The day looked like it would be good with cu's and a northeast wind that wasn't
too strong. Forecast for convergence at 4 PM on the west side of the Green Swamp
over Zephyr Hills and north up to Lake Panasoffkee. Cloud base at 6,000'. Nice
and warm on the ground
Larry Bunner and I got down to the west launch after a morning full of launches
and flying, many first aerotow solos. We thought that we would have to wait but
the other pilots were waiting for us to go to show them some lift after a good
number had fallen down. We thought that the day would be later, but decided to
go around 1 PM as the sky was beginning to fill up with cu's. Quest Air would
set a new record of fifty seven aerotows on a day without a competition.
I was towed to a nice cu on the west side of the field and with Olaf already
circling it was easy to get up to 4,200'. Larry was just behind me (as you can
see in the video) but got off a little too early and had to work harder to get
high.
The wind was about 10 mph out of the northeast and it would stay that way all
day. Our task was a clockwise box around the Green Swamp (see the URL above) so
we would have to come back on the north side into the wind to make it back to
Quest Air.
The cu's were thin and sparse, but plentiful enough to keep us connecting the
dots. They were all working. Olaf, far below me, peeled off from west of
Seminole toward Wallaby for his triangle task. Stump was west and below us.
Larry was just a few kilometers behind having dug his way out near Quest Air.
The first turnpoint was Dean Still and Rockridge intersection on the southeast
corner of the Green Swamp. There were some strong cu's just before that
turnpoint and Larry came in under me as I topped out a few thousand feet over
him and then headed west.
My plan was to just go around the swamp, but Larry and Mitch, who started half
an hour later after a morning of work, had Zephyr Hills as a turnpoint. I was
thinking more like Clinton as a turnpoint, or at least something in that area
(as we've done before in competitions) and headed northwest up the west side of
the swamp to the best looking clouds. This was where we expected the convergence
to happen, but it wasn't quite there yet.
I found a rough thermal under a big cu and saw that the wind had died down to 5
mph out of the south east, just as forecast. The clouds weren't streeting up
like you might hope for in a convergence zone but there were lots of little
cu's right up where we were expecting to find the convergence line to the north
and the northwest corner of the Green Swamp. When Mitch came along later he
found the streets and was able to take this south to north leg without turning.
Larry an I had to climb at each dot in the sky.
The lift was good and a bit smoother after the first cu so it was generally
fairly pleasant going north. Larry had taken the Zephyr Hills turnpoint so he
was further behind now. He was headed for the intersection of I75 and highway
98, which I also ignored, taking a route a bit to the east and closer to the
Swamp over an open pit mine.
The cu's ended north of the Green Swamp but there were a good number of them
over the swamp, so I decided to take good lift at the mine and then follow the
cu's south of highway 50 out over the swamp. I was high enough that I could
still make it to the open fields to the north if need be. Larry was heading to
his turnpoint as I flew over the swamp.
The cu's were working there and there was nothing to the north, so I stuck with
them getting over 6,500'. The winds were light over the Green Swamp but as I
approached the east side there was the 10 mph wind again.
I headed for the last cu over the swamp (there were no cu's from the east side
of the swamp to the east toward Quest Air) and decided not to veer off course to
go to another cu. This proved to be a mistake as the good looking cu I was
headed for was about to fall apart. There were some wisps further east just over
the east edge of the Green Swamp but they were not producing enough to get up. I
was drifting back over the swamp at 3,000'.
The cu's kept forming behind me and as I drifted back I started to find snippets
of better lift as the area out in front continued to stay blue. The cu's kept
forming behind me and although I wasn't excited about drifting back over the
Green Swamp (no landing zones in the swamp) I needed the height to be able to
make it back to Quest Air.
Stuck on the edge of the swamp for twenty minutes I finally found better and
better pieces of lift and got up to 5,100' three kilometers back from here I
started. I was hoping for 6,000', but wasn't willing to go back further and with
a 7.9:1 glide ratio I thought that I had a chance even against the 10 mph wind.
I pulled in my arms, pulled the VG tight and headed toward a small patch of
Quest Air grass in the distance.
There were plenty of bail out LZ's and I knew of one in particular that I
thought that I could make no matter what. My glide varied between greater than
8:1 and 5:1 as the required L/D crept up and my height above the best glide line
decreased.
I came up with a plan. I would continue toward Quest Air and pass my favored
bail out field. If it didn't look like I could make it over the trees and power
lines before Quest I would turn around and land in that field. There was ten
kilometers yet to go and I was losing altitude fast, but at least I had a plan.
As I approached my bail out field I couldn't tell yet if I was going to make it.
The trees and swamp looked way too high. I was getting 5.4 to one over the
ground and my required L/D was 8.3:1. My height above best L/D was going down
fast and was down to 300' as I came up on and passed the bailout field.
I looked over the edge toward Quest and saw that I had a good chance to make it.
I would have to land in the narrow slot by the road going into the field, but it
was wide enough. I was going for it.
As I came with in half a kilometer I was still doing okay. It looked like I had
enough altitude to veer to the south and make the west launch slot. Thankfully
there was no plane coming in nor one on the ground although there were two
gliders there lined up to launch. I veered off and came in over the highway with
150 feet. The wind was light on the ground so I was willing to give a strong
flare and came down with a one step landing near my trailer. I was so happy to
have made it. It was worth the risk just for the thrill.
Larry was only seven kilometers behind me and made it back after leaving the
swamp and heading north to highway 50 at the halfway point. Mitch didn't try for
the swamp and landed about 14 km from Quest on the north side of highway 50. I
think that Olaf and Stumpy made it back to Quest from their tasks.
Quest Air has been jumping despite the fact that the Easter weekend is over.
Don't these people have jobs? The business has been growing at 20% a year and it
is exciting to be here and see all the success.
Tomorrow, 30% chance of rain late in the day and then two days of high chances
of rain for Thursday and Friday before clearing on Saturday.
