Robin Hamilton writes of his triangle attempt in Texas in his
Swift:

Set up a 300K triangle course with the long leg from Columbus up
120km (73miles) to the NW to Rockdale, trying to push as much of the flying as
far to the N as possible. The second turnpoint was Navasota. The sky looked good
from early with light winds and around 40% Cu cover by mid-day. I got a late
start at around 1.30 which meant I was going to have to make an average of over
60km/h (36 mph) to have any chance of getting round. Of course all bets would be
off if the possible bad stuff that sometimes/often happens in the south of our
area actually materialized (e.g. sea breeze, O/D). My plan was then to fly up
towards Rockdale and if I was off the pace then to abandon the triangle attempt
and fly back to Columbus from there.


As it was I got off tow and found that the day was pretty much booming from the
start. I pinged off at around 1,000 agl and shot up to base at 4,000' agl in a
thermal that was averaging 600 fpm with bits of 800 fpm in it. Mmmm.... was
definitely getting off too late. The wind at base was 10km/h (6mph) from the ESE
and after a sticky moment behind Columbus following the first glide, I then got
into a good rhythm on this first leg - stopping only for climbs of 400 fpm or
better and gliding at generally 90-100 Km/h (55-60 mph). As I got further N the
conditions got even better - stronger climbs (got 1200 fpm sustained just before
Rockdale) and base had gone up above 6,000' agl. All around, the sky looked big
but had only gone bananas in a couple of places - back over in the Hempstead
direction and somewhere out towards the coast on a line S of Lake Somerville.


Rounded Rockdale at base at around 3.15 so decided to continue on towards
Navasota. Although now nominally an upwind leg, it was almost directly upwind
and so it was possible to take advantage of the short clumped streets that were
forming up on route so the glides were quite good and the average speed wasn't
suffering too much. I did have one mis-step at Caldwell where I took a long
glide to a good looking cloud N of the town that promptly melted when I got
below it so I had to scurry S back over the town low (1800' agl) and searching
and finally got back up in a boomer over their rail yard.


I then ran a short street east to the start of the agricultural belt that flanks
the Brazos on both sides. At that point the clouds quit completely over some 20
miles of the course line with the closest clouds off directly to the East - over
the College Station airspace ! Also, the Hempstead cu-nimb had now dissipated
leaving some high cirrus but not significantly screening the ground along the
course line. There were a couple of climbs in the blue but it was overall a long
quiet glide in good if somewhat different air over to the first tree lines on
the east side of the Brazos valley. I got there with less than 1500' agl and
searched for a bit before the buzzards helped me into a 400fpm core that got me
back up to base. There was then some kind of convergence line that I ran along
the east side of the Brazos valley all the way to Navasota.


Came round Navasota turnpoint at just after 5pm and so still had a shot of
making the 90 km (56 miles) cross wind to Columbus. The area ahead was
completely blue with the next skinny cu's forming in the distance on the other
side of Brenham. This big hole was around 35km (22 miles) across and had
probably been caused by the cu-nimb collapsing. The convergence line running
down from College Station down to Navasota was probably also related to some
blow out from the cloud up the Brazos valley.


OK, having scienced the problem to death, I now had to point my toes (not so
easy inside a Swift cage) for a long glide through weakly buoyant but otherwise
thermal-less? Air to get to the first probable late afternoon thermal source
over Highway 290 - it worked, giving 100-200fpm back up to 3,000' agl. The big
hope though was the city of Brenham with all its asphalt, concrete and metal so
when I had the height to get there, I buzzed over and was briefly rewarded with
some stronger lift on the SE side of town. Meanwhile, the day was dying to the
west and the cu-towers in the distance off to the south were probably marking
the progress of the sea breeze front. Given the conditions and the time of day,
I wound it down into a big field SW of Brenham to land just after 6 pm some 50km
(30 miles) short of Columbus.


I was very grateful to get Mick Howard on the phone, who reported that indeed
the sea breeze had arrived at Columbus and that importantly Geoff May had found
my car keys and was on his way to pick me up with the Swift Trailer - Thanks to
both these gentlemen.


I've tried to do this 300km triangle flight in our area now 5 times and it
hasn't worked because;


1. Started too late (4 times)


2. Cu-nimb/sea breeze on route (4 times)


3. RDF (really dumb flying) - 2 years ago I flew towards a developing cu-nimb
instead of taking a detour and got flushed in the downdraft, landing in the
middle of the afternoon on an otherwise great day.


Yesterday's attempt I think failed on 1. And 2. There may also be an issue with
trying to get back down to Columbus later in the day with the higher likelihood
of finding overdevelopment or sea breezes in place. Columbus may simply be a
good one-way departure point.