Arlington airport — the main glider airport in Western Washington — has several features that make for interesting soaring weather. On one side it is only 10 miles away from Puget Sound making for low cloud bases and often stable conditions. On the other side there are the Cascade foothills on the East within 8 miles which dramatically improve thermalling conditions and function as stepping stones to the higher mountains.

The chart depicts the area around Arlington (AWO) that is of immediate interest to soaring pilots exploring extended local soaring. Jordan Ridge, some 7 miles to the Southeast and Mount Pilchuck, some 17 miles away in the same direction are of particular interest.

Close to Jordan Ridge there is Green Valley, a picturesque little airfield that has served as a backup airfield for any soaring pilot that did not have enough altitude to make it back to AWO as well as serving as a club destination in itself. Mount Pilchuck is just 10 miles away from Green Valley and is thus a relatively easy and most rewarding soaring goal. At 5341 ft the mountain is not particularly high but as it rises by itself out of fairly flat surroundings it is quite impressive. It is also a popular hiking excursion with a picture-perfect lookout at the top.

So, let's call Mount Pilchuck our house mountain and use it to introduce new pilots to mountain flying!

This is a short summary of how Mount Pilchuck featured in the 2005 ESI soaring season out of AWO and why it should be called our "House Mountain".

The year 2005 started early for some hardcore Arlington soaring addicts — Jan. 1 saw the first flying operation and it went right to Mount Pilchuck. Chuck Andersen used his venerable Colt to tow Brad Hill (Apis) and Ron Clark (LS-1) to Mount Pilchuck and gave them the first soaring experience of the year as there were actually some weak thermals.

With lengthening days and stronger thermals, Brad (in his Apis) and Fred (club Apis) visited Mount Pilchuck and enjoyed several hours of soaring around the mountain at up to 6500 ft. Note, how a white sailplane can almost disappear against a snowy background.

Good thermalling conditions allowed Gary and Fred (Chinook) to visit Mount Pilchuck via Jordan Ridge for some picture taking. Mount Pilchuck is barely visible from the ground from the East side of AWO but is unmistakable once in the air. Starting with a cloud base at AWO of about 3000 ft the flight went to Jordan Ridge for some ridge soaring and rock polishing before climbing out and approaching Mount Pilchuck from the North. By now the cloud base was clearly above the summit. Getting to the lift producing South side required flying along the formidable Northern rock face, the snowy former ski area and the Northwest corner. After thermalling up it was time to check out the summit. There was lots of snow (compare Jan. 1) but nobody at the lookout. Or was this another Sasquatch sighting?

Evergreen staged a very successful one day excursion to Green Valley, which provided good experience for a lot of pilots for operating out of a small airfield with the added thrill of some high grass at the sides. It also provided good ridge soaring over Jordan Ridge even if it was not enough to reach Mount Pilchuck.

When the conditions are right, Mount Pilchuck is a formidable thermal generator; it also serves as a prominent waypoint for going South along the Cascades or for going Southeast in the direction of Skykomish.

A perfect weather forecast about strong ridge lift conditions by Paul Adriance led to an early morning outing and a double tow by Paul and Fred to Mount Pilchuck. With up to 40 kts. wind from the SSW there was plenty of lift up to 7700 ft over the mountain allowing nice excursions (see Chinook in center of picture) to Spada Lake.

Another similar prediction resulted in an even more successful operation. After waiting for the early morning fog to clear Brad and Paul took off on another double tow, having to search for a hole in a thin cloud layer before getting to Mount Pilchuck. Paul (Libelle) found the best lift, climbing up to 10000 ft and then setting off upwind to Lake Isabel to explore. Brad (Apis) hung around while the rest arrived — Ernest and Dan in the Blanik and Myles in the Astir. Fred had another opportunity to show off the main gear of the Chinook. Meanwhile some weather was coming in with low level haziness and clouds forming at all levels. By the time Paul came back a cap cloud had formed over the summit. Fortunately the navigation back to Arlington is straightforward and even if the airport is hidden in the haze, the direction (over Jordan Ridge) is clear and everybody made it back before the weather turned sour.

One last excursion before the rainy season took over. Paul (Libelle) and Fred (Chinook) were able to thermal out to the ridges behind Jordan Ridge for one last look at the mountain — until next season.