The flight and the task.



I couldn't believe it when Kraig Coomber said in the task committee meeting that
we should go to the Florida Ridge. The day before he and Jonny didn't even
consider my desire to go there, but things had changed.



The forecast was for cloud base and top of lift at 7,500'. The lift would be
500-600 fpm. And the wind would be out of the north at 11 mph. The forecast
earlier had been for stronger winds late in the afternoon but the later forecast
called those off, predicting 15 knots. Still we didn't want to come back into an
area that might have high winds late in the day. (The winds did indeed pick up
later at Quest.)



It looked like there would be a good chance of convergence down the east coast,
maybe a bit inland.



So as soon as Kraig proposed it, we were ready to go 205 kilometers (127 miles)
south to the Florida Ridge. David Glover called up Steve Larsen and he set up a
goal line. There must be forty flags in the field there so pilots would have no
trouble figuring out the wind direction.



The cu's were just beginning to form as the rigids got towed up at 12:15. Some
of them got down low before they found their way under a forming wisp. I was off
soon after a few pilots. Coming out of the field the tug and I were going up at
1,200 fpm. I pinned off at 2,200' in a thermal that got me to 6,000'.



There was plenty of lift and we climbed to 7,000' before the start window opened
at 1:30. Almost everyone was at the edge of the start circle and high so it was
a mass start. Jonny Durand was out in front and a few hundred feet higher. Five
or six glider got away from the rest of us as we raced south.



The ground went by quickly as we headed toward Wallaby Ranch. We were flying the
clouds and the clouds were mostly to the east along highway 27, but we were
heading in that direction. As we came over Wallaby we noticed that there were a
lot of gliders on the ground, lined up on the tie downs, but very few in the
air. Turns out that apparently the air was too rough down there for the Wills
Wing Demo Day fly in party, so the launch was closed. They flew all day at Quest
in great conditions until late in the evening when the wind picked up.



We found 600 fpm west of Wallaby and got back to over 7,000'. I was still in
contact with the leading pilots, although Jonny was a bit ahead of the rest of
them.



It was just south of Lake Wales that we lost contact with the fastest guys. It
was a long glide then the real problem was the slow climb, 250 fpm. Ten pilots
were able to catch up with me and the few pilots like me who were chasing the
lead gaggle (and not catching them). Thankfully getting a bit further south
found us circling in 500 fpm to 6,900'.



For the next hour and forty minutes the dozen of us raced just to the west of
highway 27 between 5000' and 7000' until it was time to go on final glide 20 km
from goal. We basically just stayed under the clouds turning when the lift got
particularly good. I would often leave early top try to leave my compatriots
behind, but it never quite worked out. I didn't find super strong lift that
would let me get away.



The final glide into goal from the intersection of highway 29 and 27 was a
breeze with the 9 mph tail wind. A bunch of us came into with five minutes of
each other.



The landing zone was soon packed. It is likely that 50 pilots made goal, the
longest distance flown in a Florida meet (205 km). This is probably the highest
percentage in goal in a Florida meet.



We think that Gerolf won the day, followed by Bruno, then Robin Hamilton,
Andreas Olsson, Jonny and Kraig. Paris took a second start time so maybe he did
well.



The fastest times were less than 2:50 to complete the task, averaging 43 mph.
Assuming an average 10 mph tail wind, that means were we doing quite a bit
better than the 25 mph which is the norm.



Check the results below:



Results.