I had been watching the forecast for a couple of days. With a front coming from the west (as they do) it looked like the winds would be good for going north up highway 301 into Georgia and maybe beyond, to try to beat the 283 mile record set by Jonny and Dustin.

The day opened with overcast and a few cu's that were quickly extinguished by the overcast. The wind was 10+ mph out of the south southeast, which was perfect but the cirrus overcast and lack of cu's was not inviting.

Dustin doing a test flight displayed some lift around 10:30 AM. He said the lift was good. So I decided to give it a try while Campbell and everyone else was reluctant to take off. I held on behind Rhett Radford starting a little after 11 AM until we were at 2,500'. We hadn't hit any lift, but I figured I had enough altitude to have a good little look around to see if I could find some without being blown north of Quest Air.

With the wind I assumed that the lift would be lined up so I headed west cross wind to find a lift line. It took a while and I wasn't turning until I was down to 1,700'. Most of the flight for the next hour was taken up with turning. Topping out at 2,700' I came back to Quest Air and got up again to 3,700'.

I looked to the north as I worked the lift and saw thick overcast and little to no cu's. It didn't look anything like a record day. I decided to stay nearby.

I came back to Quest again but coming in over Campbell as he towed up I didn't find anything and landed. Rhett hauled Campbell to the east where it was a bit clearer and he got up as I had and then headed downwind. He was set on going no matter what.

He made it 105 miles to the north up highway 301. He said the overcast went away between Ocala and Gainesville and he found 900 fpm, but then the overcast came back again and he went down.

Pilots at Wallaby took off at 4:30 PM and some made it up to Quest Air. Some just short.