Florida Bliss

[lbunner]

The nice weather has returned to Florida finally. I was here early in March and only managed three very mediocre days of flying. Strong winds, cold air (relatively) and low top of the lift made for short flights. This week though the conditions have been outstanding. I[ve had 4 flights so far and am averaging over 4 hours per flight (yesterday 4:54) and over 70 miles per flight (flying parallelograms, triangles and out and returns). Later this week it looks like we could go for the long one up into Georgia. Will keep you posted!

[Dave Proctor]

Awesome Bun. Good luck cranking up a long downwind one. The worm has turned here as well. Saw 89 degrees on car thermometer on the way home.

DaveP

[Roger]

Go for it Bunner!

[lbunner]

Yesterday we were headed for Georgia with a waypoint at Williston to keep us west of Ocala Airport. Greg Dinauer, Davis and I flew most of the way together starting around 1230 from Quest. Cloudbase initially was just above 3000' so it was a bit tough getting up and out. Every thermal topped out higher and higher and the climbrates improved too. Just north of the turnpike at The Villages we topped out above 5500' and headed WNW to get back on track to Williston. Davis found a good climb over Hwy 75 at 800fpm and warned us to give him plenty of margin as it was very turbulent. I couldn't quite get up to him and Greg and bailed because of the nasty air. I separated from them for a bit and missed a few climbs before heading over an area of no man's land to a good looking cloud that took me to base (6300') at 800-1000fpm! I overflew Greg in the next thermal and continued on to Williston. We all agreed to abort Ga and land there as the next day was looking really good. I went on final glide and made it to the airport with 800'. Greg and then Davis followed. The clouds were now looking epic far to the north and continued to pump with dard flat bottoms until 7:00pm. We might have made Ga after all. Today is overcast and looks terrible so we made the wrong decision yesterday. Oh well, another 3 hours and 65 miles, not bad for my spring tune up.

[mcgowantk]

Sounds pretty great Bun. Thanks for sending the write ups and good luck in your quest for Georgia.

Tom McGowan