The forecast was for a high temperature of 72 degrees, with a top of lift at 4,100' at 1 PM, with a chance of cu's. updraft velocity at 500 fpm, with a 6 mph southeast wind at 2,000'. Six or seven pilots were ready to fly. Pilots at Wallaby Ranch were also ready to go.

I didn't look at the forecasted TOL for later in the day or I would have realized that it would be climbing to over 4,700'.

The cu's were thick at about 12:30, much better than the XCSkies forecasts (all of the models) as well as the Skew-T chart. But within twenty minutes almost all the cu's disappeared and we were treated to haze domes.

Pedro, George, and Claudia towed up before Mick and I were ready, but we were soon after them. I was towed to a small cu far to the south but it was falling apart. I headed back north toward Wilotree Park, but after losing 1,000' found a thermal at 1,400' and drifted north west away from the first turnpoint to the southeast.

Pedro was also sticking around the flight park as the conditions weren't that great yet. Mick was nearby and after a while we started getting over 3,000'. I headed east southeast at 3,500' into a 7 mph head wind while Mick lost me as he found 400 fpm to get him up over 4,000'.

Gliding in 500 fpm down I was down to 1,800' when I decided to head back for another try at finding lift over the flight park. Taking a line a little south of my line going out I quickly found lift and was soon going up at 200 fpm average to 3,400'. As I circled up I saw Mick landing just south of me about half way to the first turnpoint.

More cu's were now forming and there were cu's in the direction of the first turnpoint at Sawmill to the southeast. I headed that way and climbed to 4,600' at 280 fpm at about 50 minutes into the flight and a little more than half way to the turnpoint.

With plenty of cu's around now and getting higher than the forecast for 1 PM I quickly found 200 fpm again to 4,800', all the while drifting back at 6 or so mph. As soon as I made the turnpoint at 3,600' I knew the up wind struggle was over. I was only 8 km from Wilotree Park so it was always in sight as I headed west toward Bay Lake intersection just before the Green Swamp.

There was an 11 to 14 mph southeast wind so I was utilizing a cross tail wind and getting upwind of the course line. I had been over plenty of very landable fields and I now I was crossing forested areas but I wasn't getting too low so it was not much of the bother. I found 100 fpm and quickly left that for 250 fpm under better looking clouds. I could see a couple of other pilots nearby higher circling also.

At 4,200' it was easy to make the turnpoint and head back to Wilotree Park with way more altitude than was required. The air had been a bit bumpy at first but had smoothed out quickly even with the wind. It took fifteen minutes to get down even circling in 400 fpm down.

There was no turbulence on the ground which made for an easy landing in light winds. The winds were much stronger up high.

As I was landing I saw Odet flying his ATOS coming from Wallaby and coming down to land at Wilotree. Tom Nejames in his ATOS had climbed out and we presume he was headed back to Wallaby. As the conditions had greatly improved he had a good chance to make it.

The flight only lasted an hour and a half. The conditions were excellent for at least a couple more hours.

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2689951

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/2020-12-11/17:54#fd=flight

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US

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