Richard Westmoreland, the PIC on the tandem, shouted down that the
conditions were great with cloud base at 3,000' at 12:30 PM. The HRRR forecast
said 2,000' at 1 PM so we had assumed that we would launch at 2 PM. As soon as I
heard the news from Richard I got with Mick and said that we've got to get
going.

We had a light north northwest flow at Wilotree Park and we were down at the
south end, apparently not as far south as Jim would have liked us. The sky was
again full of cu's and had been since about noon. It was great to see the tandem
stay up for so long.

Jim Prahl pulled me up at 1:34 PM and I held on until 2,200' as we hadn't found
any lift until then. It was only 100 fpm so I climbed to 2,600' and then went
for the dark cu to the south east. That provided 400 fpm to cloud base at
3,500'.

This cu was obviously part of a northwest/southeast cloud street but my
turnpoint was to the south. The wind was 11 mph out of the northwest. I had
hoped to be able to come back to Wilotree Park, but that looked a bit difficult.

There were more cu's to the south and I found 300 fpm to 3,500' once again. Mick
launched after me but was not finding good lift. I would aim to the south
southwest to get up under the northwest corner of the cu's where I found the
best lift.

I could see that there was a blue hole between the Seminole Glider Port and Dean
Still Road, our turnpoint. I needed to continue to push to the west to get under
the cu's. South of Seminole I found 200 fpm, but then followed some black
vultures and found 400 fpm a little further south to 3,900', again cloud base.

It was an eight kilometer glide to the next cu, which didn't look all that
promising. At 2,100' I worked 120 fpm with a sailplane coming in underneath me.
There was a big black cu to the south southwest so I headed in that direction,
but it was averaging only 140 fpm to 3,200'.

I was now 4 km due west of the turnpoint. Mick was struggling 15 kilometers back
to the north not finding much lift. There was a blue hole over the turnpoint at
Dean Still and 33 and all blue back to the north. There were cu's to my
southwest, not in the direction I wanted to go though.

There were a few little cu's to the north northeast of the turnpoint and then a
larger cu further north. I went for the turnpoint nicking it at 2,000' and
headed for the little wispies to the north northeast.

This was all a mistake. If I had thought more clearly about it I would have
headed north northwest back to the last cu, upwind. It would have been over a
forested area though and the north northeast was open ranch lands.

The little cu only gave me 50 fpm and I was going backwards at 8 mph. That
wasn't going to work.

I finally realized what I had known at first but had not thought about later in
the flight. There was a northwest cloud street and it was right over my head,
except I was in the blue part of it. All I had to do was head directly upwind to
get under the long elongated cu to my northwest.

Unfortunately I was not high enough to make it back under the cloud. Down to
700' over a forested area I turned around to get back to a safe landing field.
Mick had already landed 8 kilometers to the north not making the turnpoint.

High winds tomorrow, but Saturday looks soarable at 77 degrees, but with a low
TOL according to NAM 3 (contradicted by NAM 12), before the really cold weather
happens. Night time temperature down to 37 degrees on Monday. We'll keep on the
flannel sheets.