I talked to John Lowery this week and he wondered where I had been. I haven't made it to a meeting since the first of the year while I have been catching up on other Tuesday night priorities that I ignored last year. I've been flying quite a bit, soaring on the weekends and carving smooth air before work during the week.

Ed Hileman and I have been flying together quite a bit, along with Albert and Mike, but I often fly by myself, as well. Anyway, John says he's been missing my posts, so I'm here today to remind him what it is he thought he's been missing. This was posted on the motoring board from last Saturday.

http://disc.server.com/Indices/205560.html

Ed and I went out to the state trust land by MRA at 7am. We could see Mike and Albert in the air as we drove down Avra Valley Rd. As Ed and I were beginning to set up, Mike landed followed by Albert. They had been in the air for an hour and reported light mixing getting underway near the surface.

I launched at around 0740 or so into light wind and light mixing. Ed launched shortly afterwards. There was a high fractured cloud layer off to the west that was putting a mottled shadow on the ground several miles to our west, but the valley in our vicinity was in full sun. We climbed up over 1000 feet by using areas of lift to our advantage to hasten our climbs above most of the mixing. The air was pretty smooth above 1000 feet so we enjoyed mellow flights and geat views.

We eventually worked our way over to the shadow boundary to the west, where we encountered massive sink of sometimes 800 fpm and associated turbulence. There were periodic pockets of lift in the area, as well, but they only contributed to the turbulence and really weren't workable. I envisioned that the convection was being influenced by the shadow boundary, and that we were at the top of the inversion where turbulence is often more prevalent.

After a while, we worked our way back over to the LZ, still quite high, where Ed worked his way to the surface and landed. We had been in the air for an hour by this time, so it was approaching 9am, the sun had been cooking the land for three and a half hours, and convection was well underway near the surface.

When I arrived at the LZ, I went to idle and flew an additional thirty minutes by simply staying in the mild lift that was launching in our area. I could climb above 1000 feet but no higher. After dropping to 200 or so feet and climbing back up to 1000 feet a couple of times, I ended getting irrecoverably low and landed by the truck.

Ed and I packed up and went over to MRA for restocking on AVGAS, then had a couple of hotdogs at the Circle-K, then headed over to the desert on the east side of I-10 to test out conditions at around 11 am.

I launched in the low part of a cycle from the WNW and very slowly tried to make my way to 500 feet under power. I don't think I ever made it. The air over the field was ratty with little workable lift. I tried to hook something as far east as I could so that I would have further to drift to the west with the prevailing west component of the wind. I eventually gave up looking for lift to the east toward the interstate and went looking to the west over the desert where lift has always proven reliable.

I hooked something at around 300 feet -- sharp edged lift just west of the field and worked it hard and eventually got an upowered climb to 1800 feet or so while drifting back to the east over the desert. The thermal was relatively mellow with an elusive, tight core.

Winds aloft were over 10 mph, I would guess, so that I was drifting back quite a distance from any landing-out spots (the desert is all dense saguaro, cholla and mesquite to the east of the CAP canal). After a nice workout and a challenging climb, I bailed due to the drift and flew back toward the LZ.

There was significant sink in the vicinity of the thermal, but mild elsewhere. Bubbles came through that I took advantage of on the way back, which made reaching the LZ easy without power.

I repeated this a couple of times, sometimes falling out the bottom before climbing up more than 1000 feet. But after a while, I hooked something substantial at just under 400 feet agl close to noon and worked it hard for quite awhile. Even though the core was strong (800 fpm for a few seconds at a time), it was also elusive and tight. According to my vario, I was passing through 1788 feet when I left the thermal after deciding I was getting marginal on reaching the LZ if I passed through significant sink on the way back.

With the help of a few bubbles that came through, I made it back to the LZ through a bit of a headwind and landed after an hour and twenty minute flight.

Ed had been interested in how my glider would behave in the air, so he was gracious enough to hang around for my entire flight to observe. He reported there were no collapses, and at worst only wrinkly fabric and a lot of movement, which appeared to mellow with altitude.

Anyway, very satisfying flight. Hopefully next Saturday will present lower winds aloft so that bailing due to drift won't be necessary.