Flytec Race and Rally - Day 2
There is a front up north in Georgia, and it was sending out a wave of cirrus clouds that could be seen even at Quest Air at 8 AM. Still the cu's starting forming early and with a south wind, it looked like it would be a doable task to fly 105 km to Williston airport to the north northwest.
Rhett pulled me up first right into 700 fpm at 1,400'. It was easy to pin off and climb out. But that was the strongest lift I hit all day.
With lots of cu's around Quest we were able to climb up to cloud base and Dustin, Jeff O'Brien and I headed to the west northwest past Mascote to get under more cu's and to get up wind of the course line given that there was a bit of west in the winds and the fact that the task required that we head west as well as north.
Dustin and Jeff O'Brien and four other pilots started at 6,000' while I started at just over 4,000' having missed one climb. Jeff Shapiro was even in worse shape, as he is much further to the east and starting five minutes after the start clock.
At the third start time the high guys headed northwest for the clouds and I went a little more westerly to get to the closer clouds. We all benefited from the good lift there and the race was on.
O'Brien and Dustin headed for Lake Panasoffkee west of Colman but looking out ahead that looked crazy to me. It was dark and shaded out there with fewer cu's. I headed for the prisons south of the Florida Turnpike right on the course line.
There was a little lift there but not enough to entice me to stay and it looked to me like the sun was bright and the ground hot to the northeast, off course, to the Turnpike southeast of Wildwood. Sure enough there was lift there and when Ollie Gregory came in under me and found even better lift just a few hundred meters to the north, I came back in over him and we climbed up the cloud base at 6,700 at 600 fpm.
It was a long glide (14 km) to the next cu's just west of Interstate 75. Once there I joined up with Jonny Durand and then Jeff Shapiro joined us. There was a set of cu's right along Interstate 75, and no cu's to the west along the course line. The Interstate was only 5 km downwind of the course line so my thought was to get and stay high under the clouds and go as far north as possible before turning and going into the cu less and shaded area to the west.
Just southwest of Ocala we were able to climb to 4,000', but slowly (100 fpm). The city lay ahead to the north, the Ocala airport was to the northwest, and there were few landing areas ahead. I went searching to the north for sunlight and better lift and more altitude. Jonny and Shapiro headed west into the gloom, but lost a lot of altitude and headed back toward me. Jeff didn't get back up and landed.
I found steady 100 fpm from 1,700' just south of downtown Ocala and just hung on. Jonny came and joined me and we climbed and drifted downwind and away from goal for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile O'Brien and Dustin had chosen different paths. Dustin had like us gone for the cu's to the north while O'Brien stayed on the course line and headed out into the gloom to the north northwest. Dustin followed the lift and was soon being blown downwind northeast of Ocala. O'Brien was staying up and progressing along the course line.
Jonny and I headed north after we got to 4,500', but this wasn't getting us any closer to the goal. We found weak lift and messed around with it a bit, before Jonny headed upwind directly west back toward Ocala, into the treed areas. I looked at that and decided to go further north to the farm areas to be over open fields.
I kept going north, but not gaining on the goal and finally landed just south east of Greystone airfield. Dustin landed just to my north near Greystone after having pushed back upwind, but having to drift back again. Jonny took a little longer but got back up again and came over me landing near Greystone near Dustin.
Carl and O'Brien went out into the gloom along the course line and did much better than those of us that tried to work the clouds for our benefit. The sea breeze was just too strong.
So a day dominated by the cirrus and the western sea breeze. Plenty of cu's and lift at first and then a game of choosing between going along the course line, or staying the clouds and trying to stay high before a long final glider upwind into goal. It didn't work out.
http://OzReport.com/1241494512
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