The soarcast the night before:

HRRR 3, 2 PM

TOL - 5,900'

CB - I think that there will be some cu's

Updraft velocity - 660 fpm

B/S ratio - 10.0

Surface winds - WSW 7 mph

2000' winds - WSW 7 mph

4000' winds - W 5 mph

Cloud cover - 6%

Sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the
afternoon.

Skew-T is calling for west winds 4 - 5 mph all the way up. CB just slightly
above TOL.

Task

Quest - 3 km

Famish - 2km

Wallaby - 2km

Quest - 400 m

82.8 km

While HRRR 3 called for no cu's and the NSW said only 6% cloud cover the cloud
base was just above the forecasted TOL on the
GSD Skew-T so I figured that we would possibly have some thin cu's that
would quickly appear and then disappear.

There certainly weren't any signs of cu's in the morning and it looked like it
would be the third blue day in a row. But, with the light winds blowing west
northwest I took my glider down to the east end of the east/west runway and saw
all the cu's forming to our northwest toward Lake Panasoffkee.

The original task had been set to the south west and then over to Wallaby and
back, but with the only cu's off to the northwest we changed the task to an out
and return to the lake.

I was off first after a bit of a delay at 2:26 PM. The cu's had just started
appearing locally. John Simon was too tired after two days of flying to go with
Pedro, Maria, Misael and I. Tim pulled me right to the closest cu over Groveland
high school to the north northwest.

The wind was out of the west and the cu's while not continuous were pretty
streeted up. The wind speed varied from 4 to 7 mph with west and west southwest
directions.

After weak lift over the high school I found 200 fpm north of town and drifted
east. There were plenty of cu's and each of them had some lift. 200 fpm 4
kilometers north of Mascotte and then 360 fpm 5 kilometers east of Center Hill
to 4,400'.

I used the extra altitude to jump north to get under the clouds in the next semi
cloud street, but that didn't work out so I had to retreat a bit to the south to
get under a good looking cloud (some of them had darker bottoms), 4 kilometers
north of Center Hill. It was a bit under 300 fpm back to 4,400'.

I was looking out toward the turnpoint at Lake Panasoffkee. I noted that there
were many fewer cu's near the turnpoint and none to the west of it. Conditions
appeared to be much worse there than in the cu friendly area where I had been
flying so far. I was very wary of what could be happening at the turnpoint.

I made it across the forested area northwest of Center Hill and found 260 fpm to
3,800' 8 kilometers from the 3 kilometer cylinder around the turnpoint. The cu's
at this location were substantial and well formed so my plan was to get high in
the next cu to the north and then tag the turnpoint and get out of there as
quickly as possible.

There were no cu's anywhere to the west of the turnpoint. There was a line of
moist air to the north. It definitely looked like there was a sea breeze that
suppressed the lift just west of the turnpoint.

I noted three small fires to the south of the turnpoint along interstate 75. The
smoke from the fires was not rising by was laid out horizontally along the
ground heading east. There appeared to be a reasonably strong head wind.

I headed to the next good looking cloud to the north but there was no lift that
I could find there.  There was a set of cu's in a street upwind of the cu I
first went to, not as substantial looking, but it looked like a line of lift due
west, but in the general direction of the turnpoint. The main fire was to the
west so it looked like the fire was feeding the street.

I went right up it but got nothing but sink which when it turned into 700 fpm
down I left.

Heading south I found 360 fpm from 1,900' over a nice dry field. I had come
within 5 kilometers of the turnpoint but was now drifting away quickly as I
climbed to 5,200'. I saw no reason to go back to the northwest and try for the
turnpoint again.

Pedro and Maria were about ten kilometers behind me during the outbound leg
getting a later start. Maria had landed about 17 kilometers from the turnpoint
but Pedro was still coming toward it. I radioed that I had cut the task short
and was heading back. The sky that was full of cu's on the way out was turning a
lot more light blue.

With a 9 mph west wind I was headed southeast. There were little haze domes and
tiny cu's to find out in the blue. I worked a few south of Center Hill. There
was a little street of tiny cu's forming south of highway 50 and the nursery and
I hit all of them before finding lift under the last one furthest to the east at
1,900'.

I took that thermal at 200 fpm to 3,600', high enough to get into Wilotree Park
with enough altitude that my wife, Belinda, was happy with me.

Mean while Pedro had made the turnpoint and was back over Maria in zero sink. He
had not been finding much lift so he decided to hang out in this area and wait
for something to lift off. Finally it did and he was able to get up and fly the
next 15 kilometers into goal.

We didn't see Misael. He's not on the radio so we can't track him.

The turnpoint cylinder at Lake Panasoffkee expanded to 8 kilometers from 3: