The forecast was for a blue day with 10 to 12 mph surface winds
out of the northwest. The lift would be moderate and the top of lift maybe
4,000'. Certainly not a great day, but none the less a day that was flyable and
taskable.
We setup in the southeast corner of Wilotree Park and lined up for the launch.
We were measuring the wind speed and it showed 6 to 8 mph with a gust to 11 mph.
Pretty light winds given the forecast, but we were feeling a bit of paranoia as
the weather briefing had over-stated the wind strength and pilots were urged to
land in big fields. I certainly was feeling the nerves.
Given the fears we sent Christian off and at 500 feet he broke his weak weaklink
in turbulence. Turns out he also had a bad shoulder release that didn't work.
With a new weaklink and a new release he towed up completely smoothly. This
meant we were ready to launch.
But paranoia strikes deep and into your heart it will creep. Teams scheduled to
launch first or early declined which set in motion a bad precedent encouraging
other teams to rotate to the back. Only those pilots willing to take the risk
moved to the front of the launch lines.
In normal circumstances, pilots just get in line in order and launch. This means
that no one is sticking their nose out. But when pilots begin declining the
launch order, that means that if you launch you're doing the extraordinary and who
knows what fate awaits you.
My team was set to launch fifth, but with teams disappearing in front of us we
had to scramble. Willie Van Caulert said he was not going to launch yet, but
Eric Kriner and Lee Silver, the other team team members, were getting ready to
launch right after me. I hurried up and got into the empty launch line right
after the team in front launched.
Jim Prahl pulled me up in April's 582-powered plane and it was horrible. There
was something wrong with the prop and he was going so slow that I was wallowing
behind him. We were going up at 100 fpm, which meant that the air was going down
at 300 fpm. Finally not able to stand it any longer and with Jim climbing at a
rate above 400 fpm I pinned off at 1,900'. The thermal was 50 fpm, but we had
vowed in our team meeting to stay in anything no matter what, so I did to
2,400'.
Our team tactic for the day was to be very patient. We figured that the thermals
would be weak and moving very quickly to the southeast. Yes, that could put us a
bit downwind of the 3 kilometer cylinder at the intersection of Deen Still and
highway 33, but we needed to stay in the air. In fact the day was a lot better
than had been forecast and even without the cu's that we saw on Sunday it was
even a better day than Sunday in many ways (short distances to thermals, light
sink).
I moved over a bit in the thermal as I spotted Christian, John Simon and Mick
Howard, all mentors, no mentees, circling over the south end of the Wilotree
field. We were quite visible to the pilots on the ground and I was hoping that
we would encourage them to get going. The air was not rough at all and we were
climbing at 255 fpm. While it was a little turbulent getting out of the field,
certainly not any worse than on Sunday.
One of my team mates, Eric, had landed at back at Quest and taken out a down
tube. Willie wasn't going to launch, but Lee was in the air. Unfortunately, he
didn't have a push to talk and was only listening, if at all, with the
microphone Velcroed to his shoulder. I was waiting for him and others to get
going and just being patient and slow.
Topping out at 3,900' and drifting in a 12 mph northwest wind I headed south at
best glide speed not wanting to get too far ahead of Lee. The next close by
little thermal got me back to 3,000' at 230 fpm. No need to rush ahead. As I was
in the lead I called out my climb rates and distance to the turnpoint as we
discussed in our team meeting. No doubt Lee could hear my voice but had no idea
what I was saying.
If I found a little area of weak lift I worked it searching around for better.
There was no need to try to race to goal. Without clouds I felt that working the
weak lift could easily turn into finding better lift. Three kilometers north of
the glider port and a bit west of highway 33 I found 250 fpm up and drifted with
it to 3,900' toward the sand mines to the east.
Lee called on the radio and this was my first indication that any of my team was
actually in the air and doing okay. It was a five kilometer glide to the
intersection of 474 and 33 but I notice a slight bit of lift there. After a few
turns I saw that there was a tiny fire putting out smoke in a side yard. The
smoke was going in all directions and my 6030 said that the wind was only 5 mph.
I kept finding the bits of lift moving all over the area and I kept searching
around starting at 1,800' and climbing to 2,300' never in a full thermal. Just a
little distance to the south I finally hooked into the core. I climbed out at a
pleasant 160 fpm to 4,000' a kilometer to the east of highway 33, my marker for
how east I was drifting as I tried to make sure I wouldn't get too far east and
thereby miss the turnpoint cylinder.
Heading south, in a couple of kilometers I found 190 fpm and starting from
3,700' after a glide in light sink I climbed to 4,900'. I was now 4 kilometers
east of highway 33. I headed south and was able to just nick the three kilometer
cylinder after a sinky glide and turned for Wallaby Ranch to the east. I heard
from Lee that he was nearby but further east of the turnpoint and to the
northeast 6 kilometers at 4,300'.
I called out 400 fpm at the eastern edge of the cylinder, but it was difficult
for him to hear anything given his lack of a PTT. I was at 2,700' and climbing
to 3,600' drifting due east.
Lee had to fight a west wind to get to the turnpoint and despite his good
altitude it was difficult, getting a 6 to 1 glide heading south southwest.
He got it but was less than 700' AGL and wasn't able to get back up after
drifting east downwind over open fields. But he won the day getting the furthest
of the mentees and is in first place.
I had lots of extra altitude going east with a 14 mph tail wind. I got 16 to 1
to Wallaby Ranch and arrived at 1,500' AGL. The wind there was blowing out of
the north northwest according to the flags in the field. With the strong wind
that I was recording and from that altitude the field looked very small to me. I
wouldn't mind landing to the west, but the north landing direction on the east
side of the field is obstructed by the bay head. At least to me it looked less
than ideal.
Larry Bunner had cautioned us at the pilot briefing to land in huge fields a
long ways from trees. Overstated perhaps but now I was seeing the high winds at
my altitude, the wrong wind direction and a relatively small field compared to
the ones I was tracking all the way down the course line. I could see that there
were no gliders out at Wallaby and there was no one in the air flying from
Wallaby. No one from our competition had landed there. No it looked like Wallaby
had decided that the winds were too high for them to fly there, certainly an
indication that it would be best not to land there.
I decided for safety to land in the huge field just to the south of Wallaby.
Perhaps an over-abundance of caution, but why not be safe. I was measuring 17
mph at the southeast corner of the field at 1,400'. It was thermally and hard to
get down. At 800' the wind speed had decreased to 8 mph and I didn't notice any
movement in the trees. I came in into the middle of the field and as I landed
there was little to no wind. That made for a pleasant landing.
I was a long ways behind a locked gate, but the caretaker, Pete, was very
friendly. I walked my gear up to the gate and as my retrieval had arrived Pete
opened up the gate for us and gave us all bottled water. I sent a text message
to Mike Barber giving him Pete's telephone number and told Mike to call Pete if
there was ever anyone landing in that field. Pete wanted to help us out.
Floridians can be very nice.
