It's a lot more fun than going it alone or just flying around
aimlessly with your buds

The light winds and sunny days have returned to Florida and that
encouraged all the gung ho cross country pilots here at Quest Air to get into
the air and to go for a task. The original forecast from a couple of days before
Thursday was for a nice south south east wind, but as the day approached the
winds forecast changed and in the morning the NAM forecast said south east and
the RUC said south west, both of them calling for light winds.

Jamie Shelden wants to go to the airfield at Keystone, ninety seven miles to the
north. I'm skeptical given the lack of winds, but go along with that just to have
someone to fly with. There are three Norwegian pilots here including Olaf, a
regular on the competition scene, and they've been flying (and landing) all
morning. Jamie and I are ready to go a little after noon and Olaf is already in
the air. Jamie and I are in radio communication but not Olaf.

I get hauled up and find light lift over Olaf who is low coming back toward
Quest with the southwest. The lift is so light that I don't notice until I'm in
it that I'm at and a little above cloud base, which is only 2,500'. Jamie gets
pulled up nearby and I ask her if it doesn't make more sense to do a triangle
given the light west winds. She agrees.

There is a set of clouds to the west northwest toward Mascotte and I lead out
with Olaf hanging with us. The sky is thick with cu's and the lift is light, but
plentiful as we work our way west. I'm thinking maybe going to the intersection
of highway 50 and the road that goes through the Green Swamp as our first
turnpoint.

With the shaded ground and the light lift it is great to have these friendly
pilots around to help out. The lift feels good given how light it is and I sure
appreciate their help staying up.

Eight kilometers out it looks like continuing to head west won't work out so
well against the five mph wind and the shaded ground in that direction. I ask
Jamie if she wants to head north and with her agreement, I lead out heading
toward the turnpoint at highway 33 and the Florida Turnpike. I stumble into much
better lift and Jamie comes over to enjoy it also.

A little bit further north of the Grass Roots airfield and the sky opens up with
sunlight on the ground, but that also means that there are fewer cu's. We had
been flying under dark ones, but now there are just wisps in the air. We all
spread out searching for lift. The highest we had been was 3,200'.

As we approach the turnpoint at the Turnpike Jamie is low and neither Olaf nor I
are finding much lift. Jamie lands and we spend another fifteen minutes trying
to get up over her but finally don't make it out of there. Belinda comes and
picks us all up.

Mitch Shipley launched later came over us and talked to us on the radio, then
went back and landed at Wallaby Ranch. Cloud base rose and the sky looked much
better later in the afternoon. We obviously started pretty early as indicated by
the light lift and low cloudbase.

It was a fun little flight for an hour and a half in light conditions with light
winds and with flying friends which made all the difference.

The flight.

The video.

A little flight to the north of Quest Air from Davis Straub on Vimeo.