Against the wind
John Simon|Mick Howard|Wilotree Park|XContest.org
Going upwind can be quite difficult especially on days with weak lift and a low cloudbase. Given the soaring forecast (see below) it looked to me that I had better call a shorter task if we were going to come back to Wilotree Park.
Preliminary soaring forecast for Tuesday December 28th, 2021 at Wilotree Park
NWS, Tuesday:
Areas of fog before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 80°F. Light south southeast wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Hourly forecast: south southwest wind 8 mph after noon, cloud cover 33% going down to 10%, no chance of rain.
HRRR, 1 PM:
Surface wind: south southwest 3 mph
Updraft velocity: 360 fpm (RAP 500 fpm)
TOL: 3,800'
Cu: 3,100'
B/S: 5.5
RAP, 3 PM:
Surface wind: south southwest 8 mph
Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 4,300'
Cu: 3,400'
B/S: 8.2
Task:
Quest - 3 km
T47433 - 5 km
Quest - 400 m
As has been the case so far this December beginning of the new season we waited for the cu's to get to us from the south before launching. There was a tiny bit of west in the predominantly south wind and it was blowing over 5 mph, for sure.
Bobby pulled me up and before we reached the end of the field at 200' AGL we were turning sharply to stay in the thermal that was right over the field. I expect this from Bobby, so I was ready to bank it over and stay with him, not inside the circle and not outside it either. We hit over 1000 fpm on my on 20 second averager and I pinned off at 1,500' which was way more than I needed to stay up.
The lift wasn't nearly as great as it would have appeared to be while on tow (600 fpm) but I averaged 360 fpm and then drifting back found a weaker thermal at 200 fpm. The wind was 8 mph out of the south southwest.
It took a while to climb to 3,100' as I drifted north of highway 50. Drifting down wind increased the upwind task leg to sixteen km, when it would have been ten from the southern edge of the start cylinder.
There were plenty of cu's to the south so I pushed ahead, but was soon down to 1,300' AGL 2 km east of Wilotree Park. I did not want to land out because there were good days coming and I didn't want to have to break down my glider. Just as I was about to turn and head for the flight park I heard the varios beep and I started turning and drifting further away. It was only 135 fpm on average.
Back to 3,100' again and needing to push up upwind again to find better lift I finally found 260 fpm southeast of Wilotree and climbed to 3,900'. Mick Howard was just above me and there was a little fire down below.
Pushing to the west of Mick over Pine Island I found weak lift (100 fpm or less) that did little good other than to keep me in the air, but going no where in the 13 mph south wind. I headed south at 3,300' for the next set of clouds which were a bit too far to the south, but I needed to give that a try.
The sink was bad at over 500 fpm and when was down to 1,900' AGL I turned around and headed back down wind toward the flight park. Mick was a little higher and was more patient and continued south slowly.
About 3 km south of Wilotree and down to 1,200' I found 100 fpm and after climbing up worked my way south again toward the turnpoint, which was a 5 km cylinder around the intersection of highway 474 and 33, I found 250 fpm to 2,800'.
Given how easy it was to go downwind to get back to the flight park I pushed up wind again to get under a nice looking cu, even further south than before, and down to 1,500' AGL. The lift averaged -5 fpm and I drifted back toward Wilotree. Mick was still moving slowly south. John Simon, after his second launch (or maybe a late launch) was scraping on the deck below me in the previous thermal. Everyone else had landed back at the park.
I headed back and found 44 fpm on the way back which made it even easier to get back and land at home.
Mick was able to make the turnpoint at get back to the park. John Simon landed out, not needing to keep his glider set up as he had to go to work the next day.
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/2021-12-28/18:36
https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2982080
https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US
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4 topics in this article: John Simon, Mick Howard, Wilotree Park, XContest.org
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