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Wills Wing pilots - Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro, Dustin, Zac Majors



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Unlike the previous day where the forecast for thunderstorms was after 1 PM,
today the forecast was for thunderstorms before 2 PM. What that meant was that a
trough was pushing through from the northwest and would be through our area by 2
PM. After that things would clear up a bit. We knew this going into the task,
but it didn't sink into the task committee (or me) that maybe we should call the
task later in the day instead of launching at 12:30 PM and starting the task at
1:30 PM.



A pilot mentioned that maybe the Sport Class could go first today, so we let
them go giving them half an hour to get into the air. Perhaps this wasn't the
best day to go first, as they probably would have been much happier to start a
few hours later.



It was looking pretty iffy at launch time. We gave the Sport Class half an hour
to launch from noon to 12:30. There were lots of cu's around, but also lots of
scuddy looking clouds, shaded areas, vertical development, but no rain or
anything else dangerous looking. Almost all of them got up fine and stuck under
the cu's.



Now the task committee called an out and return task of 85 km first to the east
(downwind) and then south (cross wind). I reported that the forecast was for a
reasonably breezy west wind (8 knots) so although I had come up with this task,
along with half a dozen others, I wasn't too keen on it. Jonny went out side and
said that the wind was light west southwest. It was in the field, but that was
not the forecast for the wind going up to cloud base.



The Sport Class representative on the task committee also wanted to go down
highway 31 to the south, and have the goal down there at our second turnpoint. I
sure couldn't figure that out. Anyway that was the task setup for the day, and
the day was looking real iffy.



Jonny, Zippy, and Richard Lovelace were meeting (sort of) in the staging line
back from the head of the launch line trying to come up with an alternate task
or get everything postponed. But the rigids were pushing ahead ready to launch
right after the Sport Class guys and a few flex wings were right behind the
first two rigid wings.



The task committee needed to actually meet at the front of the launch line to
make the launch line stop and wait for their decision on the task, but they
didn't and the pilots launched and that was that for the task calling.



The lift was good under the local cu's and pilots were getting up to cloud base
and waiting for the first start clock at 1:30 PM. I got towed up to 2,400' under
a big black cloud so it was easy to just hang on and get to cloud base and then
work to stay out of the cloud. That cloud drifted in the brisk west wind and
dissipated about eight minutes before the  start window opened, so the
fifteen pilots under it had to go back to another cloud closer to the Florida
Ridge and work much weaker lift and except for Carl and another pilot not get to
cloud base or above it when the first start window opened.



We headed out anyway as conditions were deteriorating, with a patch of rain to
the northeast. It took less than four minutes to get to the first turnpoint five
kilometers away to the east. Nice to have the downwind leg first, I guess, but I
could only wish for it to be a bit longer.



There was a nice thermal just to the east of the turnpoint, downwind, but it
looked good. I got in it, Julia joined me at the same level and we climbed to
almost 4,000'. Ahead to the south it did not look good. A number of pilots had
just taken the turnpoint and headed south, but it looked very dark and not very
lifty in that direction, so I wanted to get high first.



Patrick Kruse, James Stinnet and I headed cross and upwind after leaving the
thermal. Julia headed south toward a gaggle that Zippy had reported on earlier.
I could see that they were climbing slowly and drifting quickly off course to
the east. I wanted to find lift to the west upwind.



I saw Joe Bostik low thermaling west of that gaggle and came in at his level and
we thermalled up to 3,100'. Still we were drifting east at 12 to 14 mph, away
from the south course line.



To the south was a stretch of shaded ground at least ten miles thick on our
course line. Zippy was reporting weak to no lift as he dove in there. I headed
west on the north side of the shaded area hoping for better lift under the fast
moving cu's. But I didn't find anything. I then saw Joe and Tom Lanning turning
a bit to the south under the dark cu's. I went to join them.



The lift there was basically zero or a little less. And again we were drifting
far to the east. There was an orange grove below us, a sort of a subdivision in
the swamp just to the south, and open fields far to the east. I saw that we
weren't going to get up or go anywhere along the course line so I headed south
over the subdivision, which was drier anyway, and found a nice field to land in
free of trees and power lines and fences. Joe and Tom landed further east not
making much headway if any on the course.



Zippy landed about a kilometer from me, Jeff Shapiro about a kilometer behind.
We found Dustin and O'Brien about six kilometers further along.



As we were picking up O'Brien we could see Chris Zimmerman overhead at about
3,000' He, Richard Lovelace, and Larry Bunner had low starts and had struggled
on the first part of the course. This meant that they were about an hour behind.
The shaded area had cleared up quickly and a half hour after I landed the sky
was blue overhead with puffy cu's.



Larry didn't get but a little further than Zac, but Richard came within ten
kilometers of the second and furthest turnpoint and Chris was within five
kilometers to win the day.



The day got very nice looking at 2 PM and we all wished that we had been patient
and delayed the task until 2:30 PM. Of course at 12:30 PM it looked like we had
better get going or the day would be over soon.

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