Brief Flight Report Sunday August 2, 2020

Flight and/or trip reports
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mickhoward
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 8:29 pm

Brief Flight Report Sunday August 2, 2020

Post by mickhoward »

Had fun today at Wharton. Five of us there to fly plus Tiki of course. I expected conditions to be pretty soft so I didn’t expect to stick. XC Skies GFS was overly optimistic given the amount of rain fall while HRR3, NAM snd RAP were what I expected, weak lift to the point I expected sled rides. Reed took to first tow and I was next followed by Matt and then Mark and later Brad. Tiki quickly found lift and started turning but I hung on for a few extra turns to make sure we were in something solid and I got off tow around 14-1500’.

It turned out to be a slow climb but at least it was going up. I hung on with while Tiki dragged up the next pilot so I watched as Matt was towed above me as I was still only 2000’. We ended up with four of us in the air during that cycle. Matt, Reed and I were climbing together until Matt somehow connected with a better core and seemed to pull the ladder up as Mart was soon 500ft above me and still out climbing me. I was struggling to get above 3600’ when cloudbase was around 4500’. A while later there seem to be a flush cycle and I watched as Matt and Reed were searching for lift to the East of the airport while I went to the north end of the airport and eventually started climbing out. I saw Mark get off tow at the south end of the field and watched as he made a B Line for my position even though I was probably a mile or more north of him, but he made it over. My climb turned into 450fpm and later I had a couple of over 500fpm climbs and got to just over 5000’

I stayed within sight and range of the airport as I meandered around testing out the various indications of lift. I decided that I would land after 2 hours so I avoided lift to land back at the field. It was fun flying with everyone.

Thanks to Tiki for towing and getting me a good start.

Mick

Tiki
Posts: 196
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:54 pm

Re: Brief Flight Report Sunday August 2, 2020

Post by Tiki »

Well done Mickster - and thank you for posting. It was a fun day.

CU had morning discovery trike flights but after that, at around 12:30ish all the solo flying started and everyone did quite well.

Brad, a newly minted LMFP H2 from Dallas is the newest addition to our Houston flying family. He got his first opportunity to catch a thermal and was tickled pink to soar a little bit with Mick.

Some folks took a brief cool down in the "pilot lounge" which refreshed them before flying. So the pilot lounge is doing it's job. Thanks again to all who are helping out.

Mick is correct the field below us had standing water, yet the lift was good and the skies were alive and littered with beautifully carve cummies.

All in all it was a wonderful day to get out, fly, and enjoy the camaraderie and great outdoors.

nuclear
Site Admin
Posts: 53
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 12:20 pm

Re: Brief Flight Report Sunday August 2, 2020

Post by nuclear »

Thanks for the reports. I had a great time flying and hanging out with everyone yesterday.

Read and I had met Brad in Trenton (randomly at a gas station) while we were out there picking up the Pilot's Lounge. I was glad to see him make it out to CU, hope he can make it back again. It sounded like he had a good time.

Brief report on my flights:
On my first flight Tiki dropped me off in lift (as usual- thanks!), and after working that for awhile and basically maintaining, I followed Mick over to some better lift. I had a lot of fun thermalling with both Mick and Read in that patch west of the airport. After that seemed to fizzle out, I saw a nice looking cloud over the airport which turned out to be working well. I topped out under that cloud at around 3800 ft, not quite making it to cloudbase before it started to break up and give out. There weren't any other promising clouds around the airport at that point and after some searching to the east of the airport I was back on the ground along with Read and Mark.

On my second flight I had a low save around 800-900 ft. Just around the time I thought I was going to be landing for sure, I saw some birds circling less than a quarter mile away and at about half my altitude. Following them I found great lift, with a very tight, strong core that I couldn't quite manage to stay in. I worked this for awhile with the birds steadily gaining on me, and for a time circling with me at my height. This thermal took me up to around 1700 ft when it seemed to start to weaken. Looking around, my feathered friends were well to the east and above me, out of gliding distance and I was soon on the ground. Should have kept a better eye on them!
Matthew McCleskey

Nate
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 7:20 pm

Re: Brief Flight Report Sunday August 2, 2020

Post by Nate »

Sounds like a fun day. I am eager to make it out soon.

I hope folks keep posting reports. The best part of the season is NOW, the next 2.5 months.

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