No Big Adventure Is No Problem

I awoke yesterday morning expecting a grand adventure that included lots of miles flying above the Florida countryside.  That changed when a large swatch of mid-level clouds drifted in from the gulf and the updated weather models indicated weaker lift and westerly instead of southeast winds.  Oh well, it was still going be to a nice day with clouds.

Fellipe and I rallied the troops around 12:30 and Fellipe was first into the air around 1:00.  I was next with a relaxing tow.  Paul dropped me off in a weak smoothie that at least kept me in the air.  After I stowed my towing gear I looked around and was dismayed to see most of the ground shaded by the quickly developing clouds.  I played around under the low cloud base, went for a glide to the southeast, gradually sank out, and had to come back to the ranch for another tow after 30 minutes.

The second tow was just as smooth and the initial climb just as weak.  Since cloud base was low, I decided to stay relatively local.  I pushed upwind to Fantasy of Flight several times.  Each time I had to dive into the blue over the red checkered water tower and would come back low.

On one trip I got so low that I unzipped in preparation for landing when I stumbled into a broken climb that saved my butt.  A few minutes later Steve pulled in below me and we worked together to escape the grip of gravity for a bit longer.

 There were a lot of birds and gliders in the air.

The sky eventually OD'ed and we floated in with landings in nearly calm conditions.  We watched Mitch fly in later in the afternoon as we were out biking and visiting the alligator in the "back pond".  Once again, the day ended with a nice sunset.

A few days ago I snapped this picture of wave clouds over the ranch.

Flights: 2, Duration: 2:08, Distance: 42 miles