Spring is Breaking Out All Over!

April 20, 2013. Epic forcast. Confab with Dean, Barry, James, and me about flying XC. We were talking about Marion County, or maybe even Lookout Mountain. Conditions on launch were strong but the gusts were predictable and the between cycles were quite mild. It looked good, although totally blue. A few people launched and were fighting ratty and inconsistent ridge lift. James Dean launched and got over the ridge, but shortly after that got flushed out into the valley and went to land. Bummer.

7000'... what a cool place to be

I launched about 30 minutes later right around 3:30. I got up in ridge lift and it was squirrely. There were lots of lift bubbles but they were impossible to work in a full 360. It was a matter of milking it until you got a couple of grand over and from there you could catch a real boomer. I eventually found a thermal south of launch. Tipper came over and helped me max it out and we climbed to 7000’. Dean Funk, Jeff laughrey, Rob Dallas, and Mark Bolt had already headed south. I pointed my nose that way and followed suit.

The glide was painful. Nothing but sink the whole way. From 7k I was only able to glide about 5 miles despite going downwind. I hit another little thermal there that got me to Dr Dales. I found another little climb that was drifting fast and wasn’t really turning on. South of Dales the LZs weren’t good so I wanted to get high before moving further down range. While I’m working this little fart Barry Klein comes blazing through below me. He flys by me and manages to spot some birds working a thermal about half a mile ahead. It’s a better one and he soon climbs through my altitude. I leave my piece to go join him. I hit it and start climbing reasonably fast. I think “I’ve got it made... another climb to 7k”. Well, after about 4500 it starts to get a little squirrelly. There’s a strong core but I find myself doing half a turn in lift, the other half in sink. Barry calls that he’s averaging 700fpm and is out over the ridge while I’m a bit over the back. Right there is where i blow it because I decide to leave my climb to find whatever Barry is in. I can’t find it, and neither is my climb still working when I go back there. It’s all fallen apart.

Dr. Dales in my sights

I play it safe and head out into the valley towards Dr Dales. It’s an upwind glide and I want to make sure I get there with extra altitude. The glide is slow and I find almost no signs of lift anywhere. I get there with just enough altitude to do a single 360 before bringing it in on final at speed. I get a wing lifted and try to run it out but I end up dropping a corner of the bracket onto the ground. Not pretty, but workable.

Overall I give myself 9.5 miles on this flight. If I had made good on that thermal I would have easily had 16 or 17 miles. Most likely I would have gone all the way to Marion County Airport where Barry and Mark landed for a 25 miler. Rob and Jeff landed at Lookout. Dean pushed on and made it 10 miles short of Fort Payne... call it 60 miles! Somehow I didn’t think that I was prone to making such rookie mistakes, but the fact is... I’m a rookie when it comes to XC. I love it. I can’t wait to try again.