Florida

[lbunner]

Today was my third day in Florida. On Tuesday, Charlie Allen and I flew north from Quest in good conditions for ~75 miles. I was a little ahead of Charlie and waited for him so we could figure out whether to continue over the forested land to the north. We agreed to spiral down and land as the clouds were drying up to the north and we didn't want to abuse our drivers (Pat and Tina Halfhill) too much. I ended up with 4 hours in the air, so a good start on getting into flying shape for the comp this weekend. Day two the winds were blowing hard in the morning and the streets were heading due north again. Davis thought it would be a record breaking day with the cold front over Alabama setting up epic pre-frontal soaring in the coastal plain. Unfortunately, he already committed to head to the Ridge so wasn't flying. The winds started abating around 12:00 but there were no takers. For some reason the pilots at Quest were not too keen on flying even though the clouds looked great. I decided to set up at 1:30 as the conditions were continually improving. Finally John from Saskatchewan and I decided to go north as he had a driver (Dave Hopkins). The tug pilot wasn't enthused about towing us up as winds aloft were ~20mph and conditions were turbulent. I kept thinking if we were at Ridgely, we'd all be flying. Although conditions were strong it certainly wasn't anything out of the norm for a thermic summer day. Anyway I towed up and flew around for 2:37 to the north and then on to the south with Paris Williams into a 15mph headwind getting about 10 miles up wind before turning tail and heading back to Quest. We aborted the plans to go north as John was having radio problems and landed back at Quest.
Last night I drove down to The Ridge as the front that ripped apart Alabama was going to make it too windy to fly at Quest. I towed up around 1:30 and had a nice two hour flight around the park with climbs up to 700fpm sustained to over 5000'. Wow this Florida air is so good! Tom Lanning, Patrick Kruse (Bend, OR), Charlie and I flew 10 miles outh and back then boated around until an approaching isolated T-storm convinced us to core sink to get on the deck before the rains hit. We all had excellent landings in very thermic conditions and two of us tore down and bagged it. Soon after, it rained hard for an hour (3+ inches) so hopefully that will mellow out the lift tomorrow as it did get a little ratty at times. Lovin' my new T2C, it is so sweet. Hard to believe they keep improving performance, handling and landing characteristics but they do. Best flex wing yet (how's that RG?).

[John Simon]

Go Bun!

I am jealous as usual. Have flown only twice this season in up here... Will be joining you for the Rally so prepare yourself during the Ridge warm-up.

Have Fun!

John