The soarcast was ambiguous unlike last Tuesday when it was clear
that we would have a great day to go around the Green Swamp. The forecasted
winds for Saturday were higher at 6 MPH out of the east, there was less of a
chance of cu's, and there was this strange forecast for 44% going to 53% cloud
cover, while at the same time the NWS said, "Mostly sunny..."

Then add to that the winds would shift from east north east to east southeast.
There was no way to tell if the cloud cover would be because of cumulus clouds
(not that likely) or clouds coming in from the west.

The day started with lots of upper level clouds and no cu's. Sometimes cirrus
and sometimes alto cumulus and covering about half the sky. No one was impressed
by the prospects for doing a cross country task. We were looking for a late
start.

Around 1 PM cu's started developing to our south. Other clouds kept appearing
overhead. We were biding our time. A shelf of higher clouds came over Wilotree
Park and then quickly faded away. There were cu's nearby so I took off at 2:15
PM with Mesial right behind me.

Tim, the tug pilot, and I found 1,200 fpm right away. When he hit 1,700 fpm he
turned and I pinned off and climbed out at 600 fpm to 3,900' and then to 4,200'.
I was in the sunshine and there were cu's right overhead and nearby.

But the landscape was dominated by blackness to the west and south. The sky was
complete black with thick, dark high level clouds totally shading the ground a
few kilometers to the south and even closer to the west. I could not see
anything to the west but darkness.

Our task was to the south and back, which seemed like a good task when we saw
all these cu's to the south, but everything had changed very quickly. We did not
see the blackness while we were on the ground. It was hidden by the trees and
had not been there at all during the day.

There were still lots of cu's especially to the southeast and there was sunshine
on the ground east of highway 27, quite aways to our east. I headed southeast
toward the cu's. There was lift under the cu's under the dark sky. It sure
didn't look like we would make it south to Fantasy and back.

Ten kilometers out and down to 2,100' I found a little over 100 fpm over an area
that had recently had sunlight on it. Mesial came back under me and we joined
up. Mick and John Simon were back north of us getting up to 4,800'. The ground
was completely shaded but there were cu's above us.

I got up to 3,400' while John and Mick got to 4,800' 3 kilometers behind me.
Mesial was low having left the lift that we were in. It looked to me that I
could make it back to Wilotree from 3,400'.

I went back to where Mick and John had just got up and found 350 fpm. I climbed
to 4,600' while Mick and John slowly climbed to cloud base a few kilometers to
the south. Hundreds of square miles of shaded ground including under us and we
were still flying and climbing up to the cu's.

I flew south to join up with Mick and John but they decided that it was
fruitless to head south taking a jump to the next cu. Sort of hard to know what
was really happening when we had such good conditions despite how bad it looked.
They decided to turn around and come back to Wilotree Park, so I did also.

There was plenty of lift back at the park with all sorts of people flying and
getting high. I had to find a column of sink to get down.

Here's what the sky looked like from up above:

So strange to have this day without sunshine on the ground for the most part but
still plenty of lift.