleys just to the south with lots of farm fields.  I love my Rotax engine, but that's a lot of trees!

Here's a shot of me and my buddy Tim.  I wish I could golf like him.  Tim had to man the throttle while I hand propped the engine because my rope on the starter broke.  He said that it was the first time he has had to do that on a golf outing.  Go figure!

Below are the track from my SPOT GPS and a Bing Maps view of the golf course.