Robin Hamilton writes:

We traveled east to Buffalo, Oklahoma on Tuesday to try to get out of the weather overdevelopment areas to the west and to get a better chance of a tail wind. Whilst we did get a 10-12 mph tailwind we didn't quite escape the influence and complexities of the cu-nimbs. We planned a route of some 140 miles to the NNW from Buffalo and had a fairly late start at around 2pm but even then conditions were not strong enough to make it easily out of the start area. Within some 10-15 miles conditions had improved and all four of us, Larry, Glen, Pete Lehman and I were happily bumping along with moderate climbs now getting us up to cloud base at around 6,500' (4,700' above the ground).

As we flew over the State line into Kansas, the cu-nimbs started to build as a line to the West and North, with isolated cells now also appearing on our course line. At that point it was pointless to consider our original goal destination as it was lying directly below the area of strong storm activity. I started flying to the NE in the hope of out-flanking the storms and this worked for some 50 miles but as the storm activity to the west increased, the high tops of the cu-nimbs popped off and shaded all of the area, pretty much killing the lift. I continued as far as I could whilst staying safe and dry and finally landed in a crop sprayer's air field some 85 miles out. Sasha, the master millennial retrieve driver, was in my landing field even before I landed. We quickly broke down the glider and had it on the roof of the car before the gust front came through and the rain started.

It was a little frustrating to have the flight cut short by cu-nimb activity again - its the third time its happened on our journey here. Wednesday we will head to the other side of the dry line back in Colorado to try to get into some better weather.

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