Since the end of the 2018 Quest Air Nationals on Saturday we've
been putting our lives back together. The wind has been predominantly west for
the last few days and he skies full of cu's and while we would have likely had
tasks if it was a competition we waited until Thursday to fly when the winds
were supposed to lighten up a little. The sky was full of cu's and had been
since 10 AM. They were full cu's, not little wispy things.

With the wind west southwest we took off from the northeast corner. Not a usual
spot but very nice and a long ways away from the western tree line. I was off
first just before 1 PM with Larry right behind me and just Jim Prahl doing all
the towing.

I pinned off at 1,600' in 400 fpm lift and climbed immediately to cloud base at 
4,100' with a 6 mph southwest wind. Larry was thermaling from down low after a
long tow upwind to the west so I went over to him and waited for him to get up
to cloudbase. We then headed off together to the northeast and the first
turnpoint at Gator field.

After a 6 kilometer glide I was down to 2,000' and heading back a bit to get
under a cu and over a dry field. I sensed a little bit of lift but then Larry
said that he had 200+ fpm just downwind. I glided to get under him, but down to
1,600' I wasn't finding his 200 fpm.

After searching around I found 70 fpm and since I was low and the landing
options weren't great I hung in there. After five minutes of very slow climbing,
I searched around some more, got lower but then found 200 fpm at 1,600'.

Larry, who was quite a bit higher, headed down back south to get over sunlit
fields and to find better lift. He didn't and came in under me as I climbed to
4,100' again, drifting a bit down wind of the turnpoint. It was nice to be able
to keep the turnpoint airfield in view the whole time I was low and while I was
climbing up as the wind moved me closer and closer toward it.

At the top of the lift I headed west and got the turnpoint and told Larry where
I was going. There were cu's right in front to the west and the next turnpoint
at the intersection of the Turnpike and 33 was to the northwest. I wanted to
head up under the cu's to stay in a line of lift.

Despite the great looking clouds the lift was weak and at 90 degrees to the
course line. I worked it to stay between 2,500' and 3,500' as the 9 mph
southwest wind pushed me to the northeast. Larry came in under me and we dealt
with all the turbulence that a windy day produces even in light lift, with lots
of surges.

John Simon and Rich Cizauskas were behind us having launched later and we could
hear that they were not doing any better than we were working light lift.

I pushed ahead to a huge dry field with lots of good looking cu's overhead.
There was lift there but it was very weak and broken and turbulent. I was down
to 1,800' and Larry came in way below me. We worked for eleven minutes not
gaining anything but drifting northeast in a 14 mph southwest wind. Finally we
found a core of 200 fpm and worked our way up to 4,100' with Larry getting just
above me.

We were now almost due east of the turnpoint. I went straight for it while Larry
took a more northerly route under a cloud street and got higher. I got the
turnpoint at 2,600' and headed south to get under the next good looking cu. A
little later Larry would get the turnpoint high and then head upwind to the
southwest to get on the good side of the course line back toward Quest.

John and Rich were struggling behind us. John left 200 fpm after the first
turnpoint and 10 kilometers from the second and landed. Rich turned around at
the first turnpoint to head back to Quest when he saw the smoke behind us and
didn't make it back. There was radio silence after that.

I needed to head south to get back to Quest Air and to stay on the course line
to the intersection of 33 and 474, our next turnpoint. I worked 200 fpm then
right next to it, 330 fpm to 4,300' but ended up no further south and just east
of the turnpoint.

With the wind coming from the west southwest at 14 mph I was still able to glide
6 kilometers south to the Grass Roots airfield. I could see ahead a long, wide
area of smoke coming from a fire in the Green Swamp to the west southwest. It
looked like the smoke cut the lift off ahead.

There were still plenty of cu's around where I was and I got under a nice one at
Green Roots and climbed to 4,100' at 200+ fpm. I heard from Larry that he was low
to my west. There were thick cu's ahead until the smoke, which looked to be a
little north of Groveland.

My 6030 said I had Quest Air made but I was dropping at 400 fpm. I decided to
make Quest the goal instead of going to the next turnpoint then back to Quest.
With just Larry and me in the air and thick smoke ahead and a strong west
southwest wind, I thought Quest would now be a good goal.

I was falling quickly and down to 2,900' I turned west under a dark cloud to get
on its sunny and upwind side. Down to 1,600 at highway 33 I found the core of a
340 fpm thermal back up to the dark base of the cu at 4,400'. I was only 10
kilometers from Quest and the smoke was only a few kilometers away, a wall in
front of me.

Larry was getting back up slowly to my northwest.

I headed for the smoke. It was nice and smooth as I flew through it. No lift and
no sink. When I got to the other side, just north of Quest Air I could see that
the sky to the south was full of great looking cu's, but I had already been in
the air for over two hours and that seemed like enough for today. It was an easy
glide all the way into Quest and the winds on the ground were light.

Larry was able to get to over 4,000' at the chicken coops by Mascotte and fly
downwind to Quest not too many minutes later.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/26.4.2018/16:54

It looks like we have a bunch of good days ahead over the weekend. With light
winds and high tops of lift.