Quest to the North

2-16-15 Quest

Greg, Mitch and I debated about going to The Florida Ridge on Monday as the conditions down there looked ripe for a long XC.  I looked at the weather late Sunday night and it looked good at Quest too so decided that I was out and would stay “local”.  Of course, Monday morning the conditions looked much more favorable down there. The forecast here was good enough with cloudbase expected around 6000’ and strong winds from the south at 10-15mph on the surface and twice that at base. The only detriment was a 20 mile lobe of overdevelopment that would form in the afternoon east of Gainesville. The lift there would be suppressed. North of there however it looked really good again so Greg and I set a task to Keystone Airport just south of Starke, FL (~90 miles north) with hopes of continuing on to GA. 

I towed up around 12:30 at least an hour after the cu’s started forming and pinned off at 2400’ under a good cloud.  The lift wasn’t so good and it was 10 miles before I got above 4000’ just south of Lake Harris.  I headed NW from there to avoid the lake and the Ocala National Forest to the north. The lift was elusive and it was difficult finding solid climbs. I kept pushing to the NW far left of course line where the better landing fields run north along Rte 301. I was down to 2000’ right over The Villages looking for a suitable landing area when the strongest thermal of the day took me to 4800’ at over 500fpm. Climbs so far were to the north which continued to push me toward the forest east of Ocala.  I was averaging 25mph even though I was pushing cross wind to get in better position. A nice thermal at Leeward Air Ranch to me above 5000’ for the first time and I used this altitude to continue my push to the NW. I was on the east edge of Ocala 12km west of course line and now had multiple landing options as I continued north. The clouds were thickening and less sun was hitting the ground. My next thermal averaged 200fpm but there weren’t any better options ahead so I stuck with it all the way to cloudbase at 5900’. The wind shifted toward the SW which ate up most of my course line advantage and I drifted into the overcast on a long 25km glide. 33km out I hit a smooth 200fpm and slowly climbed out from 2200’ under a nice looking cloud. I was drifting east of course line and the landable fields were looking sparse again. I was worried about my next glide toward goal and made the wrong decision to leave the thermal at 5200’ to head back NW.  I had several fields in view and headed for one along a major highway to my NW. I was now 20km from goal and only needed a short climb to get me to the airport.  The shading and lower angle of the sun made it difficult to see landable fields to the north so I continued to the highway. It wasn’t until I was 2km away that I saw young trees all over my LZ. I had no fields to the north so had to push into the 23mph wind back south to another big field only to see a power line crossing from east west right in the middle.  Luckily I had enough altitude to push even further south over a wooded area to a big ranch with a wide open approach to the SW.  My landing was super smooth as I lightly touched down in a 12 mph wind.

I quickly phoned Sue to let her know I was down safely and to warn her that it would be a difficult retrieve so to have patience while I figured out the best way to get out of the field. She stated that she was 20 minutes away.   I was in a huge ranch quite a bit south from the nearest road.  For some reason Google maps showed that I landed on a peninsula on Levy’s Prairie Lake only there was no water anywhere around. Soon, Keith the ranch foreman pulled up on his 4 wheeler.  He said I was on a 1700 acre cattle ranch and agreed to meet Sue at the highway to the west a couple miles and would lead her back to me. I started tearing the glider down and another 4 wheeler showed up driving like a bat out of hell. He skidded to a stop on the opposite side of a fence. Darcy Sanders and I talked for quite a bit about the local area, his ranch and air strip that I almost landed on.  He seemed like a reasonable man. A few minutes later, Keith and Sue showed up however she didn’t drive the SUV all the way back to me.  Keith picked me up on his 4 wheeler and we took my harness back to her. I said let’s take the vehicle to my glider and she went ballistic, stating we weren’t going anywhere near my glider!! I couldn’t believe it, it didn’t take her that long to get to me so I told her to chill out and drove the vehicle as close to the glider as I could. I said my goodbyes to Darcy then Keith and I walked the glider back and loaded up.  While drinking celebratory beers, Keith explained that many years ago the lake had drained. He has walked the entire lake bottom and discovered the sandstone hole where all the water drained out.  Nearby he found 7 indian dugout canoes.  A few years ago there was a huge fire on the lake bottom that burned out the bog. Keith believes this plugged the drain and the lake is slowly filling back up.  Unfortunately we couldn’t go check out the canoes as they are again at the bottom of the lake. On the drive out of the ranch Sue told why she was so upset.  Keith told Sue to hold back because Darcy was a notorious ex-con who was imprisoned for hiring a hit man to kill his wife and that it was rumored that there were others. Needless to say she got a tad bit emotional about the whole thing and was not, repeat not going to go anywhere near the guy! I told her there wasn’t anyone near him that he could hire but she was not impressed!

All in all it was a very good day. Linda picked up Greg who went down about 40 miles out and we picked Greg up at Mitch and Linda’s house. Linda made us a fine dinner and we made it back to Quest about 11:30 pm. My totals for the day were 81 miles and 4 ½ hours. Sweet!