Oz Report

Worlds - Task/Day 4 (from issue 10.105)

Cirrus and convergence (Quest Air)

The results

The rigid wing task and flight (Ron Gleason's) on the HOLC.  The rigid task and flight on Google Maps/Earth or better yet here.

Dr.  Jack, using the weather services RUC model, called for very significant sea breeze convergence on Sunday way to our east over Orlando and to our west over the Green Swamp.  There weren't supposed to be any clouds, but the lift was forecasted to be 600+ fpm, and the top of the lift at 8,800' at 5 PM with light winds.

Given this positive outlook (other than the lack of clouds) we called a 98 mile triangle task for the rigids, 137 mile one for the Swifts, and a 66 mile out and return for the women.  What the forecast didn't predict was all the cirrus coming from a trough over the western Gulf of Mexico (the NWS in Tampa talked about it later after the fact).

With no clouds in the sky it is hard to get pilots all that excited about launching.  The women's task committee had already called for a later launch for themselves.  Still we got the Swifts off at noon and the rigids got going at 12:15 only to find weak lift and a top of the lift under 4,000'.  There was an obvious thick inversion.

For the next hour and a half we struggled.  The gaggles got so bad that I flew back to Quest Air from a few miles out thinking about landing and then getting pulled up again in time for the second start clock (as no one wants to go with the first one).  But I found 500 fpm and climbed to 3,500'.

Not wanting to get back into the clusterf..k, I flew south toward the gaggles, but stopped and climb with one other pilot.  There were now three gaggles to the south near the start circle circumference and I headed toward the one with the least pilots and furthest away.

Before I got there I found 400 fpm, and flashed my wings as I put it up on tip in this tiny core.  I wanted to get high and out of the way in the hurry.  It worked and since it took the other pilots a couple of turns to figure out that this was the best lift they would have seen in the last hour, I was able to stay on top and out of their way.  I would live to fly again.  It has been that bad.

The start window opened and we headed south toward the intersection south of Haines City.  I was following a couple of pilots and we found a couple of thermals to climb in within the first six miles, but at six miles out the lead pilot found a boomer and we climbed to 5,500' at 600 fpm, higher and faster than we had been so far.  It felt like a switch had been turned on and the day was now ready for us.

We shot out of the top of that thermal with two lead pilots in front and me and David Chaumet side by side at the same level and gliding fast.  There were twenty pilots behind us.  I was ready to fly fast and turn hard in the next strong thermal.

It was a six mile glide to the north end of Brown Shin road with no lift and now we were groveling at 2,200' and climbing at 130 fpm.  Meanwhile David had shaded to the right a bit and found lift behind us.  Hubris had taken over my brain (what, is thing for rent?), and now was paying the dues I have paid so often. Essentially the race was over for me (David Chaumet won the day).  I was able to hold on and get on for a while, but to no avail.

Jim Yocom, Jim Lamb, and Ron Gleason were able to make it back to Quest with about thirty other rigid wing pilots.  Russell Brown landed near the last turnpoint at the Turnpike and highway 33.  He landed at a private airport and they went there later and towed him out.

The German team found the convergence on the way north of the turnpoint south of the Green Swamp over the Green Swamp.  Ralf reported getting 6-7 m/s in very smooth air flying straight.  They were very excited.

The highest reported altitude was in fact 8,800' and we had plenty of climbs higher than the predicted 450 fpm.  But the cirrus did come over our flying area and made for interesting conditions.  It put me down, but others (perhaps also in the convergence) noticed that they were going up when they shouldn't have been. Yocom got to 8,400'.

The women had a tougher time of it with no convergence (or at least no reports of convergence) and a lot of cirrus that made their much shorter task a lot more interesting than Kari felt it would be.  Natalia Khamlova won the day, with Francoise, followed by Corinna and Kari.  They were the only ones to make goal.

All the Swifts made the task other than Mark Mullholland with Manfred winning the day.

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