The wind was out of the north northeast. It stayed at 16 mph throughout the whole flight. There was no sea breeze forecasted for the beach at Venice.

Pilots here aren't all the used to flying in the north northeast wind. It was strong on the ground and that caused a number of them to hesitate to go to launch. It didn't slow down Larry Bunner, Ken Kinzie and I. What did keep us from launching before 2 PM was the lack of cu's. They may have been a mistake on our part as it takes a long day to get to Venice.

Cu's are rare on a northeast day. The Skew-T showed no cu's, but we could see some not that far away and they enticed us into waiting a bit for them to come over us.

I was hauled up first by Jim Prahl. There was plenty of lift on tow but given the strong wind I held on until 2,000'. Still I had to turn around and head back to the lift to get up from 1,700'. Despite how strong it felt on tow it was only 130 fpm to 2600' Larry was in much stronger lift to 3,800' to my east.

There was a wisp forming over me and then another and I kept getting under them but the lift was illusive. Finally I had to head out into the blue to see if I could get near another better looking cu and get up. I wasn't sure that I would make it more than a few kilometers.

Down to 1,000' AGL I found lift that averaged almost 200 fpm to 3,300'. Ken and Larry were ahead and higher. The strong wind made it difficult to stay with the thermal. I was drifting west of the course line.

I worked 100 fpm, then 200 fpm west of the intersection of highway 474 and 33 to 4,000'. Ken and Larry came over to me and flew overhead. We were being pushed very quickly to the south southwest.

I worked 250 fpm to 3,400' northwest of Deen Still and 33 and then headed south southeast as it did not look good ahead as Larry, who was out ahead was still gliding and not turning. There were no more cu's, either. I was trying to get closer to the highway and it looked a bit drier over there. We had just had two nights of heavy rain.

Down to 1,000' I found 200 fpm to 3,800' with Ken and Larry just a few kilometers ahead getting up. They hadn't shaded to the east as much as I did.

Larry and Ken found good lift 2.5 kilometers ahead and I raced toward them. When I got there I found 800 fpm under their 500 fpm and quickly closed the gap. Finally I was in a position to fly with others. We were just west of Polk City and we climbed to 5,200', the highest we would get all day.

We found a little more over I-4, but essentially went on a 17 kilometer glide over the open fields then populated areas near Lakeland. Our turnpoint was the county airport to our east with an eight kilometer radius cylinder. It was there just to keep us out of controlled airspace. We decided to not make the glide to the edge of the cylinder as we had plenty of room to clear Lakeland airspace on our west.

Over Lakeland and down to 2,200' I felt a little bit of lift to my left, east, north of a lumber mill. I called out that I had a little something. Larry turned around and came back under me low. Ken came over also. We climbed to 4,000' at 150 fpm. Larry didn't get up as high as us and had to go back and do it again. There was a nice possible landing field nearby.

We quickly left civilization behind and flew over wide open green wet fields. We tested a few weak thermals and then after a 10 kilometer glide I was down to 1,800' just north of a stand-a-lone factory.  I turned in 190 fpm drifting 6 kilometers and climbing to 4,500'. This getting relatively low and then slowly working up had been the theme of this flight so far. I felt very lucky to be able to locate lift when I got this low. I kept making deliberate choices that worked out. Nice to have a tailwind.

Larry caught up with me after my lowish save and then we caught up with Ken and climbed to 4,300' at 300 fpm. As you can see most of the thermals were weak. They were also a bit difficult to stay in. When this thermal got weak I headed out in front while Larry and Ken continued to work it.

We had big open wet field below us with very few roads and lots of canals. Easy to land in, but hard to get out of.  I went on a 13 kilometer glide turning near the end to the southwest toward the main highway. I saw a dry field on the east side of it that looked like it could be producing.

Down to 1,500' I found 100 fpm and climbed slowly to only 3,600'. Meanwhile just to my west Ken and Larry climbed to 4,600' and went on glide as I struggled. At this point I just wanted to be near a highway.

An 8 kilometer glide and I was down to 1,600' over cultivated fields that had access to the highway. After drifting for 3 kilometers over these fields I was at 1,550' and I jumped over to the next set of cultivated fields. Larry and Ken had just landed, Larry a couple of kilometers to my north in this second set of cultivated fields.

I came across the southern end of this set at 1,100' AGL. I was climbing at 90 fpm and talking with Larry on the radio. I was ready to go land to make the retrieve easier. We were 60 kilometers from our goal at Venice Beach. It was 5 PM.

Larry told me that he had just heard from Zac Majors and that he was on his way to get under me. Oh, I guess I had better stay up. I was now climbing at 120 fpm just south the cultivated fields. Zac soon came in under me low. He had launched after the three of us.

Drifting 5 kilometers we climbed to 3,600'. It was an 11 kilometer glide back to an area with residential structures. I found lift at 1,500' and Zac came back in under me. We took 200 fpm to 3,800' It was almost 6 PM.

5 kilometers later down to only 2,600', we again climbed to 3,800' at 170 fpm. Seeking to avoid the treed swamp that had stopped me before I had us head through a clear area that would get us to the coast about 5 kilometers north of our goal. Still we could land at the beach. There was no sea breeze.

The sun was getting a bit low in the sky and it was all green open fields in front of us.  Wet fields full of ponds.

After a 12 kilometer glide I was down to 1,000'. Zac was a couple of hundred over me. I decided to turn around and head back to a nice farm road as it was roadless ahead for 3 kilometers. Zac landed at the other side of the big field with no roads and near roads.

We were within 18 kilometers of our goal.

It was a most pleasant flight and getting low made for lots of excitement. I hadn't been over this part of Florida in a a couple of years and it was great to see it again. Hopefully next week also.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/11.4.2018/17:55

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