Where's the Off Switch

After the long flight to Georgia yesterday, I just wanted to fly for a couple hours and then chill with the pilots arriving for the upcoming meets. Brian, Dave, Steve, Jim, and Al are here.

I was the first to launch again and Carlos and I slammed into something wicked at the south end of the field around 700 feet. Carlos fell off to the left and I shot up to the right. I tried to correct but knew how this storied would end. I released, did a quick search, and started climbing over the trees drifting north. Once above 1200 feet I relaxed and started watching the action on the launch line below. Kerry and Mike started the takeoff roll but the tug stalled after Mike was in the air. Mike tried again only to break a weak link coming out of the cart. Mick and Mike eventually started a slow climbing. I wanted to keep the flight short so I decided to head out by myself towards Quest.

I was traveling up Route 27 having a good time not paying enough attention to the conditions. Before long I was low and looking for an LZ south of 474. I boxed a sunny field and found a broken climb that took forever to mature.

Meanwhile Mike flew overhead heading to Quest. Once back up I had an easy glide into Quest and climbed with Jason before heading south along Route 33. Once again I was uncomfortably low looking for a lift north of the glider port under wispy excuses for clouds. Mike found a strong climb west of the glider port but he was beyond my reach. I pressed on and found a strong smooth climb to the southwest of the glider port and then had an easy glide back to the ranch.

However, as I approached the ranch the lift gradually increased to 800 fpm over the field. The windsocks were dancing around so I decided to park in a climb and take some pictures of Steve and Captain Mick at cloud base. Once done with the photo shoot I was ready to land; remember I only wanted a short flight. I glided to the southwest, got low, and headed back. Once again I encountered strong lift over the field. Dang. I looked for sink but couldn't find any. I gave up, relaxed in a climb, and checked out the scenery. I did some speed runs and came back low. Yep, still lifting off. I began to worry that a sea-breeze front was moving through but there weren't any signs of that happening. I got on the radio and asked for the guys on the ground to find the "lift" switch and turn it off. I finally got so tired I just blasted in not caring which way the wind was blowing. I had a good landing in variable winds and was dragging tired butt around for the rest of the evening.

I was in the air 4 hours 45 minutes and covered a 53 mile triangle.