https://airtribune.com/questxc/blog__day_13

On Saturday not too many pilots showed up to fly as the wind was a bit too
strong out of the east. Lots of cu's and it sure looked beautiful, but only Mike
Williams gave it a go and he had a bit of a wild ride before landing quickly.

Tons of pilots showed up on Sunday with the promise of lighter winds and plenty
of cu's. Unlike Saturday the cu's took their time about showing up with Quest in
the middle of a blue hole. It wasn't until about 1 PM that we had overhead
clouds.

We decided on a task, south to Fantasy of Flight, north back to Live Oak then
back to Quest. It really is an out and return with a little deviation to the
east for the Live Oak turnpoint.

With the northeast wind blowing what seemed to be about 10 mph, we trudged on
down to the south west and setup on the west side of the north/south runway far
enough to the north to stay away from any rotors coming off the trees on the
east side of the runway.

Andrey Solomykin took off then a tandem and I was up next. Most of the pilots
were hanging back to see how it went.

I found weak lift just south of the Groveland high school and called out on the
radio to Niki Longshore who was after me. Timothy Ettridge dropped her off not
too far away and above me as the lift improved as we drifted west. The wind was
9 mph out of the east northeast.

We climbed to 5,300' We were supposed to hook up with Michael Williams who was
actually quite near us but we didn't see him and didn't hear him on the radio. I
were hanging around waiting for him.

Despite a sky full of cu's there weren't that many on our course to the south
along highway 33. I headed out first to spot the next thermal, found a good one
but then came back as I thought Niki was still behind me. Turned out she was
just to my east. Now I was well below her.

We futzed around in a couple of weak thermals until I went out again and found
370 fpm on the southeast end of the Seminole Glider Port. The day was looking up.

Michael was way out ahead of us thinking that we were way ahead of him and he
needed to catch up. We had waited for him back at Quest and never saw him.

Chasing dark bottom clouds I got low and had to run back upwind to the east to
catch lift at 1,700'. Working weak lift I was able to get high enough to
try areas over forested lands with better lift prospects and found almost 500
fpm to 4,700'.

Catching up with Niki we all got high enough with another pilot to head for the
turnpoint at the Fantasy of Flight. I pushed to the east to stay under cu's and
to get a bit upwind. I wanted to take the turnpoint high and then run back under
any available clouds.

Niki got the turnpoint but was quite a bit lower than I was having stayed
downwind of it. I headed to cu's back to the northwest and over Polk City found
200 fpm on average that started at 500 fpm. Niki was getting lower south of us
but heard about the lift and came our way. She found even better as I headed out
with another glider to the north and she drifted south.

Heading up wind I was down to 2,300' under a nice looking cu that wasn't doing
much. Searching around then pushing upwind along what seemed to be a lift line I
found 300 fpm at 1,900'. There were bits and pieces of forming wispies and I was
at the edge of a forested area and open farm lands. The source seemed to be a
dry field in the forested area.

At 4,700' I again headed directly upwind along what took to be a lifting line
and cu's above. Seven kilometers later down to 2,700' at Brown Shin road and at
the east end of what looked to be a forming cu I found lift that averaged over
600 fpm. I had seen Niki high just to my south as I was about half way to this
source but didn't go back to get under her. She now came and joined me as three
pilots climbed to 5,700'.

We were still thinking of making the turnpoint at Live Oak and we were upwind of
the course line, but now all the cu's were downwind to near highway 33. A ten
kilometer glide and down to 2,300' I found 500 fpm and got the other pilot and
Niki to join me. We were just a few kilometers southwest of Seminole. Quest was
now the next turnpoint and goal.

That thermal got me to 6,200', which is plenty to make it back to Quest if there
isn't any wind. I had a 8 mph head wind. Leaving my comrades below and behind I
started out cautiously as there were only wispies ahead and few of them to boot.

With just a few minor indicators of lift with a couple of haze domes, I found
another thermal after 10 km and that was enough to get me into goal even when
the glide had deteriorated to less than 6 to 1.

Niki landed just a few kilometers short in her Icaro Orbiter kingposted glider.
Michael, way out in front of us, landed quite a ways back.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1255038437

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/138796

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/24.4.2016/17:19

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

All and all a very sweet day in Florida. We heard that Mike Barber had gone
south 75 kilometers from Wallaby downwind the whole way. We, at least, made the
effort to do the harder task of an out and return with a strong enough wind.