Another day flying in that sweet Georgia air.

The task committee was a little too concerned about the chance of over
development, which I thought was moderate. We had a pretty good thunderstorm the
night before and there were lots of left over clouds in the morning which seemed
to threaten more later.

Given the unease a 96 km task out and return to the northeast was called and by
the time of the pilot's meeting at 11 AM the sky was all cleared up with puffy
little cu's spread sparsely about. The day looked friendly enough.

We've been having a great time and the pilots looked pretty darn happy at the
meeting. The turnpoint radius was twenty kilometers, but as it was an out and
return no optimization of the task on  the 6030's was required. Lots of
trees along the course line, but plenty of landing areas also.

The lift was weak in the start circle at first and we knew that at launch time
the cloud base would not be nearly as high as the day before. There was a small
backyard fire nearby and that provided some extra lift for those of us hauled
over to it, so I was soon at base.

The wind was light, four mph, out of the southwest and we drifted north toward
thicker clouds as the puffy cu's got more numerous and thicker. Soon we were in
great lift and the trick was to stay out of the clouds at  3,600' AGL.

The sky was full of pilots and the lift was spread out so it was a joy waiting
at cloud base until the start time at 1:50 PM. As soon as the window opened
thirty pilots were on a fast glide to the northeast toward Oglethorpe.

There were plenty of cu's ahead but the lift was not that strong, averaging less
than 300 fpm. Zippy, Davide, and Christian got out ahead and it was hard to keep
up with them. After three thermals I lost track of them as the lift slowed down
and we were approaching the river. Johnny was running fast and low and seemed to
be behind me.

With lots of trees ahead and since we were not getting particularly high, 3,000'
AGL, I took lift at less than 100 fpm and let it drift me to the north at 8 mph.
Finally I was able to get across the river and over some orchards southwest of
Marshalville and down to 1,600' I fond lift that averaged 250 fpm. That got me
back to 3,800' which made it easy to get to the turnpoint.

As I headed back southwest into the four mph headwind, there was a small orchard
fire ahead and I was aiming for it. I ignored the pilot slowly getting up to my
left and watched the very low pilot drifting back from the fire and climbing
slowly.

The fire did not provide any lift and now I was stuck. I spent the next eighteen
minutes working very light lift and then falling down and starting again. Down
to 700' I went over the fire one more time just as the orchardist put some more
branches on the fire with his front loader. The lift took off and I climbed out
with three or four other pilots including Ricker to 3,400' AGL.

Ricker and I headed out into a sky that was now congested with large patches of
shaded ground in front of us. We raced for the front (southwest) edge of the
clouds to find the lift.

The lift was still weak and we were heading into the wind. We worked together,
found 250 fpm southwest of Marshalville and got back to 3,800' AGL. The ground
was shaded out ahead of us for a longer distance than we could glide.

We got under the dark cloud over the shaded ground and the sink slowed down. I
headed out back over the river to the west and Ricker was willing to chance it
with me.

Across the river we got to the edge of the cloud and in the sunlight at 1,600'
AGL (seems to keep repeating) and found 160 fpm to 3,700' AGL. There were cu's
ahead so we pressed on.

Down to 1,300' AGL we were twenty two kilometers from goal and on the south edge
of Ogelthorpe. It was 4:30 PM. We'd been on the task for two hours and forty
minutes.

There was zero or slightly minus sink for me, but Ricker was very slowly
climbing in his bigger glider. With not great landing options and me slowly
descending I decided to head east toward highway 49 and a large plowed field
that looked like it would accommodate a sedate landing. Ricker continued to
circle where I left him.

As I got over the field and down to 600' I spotted two circling birds below me
that were occasionally flapping. I asked them to stop with the flapping.

I climbed up in 140 fpm smooth lift as I drifted back away from goal. I was only
able to get back to 2,800' AGL. Ricker meanwhile got up some and pushed forward
toward the prison picking out one landing field after another. I was avoiding
going in that direction back to the east as it was all sunny with no cu's over
head.

I skirted the edge of cu's to the east over the river and headed for the factory
further south. According to Ricker he hit 600 fpm at the prison (way stronger
than any lift that we have seen all day) and climbed to 5,700', two thousand
feet higher than we'd seen all day.

There was no lift over the factory so I continued south looking at the various
landing field options. I don't want to land in the wheat and I saw a long rough
field ahead that looked like it was uncultivated. I glided next to the highway
heading down the field and noticed ahead that there are small rows of little
trees in the field. Okay I can handle that.

As I get closer I noticed that the trees that I thought were two feet high are
actually six feet high surrounded by four feet of brown weeds. Okay, I flared at
six feet and had an uneventful landing near the end of the field. The trees were
soft pine trees and do no damage. I landed within seventeen kilometers of the
goal.

Meanwhile Ricker was able to make it within four kilometers of the goal, so
maybe he did indeed find strong lift at the prison.

Six pilots were able to make it back to goal. Mitch was the last one in.

The thunderstorms came but after sundown. Lots of rain and wind. Should be good
again tomorrow.

The flight
here.

Live Track here.

Spot
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Results
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Overall
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