The flight.

With another pretty darn good forecast we were ready for another great day of
flying in Florida. The wind was a bit more east than the day before at Quest in
the morning but there was still some south in it. I spotted the first cu at 8:30
AM and by 9 AM the sky was full. The forecast called for cu's up the center of
the state with east southeast winds all the way until up into Georgia where they
would turn southerly.

The sky looked a lot like the previous day when Jochen went 155 miles. He was
eager to break his new Belgian record that wasn't even twenty four hours old.
Mitch was ready to go early also. The only problem was that cloud base was
1,700'.

I waited until 10:29 before launching and the lift was already very strong on
tow. After pinning off at 2,100' I climbed right to cloud base at 2,600'. The
wind was 11 mph out of the southeast and the cloud street went off in tot he
northwest but way too far to the south for a good ride up the state. I would get
to the coast before I got very far if I continued on that way.

I immediately jumped a cloud street gliding five kilometers to the north
northwest of Groveland and picked up the lift at 1,500'. The lift was 100 fpm
and I just stayed with it until I got back to cloud base twelve minutes later at
2,800'.

Now the trick was to follow the street and then jump to the next one to the
north whenever there look like a good bridging cu. I picked one northeast of
Center Hill climbing to cloud base at 3,000'. Jochen who launched after me came
in under me as I was leaving at cloud base.

Mitch had actually launched after me but broke a weak link.

Heading north a bit cross to the easterly wind to keep away from the forest next
to me on the downwind side I picked up a thermal at 1,700' and worked it to only
2,500'. I was hanging on by my finger tips. It was a little after eleven.

I moved north northeast to keep a bit further away from the forest and over the
open pasture lands and found 300 fpm. This was the best thermal of the day so
far and I rode it to cloud base at 3,300' (not so high) and then stayed under
the cu gaining more altitude as I moved north just east of the prisons.

I was heading for a dark section of cu's over the turnpike. When I got to them
nothing was happening so I continued on to the north northwest east of Wildwood
before I found broken piss poor lift at again 1,700'. I was out in the sunshine
area working under small forming clouds after the dark ones didn't work.

Jochen came in low and found something to my south. I went to join him and came
in under him. Mitch had already called and said that he had landed by Groveland,
so it was just Jochen and I on this flight. Belinda was in the truck heading for
us.

Jochen found better lift to the west which I finally got in. As I climbed up at
200 fpm I saw him take off to the north. The wind was thirteen mph out of the
east southeast. He was not staying high as he glided just east of a cloud
street.

I started gliding under the cloud street when I got to 3,000'. I had to go fast
to stay out of the cloud and I soon got ahead of Jochen who was upwind of me off
to my east. I spotted a small fire to the west and down to 1,700' went for it as
did the fire engines below me.

I was only able to climb to 2,500' before losing that thermal and headed north
searching under the cu's and watching the various fields below. I searched east
and west across interstate 75 before again down to 1,700'. I found light lift
that turned on for an average climb of 250 fpm to 3,400' a little south of the
Ocala airfield. Cloud base was still not high but it was only a little after
noon.

There were plenty of cu's ahead and a very nice cloud street (or two or three).
I climbed over a residential area and looked straight down the barrel of a fully
packed cloud street that headed off in the right direction, a direction that
would get me up into the panhandle.

Then Jochen came on the radio and said that he had landed north of Wildwood. I
lost all my motivation to keep going. I wanted to fly with other pilots, and the
two pilots who I thought I was going to fly with had both landed. I decided to
land next to interstate 75 and not put Belinda through the drudgery of chasing
me alone.

We got back to Quest Air around 3 PM. The day did in fact blow up both here and
up on our course line, so it was okay that we bagged it early.

The best part of the flight, as far as I'm concerned, is the early part when it
isn't clear whether you are going to stay up or find the next lift and you're
low pretty much the whole time. The lift was very pleasant, and I had to
repeatedly jump streets and get low doing so. It just made for a better
adventure. After I was high when Jochen landed I felt that it was too easy.