Just John Simon, Eric Williams and I attempted the clockwise
around the Green Swamp task. The forecast was for light to moderate (7 mph)
north winds from surface to the top of lift. The NAM forecast showed a chance of
cu's. If it shows any chance they were definitively show up. Top of Lift was
supposed to be 8,000'.

Both RAP and NAM showed something coming in from the northeast late in the day
that would cut down the top of lift to 1,000', but seeing no reason for that to
happen, we ignored that (it never happened).

The sky was blue 30 minutes before our proposed launch time which was at 1:15
PM, but then cu's started showing up in the distance. I was off first at 1:23
PM. I pinned off at 1,700' in lift. It was light but that was fine as I would be
waiting for John and Eric. Mitch Shipley was doing the towing.

I watched John Simon circling below and upwind and went over to him waiting for
him to come up to me. Circled with him, both of us at the same altitude for many
minutes. Seems like we climb at the same rate.

Mitch brought Eric over to us but below. He was flying a Moyes RX 3.5 Pro with a
cocoon harness and just his shorts and a tee-shirt. He was climbing slowly.

John and I climbed to 4,200' and I headed out over to the nearby cu to the
southeast. That cu, merely 3.5 kilometers away, was actually dying so the lift
was light and I headed zig zagging to the southwest to the next cu and found
lift that averaged over 260 fpm to over 6,500'. Both Eric and John came in under
me and climbed up also, but Eric was climbing slowly.

I headed out over the swamp toward the isolated cu's that were in the general
direction of the turnpoint at the bottom of the swamp. I personally like to stay
pretty excessively high when I'm over the swamp with its limited access and lots
of trees. This probably makes me slower and a bit too cautious, willing to take
lighter lift in exchange for altitude.

I found almost 400 fpm in one thermal, but also turned in 100 fpm a few times.
With the north wind I wanted to stay north of the turnpoint and given the cu
placement I headed west to get under the darkest cu's east northeast of the
turnpoint. I wanted to get the turnpoint as high as possible.

John and Eric were nearby but I couldn't see them. Eric had climbed to over
7,000' and was freezing in his light outfit. He decided to turn around and head
back up north against the headwind to Quest. John was low at the turnpoint.

I climbed up at 550 fpm to 7,200' east of the turnpoint at the intersection of
98 and 471, took the turnpoint and headed northwest to the three isolated cu's
over the swamp. I was able to stay up over 6,500' in 200 to 300 fpm, but
couldn't find any strong lift under these cu's and there were no cu's to the
north over the swamp.

There were two north/south lines of cu's to the west, then all blue further
west. The closest line was over Dade City, ten kilometers west of the course
line. I headed for the darkest and biggest cu.

Just on the western side of the best looking cu I was in the sunshine, and there
was an northwest wind at 6 mph. I had glided 11 kilometers from 6,700' and was
down to 2,500', but I was at my favorite place to be to find a thermal.

It started off slow averaging about 250 fpm for the first 7 minutes and then as
I drifted south I hit the core. It averaged 700 fpm to 7,900'. I was twisting up
as tight as I could put the glider.

Now that I was high and under the line of cu's I headed straight north for 10
kilometers to find the next thermal, which was easy to find and got me back to
6,100' at 350 fpm. It also got me the second turnpoint.

Looking to the northwest there were few cu's and lots of trees. I headed for a
set of small cu's to the east, but there was not enough lift there and I
was down to 4,600' on the western side of the swamp. I had to turn around and go
back west to get under a good looking cu.

Again on the upwind and sunny side over hot baking fields I found 400 fpm to
7,000'. That is plenty of altitude to make it to the open fields to the east.
And now there were good looking cu's to the east. And now the cake was baked.

A few 300 to 400 fpm climbs to 7,500' and then a 15 kilometer final glide into
goal.

Eric was successful and made it back to Quest. John Simon, who had originally
tried to stay with Eric (who didn't have a radio), made it around getting low a
good number of times and came in about half an hour later.

From the look of the clouds it looked like the lift lasted until sunset.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/7.5.2018/17:23