Another fine day of soaring in central Florida today. The forecast was for lighter winds from the east-southeast, with cumulus and a very small chance of some spreadout later in the day. By grid time we were looking at scattered clouds with nicely defined bottoms, and some indications of streeting. Sniffer Dave Nadler (YO) motored off in his Antares, and although he struggled for 10 minutes or so, soon he was reporting 4kt to over 3000’msl. That was enough for CD John Good, and so off we went. One minor complication was that the promised cloud field to the north was not filling in as expected, while the clouds to the south looked much better at launch time. So, the CD went to plan ‘B’ (Plan ‘C’ actually) and changed the task to one oriented more to the south than to the north. I think it is a reflection on the quality of the task advisory committee in general, and the CD in particular that they had this cocked, locked, and ready to go if need be – way to go John!
The task we finally got to fly took us north initially to 12 Flying Baron with a 7-mile radius, then west-southwest to 09 Cub Haven with a 5-mile radius, then east again to 25 Osborne with a 5-mile radius, then a long run south to 07 Chalet Suzanne with a 15-mile radius, then back northwest to 15 Green Swamp with a 10-mile radius, then northeast back to Seminole. By the time the start gate was open, it was clear that the first leg to Flying Baron was going to be a bit of a challenge, as the clouds along the direct route were few and far between, and the ones that were there looked pretty anemic, probably due to thermal shadowing by the big lakes to the east. Some pilots deviated to the west to get out of the shadow, but then they had to zig back east again at some point to get into the circle. I basically tiptoed straight across, nicked the circle at the southwest corner, and then got the heck out of Dodge. The run to Cub Haven was interesting in that there was a nice street running almost due east, but it unfortunately was too far north to get into the Cub Haven circle. I followed the street until I was about 30-45 degrees off the course line, and then went directly to the far western edge of the circle. Then the trick was to follow the streets back east (upwind) to the Osborne circle, and then turn south for Chalet Suzanne. I turned south a little lower than I liked (about 3000’msl) and had to tiptoe back across a big blue hole to get back into the southern cloud field, but I managed this in reasonable order. After that it was off to the races on the long southern crosswind run, with good clouds and good climbs to be had almost at will. I had the good fortune to meet up with Doug Jacobs (flying John Good’s Duo) right over Seminole on the way south. I got lucky and hit a nice core that Doug missed (or more likely didn’t think was strong enough), and was able to leech off him from there all the way down to I-4, about 20 miles further south. During this run I was 300-400′ higher and going a little slower, and I could see Doug just cruising along way down there, like he didn’t have a care in the world. From my height, it looked like he was already dodging trees, and if I had been down there I would have been sweating bullets already. Not DJ though, as the last I saw of him was waaaaay down there, going south at the speed of heat!
As we neared the southern end of the Chalet circle, I met up with Dennis Linnekin (DL), and we flew together for quite a while, until he cored a thermal that I couldn’t find, and flew away leaving me for dead – thanks buddy! ;-). Down into the Chalet circle, I was having a great run, and thought I had a chance of coming home in the mid 60’s. This dream continued until I fell into a bad hole on the way home, getting down to 1300′ msl and having to take a 2-kt thermal to get back up. As I’m struggling up, I see glider after glider fly over, slow down to sniff my crappy-assed thermal, and then keep right on going. I did eventually dig back out and get around, but that last 30 miles or so was a real struggle.
As an interesting side note, there is a new rule this year that is intended to suppress the long, marginal final glide that, if successful, brings the pilot right in over the trees, and if unsuccessful, can result in damage to the glider, to the pilot, or both. The original idea of the 1-mile finish circle with a 500′ agl minimum was intended to do just that, but the penalty for a low arrival were apparently not severe enough to prevent tree-brushing arrivals. So, this year the finish rule has been amended to say that if the pilot arrives more than 200′ below the minimum altitude, his or her arrival is treated as a landout at the finish airport. You get an airport bonus, but you don’t get speed points. The reason I’m rambling on about this rule is that I found myself losing altitude on final glide today, to the point where I wasn’t sure I would be able to meet the -200′ criteria, so rather than risk a ‘landout’ I stopped in a 2-3kt thermal about 7 miles short of the airport and gained 2-300′ before continuing the glide. I’m glad I did, as I still had to watch my speed for the rest of the glide in order to reach the finish above the minimum altitude. So, at least for me the new rule had the intended effect – making me think twice about a marginal arrival.
And one last story for the day. Due to the task change and an unfortunate computer glitch,one pilot wound up flying the original Task A to the north instead of the changed Task C to the south. As it turned out, the first legs of Task A and Task C were essentially identical, so it was impossible to figure out the problem until it was way too late to do anything about it. On the bright side, the pilot reported that the soaring weather to the north was fantastic, with excellent streeting, high cloud bases, and fast speeds, so maybe it was the rest of us who flew the wrong task! ;-)
Stay tuned – more good weather and soaring is predicted for tomorrow.
TA
