The sky looked terrible (stormy) early in the morning and then there was the wind, which wasn't unsafe at a little over 10 mph, but looked like it would be rough getting out of the field. Mark Poustinchian showed up driving in from New Orleans. He hadn't flown his ATOS VR in eighteen months.

By 10 AM the clouds had cleared up, and the blue sky looked inviting with a few cu's forming, still there was that wind. Campbell Bowen showed up to fly with Mark on his ATOS VX, but he was going to wait also.

Finally, around 4 PM I decided that the south southwest wind had died down enough and there were enough lulls that I would go for it. We were in a thermal as soon as we left the ground and I pinned off at 700' AGL before we got out of the field. I climbed to 5,000'.

There were thick and beautifully well formed cumulus clouds all about and especially to the southwest. My goal for the day was to work my way upwind and see how I could feel out the lift. The wind was varying from 9 mph down low to 13 mph over 5,000'. I was looking for streeting in the lift.

The lift was much friendlier that the last two blue days, with mellow edges under the cu's. The temperatures had increased substantially also, so being in the air was pleasant.

Mark got towed up to 3,000' but he has forgotten how to fly and didn't find any lift. Campbell went up later for a good flight.

I flew up to the Green Swamp and then turned around. I gained 200' flying straight back at 4,200'. I had to go find sink by Mascote to get down. Steve Bellerby stayed up until late (I was bicycling) and climbed to 7,200'. The clouds were still there after sunset.

Steve Bellerby captures this picture of me cranking it up over Quest on Friday: