Flytec - Day Six

The day turned exciting today when thunderstorms sprouted up across the Florida countryside and then exploded into a wonderful light show. Davis reported there was a 20% chance of thunderstorms to the north, but nothing around Quest. However, it was hard to make sense of the conflicting models to we had a relatively short 65+ mile out-and-back task to the north northwest.

I launched early again and almost landed just a mile away from the airfield. I hung on and managed to drag myself back into the air and was at cloud base at the start circle when the first start time rolled over. I could already tell the day was going to explode, so there was no doubt in my mind about taking the first start time. Although the climbs were mixed, some weak, some strong, I made it to the turn point without much drama. About that time the convergence line to the west was starting to explode. Unfortunately, the climbs also started slowing down as the blow-off from the tops of the storms was shading the ground. A couple of climbs later I started seeing lightning and rain close to course line. I keep pushing on, but I always had plans to run east at the first sign of rain or gust fronts. The sky was beautiful and if I wasn’t competing I would have taken a lot of pictures. A large storm had filled the sky with an overcast that captured the sunlight and glowed with an orange tint and back lit a rapidly growing black cu-nim.

I finally decided it was time to land and took a long glide over some very large fields. I wanted to be on the ground and maybe even packed up before the rain or gust front hit. I just glided until it was time to flare. I walked over to the fence line and rapidly started packing. A few minutes Nigel later landed next to me. A driver of a large tank truck stopped along the dirt road and told us we were on a biohazard waste site. Apparently they spread human sludge on the fields were we landed. He assured us it was now safe to be there but warned that the gate would be locked at 5pm. I quickly called Julie who was picking up Dave and Peter and asked her to pick me up as soon as possible. We got out with time to spare and quickly realized that many other pilots had landed just a couple of miles further than we did. (I was surprised that each additional mile earned a pilot about 50 points. I guess I should have tried a little harder.) The flight is available online.

I found out that Jack Slocum was the only pilot to make goal. Way to go Jack! Not only did he make goal, but he won a 1000 point day.

A band called “Off Kilter” performed tonight after dinner and they had most people up and dancing. Tomorrow is the last day of the meet and maybe my last day of flying in Florida this year.