I'm off first for the first time this season at 12:30. There have
been cu's all morning. The air is full of moisture and it is hard to see very
far. Two ATOS pilots and Greg then Larry fourth off makes for a bit crowded
launch conditions.
Greg and I hook up but Larry doesn't get the lift that we are in and sticks with
the ATOS pilot from Wallaby who left his glider as Quest over night for a flight
back on Thursday. We altered out plans a bit to go past Wallaby first on a 150
km triangle so that he could have an escort home.
Greg and I find 200 to 300 fpm as we push southeast heading east of the course
line to get a little bit up wind. There is a lot more shading than we'd
like and at first we can't get over 3,600'. The lift gets weaker as we get under
the dark cu's over the dark ground so we are struggling, going slowly.
We blunder around with a sky full of sailplanes and very mixed up cu's, Greg
gets ahead and heads south while I move to the east to get up over highway 27
working under a line of clouds that finally work for me. I hear from him that
he's got good lift 4 km ahead at 474 and 27 and as I'm at 4,500' an hour and
twenty minutes into the flight I race to join him. I've only gone 17 km, but
things are improving.
Larry is over highway 33 way to the west so we're not doing him any good. We
find good lift getting to Wallaby quickly and having decided that the day is not
a 150 km task day we opt to turn back there. There are good looking cu's to the
northwest.
Mitch Shipley and Tom Nejame have joined us and are heading to Quest Air also.
Mitch just decides to hang with me. I've lost Greg behind and Larry is just a
bit further behind having gone to Wallaby and is now turning around to come
back.
I head over to a line of east/west clouds on the west side of highway 33 with
the winds showing very light. Mitch comes by, goes deeper in and finds better
than the 200 fpm I'm climbing in. I race over to join him and he gets to leave
first back up over 4,000'.
There are plenty of cu's all the way in so I don't worry about getting high as
there'll be lift on final glide if I need it. Greg, Larry and I arrive all at
about the same time back at Quest Air. Mitch was there but had wanted to fly
back to Wallaby.
On the 16th we went 110km, on the 18th 93kn, and on Thursday 68km. The others
were four hours of flying, Thursday, three.
