On Sunday Larry Bunner, Rob Clarkson and I took on a triangle task
to the northwest. Despite the fact that RAP showed 13 mph south surface winds at
1 PM we called a closed task to get us back to Quest Air. We saw the top of lift
at 6,000' and 500-600 fpm lift in the same forecast.

The first and furthest turnpoint was a 5 KM cylinder around the airfield at Lake
Panosofkee. This would put us over the land fill, which seems to be a happening
site. The next turnpoint was to the south the lumber mill at the intersection of
highway 50 and 471 at the top of the Green Swamp.

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-cross-country/blog__day_14

The sky was full of cu's and had been since morning. The wind was moderately
strong with a bit of west in it as forecast. Larry was off after Andrey
Solomykin and I was off after Larry with Rob right behind (two tugs). I had
Zenya drag me over to Larry and I got off at 2100' in good lift. It was just
twirl up to 4,600' (cloudbase) at 300 fpm below Larry with Rob just below me.

Larry had left to the west northwest telling us his direction so that we could
stay closer together. The wind was not any where near as strong as forecast,
between 5 and 10 mph, slightly west of south. He found the next thermal which
averaged over 500 fpm to 5,000'. I had to be careful to stay out of the clouds.

We followed Larry heading northwest and found 550 fpm on average getting above
5,000'. This got us past Center Hill and to the mines on the northwest side of
town where we found 380 fpm to 5,300' At this point Rob was 2,000' below us as
we headed northwest with plenty of cu's between us and the turnpoint. The cu's
were well spaced with lots of sun on the ground.

We were finding the lift right on the south side of the clouds. Right on the
upwind side of the clouds (given the south winds), and right to the north of the
nice hot sunny spots on the south side of the clouds' shadows. This is a perfect
combination.

Larry was still out in front about 2 kilometers. I shaded a bit more westerly
then he did as we got closer to the edge of the 5 km cylinder around the
turnpoint. I was heading for a reasonable looking small cu and was rewarded with
480 fpm to 5,600'. This allowed me to pass Larry and get to the turnpoint first.

Heading southeast out in front Larry called for some lift behind me and I came
in over him as we climbed back up to 5,200'. Leaving the thermal I took a line a
little further west than Larry and kept climbing to 5,400' as we headed south
southwest into the oncoming 6 mph south southwest wind.

We found a mere 250 fpm at Cheryl and I escaped the cu's at 5,700' with Larry
still climbing and headed south southeast down an alley way of sunshine toward a
cu over the small town of Webster. We were still working the south/upwind sides
of cu's with sunshine to their south. To our south southwest was a large area of
shade which I wished to avoid. There was a small area of shade to our east also
which I wished to avoid and the sunshine alley was just about perfectly placed.

The cu was working just like all the other ones that were situated as this one
was. We drifted to the east as the shade came to us from the west with an 8 mph
southwest wind. We got back to 5,700' as I lead out again heading for some good
looking cu's with strong south facing edges just before the lumber mill, which
was in the sun.

The lift was not that great at 250 fpm to 4,200' Larry bypassed it completely
but was quite a bit lower. He headed for the turnpoint as I climbed up. Highway
50 to the east was in the sun with a line of cu's to its north so it looked
possible to just head east from the turnpoint. South east was the Green Swamp
and a more direct route back to Quest, but also no landing areas.

I passed over Larry working weak lift east of the lumber mill but further east
had to work 140 fpm back to 4,400'. Larry had come in under me and then after a
while headed further east. We were watching a small backyard brush fire to our
southeast and speculating if there would be lift associated with it and where it
would be given the 9 mph southwest wind.

The ground ahead was on and off shaded and there wasn't an obvious place to go
to get back up. Larry was low but out in front now and suddenly he hit what was
apparently the rising air from the fire. He took a few extra turns then called
out 600 fpm. We averaged almost 500 fpm to 4,700' and then I found even more a
little further east to 5,000'. We had goal at less than 9 to 1 at this point.

We raced into goal. I averaged 50 mph with a 90 degree cross wind at 7 mph.
Larry says that he averaged 55 mph. He just got to goal a few seconds before I
did.

The winds turned out to be a lot less than forecast and the lift was perfectly
placed and very easy to locate. Cloud base was plenty high. A perfect day for a
closed course task.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.2.2018/18:07