Four days of good flying
John Simon|PG|Robin Hamilton|triangle|Wilotree Park
Pedro Garcia, Robin Hamilton, John Simon, Mick Howard and I (along with Maria when she wasn't working) got a bunch of Florida style flying in this last week. I missed Thursday having a colonoscopy date.
With temperatures in the lower eighties and the skies filled with cumulus clouds we had great opportunities for close course triangles and out and returns. On our last day on Friday we chose the always popular route to the northwest to Center Hill then to the northeast to the Turnpike and highway 33 and back to Wilotree Park. A total of 51 kilometers.
The forecast for the day pointed out the strength of the south wind:
NWS:
Today
A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. South southwest wind around 5 mph.
Hourly in the afternoon: South southwest surface wind 6 mph. Cloud cover 64% rising to 75% at 4 PM.
HRRR 3:
South southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 9 mph, 2000' south southwest winds at 12 mph.
TOL at 1 PM: 5,100'
Updraft Velocity at 1 PM: 520 fpm
CB at 1 PM: 4,300'
Cloud cover 30%
100% cloud cover at 4 PM
With strong lift and a high cloud base we figured we had a chance coming back against a 12 mph head wind.
I was off first at 1:15 PM trying to get an earlier start given the forecast for 100% cloud cover at 4 PM. No need to wait until 2 PM.
I didn't get any lift on tow so I stayed on until 2,600' AGL and then found lift further away from the the park and climbed to 3,600' at 260 fpm on average. Mick was pulled up after me and was not too far below before I headed out as the mists became evident.
With an eleven mph southeast tail wind it was easy to get to the next cu's off to the northwest in the direction of Center Hill. With Mick using me to spot the thermals we were quickly at Center Hill having found lift averaging between 100 fpm and 300 fpm. There were plenty of cu's to help guide the way.
Turning to the northeast at Center Hill meant that the wind was now cross and the lift not so great still I made it to the Turnpike and highway 33 turnpoint with a couple of thermals. Mick got a little confused and first went toward the wrong intersection before heading further east toward highway 33. John and Robin were behind us.
Turning south at the Turnpike mean heading into the wind which was now due south at 9 mph. I found lift at 1,900' two kilometers to the south but ending up back over the turnpoint at 3,700' climbing at 236 fpm.
There were cu's to the south down highway 33, but they were fewer, further apart and didn't look as good as on the first leg., but it was still early at 2:30 PM. I was glad that we took an earlier start than we had on previous days.
The lift was weak and the wind was strong, just what we didn't need. I saw John coming in below me heading for the Turnpike as I headed south for the second time. Robin seemed to be further back.
Down to 1,300' just north of the Grass Roots airfield I found 150 fpm. Ahead of me there were very few cu's at all and the blue hole went on for a long stretch.
I climbed to 2,300' then spotted Robin turning a kilometer back north of me so jumped downwind to join him. Unfortunately I was only able to gain a hundred more feet before that lift petered out. Heading south toward Grass Roots there was no lift to be found and I landed on their nicely manicured grass runway.
John and Mick landed further back to the north, Robin landed on the forbidden farm a couple of kilometers further south, which did not make his day (he had not been informed).
http://ozreport.com/donotlandhere.php
We didn't get as high as forecasted and the lift that we found wasn't as strong as predicted, so we really couldn't make it back against the head wind which was 13 mph above 2,000'.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.2.2021/18:15
https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2718874
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US
http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20201215&gliderclass=hg1
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5 topics in this article: John Simon, PG, Robin Hamilton, triangle, Wilotree Park
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