Friday was practice day at the Florida Ridge for the 1st Annual Rob Kells Memorial Competition. Andre Wolf, Jonny Durand, Filippo Oppici, Dustin Martin, Jeff O'Brien (the whole US National team, in fact), Glen Volk, and Carl Wallbank (all these guys current or former members of their national teams) are here.

The winds were brisk on Friday at about 15 mph out of the east. As we are west of the southern end of a large lake, Lake Okeechobee, there is significant lake affect when there is a substantial east or especially east northeast breeze. We did have lots of clouds earlier than a blue hole right here for a while, then plenty of clouds overhead and lift again later in the afternoon. I measured a peak wind in the air of 18 mph and Glen Volk found 23 mph.

Not everyone flew given the wind strength, but the air was pleasant enough and landing was not a problem. The forecast for the Ridge tomorrow (the first day of the competition) on the ground is 8 to 16 mph with gusts to 21 mph (much like today). If it stays that way we'll have a good change to fly off to the west northwest.

We have a good contingent of Sport Class pilots as well as rigid wing pilots also. It looks like more than 40 pilots, which is good for this site. We've got four tugs.

The previous two days were epic in Florida with altitude gains over 8,000'. Even an inexperienced pilot like Kathryn from Australia got to 7,200' at Quest on Thursday in very light winds. She went cross country on an out and return to the Seminole glider port in her first double surface glider, a Airwave Pulse.