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February 18, 2020, 9:13:29 pm EST

Winter Flying at Wilotree Park

It's been light lift the past three days

Larry Bunner|Wilotree Park

John Simon|Larry Bunner|Wilotree Park

Greg Dinauer|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Wilotree Park

Greg Dinauer|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Wilotree Park

Larry Bunner, John Simon, Greg Dinauer and I have been flying the past three days. Sunday and President's Day my flights were a little shorter than I would have liked. Others did well, but no one was able to complete the triangle tasks given the light lift.

Today was no exemption, but perhaps better lift.

Conditions started weak and after a while Greg decided to stay local. The wind was out of the south at about 13 mph.

Launching at 1:20 PM (second launch) I worked 100 fpm or less following Larry who had launched earlier to the north northwest and not getting above 2,800'. There were plenty of cu's around but they were misty and not well formed. No black bottoms.

I lost contact with Larry north of Mascotte, but saw that John was nearby. We flew together and found 200 fpm west of Grass Roots airfield to 3,400', then turned west to head toward the first turnpoint at Cheryl, a north/south grass air strip.

We worked a couple of less than 200 fpm thermals south and west of Center Hill until we found lift that on the 30 second averager showed 480 fpm (but overall was 260 fpm) on the southwest corner of the forested area three kilometers from Cheryl. That got us back to 3,400'.

Larry joined up with us there although he had been ahead and then got the turnpoint after us.

The next turnpoint was the Baron airstrip on the northeast. John caught a better climb and got to 4,000' on the west side of the forest. Larry came in under me and I climbed to 3,700' before heading after John toward the prison complex.

There were plenty of cu's ahead and John got halfway through the forest and then called out that he was heading toward the cu's to the northeast. I got there and decided to head to the cu to the east instead. I noticed that there was a fire feeding it.

I got there and found 600 fpm (it averaged 370 fpm) to 4,200'. John came back under me to join in the better lift and Larry came in low (but didn't go far enough south toward the fires). Larry would land at the Turnpike.

I headed out in front for Baron with John coming soon behind me. I was down to 2,600' in the 3 kilometer turnpoint cylinder when John called out 300 fpm 2 kilometers behind me. I came in under him but it averaged 45 fpm for me.

John topped out at 4,100', made the turnpoint at Baron and headed north up along the east side of the Villages. I left at 2,500' and headed west along the north edge of the Turnpike over areas being graded for development and toward a large black bottom cloud over a lake and swamp area.

I was only going down at 200 fpm and there were some possible landing areas ahead along the Turnpike. I wanted to get south of the big cumulus cloud. I finally did find the source of its lift at 1,700' and started climbing at 300 fpm in a very smooth and very tight thermal. The air was rising throughout each rotation.

I took it to 4,100' and headed north northwest slightly to get around the blue hole to the north and toward the better looking cu's. I wasn't getting anything and northwest of Wildwood I heard from John that he had laded. He didn't get anything after Baron.

I kept heading toward the thickness looking cu's but I didn't find a thing. I came over a really big field next to a paved road at 1,300' and then searched around to see if there was any lift in the vicinity. Not finding anything worth hanging out in I landed in my preferred field. Logan, our driver, was there with John as I finished breaking down. 52 minutes back to Wilotree Park.

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