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March 24, 2016, 6:24:47 pm EST -0400

Quest Air Cross Country

Larry goes well into Georgia

Belinda Boulter|Greg Dinauer|PG|Quest Air

Belinda Boulter|Flytec 6030|Greg Dinauer|PG|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/questxc/blog__day_9

Our XCSkies forecast southeast winds at 10 mph at 2,000' at 2 PM rotating to south southwest north near Jessup, Georgia. Strong lift, a top of lift at 5,000' to 7,000' but no cu's. Actually whenever there is a southeast wind we have cu's so we felt that it would be true on Wednesday also.

Ken was off first and then we had a little wait while the tug got some more gas. I was next at 11:50 AM and found plenty of drift in moderate to weak lift as I waited for Larry to get towed up and then climb up to me. Once together we headed off to the northwest downwind toward the Okahumpka service plaza on the Florida Turnpike. There were indeed cu's and we jumped from one to the next.

The winds were 17 mph out of the southeast but there were no cloud streets unlike our previous flight and the cu's that were out were very thin but conveniently spaced.

An hour after I launched we were climbing at the intersection of the Turnpike and Interstate 75. We had passed Ken and were deciding whether to head north up state highway 301 or follow along west of Interstate 75. Our climb was to the north northwest and Larry and I agreed to head north as the east wind component was pretty weak. The wind was 13 mph out of the south southeast.

The lift was weak, broken and turbulent. I would hit 600 fpm then 200 fpm or find the edge of the thermal and be in sink. Most climbs lasted less than 500' but we were for the most part over 4,000' so we were near cloud base at a little over 5,000'. We did get down to 2,500' over the intersection of highway 301 and highway 27 next to Bellevue. Traffic was tied up as apparently there were incidents on 75 and all the trucks were sent over to 301. We climbed out at 350 fpm for the best average so far to 5,000'.

We stayed high and headed north up the slot between the Ocala National Forest to the east and Ocala to the west. Ken was way off to our west and south. Greg Dinauer and Cory Barnwell were behind us and following us up 301. It actually goes off to our west north of Bellevue and we headed straight north to meet up with it again at Orange Lake.

It had looked at first as though the cu's were going to disappear after we passed Wildwood, but they would form just in front of us and we would head for them to find 200 to 300 fpm on average. Again the pattern was for 500' to 1,000' climbs from now 4,500'. The cu's were broken and turbulent, this didn't change. We rarely found a solid core.

East of Greystone airfield we headed north northwest to cu's just east of Orange Lake and south of Lake Lochloosa. I stayed in the 300+ fpm to climb to 5,700'. Larry left the lift early and I passed him heading for the cu's to the northeast. I found 400 fpm at 3,000' and Larry saw me and came my way finding 600 fpm before he got to me south of Hawthorne. I heard from him on the radio (we were in constant contact) and headed over to him just as it quit. I would have to catch up with him in a couple of thermals.

We followed along east of highway 301 and found strong lift 400 - 500 fpm to 5,900'. I found 700 fpm just below him when he was climbing at 400 fpm so that got us back together.

We headed north back to 301 and to the south west of Starke, again to the cu's. We could see the prison off to the northwest as about the only open land to the west of 301. Our course line took us away from 301 just to be sure that we didn't get into Jacksonville airspace.

This was perhaps a bit overblown concern. The airspace creeps a little west of 301 further north but we could have easily avoided it by staying 2 to 3 km west of 301 as we headed northeast toward Jacksonville. We just were not too sure where we should head. We could see the airspace on our 6030's.

Northwest of Starke we came up upon the Lake Butler Wildlife Management area. To our east there was smoke coming off a fire and marking the convergence zone. If we hadn't been overly concerned about airspace (and I am to blame for that) we would have headed east back to 301 and flown right in the convergence zone, in the smoke.

Years ago I had flown up here and seen this same convergence zone marked by smoke. The top of cloud base was much higher then, maybe 7,000' to 8,000' and the line much more definite then. But I still recognized the line and also felt the turbulence that is associated with not being in the lift.

I looked ahead as we climbed to 5,700'. All I could see were trees and clear cut areas to the east of the Wildlife Management area. I lead out but over the trees at 4,000' I could not see any cultivated fields, and flying barefoot I didn't want to risk landing in clear cut areas. I had done that before and although I didn't have a problem, I didn't want to risk it. Again, right then we should have headed east.

There were no cu's ahead. We had out run them. It looked like we might run out of lift also.

Larry caught 150 fpm behind me and I went back to him but didn't get it. I headed back south to get over cultivated field and found lift at 2,000' with a hawk and a bald eagle, with cu's overhead. Climbing back up I was thinking about heading east to get close to the highway and get closer to the convergence.

After getting up I decided that I had had enough of the broken lift and looked for a nice long north south field to land in.

Larry climbed up slowly to my north and west to 5,700' and headed north toward the Okefenokee Swamp. Our next waypoint to give us general guidance on this task was St. George on the southeast side of the swamp.

He found a thermal over a non landable area near the official border of the Management area with a big landable field back to the south. He was able to climb up and get up to Folkston our next waypoint.

It was getting late, after 6 PM and I was in the car with Belinda. Cory was down just north of his old home town of Starke. Ken would soon be down near where I landed after heading south. Greg was soon to be down on 301 just north of Callahan.

Larry was on glide from Folkston and moving landing field to landing field interspersed among the trees. Finally he found a large one just south of Nahunta, east of Waycross.

We got home at 1 AM.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1445090882

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1351690

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&l=en&date=20160324&contest=INT&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.3.2016/15:48

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

Ken at 108 miles. Don picked him and Cory up:

Discuss "Quest Air Cross Country" at the Oz Report forum   link»


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