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



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While Saturday had originally looked like a possible record day in Florida with
the winds two days out forecasted to be straight up the state and into North
Carolina, when it came to the actual day, there was this big front that was
killing people in Mississippi and was heading into Georgia on Saturday stopping
the lift at the border with Florida. And in the morning on Saturday it just
didn't look that great for lift with a few scattered low cu's and cirrus
covering most of the state coming from the front. The froint extended down
through the Gulf of Mexico and sent out a wave of clouds over southern Florida
late in the day. Still Campbell Bowen was able to fly forty miles on his ATOS
VXR, and he was the only one to make an attempt.



The approaching front made for a conundrum. First, would conditions in south
Florida allow for a task on Sunday? Second, would the Dragonflies be able to get
to Quest Air before the front arrived, or at least far enough north where they
could be protected from the storm as it passed through so that they could be
ready to go the next day at Quest Air? Would it be better to send the tugs north
at 8 AM to get to Quest before the front got there and just abandon the first
day of the competition? That was the dilemma I was faced with on Saturday night
looking at the weather forecasts.



They actually showed a soarable day in south Florida on Sunday, with a low
cloudbase (less than 3,000') and strong south southwest winds that would take us
around the west side of Lake Okeechobee. Of course they showed the approaching
front and they showed it coming fast enough to cause us problems even with a
short task.



The next morning I was looking at the forecasts soon after 7:30 AM. Now it
looked like the front wouldn't get to Groveland until after 3 PM. The forecast
for south Florida was similar to the night before, with maybe an average 15 mph
wind out of the southwest. But the tug pilots were reporting thirty mph at 800'
at 8 AM. I could see Dana, Linda Salamone's daughter, and new solo pilot, flying
backwards in her Falcon until she got low enough to get out of the high winds.



While we were now comfortable keeping the tugs at the Florida Ridge for the
task, before sending them north, with the high overcast, rapidly moving scuddy
cu's at 1,500', and the tug pilot's report of high winds, there were few pilots
who were enthusiastic about our chances of flying. I was already setup from the
night before and my glider was in the staging line ready to go. I figured it
wouldn't hurt to try and we had gone long distances on days that looked like
this before. Still there were many pilots who thought that this was an exercise
in futility.



The launch opened at noon and we had five start windows ten minutes apart
starting a 1 PM. Given the conditions pilots were reluctant to get started. They
knew that they would be well advised to stick with their flying buddies. The
start cylinder had a ten kilometer radius. The winds seemed to have died down
and it wasn't at all unsafe at launch nor all that windy.



I waited for three pilots to launch: Jim Yocom, Richard Lovelace, and Mitch
Shipley before I took off. There was a bunch of pilots in the launch line just
behind me, so I figured I would see a lot of pilots in the air. We could see Jim
Yocom turning just to the east of the field at cloud base at about 2,600', so it
looked like there was lift, even though the sky was thick with cu's that were
shading the ground.



I had the tug pilot drag me over to Jim and Richard who were both turning, and
sure enough there was lift and we were all just below cloud base. Mitch was way
down below us, so that was no help. The next pilot pulled over to us was Pete
Lehmann, but he headed straight back to the launch area. So, so much for help
from others.



The wind was blowing 14 to 18 mph out of the south southwest. The lift was so
light and the sky so dark and the ground so shaded that we had no way to get
back to the flight park or hook up with any other pilots. I had made a bad
decision to not let five or six more pilots start in front of me. We three were
on our own.



It was unfortunate that Jim had been hauled to the east as we really needed to
start from the west side of the flight park to stay as far as possible away from
the lake. Richard found a bit of lift over a gravel pit a kilometer to the east
and even though I did not want to go at all in that direction I had to go where
the lift was. Jim and I did not find it and were soon down to 750' just west of
Moore Haven. I found a small thermal that averaged 50 fpm and stuck with it for
six kilometers as it drifted me out into the bad side of the levee that
surrounds Lake Okeechobee.



I was back to 1,700' with Richard on the ground just to my north and Jim soon to
be on the ground just north of him. I had to head a bit back to the west to stay
on the safe side of the highway that runs west around the levee. I didn't find
any lift and landed with Richard.



The sky had opened up for the last five to ten minutes of my flight and there
was sunshine on the ground and better defined cu's, but too far away for me to
get to from my low altitude. When Richard had landed there was nothing but
shaded ground. Now as we watched other pilots, mostly to our west, get high and
keep going downwind in the much better looking conditions we wondered why we
hadn't waited half and hour.  The day had much improved in a short period
of time.



Ten minutes later we saw Jeff Shapiro fly low over our heads heading north down
the highway. Apparently he would soar the levee for a couple of kilometers and
then land in waste deep water near a local alligator. He was apparently able to
keep his instruments dry, but lost his radio in the breakdown field.



O'Brien landed near the start circle as did Derrick Turner. The task was 67
kilometers and Dustin Martin and Jonny Durand were the only pilots to make goal.
Dustin was much faster starting ten minutes after Jonny and getting there ten
minutes ahead of him. Lots of pilots made it at least 50 kilometers. Daniel
Velez and Zac Majors were the closest to goal at the Okeechobee airfield.



Given how bad it looked before we launched and how many sour pusses we had it
was great to get off a task in the restricted time slot that we seemed to have.
The Dragonflies were able to make it to Quest Air and get into the hangar hours
before the thunderstorms hit about night fall. Pilots hung out in the club house
and Jamie downloaded flights.



It would be very hard to be camping at Quest Air on Sunday night. The place is
flooded, the thunder is loud, the rain is thick and there are tornados in north
Florida, as well there should be.

http://OzReport.com/1272256138