https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-cross-country/blog__day_12

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/22.2.2018/18:00

We called a closed triangle task despite the east southeast wind. Larry wanted
to go to Lake Panosofkee first and then the intersection of the Turnpike and
highway 33 before coming back to Quest. I thought that it was better to go
counter clockwise to keep us over open areas when coming back against the wind.
Larry went with my reasoning.

When he and I got to the west end of the runway the wind was pretty strong, so
we discussed changing the task to clockwise with a turnpoint at Center hill that
would be a decision point allowing us to cut out Panosofkee if it looked like
the wind was too much.

We neglected to let John and Rob in on the change.

I was off first at 1 PM and Larry was right behind me in a second tug so he was
able to come right under me as I climbed out slowly to 4,400'. Either the lift
quit below me or Larry lost it because he flew away after a while. I was at
cloud base so I headed out quickly.

I found 350 fpm with an 11 mph east southeast wind at the next cloud and had to
pull into to stay out of it.  Then it was a nine kilometer glide to almost
400 fpm. This thermal was rough and I decided that I didn't want to stay in it,
so I left at 3,200'.

It took a bit of searching on the southeast side of the cu's ahead to find the
next thermal, which was providing only 165 fpm. and drifting at 13 mph.

As I slowly climbed out almost drifting past the turnpoint to the south. I heard
that Larry and Rob were landing back at Quest Air. Since John did not appear to
be flying, I was on my own for the day. I was only able to climb to 3,400'.

I headed north, took the Center Hill turnpoint and headed northeast with the
thought in mind of cutting the task short as Larry and I discussed and using the
Florida Turnpike as my second turnpoint. Down to 2,100' I again found lift that
averaged 165 fpm with an 11 mph east southeast wind. At this point I thought it
was best to head back to Quest to do an out and return.

I was surfing the east southeast edges of the cu's that I had headed for. I
moved north to catch better lift at the cloud's lip and found 200 fpm. 
Pushing forward from 3,900' I found another thermal at the edge of the cu at 340
fpm which got me back to 3,900'. Now it was time to push to the southeast to get
under the cu's in the next cloud street to the south.

Suddenly I heard John on the radio climbing up at Quest Air. He launched a
little after 2 PM. I was already on my way back. He was going to do the original
task counter clockwise.  Soon Rob and Larry would launch again.

It was a long glide and I was down to 900' when I got under the cloud street.
The lift was poor and broken and mostly sink. Down to 500' AGL I drifted further
back and found more consistent lift. I only climbed to 2,700', but I was under
the cloud street so I could press to the east without losing too much altitude.

I was heading over swamp land with a few small cultivated fields mixed in so I
wanted to be sure to get to the east side by highway 33 and Grass Roots
airfield.

I found a few bits of 200 fpm that kept me above 2,000' as I pushed into the
wind. Looking up and to the east I caught a glimpse of Larry Bunner circling
high in front of me.  As I approached highway 33 I found 360 fpm, maybe the
thermal that Larry was in. John was north at the Turnpike and heading for Lake
Panosofkee. Rob was down south of the Turnpike.

I climbed to 5,000' and it was a an easy glide into Quest from there.

John and Larry made the turnpoint at Panosofkee but landed not too long after
than coming back toward Quest. I was happy to make it back. I had thought that
the task I set for us earlier in the day was too long given that the winds,
while not as strong as the day before, were too strong for an attempt to return
to Quest from so far out.