With a great forecast the whole crew at Quest Air plus some late drop ins were
ready for the big day. After returning from the dentist a little before 11 AM I
was ready also, but the sky was still blue as we waited for the ground to heat
up enough to break the inversion.
A little before noon Jochen said he felt that the air was getting active as the
10 mph southeast wind would occasionally drop off indicating thermal activity in
the field. He and I suited up and as I wasn't as convinced, even with a cu or
two on the distant horizon, I deferred to the man who was ready to go right now
and waited as he was towed up.
After some initial lift near the ground his tow was super smooth (without lift)
to 2,500'. He knew that trouble was ahead. Right after him at 12:20 I was towed
up to the south in the wind and it was super smooth all the way.
I could see him turning in light lift a long ways away to the north of Quest Air
as I searched all over to the south, east and west and upwind of Quest not
finding anything. The cu's were closer then when Jochen launched, but the
closest one to my south was still not within reach. It was blue all around Quest
and no cu's to the north. After fifteen minutes I was back on the ground at
Quest and going to fix my headset.
At 1:20 I was back in the air again as others waited and as the cu's were
forming around and above Quest. Mitch towed me over to the east to the cloud
street and I got up under it. Jochen reported that he was still in the air but
not far to the north, still south of the Florida Turnpike.
I was way to the east which meant that I needed to jump cloud streets to the
west to get around Leesburg. I was hearing from pilots at Quest who were on the
ground getting towed up. There were a bunch behind me. Tom Lanning would
eventually get four tows.
The lift was moderate to light but the cu's while scattered were close enough to
allow for short glides to the next patch of lift. I wasn't getting over 3,800',
but it was easy to jump two streets to the newly forming cu's to the west and
quickly get to near the Okahumpka service station on the turnpike. Jamie was up
and over highway 33 as were other pilots.
I could see ahead there were very few cu's north of the turnpike. The whole area
across the state from east to west was almost completely blue, while around me
and especially to the south there were cu's every where. We had wanted to get
going early to go far on this day, but with a late start with no cu's and now no
cu's ahead, it didn't look like we could go super far.
Jochen had managed to stay up in the blue but he was right at the northern edge
of the cu's. If he stayed with the cu's he could stay up, but if he went out
into the blue it turned smooth again. He could only progress north as fast as
the cu's were forming from the air mass coming from the south. We had about a 10
mph tail wind.
I was twenty kilometers behind having relaunched an hour later. I was thinking
that there was little reason to continue given how blue it was ahead. I told
Jochen that he could get a retrieve from Sharon who was driving, but that I
thought that I would land at the Leeward airfield, a private grass strip just
east southeast of Ocala. Jochen was near there and decided to land given how
slow he was progressing with the cu's. Jamie had already decided to land back at
the Gross Roots airfield.
The folks at the airfield, a residential development, were more than happy to
see us again. They remembered Jamie and Carl landing there previously. It was
easy for Belinda to find us.
The cu's filled in to the north and the sky looked great with new streets as we
broke down. It was just a little late for our goals. Tom having gotten away late
made it the furthest to Keystone where he got a retrieve from Dave and Sharon.
Jochen went out after we returned to Quest and picked up other pilots who landed
near I75.
The clashing sea breezes built cu-nimbs around us and we got a light show before
10 PM.
