After taking my daily twenty three mile bike ride it was time for
a flight. Ten or more pilots were here with the same idea, just waiting for the
cu's to bunch up a bit in the light (3 to 5 mph) east, northeast wind. One pilot
had been floating around for an hour, when I took off first to lead the second
round.


Jim Rooney took me east and toward the cu's. The climb was slow and I was
watching things carefully. As Jim approached the clouds he began to rise a
little. It was clear that there was lift ahead so I pulled the pin at 1,400' AGL
and went off in search of lift on my own. I could just feel that the lift was
there and sure enough it was. I found a good one and climbed out to 5,100' AGL.


As I climbed out I watched the other pilots get towed up, fly around and land.
Almost all of them never got over 2,500' and landed soon after they launched. We
had planned on a 50 km triangle to the north, but it was obvious that wasn't
going to happen, so I took another swing at my default 25 km FAI triangle.


I got a good start at 4,400' and headed toward clouds on the course line to the
southeast to almost the Green Swamp. I found good lift and headed for a dark
cloud just before the turnpoint at Bay Lake (a church). The cloud was dying so I
kept going far into the Green Swamp where there were lots more clouds.


I climb out with sailplanes including a couple of Marsky wings to 6,500' under
the plentiful cu's over the Swamp and head toward Mascot the next turnpoint.
Unfortunately the cloud ahead doesn't work so I cut short the run and head back
to Quest where all the would be pilots are hanging out under the oak tree
wondering what the story was with the lack of lift. I say, I didn't see them get
towed to the west, like I did.


http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=865318489


Those pilots stuck on the ground today, did much better yesterday, with John
Simon flying 92 miles in a Moyes LiteSport and Paul and Lauren Tjaden deciding
to land after 65 miles as Lauren was cold at 7,000'. See:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6863