The flight on the HOLC
here.

I could see on Sunday that the winds would set up great on Tuesday for a single
surface record attempt out of Chris' place west of Georgetown, north of Austin.

It looked like I would have a 20 knot tail wind up into Oklahoma. Cloud base
looked good at 5000' plus, getting higher as the day progressed, with strong
lift, 500 to 600 fpm. There was one consideration, the chance of over
development. The CAPE showed that was possible near Austin, but that decreased
to the north.

I arranged with Mike for a noon tow and arrived at Chris' at 11 AM.
Chris was at home working in his office, but couldn't go flying. (Seems to me I
could have started an hour earlier.)

Mike pulled me up in rough conditions, which mellowed out at 1000' AGL. I hooked
into 100 fpm at 1,500' AGL and hung on, happy to be off tow. The lift was smooth
and fine.

The wind was 19 mph at 175 degrees, slightly east of south. The sky was full of
cu's. I climbed to 3,000' AGL in smooth lift. It it so great to have this nice
lift with all this wind. That's Texas for you.

Given all the wind and the fact that I wasn't getting to cloud base and also the
fact that I was flying a single surface glider, a Wills Wing 3 170, I just hung
on in what ever lift I could find. Getting down to 1,300' AGL a couple of times
I was very carefully sampling the air hanging in lift less than 100 fpm when I
found it and searching under cu's whenever I lost it.

I just slowed down, kept the bar out, left every little thing in the air, stayed
around any areas where the sink was light or there was a tiny bit of lift and
just felt each little bit to see if it would develop into something more.

Half an hour after I launched I found 250+ fpm climbing to 3,000' and then after
another search found 200 fpm to cloud base at 4,500' AGL. I was drifting to the
north northwest and crossing interstate 35. I had wanted to stay further east on
the east side of the freeway, but the conditions weren't favorable, and I had to
stay in lift where ever I found it.

The wind turned to 167 degrees at 24 mph as I worked my way up west of Salado
approaching Stillhouse Hollow Lake. I had hoped to be on the east side of Salado
but the wind was now pushing me further west. After a little move to the
northeast I found 300 fpm to cloud base once again, just on the south side of
the lake as I was about to cross it (I had hoped to go around the east side of
the lake).

Over the lake the next thermal turned on to 350 fpm, and I could see the next
five armed lake (Belton Lake) to the north as I climbed back to cloudbase. I
turned strongly to the northeast to get under fast forming clouds, south of the
lake, and over open areas free from trees. I also knew that there was restricted
airspace to my north northwest and I wanted to stay away from that.

Down to 1000' AGL I found 250+ fpm from a thermal drifting at 150 degrees at 16
mph. I was heading quickly for the middle of the lake that was surrounded by
trees and leaving the open space behind. But with good lift I was willing to see
if I could get high enough to head east again and get back to the cultivated
areas to the northeast and east of the lake.

Unfortunately I didn't get back to cloudbase climbing only to 3,000' AGL and
unwilling to take a chance over the lake with so many trees on the other side,
headed back upwind to  where I caught the good lift. The wind was too
strong and I landed in the closest available field with little room to spare.

Soon after I landed the sky blew up with over development happening right along
the course line that I had hoped to take, but not along the course line that the
wind was taking me (over the restricted airspace and over the trees). I could
see it just on the east side of the lake.

Huge cu nimbs developed just to our east as we drove back on interstate 35 and
then 130.

The weather forecast says that it won't be happening in Zapata until Wednesday.