Gary Osoba<<wosoba>>
writes:

Thursday was a good day for flights of 100-175 miles, with frontal
activity in the Hill Country and north limiting further distances. Local flying
in the afternoon was spectacular, and might repeat today. As such, a task
committee of Jim Yocum, Atilla Bertok and BJ Herring is calling an FAI 100km
triangle task for possible World Speed records.

On Thursday, Jim Yokum and BJ Herring flew the route to Crystal City and landed
early to make it back to recoup. BJ described a low save that started with a few
turns at 700-800 fpm, followed by a solid 1000-1100 fpm to cloudbase. Robin
Hamilton and Glen Volk flew on to Uvalde. Attila made two runs to the Laredo
area and is continuing to tune his glider.

I flew locally along with Mike Bilyk and Orion Price. We found similar thermal
strengths, close spacing, and CB at about 8500' agl later in the afternoon. Mike
said most all of his climbs were 800-900 fpm, with several exceeding that
including a short section peaking at 1400 fpm on the averager. Big, smooth lift
with all of the clouds working.

Here's a cockpit shot I took mid-afternoon under one of the many streets: