The wind from the east was pretty consistent all day, 8 mph
gusting to 14. The forecast was for cu's, strong lift and a high cloud base. The
forecast was again overly optimistic. It also forecast the wind turning south
easterly, and it did turn east south easterly. There was actually a convergence
to the north with a southwest wind.

We started from the west launch heading east and towing was going great. My crew
was third in line and everyone before us was staying up, even the Sport 2 group
that launched first.

When I took off there was strong lift right away and almost every where I towed
to the east. I pinned off under the topless pilots who launched just before us
and climbed out to 3,300' at 250 fpm. Since my mentees were launched right after
me, I decided to head up wind to get back to Quest to stay with them. There were
plenty of good looking cu's ahead and since I had experienced such strong lift
on tow I figured no problem getting up back east of Quest.

I landed without hitting anything after going under all the cu's. Problem was
most of my mentees also landed.

Took another tow later, got off early in 1,100 fpm. It disappeared as soon as I
pinned off and turned around.

Now I was the last to tow. Stayed on to 2,200' in no lift, pinned off and ran
for a cu over the black greenhouses to the west and down to 1,600' found lift.
The wind was 10 mph out of the east southeast so the thermal moved fast. I was
looking for any of my mentees and climbing at a little over 200 fpm.

Lost the lift at 2,400' and went downwind to see what was available, if
anything. There were plenty of cu's about. Down to less than 1000' I found 350
fpm average to 4,800'. The cu's looked good.

The wind at increased to 12 mph and was pushing me and another pilot too far
toward the west. Heading north I found 250 fpm to 5,000'. Things were looking
up.

There was a blue hole to the north and the cu's were over a forested area to the
west south of the prisons. I had to go there despite my desires and floundered
around until I got next to the small fires from land clearing. I was joined
there by my mentee, Kelly Myrkle. We climbed at 225 fpm to 4,100'. Not high
enough given the bigger and denser forested areas  (swamps) to the
northwest.

Kelly followed along the edge of the swamp to the north. I headed for a big dark
cu and could smell the smoke under it but didn't find much lift. There was a
distance cu further north, but there was not much to recommend it and restricted
landing fields under it. Kelly headed that way. I took a right hand turn for
better cu's nearby to the east, but they were weak and after a long struggle I
went down.

Kelly continued on and was almost able to make it to the turnpoint for second
for the day. Greg Sessa went 85 kilometers for first.

Larry and Fausto were able to make it to goal. We went and picked up Tom Lanning
who went down with his mentees. Greg went down with Nikki.

https://airtribune.com/gssk2016/results

King posted day 4:

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