On Thursday, the RAP and NAM forecasts differed greatly from each
other and the sky was full of thick mid level clouds in the morning which made
the prospects of calling a task a bit daunting. There certainly wasn't any lift
and there were no prospects for cumulus clouds. The satellite photos showed a
large area of clouds over most of the state (Georgia), but I could see from the
satellite loop and from looking up into the sky that they would be thinning out
from the west (and we had a southwest wind at 10 mph).

I set a practice task 70 km downwind to the northeast to a little north south
grass strip at a farm. I wasn't sure if pilots wanted to fly a real task or not,
but it was no problem setting it up to encourage pilots to give it a try. I set
the first start time at 3 PM, with three more 15 minutes apart. A late task
assuming that things would heat up late as they sure wouldn't be heating up
early.

It wasn't until 1:45 PM that the mid level clouds finally broke up and we were
getting direct sunlight. I took a tow and while it started off strong I didn't
find any lift after pinning off and had to give it a try a few minutes later at
2:30 after Greg Dinauer and Mike Bilyk showed me that there was lift. The second
time I pinned off low in good lift and quickly drifted to the northeast in 175
fpm.

It was too early to leave so we had to wait around in the 5 km start cylinder.
Very few pilots were launching so it was hard to see if anyone would join us.
The lift would never get above 200 fpm on average throughout the day, although
there would be times we would get 400 fpm for short periods.

Finally after waiting around we took the 3:15 start clock and headed out toward
a vast wooded area. At three thousand feet it looked like it would not be
possible to go in that direction but at four thousand we could see possible
landing areas that broke up the forest. We were actually following highway 49,
the Andersonville POW trail.

The lift was weak and we were soon working 44 fpm at 1,800' AGL off a large dry
open field fourteen kilometers from the start. That didn't last very long and
the next jump to eighteen kilometers was slow for me with Mike and Greg moving
out ahead. I found it first just west of the prison south of Olegthorpe at
1,500' AGL as I reported to Belinda that I was low and might be landing. This
turned out to be the best lift of the day averaging almost 200 fpm.

Greg caught sight of me and came back. I radio Mike and told him I was in 400
fpm, which was true at that point, but he came back too low (900' AGL) and
didn't find it and ended up landing across from the prison in a wheat field.

Pete Lehmann, Bubba Goodman, and a rigid wing pilot joined us and we very slowly
drifted toward goal getting back up over 4,000' AGL. All of us were flying very
conservatively as this was not a race, the lift was weak, and we might as well
stay together.

We continued to get low and find lift over land fills (100% of the time) and
over dry fields (20% of the time). Thirteen kilometers out from the goal we got
high (3,700' AGL) west of the Blue Bird factory (we could see hundreds of yellow
busses below us) and it looked like we could make it in. We found a nice bit of
lift four kilometers from goal just to make sure that we would be plenty high
when we went searching for a field near the goal as the goal field/grass landing
strip was not into the wind.

We all landed together in a very nice field next to the highway with Beth and
Belinda arriving early. A great start to a competition and now we know where to
find the lift. The winds look similar for tomorrow.

The flight
here.