On Friday the sky was full of cu's and Larry Bunner took off for a
flight down highway 33 to Deen Still road and back. I decided not to fly as the
west wind was supposed to be 16 mph at the top of lift. Larry made it back
having found consistently good lift on the upwind side of the clouds, unlike the
previous day. At one point he record the winds at 19 mph.

I wanted to wait until Saturday when the winds were supposed to die down and
come out of the northwest. When Saturday arrived the surface winds were moderate
at about 8 mph as forecast.

I called an upwind task before 10 AM assuming that there would be strong lift as
forecast and a high top of lift. I also assumed that like on Friday we would
have cu's marking the lift:

In recreational flying I like the idea of going up wind first and later have a
nice downwind leg back to Quest Air. I made the cylinders large enough to keep
us over open territory and away from the lake.

At launch time, a little after 1 PM, the sky was mostly blue. I was off first at
1:30 and pinned off in light lift. Larry was next and found 600 fpm upwind of me
to 4,600'. I climbed to 4,100' and then headed west with Larry in tow.

For the next fifteen minutes, a few kilometers west, upwind, of Quest we found
scattered light lift under haze domes staying between 2,600' and 3,200'. Finally
I found 300 fpm 4 kilometers to the northwest of Quest and climbed to 4,600'
with Larry circling 2,000' below.

I headed up the course line to the northwest, found nothing, and it seemed like
the day was not really going to happen. A few haze domes and a headwind did not
auger well for the day. Larry and Mitch Shipley and Rich Lovelace were behind me
and not helping at the moment.

Heading back two kilometers I ran into 600 fpm south of Mascotte, south of
highway 50 and south of the chicken coops. This thermal proved to be very
popular and Larry and Mitch joined me as well as a lot of the local birds. We
climbed to 5,200'. The task was officially on.

We spread out and Larry found the next one at 250 fpm back to 4,200'. We were 15
kilometers from the turnpoint at Cheryl. Three kilometers up the course line we
found 500+ fpm to over 5,000'. Things were looking very good.

A six kilometer glide against a 10 - 12 mph northwest wind got us to the
southwest of Center Hill where we found 300+ fpm to 4,400'.  I led out but
then didn't go back when Mitch called out lift just behind me that he and Larry
were circling in. I figured that there was more lift ahead.

It was a five kilometer glide before I found the weak (less than 100 fpm) lift
at 2,600'. I was only two kilometers away from the edge of the turnpoint.
Leaving that lift at 3,000' I headed toward the turnpoint and over some
greenhouses that I thought might be producing some lift. They weren't.

I was soon down to 1,100' AGL 125 meters from the edge of the turnpoint
cylinder, but I was paying a lot more attention to the possible landing areas
than whether I would make it to the cylinder. Looking at wires in the fields in
front of me I decided to turn around and get over friendlier fields just behind
me.

As soon as I turned around I found weak lift, but given my lack of altitude any
lift was appreciated. I just hung in it. As I drifted back quickly away from the
turnpoint, I moved to the north a little bit to capture the better lift than I
thought I would find in that direction.  My climb rate improved to 190 fpm
and I climbed to 3,800'.

Meanwhile Mitch and Larry were struggling a couple of kilometers to the west
trying to find lift over a small fire. They were almost as low as I was.

I had been talking with Larry and Mitch on the radio. I said that I was likely
heading back to Quest. As he wasn't getting up Mitch came in under me and then
searched around for a thermal. Larry headed north and then found a strong
thermal. When he got to 5,400' we urged him to continue on the course.

I waited up top for Mitch to climb up. He was in 400 fpm and I was in 100 fpm.
Mitch and I got to 4,500' and headed out together back toward Quest. Within 3
kilometers we found another thermal and climbed to 5,200' We had Quest easily
made with a 10 mph tailwind.

Meanwhile Larry had glided all the way to the ground from 5,400'. He made the
second turnpoint 5 kilometers south of Lake Panasofkee and then landed without
hitting any more lift. He later told me that he kept to the west (upwind) of the
lake but that didn't seem to matter. It appeared that the lake cut off all the
lift within at least 10 kilometers of it, maybe more.

Mitch and I made it back easily. Mitch went and picked up Larry.

The forecast for Sunday calls for light winds and a high top of lift. Our plan
is to go around the Green Swamp.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/28.4.2018/17:31