Florida Ridge - Day Six

The nationals at the Florida Ridge are over and I must say I’m glad. The people at the ridge (James, Steve, Dennis, and Rick) did a lot of make things fun and enjoyable but day after day of wind and limited alternative activities left most pilots grumpy and irritable. (Noticed we used the gliders as laundry lines). I “disappeared” Thursday, the original last day of the meet, for a trip to Sanibel Island on the west coast. The mood was just too negative for my tastes at the airfield.

The mood was better on Friday morning as everyone finally got to set up their gliders. The wind was still from the northeast, so I knew the lake effect breeze would shut things down early. I was ready to launch when the launch window opened at 11:30, but the tugs were still tied down and covered and no one knew where to line up to launch. About 15 minutes later, the crew decided to launch from the setup area. This meant it was impossible for me to move from my tie-down spot to the launch line. As a result, I didn’t get to launch until about half the field was already in the air. I could see the front approaching but there was still time to get away. I got a nice tow upwind, but was let off in the blue and eventually settled back into the park for a re-flight. I was the next-to-last in line and got another tow upwind and was dropped off in a weak climb.

I knew it was a day to be patient, but I knew that most of the field was already at the start gate or even on course so I pushed hard to keep upwind of the course line. I was running the trailing edge of the convergence line and ended up low over the large swamp to the north. I slowed up enough to drift out of the un-retrievable area and landed reasonably close to Route 29.

Steve Larson picked me up and we cruised on over to goal at the Sheryl County Airport where Paul, Lauren, and Greg were about to land. Belinda met us at the gate to inform us that we were not allowed to drive in to pick up Paul and that the airport officials were upset with our presence and approaches. Apparently no one contacted the airport to let them know we were coming; Steve said the airport never answered their phone. Anyway, the airport was busy, there were large planes on the tarmac, we learned they were building a control tower, and the airport will be Class D next year.

Later this evening I arrived at Quest to get ready for the Flytec meet.