Joe Bostik (former US National champion) showed up yesterday at Quest Air for a little cross
country time. The forecast was for moderate lift and none to light winds, the
first time we've had really light winds so far this season.

I had mapped a 50 km triangle route to the north which we quickly abandoned once we
got in the air. Alex Cuddy wasn't on our frequency so he didn't hear Joe when he
suggested going south as that's where all the sailplanes where high over the
Seminole sailplane port for the
Seniors Championship.

The cirrus had been increasing in sky coverage before we launched and Joe and I
noticed that there was a lot less to the south of Seminole. The lift was pretty
weak at first under the cirrus, and shadows from thicker cirrus would
periodically come through from the north. We were only getting to a little over
3,000' when we headed out.

Down to 1,800', 8 km south of Quest, I found our first nice thermal of the day
and I climbed out to 4,700' (Joe at 5,000'). The rest of the way south for
thirty three kilometers (a bit south of Deen Still Road) it was weak.
Joe did find one good thermal which got him high, but I came over to it a bit
late and didn't get as high.

There was weak lift around the turnpoint at Deen Still and Joe was dodging the
shadows heading further south. I kept going with him but found some lift a
couple of kilometers to the north of him and told him to come back as we were
way passed the turnpoint. He didn't want to come back to the shadow and headed
further south to get back in the sunshine. I was going up in the shadow.

At 3,200' I headed north back toward Quest to do the out and return. Joe was
working weak lift in the sun a few miles to the south over a grass air strip. He
would be there for a while.

Passing the turnpoint I was down to 800' closely watching for birds. They had
been a big help so far in the flight. There were a dozen vultures circling low,
but they seemed to be too low and too many. I worked very weak lift just to
their west knowing that I had to stay up in anything that was available.

That one really was weak and I only got back up to 2,700' before it gave out. I
headed north really paying very close attention to the air and to the land below
trying to make sure I didn't get so low again before I found something. At
1,500' 10 km south of the glider port I found a strong one that took me to
5,000'. Now it looked like things would turn out alright.

I kept in contact with Joe as he worked his way slowly back toward me. I slowed
way down so that he could catch up. Four kilometers south of the glider port I
climbed back to 5,400'. I had Quest Air on a glide, but hung back waiting for
Joe. He was catching up.

I hung around the airport but it was getting cold being so high. I moved slowly
north finding zero sink and just hanging out in it to see if I could spot Joe.
He told me that he was just north of the glider port but low. I couldn't see
him.

He worked a thermal from low but ended up not too high on the south of the
glider port. He came north, but then told me he was down to 1,000' and felt that
he might be landing. I had moved further north and went on glide to Quest
getting there way high and heading north to Groveland to find some sink. There
had been plenty of lift for the last ten kilometers.

I was about to get him with my truck after landing at Quest when I saw him coming in
to the field. He had dug his way out of the hole that he got himself in.

The flight on various on-line contests:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?dsId=1128011

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/8.3.2010/18:04

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=128117

Uploading to the site above, also put it here:

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/304181

I've tried repeatedly to get the following to work but it doesn't:

http://www.xccomp.org/module.php?id=35&date=20100309&competitor_id=100285#