David Whittle <<david.whittle>>
writes:

A week ago Saturday 50K to the north East and Sunday 110K to the
North East

Sunday:

Early morning the wind was looking lighter than forecast so the first thought
was the 50K triangle, cloud base was forecast to be 5 to 6K with good thermal
activity.

As the morning started to develop the sky was looking really good, however the
wind was increasing to 12-15 SSW on the ground with strong a regular thermal
gusts. At 3000ft the wind was blowing at about 12mph from the WSW, Jonathan and
I had already decided that the run up the Western side of Lake Okeechobee would
be on with goal at Okeechobee airport, a similar route to yesterday with a much
better sky and higher cloud base, game on.

Jonathan was off first and hitting some good lift with strong drift behind the
Florida Ridge Flight Park. The sky was still developing down wind and Jonathan
was not getting any lift. I was off next and had the usual great tow from JJ.
The tow as expected was going to be lively. The first thousand feet was
certainly an indication of strong thermal activity, with the lift mellowing out
until releasing at 2300ft.

I worked the first thermal after tow and felt the same strong lift and drift
that Jonathan was having. I resisted going downwind until the sky was more
developed, that said the great thermals also had great sink. I tried to get
upwind of the flight park while waiting for the sky downwind to develop.

My thought was to try and get upwind to where Henry Stiriz was working really
well, the gap between the thermals, the strong sink and the drift prevented me
getting anywhere close to Henry. I worked hard and really only managed to get
slightly down wind and to the east of the park, however this was in line with
the best cloud street that was going to take me to the lake.

As I started out on the route Jonathan came on the radio and announced an
imminent landing, It wasn't until I was over the river to the North of the
flight park I was able to spot a frustrated pilot on the ground. There was steam
coming out of his ears.

The run to the road that is parallel to Lake Okeechobee was a nice one, just
circling under the developing clouds, not wanting to race ahead of the
developing sky, to that end I was content gaining altitude with the good drift.
All my previous four flights in this direction I had concern about stealing
height while flying closer to the lake and the swamp in between, (this is the
second largest freshwater lake in the USA, and while I can swim, I am not that
good, and it does have one or two alligators, and it does create its own micro
climate) on this flight I had no such concerns as the clouds were close enough
together to move up the side of the lake with plenty of height and easy glide
from 4000 feet to multiple landing options.

I hit 6000ft under the front edge of the cloud at the corner of the lake over
Glades. From here it was just follow the cloud streets, with good lift at the
front edge of the clouds. I was just about parallel with the field I landed in
yesterday (50K) when Jonathan and Denis announced they were leaving Moorehaven
after topping up on burger and fries and were on the chase after me.

I made the decision to cut away from the lake and head towards better clouds to
the southwest of the airport at Okeechobee. I hit some great lift here and was
around 6000 feet with the airport easily on glide, and as a bonus marginal sink
the whole glide to the airport. I arrived with about 4500. The North of the town
was shaded for a considerable period of time (so no use trying to go across wind
in dead air), the cloud street was breaking up to the east, however the
abundance of landing fields, the good main road access and the prevailing wind
allowed me to start the next phase of my flight, beating my previous best
distance in this wind direction. I followed a line to the East North East on the
edge of the cloud and the sunshine working the feeder thermals and enjoying a
very good sink rate. By now the chasing crew was catching up. Instructions had
been given to follow the main road to the East. About 15 miles to the east of
the Airport I started to notice a wall of rain about 15 miles ahead. It was race
mode to get as far to the East and get on the ground before the rain. With the
ground crew now below and circling in a weak thermal at 2000 feet, there was
definitely a chance to get a few more miles. I raced as far as I dared before
hitting a few big droplets and spiraling down to arrive in a nice field 110km's
from the start and 3:30 minutes in the air.

A big, big thanks to the ground support team of Denis and Jonathan as I was
packed up and back to the flight park in record time.

Analysis of the flight, "give me a great day and I will give you a great flight"
this is the phrase we use the most when driving to the park on every day we try
and fly. This was indeed a great day. It was my best distance from the Florida
Ridge to date. The flight had no real low save moments, it had no bad sink
moments, the clouds all worked as expected. I flew the sky as instructed in so
many of the books; I was at one with my glider, instrument, harness and radio.
The flight was not as physical as the previous day. The ground was a place to
fly over and enjoy the view almost like a train ride, rather somewhere to fear
being sucked into. The ground crew were brilliant , Denis with his knowledge of
the area and the 'Wurthers Originals' as a reward and Jonathan for his driving
and understanding of just how it felt to do a "great flight".

Can't wait until next weekend.

Sat:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/721074

Sun:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/721075