Busy

Today was a busy day. After I ate breakfast and did laundry, I took Dave’s glider up for a test flight. Although it was only 9:30, I found nice climbs as clouds started forming. After doing the usual battery of tests I told Dave I was taking his glider to Georgia. He wasn’t too concerned since he knew there was another glider he could fly; mine. After landing, I told the pilots milling around that my “spidey-sense” was telling me this was going to be a good day.

Anyone with a wing was preparing to go downwind. Paul, Lauren, Greg, Keith, John, Bo, Davis, Dave, and I all made retrieval plans and headed to the flight line around 11:30. Bo launched first and then it was my turn. The air was active, but I managed to stay connected until 1800 feet. I got off-line a little so I decided to release instead of trying to recover. I expected to find lift, but found nothing but heavy sink. I quickly found myself coming back into the very active field. Bummer. Oh well, take 2. I was doing fine until my old weak-link broke over the pond. Nothing unusual happened, it just broke. Oh well, take 3. By now the other pilots were 15 to 20 miles out. Joe and I rolled out and must have plowed through a dust devil. The tug rocketed up out of sight. I tried to chase, but then the tug fell down the other side and now I was massively high. I’m sure he didn’t appreciate me holding his tail high as he approached the trees. I pulled in as much as possible and was reaching for the release (to help Joe) when I hit the backside and plummeted towards the ground. The tug again went up out of sight and the weak link broke. Whew, what a ride! Oh well, take 4. I managed a sane high tow and was dropped off into a good climb. Yippee!

By now Greg and Paul were low near Coleman. Dave and Lauren were around 35 miles out. I knew I would be flying alone chasing everyone, again. After all the trouble it took to get into the air, I didn’t want to land 5 miles out. I flew conservatively until I found out that Julie was already rolling with the retrieve vehicle and was ahead of me. Eventually Paul and Greg landed and I was close enough to Greg to see where he landed. Lauren was setting a fast pace and was actually increasing the distance between us. I had a couple low saves early, but around Ocala the lift became strong and I started zigzagging across the sky to stay under little lines of clouds. I heard Lauren say she landed so that only left Dave and I in the air on our radio frequency.

Awhile later Dave excitedly announced that he was now flying with Bo at 85 miles out. We all cheered since it meant Bo had a very good chance of breaking 100 miles on his single surface glider. (He did much better, landing around 120 miles out).

It was fun approaching Gainesville, since I had never flown in the area before. I must say, there are some big swamps to west-southwest of Gainesville! I finally left the interstate at Gainesville and started heading towards Dave’s position. About then Dave announced that Bo had scraped him off and that he was going to land around 100.6 miles out, a new personal best for him.

I keep heading west-northwest flying in the late evening glass off. I was having a good time sightseeing and enjoying the lazy air. The sun was getting low but thought I could do one more climb when I managed to get on the wrong side of a convergence line. The once peaceful air was now angry and my vario was wailing in pain. The wind was now west at 10, almost opposite of the wind a few miles back. I made a hasty retreat back to the convergence line hoping to land in light winds instead of a sea breeze. I found a weak climb that allowed me time to pick a nice field to land in. I almost went for another further off field, but since the sun was getting so low, I thought it would be wise to land soon. I had a sweet smooth glide into the field and a no-step landing at the corner of a large pasture field. I was 128 miles from take off.

The land owner drove out to see what just landed in his field. We had a pleasant conversation that could have gone on much longer, but I excused myself so I could break down in the fading daylight. Julie, Bo, and Dave showed up just as I finished packing and we were soon on our way back home. We stopped for a celebratory dinner in Gainesville and were back at the airfield at a respectable 11pm.