The Flight
here.

SPOT here.

Live Tracker
here.

After about two weeks of non record conditions, it looked possible (not great,
but possible) on Tuesday, after a rain storm on Monday, for a try at breaking my
205 mile single surface record.

I scheduled Mike Degtoff to come out to tow me up in the ultra ultra light trike
at Chris Zimmerman's at 10 AM. As we drove out to Chris' the cloud base at 8:45
looked very low so I sent Mike a message to wait to come out to tow until 11 AM.

The south wind was lighter than what we had been towing and flying in which
looked like it would make the turbulence on towing easier to handle. I had also
decided to use a three point two to try to make it easier on the tug pilot. I
connected the V-bridle to the carabineer so there would be the least chance of
pulling the glider down, but also would do the least to reduce the bar pressure.

Mike towed me to the land fill to the south east, the perfect spot to get up,
and sure enough there was lift there. I pinned off at 1,100' AGL and got into
185 fpm, which turned out to be the strongest lift for the first hour. I would
stay low and slow for the next 40 kilometers and over an hour.

Mike was much happier with my towing setup and it was a lot easier on him. We
got higher much quicker.

The morning cloud streets had broken up by the time I launched, but there were
thin cu's ahead to the north and many more to the east. I kept finding broken
100 fpm jumping from forming cu to the next one and just hanging out in weak
lift as I drifted at 10 to 13 mph.

As I approached Salado it was blue ahead but I found a "bridge" to the cu's to
the east. A haze dome, then a lone cu, and then the actual area of many cu's. I
took the bridge and made it further east of Salado then at any previous flight.
I also finally found strong lift and a thermal that lasted more than two turns.
I climbed to 4,400' AGL to cloud base.

The already thin cu's were getting even thinner and further apart, but I had
been able to find lift in the blue. It was getting a bit rowdier and finding
lift was getting even easier, but my left shoulder was beginning to ache. I had
forgotten to take any pain relievers.

As I headed for McGregor, the second turnpoint on the projected route between
the airspaces, I felt that the pain was just making the flight not so much fun.
I found a big field south of Moody and running away from lots and lots of lift
finally found my way down to a super smooth landing.

The landowner came over after a while and was a very friendly gentleman rancher
with 300 head of Angus, which weren't any where near me. He helped put the
glider back on the rack after I broke it down. Belinda was two miles away when I
landed.

The cu's did dry up north of McGregor when I was there, but they were fully
formed and tightly packed south of Belton, which we saw on our way home. The
cu's also increased to the north later in the day.

There was a problem with the wind direction to the north which became as
forecasted more northwest which would have pushed me toward or into the
Dallas/Fort Worth airspace.

The dark spot in the middle of the Texas map shows the lack of cu's where I was
flying at the end of the flight. You can also see the cu's curve around.