My little Falcon 3 record attempt on the
HOLC and
Google Maps/Earth


We've been watching the winds forecast for the last ten days and especially the
last three days as it came into the view of the NAM model. We've been jumping up
and down given how great it looks and today it came. Unfortunately, it also came
with a good chance of overdevelopment up near the hill country and beyond, and
with rain last night near Uvalde.


Given these conditions, even the chance for very high winds (30 knots) meant for
me that I should try for the Falcon record which could be broken by a distance
of less than 200 miles (although I wanted to go further) which was not a far as
the forecasted weak areas. Robin Hamilton in his Swift was going for it, as was
Pete Lehmann on his WW T2, trying to break his and Mike Barber's distance to
goal record of 321 miles.


The over running started at 4:15 AM according to Gary Osoba who had a hard time
sleeping given the prospects. It was still on when I got up at 6 AM to check it
out (and get Gary's email message). It just built and built all morning until
the sky was mostly dark with cu's zipping by at 30 mph.


This is why we come to Zapata.


Given the light rain and lack of sun here on Thursday, and the low cloud base at
9:45 AM when Gary went up in the Silent 2 to check out the lift we were
surprised to hear he was getting 200 fpm. The thick cloud layer had broken up by
then, but the clouds looked really soft and fuzzy. He said he was getting the
lift on the downwind parts of the clouds.


Robin took off at 10:10 AM and never got above 2,000 AGL for the next forty
miles. Pete took off at 10:20 and was having a good time staying up. I took off
at 10:40 knowing that unlike Pete or Robin I didn't have to go 450+ miles to set
a new record.


I got pulled way to the east again by Armand and there was plenty of of south in
the southeast wind to make it so I had a fighting chance of getting around the
Laredo airspace. All I needed was to be able to jump a few clouds to the
northeast as I went along. Both Pete and Robin were doing well in front of me,
so I just held onto whatever lift I could find and stayed with the cu's drifting
to the northwest toward Laredo.


Eighteen minutes into the flight I finally got some 200 fpm + and started
climbing from less than 2,000' AGL to over 3,000' AGL. Things were looking good
and I was traveling fast across the country side, sometimes over 50 mph over the
ground (this, in a Falcon, that I swear I was not pulling in).


The lift got good and continued to stay smooth and I started being able to make
the jumps to the northeast to nearby clouds. Six miles south of highway 359, the
first public road going east out of Laredo, I found 400 fpm average to over
4,200' MSL. It was ten minutes to noon.


There was plenty of sink on the other side of that great lift but at the highway
I found lift that on the 20 second averager showed over 900 fpm and was
completely smooth to 4,600'. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find more good lift
and when down in the middle of no where 48 miles out.


I really am careful after finding strong lift for the first time to not give up
my search for anything and stay in it mode until I'm absolutely certain that
things are cooking, but it wasn't enough to save me this time. Even my, you are
going over landing areas behind locked gates mode, didn't save me. 
Fortunately, the ranch owners showed up later and it was easy getting out.


With the tail wind I was getting over 60 mph over the ground in a Falcon. I had
to be careful on landing and almost didn't make it back to the cleared area that
I had picked out. I thought earlier in the flight if I had been forced to land I
would have been going backwards. As it was I was almost coming in straight down.


Pete and Robin were moving right along as I ignominiously landed. They were both
west of highway 83 heading north northwest. But it wasn't too long before they
could see the over development far to the north and the cirrus clouds that were
blocking the sunlight on their path.


Robin went down 230+ miles out staying along or just east of our regular route
up 83 and highway 55. Pete flying to the west northwest of Brackettville decided
to land and give it a try tomorrow (Saturday) at 220+ miles out. They needed to
get back in time to set up at night and get to bed.




At 5:25 PM.