Larry <<lbunner>> writes
about flying on Sunday at Refugio:

Jonny is an animal. He launches right around nine every day. Today
he does it again and crosses streets right away with base only at 1600’. The
streets at that time are one long continuous cloud. I hear he’s already at
Goliad before I even launch.

I am last out of the field a little after 1000 and find it quite difficult to
stay up. I zig zag to the north trying to work the closest clouds and slowly
work my way north.

Rich went down early and does a relight. Ty got off early too and sticks well.
He makes it just short of Cuero for about 75km. I hear Mick who is with Robin,
they are almost 20km ahead of me.

Woefully I get low, scramble, get low again and repeat for a long time. I just
don’t find the cu’s to be reliable at all. I hear that Robin lands north of
Cuero and then Jonny lands up past Moulton near I-10. Mick decides to land to
make the retrieve more manageable and I plod on.

The cu’s go away near Cuero and now I fly downwind after each climb. I finally
get in synch with the conditions and get above 3000’ for the first time. The gas
fields are pumping out the thermals and making things easier. I get up to I-10
and the hazy air starts to dissipate. The haze is coming mostly from the dust
from the Saharan Desert or so the Weather Channel says.

I get above 4000’ now (after 4 hours in the air) and the lift gets a little
stronger. Half way to Bastrop (my first turnpoint) the winds pick up to 20mph up
high. I get to Bastrop at 15:45 and decide to continue on. I’m not gonna make
the same mistake as Thursday when I spun it down there at 1500 just as the
conditions started getting good.

I soon get over 5000’ and continue north with John in hot pursuit. The lift is
still somewhat elusive however with the drift so strong I just hang on until I
get the good climb. Winds were showing consistently over 22mph and as high as
26mph.

I go on a long glide south of Temple and find a nice thermal that takes me to my
highest of the flight at 6700’. I thought for sure it was on and had visions of
eclipsing my flight last year. But alas that was the peak conditions. I
continued on past Temple and made it half way to Waco where I landed near Moody.
8 hours for 200 something miles, not epic but a good flight after bombing the
last two days.