We've been grounded due to high wind since last Sunday, and last Saturday wasn't all that good either (and tomorrow - Saturday looks blown out). Last Friday was a spectacular day (http://ozreport.com/11.134#0) and the cu's have been looking good all week as the wind howled. They were especially good looking on Thursday starting early in the morning with deep dark bottoms and streeting up right away. Unfortunately the streets were headed straight for Toledo.

The winds for Friday were forecasted to be northwest at 10 mph, and the cu's were already showing up at 10 AM. I was ready to try again to get around Toledo. Even though I would have to go somewhat cross wind, it looked to me like a good chance.

The temperatures had dropped twenty degrees during the week and this morning it was cold and the temperature was expected to be only 71 degrees with the temperature at cloud base at 45 degrees. I got bundled up.

Tracy towed me up a little after 1 PM into a sky full of dark cu's. I waited until I was tow to almost 2,000' AGL given the winds. The lift was reasonably strong at 250 fpm under the dark cloud after I got off, and the whole point was to stay up and get to cloud base before heading off.

The point early in a flight is to stay up, get high and get a feel for the day. There is no need to race right away. I wanted to be at cloud base before I headed due south at 40 degrees off the wind.

The sky was full of cu's, thick with them, maybe a bit too thick with them. I glided four miles and found lift under a dark cloud which got me to almost 5,000' AGL and cloud base. The glide after that was through a lot of sink as I approached the swamps that were shaded by dark congested clouds so I had to go back upwind to find lift before I drifted over unlandable areas.

I found lift upwind in the area with sunlight ground and small forming cu's whipping by me quickly to the southeast. I had been finding lift on the upwind side of dark clouds or under small newly forming clouds so this is why I chose to head upwind away from the dark clouds further to the south.

I climbed again and made sure that I made it back to cloud base before I headed cross win over the swamps toward more dark congested clouds. There was a large area of sunshine ahead and I had the choice of heading more downwind to get to the clouds earlier, or to head south through the blue to the dark clouds six miles ahead. I had been getting lift in the blue areas with newly forming clouds and that was due south so I close that direction.

I didn't find any lift on the glide so as I got down near the dark clouds, I headed up wind over sunlit areas to where I could see the clouds forming. Unfortunately the lift that I found was quite weak (less than 50 fpm) and didn't last long enough to get me up. I ran down wind to the dark clouds to see if there was lift there but no luck and I was soon on the ground.

The sky had basically over developed with lots of scud (bits and pieces of clouds just above the cu's) blocking the sun from heating up the ground. The ground was shaded all around and stayed that way for about forty five minutes. Later it was to open back up again.

The cu's were very poorly defined and the lift was smooth but once too often too weak. The cu's were not nearly as good as on the previous Friday. Still perhaps if I had chosen a different path for my final glide I would have been able to stay up.

I have been making a very conscientious effort to think hard about every single action I take while flying cross country to see how much difference they make. It makes for very interesting flying no matter what happens.

The weather looks better for Sunday

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