This is what the sky looked like at 9:14 am:

The flight
here.

SPOT here.

Live Tracker
here.

We set a 10 AM launch time and I was ready at the end of the runway a little
after 10 AM. Mike wasn't quite ready with the trike so I didn't launch until
10:20. Like the last two launches Mike suddenly dropped, I pulled the pin and
landed on the runway. Fifteen minutes later I launched first again and this time
Mike didn't drop and the tow was especially nice given how much work they are.

The cu's had thinned out greatly by the time I was towing, but Mike was able to
take me to a cu and I pinned off at  1,200' in 67 fpm. The wind was 12 mph
out of the south. I climbed to 1,800' drifting just past the airfield, then came
back to it at 1,000' to get under a cu at 300 fpm.  At 11:07 cloud base was
4,300' and the wind was 17 mph.

Chris towed up behind me and I waited for him to join me so that we could fly
for the record together. It wasn't long before he came in underneath me and we
went searching for more lift. There were cu's forming and dying in the area,
although it was sparse. I flew over the
Walburg Mercantile
Restaurant and Bier Garden, where Belinda and I were dancing the night
before.

Chris and I worked a few thermals together then spread out south of Salado to go
to the next cloud. There was a bit of miscommunication and then the cloud in
front of us died, and I headed to the northeast to get under the cloud street
and to avoid the forest that was to our north. I really wanted to go around
Salado to the east and the cloud street was the perfect enticement.

There was a lot of sink on the way and I arrived over the open fields at 700'
under the first cu's. It was 100 fpm. Chris was now behind me and lower and came
in at 300' right below me. I got to see him dig his way out of a hole.

It was pretty incredible as I could see his dark shadow as he crossed over trees
and a house always circling and very slowly climbing. After eighteen minutes and
at 3,300' I decided to head to some cu's to the northeast. Chris, 1000' below
me, followed as the lift was dying where we were. He ran into 900 to 1000 fpm
down.

Chris couldn't make it up from 300' again and landed west of Belton. I found
good lift above him and climbed back to 4,000'. Later Ricker would land next to
Chris and Ben Dunn would come and pick them up as his glider had a little
problem.

I was able to climb up to 4,800' and made the guide point at the Temple airport
high. I was able to keep from getting low climbing slowly west of Moody while
Belinda took a well deserved nap. The cu's were getting even sparser along the
course line, but there were plenty to the east. I was concerned about going in
that direction as in the end I would end up in either Waco or Dallas airspace.

I went north east for the last cu near the course line and it was smoother than
the previous ones, which was a nice break. I even managed to miss the previous
airspace at Crawford around George Bush's ranch. But as soon as I left the cu it
was 700 fpm down almost all the way to the ground.

I landed just past the town of Valley Mills. So about a third of the distance
needed for the record. The flight showed that we could launch at 10:30 AM and
that the cloud base was high then and the lift was adequate to good.

I hope to go with Chris again soon. Maybe tomorrow.

It looks like we'll need to have cu's all the way on the course line. I'll be
looking for that in the weather forecast.