Mick Howard <<MHoward1>>
writes:

We headed to Luling and stayed at the Riverbend RV Park on Friday
evening. I had two flights on Saturday and was planning to fly an out and return
and but I didn’t manage to connect with thermals and stay up so just enjoyed the
evening and the good company after landing on my second flight which is when I
watch Dan Jones show me how it’s done with his first ever flight on a topless,
Mark’s T2, which he flew like he had been flying it forever – great to watch.

The forecast was for better soaring conditions and stronger winds aloft on
Sunday compared to Saturday so I had entered a downwind task in my GPS which
would have pushed me directly over Austin class C airspace so I entered a
waypoint for Elgin which is a private air strip east of Austin which placed me
clear of the Austin class C. I knew there were no other class B, class D or
restricted airspace on route for headings to the Northeast (east of Temple) and
many class D’s have ceilings of 2500ft and rarely above 3500ft.

Joel said be ready in fifteen minutes and the tug arrived right on time as
Walter and Mark were helping with launch duties, thanks guys.

Joel hauled me up behind his 912 Dragonfly at 12:20pm and dropped me in a nice a
big cumi so I couldn’t have wished for a better and easier start to the XC –
Joel, thanks for the great tow. As per the graph below illustrating conditions
at Carter Memorial Airport, the wind was southerly and were the same aloft which
meant crossing streets to work my way over to the Elgin which was only forty six
miles but consumed the first hour and fifty minutes of the flight.

I was surprised to find the winds aloft shifting to southwest so I decided to
not follow my intended track towards Temple and take the easy ride straight
downwind. I decided to concentrate on picking the best lines and to work on
thermaling skills which seemed to have escaped me, though this was relatively
straight forward given the fantastic cloud markers on route which made it just a
matter of connecting the dots.

I flew conservatively and was never in a position where I had to scratch or look
for a low save and the lowest I got was down to around 1900ft agl about 2hours
15 minutes of flight and then down to around 1500ft agl after 3 hours of flight
but with quarries and industrial plants and other triggers and with good markers
I never felt in danger of losing it even when the clouds had started drying up
as there was lift in the blue.

I started what was to be my last climb around 5 pm and having covered around 115
miles. Since we had to get back to Luling to pick up the travel trailer and head
back to Houston and the fact that the wind strength and drift was much weaker
than forecasted and being a slow pilot, I knew it would be impossible to make a
personal best distance, so I decided then that I would land at 125 miles and
certainly before 6pm. I took that 5 pm climb to about six grand and then drifted
along taking in the landscape and weighing up landing options which were
plentiful.

In the distance it seemed I had a choice of staying high and flying a few miles
over trees to more open land or to track over to some good looking options in
view. was the decision I took though tracking there meant flying away from lift
several times (strange it’s so easy to find lift when you don’t need it!). I
picked out a nice easy landing field with good road access to make for an easy
retrieve and landed about five miles east of Kossey at 5:35pm to complete a
straight line distance of 126.6 miles.

Joanne was only 30 minutes away and Gregg Ludwig called me just after I had my
glider packed away and by the roadside (I am sure he has satellite surveillance
on me as he always seem to call me within minutes of landing).

We stopped for dinner on the 166mile drive back to Luling where we arrived at
10:30pm. We decided to get a few hours sleep and break camp early morning so we
were up at 4am and headed back to Houston so that I could make it to work on
time.

Big thanks to Joanne for always being there to help and pick me up. Every XC
brings a new experience and takes us to places we wouldn’t have otherwise
explored.