https://airtribune.com/questxc/blog__day_4

We've got an ongoing cross country non-competition going here at Quest Air. With
Larry Bunner, John Simon, Ken Kinzie, Cory Barnwell, Greg Dinauer and me. Looks
like good days ahead.

I set a task but it is usually changed at the last minute depending on the
conditions and I don't have time to go back and change it on Airtribune. Any
task will do, allowing us to start tracking and for our tracks to be displayed
on the Airtribune web site.

On Tuesday Larry's phone turned off. Ken's phone stopped. Greg wasn't and hasn't
yet signed up. I was the only one to be tracked and Belinda kept Sue Bummer who
was on retrieve updated by SMS.

A few minutes into the flight my 6030 screen froze, but the 6030 still beeped. I
had also forgotten to hook up my headset to the radio. I was first to launch (in
a bit of a hurry I guess) and I just waited for Greg and Larry to get up to me
before we headed off.

The wind was out of the south and there were good cu's and it was easy to get to
4,800' not quite cloud base. Greg headed out first but he headed north toward
the better looking clouds without taking into consideration the southwest wind
which would take us over a swamp and on edge of the west side of the Leesberg
airspace.

After climbing with Larry and Greg I headed northwest to Grass Roots to get
under some cu's and stay further west and away from Leesburg. Unfortunately
Larry and Greg didn't follow me and so I was on my own for the rest of the
flight.

The going was slow with broken weak lift until I found 300 fpm to 5,300' just on
the southeast end of the Villages north of the Turnpike. Turns out Larry and
Greg were over me about a thousand feet higher when they saw me circling.

I kept heading north northwest cross wind to get over to highway 301 and the
path west of the Ocala National Forest. Seems like I passed Greg and Larry up
just before Silver Springs without seeing them.

North of the Leeward airfield there is a long area of trees and a few tight
landing areas, but I was staying above 3,000' so it wasn't an issue. Greg had
landed south of Ocala.

With open fields east of the Keystone airfield I was working lift from 2,000'
and drifting over swamp lands. I kept going cross wind after each climb. Down to
1,400' over some large dry looking fields I climbed out at 200 fpm as I
contemplated the lakes ahead and continued to see a path back toward 301 as I
drifted over more swamp.

North of Citra I came over a large area of mostly blue berry farms, but with
some open fields. Hawthorne was just ahead but there were few landing areas to
the north and I was down to 2,000' and not finding any lift at almost 4PM. The
fields with the blue berries did not look that inviting so I landed with the
cows instead. They were curious, even the bull.

Larry landed about the same time fourteen kilometers back to the south.

The land owners were quite pleasant even though I scared the women home alone
with four kids (two neighbors). When her husband got home we drove out to the
back 40 and loaded up my glider and then arrived back at the house just as Sue
Bunner showed up in my truck.

First cross country flight to the north this Spring. Ken Kinzie landed to the
south east just on the other side of all the swamps.