A Happy Thanksgiving in the Air
Mick Howard|PG|Thanksgiving|Wilotree Park
Mick Howard and I took advantage of a stellar day to do a little cross country task (out and return) while many other pilots (many apparently from Lookout Flight Park) also got to fly at Wilotree Park before the Thanksgiving Dinner at 4 PM.
The NWS forecast was as follows, sunny, with a high near 82. South southeast wind around 5 mph. HRRR forecasted 517 fpm at 1 PM with RAP saying cloud base would be 4,100'. Wind out of the south at 2,000' at 4 mph. It looked like a great day for a closed task back to Wilotree Park.
Cory Barnwell was off first and well before Mick and I as we raced to get ready. Launching just ten minutes before 1 PM, we saw Cory on his Fizz circling low south of Wilotree after we got off tow. He stayed up but was not able to get up with us.
The first thermal averaged less than 100 fpm to 3,600'. Mick called out that he was to the south east in better lift. I found 180 fpm just over him and we got up, me back to 3,600'.
Heading south southwest I found 100 fpm which Mick liked and he came in under me and sure enough I was soon back to 3,600'.
There were cu's every where so it was easy to know where to go next. Mick headed out lower to the south and found 200 fpm to cloud base at 4,000'+. I came in under him as he climbed out fast and left the lift at 3,900' as he headed south again staying out of the cloud.
We'd been in the air for 50 minutes and were only 12 kilometers south of Wilotree Park. Mick found the best thermal so far that averaged almost 400 fpm and it took both of us to cloud base at almost 4,200'. We were a little bit north of the Seminole Glider Port.
I headed toward a cloud over the sand mines (lakes) to the south southeast. Mick headed south past the glider port. When I found nothing over the mines Mick reported good lift under the clouds 1 km south the glider port. I joined him about 4 km to the west coming in at 1,600'. He was up over 3,000'. The lift averaged over 300 fpm.
Our turnpoint was the intersection of highways 33 and 474 just a little over a kilometer to our south east. It was easy for me to get the turnpoint and come back to the same lift although it averaged about half strength when I returned.
Leaving at 3,700' hearing that Mick was in lift north of me I found 300 fpm average just north of the glider port. I had been hitting 500 to 600 fpm on the twenty second averager. I took it again to cloud base which was over kill given that Wilotree Park was down wind and only 10 kilometers away. I was able to hit 62 mph over the ground with a 5 mph tail wind.
Coming in at 1000' I took one turn around field and came in out of the north field passing the hang glider waiting to launch. I timed it so that tug had just taken the previous pilot and dragged them out of my way. With the wind slightly cross from the east I came in at 26 mph ground speed six feet above the ground and flared after going 144 feet for my first landing since May. I was very happy with a one stepper on good flare timing.
Mick hooked up with all the other pilots circling over head under the clouds.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/2020-11-26/17:47#fd=flight
4 topics in this article: Mick Howard, PG, Thanksgiving, Wilotree Park
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