Larry Bunner, John Simon, Greg Dinauer and I have been flying the
past three days. Sunday and President's Day my flights were a little shorter
than I would have liked. Others did well, but no one was able to complete the
triangle tasks given the light lift.

Today was no exemption, but perhaps better lift.

Conditions started weak and after a while Greg decided to stay local. The wind
was out of the south at about 13 mph.

Launching at 1:20 PM (second launch) I worked 100 fpm or less following Larry
who had launched earlier to the north northwest and not getting above 2,800'.
There were plenty of cu's around but they were misty and not well formed. No
black bottoms.

I lost contact with Larry north of Mascotte, but saw that John was nearby. We
flew together and found 200 fpm west of Grass Roots airfield to 3,400', then
turned west to head toward the first turnpoint at Cheryl, a north/south grass
air strip.

We worked a couple of less than 200 fpm thermals south and west of Center Hill
until we found lift that on the 30 second averager showed 480 fpm (but overall
was 260 fpm) on the southwest corner of the forested area three kilometers from
Cheryl. That got us back to 3,400'.

Larry joined up with us there although he had been ahead and then got the
turnpoint after us.

The next turnpoint was the Baron airstrip on the northeast. John caught a better
climb and got to 4,000' on the west side of the forest. Larry came in under me
and I climbed to 3,700' before heading after John toward the prison complex.

There were plenty of cu's ahead and John got halfway through the forest and then
called out that he was heading toward the cu's to the northeast. I got there and
decided to head to the cu to the east instead. I noticed that there was a fire
feeding it.

I got there and found 600 fpm (it averaged 370 fpm) to 4,200'. John came back
under me to join in the better lift and Larry came in low (but didn't go far
enough south toward the fires). Larry would land at the Turnpike.

I headed out in front for Baron with John coming soon behind me. I was down to
2,600' in the 3 kilometer turnpoint cylinder when John called out 300 fpm 2
kilometers behind me. I came in under him but it averaged 45 fpm for me.

John topped out at 4,100', made the turnpoint at Baron and headed north up along
the east side of the Villages. I left at 2,500' and headed west along the north
edge of the Turnpike over areas being graded for development and toward a large
black bottom cloud over a lake and swamp area.

I was only going down at 200 fpm and there were some possible landing areas
ahead along the Turnpike. I wanted to get south of the big cumulus cloud. I
finally did find the source of its lift at 1,700' and started climbing at 300
fpm in a very smooth and very tight thermal. The air was rising throughout each
rotation.

I took it to 4,100' and headed north northwest slightly to get around the blue
hole to the north and toward the better looking cu's. I wasn't getting anything
and northwest of Wildwood I heard from John that he had laded. He didn't get
anything after Baron.

I kept heading toward the thickness looking cu's but I didn't find a thing. I
came over a really big field next to a paved road at 1,300' and then searched
around to see if there was any lift in the vicinity. Not finding anything worth
hanging out in I landed in my preferred field. Logan, our driver, was there with
John as I finished breaking down. 52 minutes back to Wilotree Park.