https://airtribune.com/play/3045/2d

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-cross-country/blog__day_2

The forecast was good but then high clouds came over. Combined with the cu's
they made for a very dark ground.

The lift was spotty and broken and often weak. When we got above 4,000' it was
bitterly cold even with five layers.

I pinned off at 1,000' AGL in light lift launching just before 1 PM with Zenya
as the tow pilot. John Simon and Greg Dinauer took extra time to get going.
Larry Bunner showed up just before I launched.

I hung around waiting for John and Greg and then we finally climbed up to 4,600'
and headed west following John who was still hot to do the long around the Green
Swamp task. His radio wasn't working so we couldn't tell him that we were
thinking of going to the lumber yard at highway 50 and 471 and then back.

We all glided together, me on a Wills Wing T2C 144, Greg on an Aeros Combat, and
John on an Aeros Combat. Our glide ratios were identical.

I found some lift west of Mascotte that John missed and Greg joined me. While
John struggled we stayed high. We found even better lift at 340 fpm on average
to 4,800' further west as John still struggled.

Diving into the lumber yard, the lift was weak there but we worked it as John
got better lift to the north. He came in over us and headed west to see if he
could continue the task as Greg and I worked to get up enough to head back to
Quest.

There is a long stretch of trees that John was not high enough to cross so he
came back and then landed just east of the lumber yard. I got up higher than
Greg and headed east back to the mines that produces lift for us on the way out.
Down to 1,700' AGL I worked 130 fpm back to over 4,100'.

Greg didn't get up and landed near where I climbed out. I headed back toward
Quest Air with 11:1 glide radio required. Unfortunately heading south east meant
into a bit of a southerly head wind and I was often getting 6:1. I landed just
south of Mascotte in a big field that I had picked out previously.