Quest Air Cross Country
https://airtribune.com/questxc/blog__day_9
Our XCSkies forecast southeast winds at 10 mph at 2,000' at 2 PM rotating to
south southwest north near Jessup, Georgia. Strong lift, a top of lift at 5,000'
to 7,000' but no cu's. Actually whenever there is a southeast wind we have cu's
so we felt that it would be true on Wednesday also.
Ken was off first and then we had a little wait while the tug got some more gas.
I was next at 11:50 AM and found plenty of drift in moderate to weak lift as I
waited for Larry to get towed up and then climb up to me. Once together we
headed off to the northwest downwind toward the Okahumpka service plaza on the
Florida Turnpike. There were indeed cu's and we jumped from one to the next.
The winds were 17 mph out of the southeast but there were no cloud streets
unlike our previous flight and the cu's that were out were very thin but
conveniently spaced.
An hour after I launched we were climbing at the intersection of the Turnpike
and Interstate 75. We had passed Ken and were deciding whether to head north up
state highway 301 or follow along west of Interstate 75. Our climb was to the
north northwest and Larry and I agreed to head north as the east wind component
was pretty weak. The wind was 13 mph out of the south southeast.
The lift was weak, broken and turbulent. I would hit 600 fpm then 200 fpm or
find the edge of the thermal and be in sink. Most climbs lasted less than 500'
but we were for the most part over 4,000' so we were near cloud base at a little
over 5,000'. We did get down to 2,500' over the intersection of highway 301 and
highway 27 next to Bellevue. Traffic was tied up as apparently there were
incidents on 75 and all the trucks were sent over to 301. We climbed out at 350
fpm for the best average so far to 5,000'.
We stayed high and headed north up the slot between the Ocala National Forest to
the east and Ocala to the west. Ken was way off to our west and south. Greg
Dinauer and Cory Barnwell were behind us and following us up 301. It actually
goes off to our west north of Bellevue and we headed straight north to meet up
with it again at Orange Lake.
It had looked at first as though the cu's were going to disappear after we
passed Wildwood, but they would form just in front of us and we would head for
them to find 200 to 300 fpm on average. Again the pattern was for 500' to 1,000'
climbs from now 4,500'. The cu's were broken and turbulent, this didn't change.
We rarely found a solid core.
East of Greystone airfield we headed north northwest to cu's just east of Orange
Lake and south of Lake Lochloosa. I stayed in the 300+ fpm to climb to 5,700'.
Larry left the lift early and I passed him heading for the cu's to the
northeast. I found 400 fpm at 3,000' and Larry saw me and came my way finding
600 fpm before he got to me south of Hawthorne. I heard from him on the radio
(we were in constant contact) and headed over to him just as it quit. I would
have to catch up with him in a couple of thermals.
We followed along east of highway 301 and found strong lift 400 - 500 fpm to
5,900'. I found 700 fpm just below him when he was climbing at 400 fpm so that
got us back together.
We headed north back to 301 and to the south west of Starke, again to the cu's.
We could see the prison off to the northwest as about the only open land to the
west of 301. Our course line took us away from 301 just to be sure that we
didn't get into Jacksonville airspace.
This was perhaps a bit overblown concern. The airspace creeps a little west of
301 further north but we could have easily avoided it by staying 2 to 3 km west
of 301 as we headed northeast toward Jacksonville. We just were not too sure
where we should head. We could see the airspace on our 6030's.
Northwest of Starke we came up upon the Lake Butler Wildlife Management area. To
our east there was smoke coming off a fire and marking the convergence zone. If
we hadn't been overly concerned about airspace (and I am to blame for that) we
would have headed east back to 301 and flown right in the convergence zone, in
the smoke.
Years ago I had flown up here and seen this same convergence zone marked by
smoke. The top of cloud base was much higher then, maybe 7,000' to 8,000' and
the line much more definite then. But I still recognized the line and also felt
the turbulence that is associated with not being in the lift.
I looked ahead as we climbed to 5,700'. All I could see were trees and clear cut
areas to the east of the Wildlife Management area. I lead out but over the trees
at 4,000' I could not see any cultivated fields, and flying barefoot I didn't
want to risk landing in clear cut areas. I had done that before and although I
didn't have a problem, I didn't want to risk it. Again, right then we should
have headed east.
There were no cu's ahead. We had out run them. It looked like we might run out
of lift also.
Larry caught 150 fpm behind me and I went back to him but didn't get it. I
headed back south to get over cultivated field and found lift at 2,000' with a
hawk and a bald eagle, with cu's overhead. Climbing back up I was thinking about
heading east to get close to the highway and get closer to the convergence.
After getting up I decided that I had had enough of the broken lift and looked
for a nice long north south field to land in.
Larry climbed up slowly to my north and west to 5,700' and headed north toward
the Okefenokee Swamp. Our next waypoint to give us general guidance on this task
was St. George on the southeast side of the swamp.
He found a thermal over a non landable area near the official border of the
Management area with a big landable field back to the south. He was able to
climb up and get up to Folkston our next waypoint.
It was getting late, after 6 PM and I was in the car with Belinda. Cory was down
just north of his old home town of Starke. Ken would soon be down near where I
landed after heading south. Greg was soon to be down on 301 just north of
Callahan.
Larry was on glide from Folkston and moving landing field to landing field
interspersed among the trees. Finally he found a large one just south of
Nahunta, east of Waycross.
We got home at 1 AM.
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1445090882
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1351690
http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&l=en&date=20160324&contest=INT&gliderclass=hg1
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.3.2016/15:48
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/
Ken at 108 miles. Don picked him and Cory up:
http://OzReport.com/1458858287
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