We engaged in more social distancing on Tuesday.

The task was to go back and forth west and east to the north and then return.
The forecast was for a 5 to 6 mph east wind.

I was off first and found weak lift low and hung on until Greg, who was towed up
second, pointed out a twirl on the pond a little to the south. That produced
almost 300 fpm to 4,000'.

The sky had been full of cu's for hours before we took off around 1 PM. There
were plenty to the west and I followed Greg in that direction. Larry had come in
under us, but was struggling back at the flight park.

The clouds were not well defined but very fuzzy. I was able to find 100 fpm in a
thermal four kilometers to the west but only to 3,600'. The thermals were just
not compact and strong enough and it was unclear it was possible to find good
lift.

The next two circling episodes averaged negative amounts of lift. I headed for a
better looking cloud at the eastern edge of the Green Swamp and was down to
1,700' with some possible landing areas nearby. Since I now really had to just
stay up I took what was available and climbed at 125 fpm for 17 minutes to
4,000'. The 7 mph wind pushed me to the north.

Larry and Greg were out ahead of me about nine kilometers and John was not too
far behind. I was happy just to still be in the air.

I headed west over highway 50. After four kilometers I was able to climb at 100
fpm to 3,300'. Everything was still very iffy. I was five kilometers away from
the turnpoint at Terry Town, the lumber mill.

There was a big cu in that direction but as I came under it, it didn't produce
any lift. I kept going toward the lumber yard. I was quickly down to 600' AGL.

There was no lift over the lumber yard as I came over it. I was checking out the
two big fields just to the north of the highway, one with cattle that I had
landed in before.

I spotted a vulture below circling very low over a sawdust pile. I went back
east to get over him and got a little over zero sink. After a five minutes I
gained about two hundred feet and then the birds left and headed a little west
to where more birds were circling. I followed.

There was about 100 fpm there and I climbed up with the birds well below me. 
I climbed to 1,350' before I lost the thermal. Searching around back to the east
I found 265 fpm and was very happy to climb out of this sink hole getting to
over 4,000'.  When you're low your options are so circumscribes and the
horizon is very limited. As you rise up the possibilities become unlimited.

There was a good looking cloud to the east over the sand mine south of Center
Hill. I got there at 2,200'. The lift averaged 240 fpm to 4,400'. A pilot flying
what looked like a very new and special ATOS VR came in with me, thankfully
below me.

From cloud base I headed toward the Grass Roots airfield. I heard that John,
Larry and Greg were there getting up. When I was four kilometers from the
turnpoint Larry said that he would heading back to Wilotree Park instead of to
the next turnpoint at Cheryl to the west. There was a layer of cirrus clouds
that blocked out the sun all around us.

We all agreed to head southeast back to Wilotree Park. For me there was a cloud
street all the way back. I called out good lift and location to John Simon when
I got near the chicken coops. He came in low as he had been on the third leg,
but found sufficient lift even low near where I was. Later he would find 300 fpm
near the coops.

I was ten kilometers out and it looked like I could make it back. I was at about
1,100' AGL almost two kilometers out and looking like I would make it, when I
ran into lots of lift that just kept happening.

Now the problem was getting down. It took ten minutes to get down from 1,300'
with multiple circles around the flight park finding areas of sink. Everyone
made it back.