With lighter east winds (or so it was forecast) Sunday was a big time flying day
at Quest Air and apparently at Wallaby Ranch also. Larry came up with a task
that would have put us in some swamp to the west, so on the fly we enlarged the
cylinder radius on the first turnpoint to 20 km.
It was weak right after aerotowing as there was a blue hole right over Quest but
cu's a quarter mile to the north or south. I pushed up north and then worked
weak lift, but finally had to commit myself to going downwind without a chance
to get back to Quest if I didn't get up. I was rewarded under a nicely forming
cu and Larry was also finally getting up east of me. We took the 2:30 PM clock
together high with James Stinnett way below us.
Larry was on my north side as I headed for the Green Swamp and some cu's south
of the course line toward Chin. He was plummeting while James stopped to start
climbing. Larry thought he was going to land near highway 50 while I worked weak
lift under a cloud crossing the Green Swamp (like last Tuesday).
There were plenty of cu's and Larry was working 300 fpm from 900' as I got up
over 5,000' into the quite cold air. My whole body was shaking.
With the southeast wind the lift was on the southeast side of the cu's and it
was easy to get to the west to the first turnpoint (or at least 20 kilometers
east of it). Larry was struggling, not able to get high but still moving along
not too far behind. James didn't have a working radio so we had no idea where he
was.
I made the turnpoint first and headed northeast toward the 10 kilometer
turnpoint at Baron airfield, north of the Turnpike. Crossing highway 301 south
of Bushnell I came in under James who was at 5,600' and drifted back to the
northwest climbing well again on the southeast side of the cu.
So far so good, the lift had been every where for me and the big problem was
getting too cold. Larry was now heading back toward the second turnpoint. I
headed out after getting over 5,000' and toward more cu's heading for their
south sides.
As I went from cu to cu I wasn't finding any lift and going up wind I was
pushing and pushing to try for the next cu. Finally down to 1,700' west of
Center Hill I found 50 fpm and knew that I had to stay with it. Just then James
came in under me at 600' AGL. He didn't find anything below me and soon landed.
Larry finally found his first good thermal in the cu's behind me that I somehow
missed. I worked up as the lift improved to 300 fpm, but only got to 3,500' not
concentrating well enough as I drifted back. When I pushed forward again, I saw
that I wouldn't make it to the next reasonable looking cu.
Looking back to the northwest I saw a good dark roiling cu on the southwest
corner of the forested area. I headed back there to find 600 fpm with a bunch of
buzzards. Again not concentrating I only took it to 5,500'.
Heading northeast over the forest toward the turnpoint I headed for good looking
clouds trying to get on the southeast side and over the sunny areas, but didn't
find any lift worthy of the name. Larry had by now jumped ahead and was about
four kilometers in front of me and about at the turnpoint.
After a long search I looked back downwind again to see if I saw any cloud that
could get me back up and, if not that, a field that I could land in. I headed
way west to the hottest looking field with the best looking cloud over it. There
wasn't much when I got there and just hung out at 700' at the downwind end of
the field waiting to either get up or for the field to calm down so that I could
have an uneventful landing after flying over the cattle. I did the later.
Larry made the turnpoint and found plenty of lift making it back to Quest Air.
It looks like there will be a couple more days of lighter east winds here in
central Florida for good flying conditions. It's great to have flying partners.
