Day 3

First things first, after bonking big time yesterday, I wanted to make sure that I got a good breakfast in me and lots of water. After eating a nice bowl of cereal with some juice and water at the cabin, I showed up to the flight park at 9:00 to find the smell of breakfast in the air. There has been a couple here preparing fresh meals for breakfast lunch and dinner since we got here . I couldn't say no to a couple fried eggs with bacon, eggs, potatoes and toast.. It doesn't get any better than this, sitting next to the pool with my beautiful wife eating a great breakfast and getting ready for another day of flying with some great new friends here in Florida.

A quick pose by my amazing wife after breakfast. She was
 helping ground crew this morning with Amy.

As we have on previous days, we start the day with a discussion on the previous days flights. Lots of pilots  logged personal bests on Day 2, so there was a nice buzz going into our pilots meeting. Austin Tindle, a 16 year old pilot participating in the event demonstrated the true spirit of the Team Challenge on Day 2, by dumping altitude to help a C pilot from another team find some lift and got flushed for his good deed. Don't feel bad for this kid though, he is a stud. Flying as a B pilot in this competition and kicking butt with a U2. Oh and by the way, he has been making laps daily on the super sweet T2C that Steve Pearson has here for Demo Days. What were you flying at 16?

The forecast for today looked good, with winds looking lighter than yesterday at 3-5mph from the southeast, so we wouldn't have the lake-effect to contend with. Cloudbase was foretasted to be around 5000', with lift from 3-500 fpm. There was the possibility of over development and thunderstorms later in the afternoon, so the thought was we needed a task that could hopefully be completed ahead of the possible OD. The task committee reported back to the group that the C task had been set as a 33km out landing with a turn point a little over half way to goal. As with the previous tasks, the B and A pilots had progressively more difficult tasks. The B pilots had to fly to the C pilots goal and then back to the waypoint. The A pilots had to make the B pilots task and then make it back to the flight park. C pilots score 100 points by reaching goal, with the B pilots scoring 80 points and the A pilots scoring 60 points for reaching goal. If the A pilot escorts a C pilot to goal they can score 60 points for their team. If you launch and get flushed, landing back at the flight park and can relaunch (relight) within the launch window, you score 5 points for your team, plus whatever other points you score.

At noon the day is looking good.

Today was our team's turn to launch first, which was good, because we have been ready to go each day and with the forecast today, it looked like getting off early was going to be the ticket. I launched forth and despite the rough tow, I found nothing right after releasing. I was worried about getting downwind of the flight park without some decent altitude to carry me, so I headed up wind to search for something that I could hook into, but found NOTHING! I was amazed with the forecast and the beautiful clouds that I found zero lift, so I headed back to the flight park for a relight. Steve Larson, our team captain, also landed for a relight. My second tow was much smoother than my first, so I wasn't optimistic, as I was thinking that maybe things were going to shut down with all the cloud cover, but what do I know. Just after releasing, I found a smooth 300fpm of climb that I stuck with until around 3400'. From here I went on a short glide for a nasty looking cloud directly down wind with a bottom that was steadily getting darker and bigger. When I got there, three vultures were circling about 100' above me and the vario started singing the tune of 600fpm up, until I am at just north of 4k. One of the things I had resolved myself to work on today was physically efficient flying. After yesterday, I know that I was working way too hard, so today my focus was to fly smarter, not harder. Easier said than done when you only have two XC days in the logbook and a handful of decent thermaling days worth talking about. None the less, I quickly realized that if I am going to ever hang with any experienced pilots going XC without really holding them back, I will need to get a lot better at this.

Feeling like I have tanked up sufficiently to go on glide for the next good cloud, I start to evaluate my options. "Matt this is Steve. Copy?" "Copy that Steve" "I am out in front of you in nice lift, come join me." I have never flown together with anyone like this before, so I am excited to get some tutoring from a master. I have to say that I was wondering how this would work with me flying my Freedom and Steve racing around like a super hero with his EXXTACY. As I go on glide to join Steve, he slices around in a high bank and levels off flying toward me, and it was like I was having an out of body experience. I have spent so many hours reading about this very experience and preparing for this opportunity and here I finally am. I am not watching someone else's video, this is me baby. As Steve approaches me his rigid wing is a sleek flat silhouette that gracefully wisps past me and for a few moments, I am just a spectator. As I continue on glide Steve's glider casts a shadow through my mylar sail and I watch him take the lead from above me. "Let's go" he cracks over the radio and we are off. As we hop from lift to lift, Steve heads out in front looking for the good stuff and I keep topping off wherever I feel it makes sense. At one point, Steve and I are circling about a 1/4 mile apart and he comes over the radio, "here it is!", and I go on glide to see what he has got. As I get closer to Steve I fly through some ratty 400'fpm up and Bang! The vario hits a high note that I have never heard before. "I have 1200fpm up, what do you have?", I couldn't even answer right away, as I was circling skyward at such an insane rate that  I couldn't even bring myself to look to the left at my vario or hit my thumb switch to transmit a reply. When my adrenaline shot subsided a little I looked at my vario to see that it was pegged and singing a steady tune as I rifle skyward in smooth sustained lift. Steve cautions me about cloud suck and I again survey my proximity to the beast above me. I am comfortably close to the outer edge, but the rate at which the cloud is getting closer is a sobering sight. I level out after a slingshot ride to cloudbase and set out on the glide that will get me to my waypoint. As I leave the proximity of the cloud, I am tied up in some gnarly turbulence and get to experience going negative as my glider unloads and the front wires twang. WOW! That was interesting..... I make a beeline for my waypoint and tag it so I can head for goal. Surely that won't be a problem with the monster lift that is lurking out there. As I head northwest from the waypoint, I see a few more pilots searching for lift, a couple are well below me and one is high out front. Below me I see Austin at what looks like about 500' off the deck, take a heading out into a mass of trees, which looks like a very risky move from where I am. As he reaches the center of this large mass of trees, he starts to slowly, gracefully circle up. At this point I am under 2000' and searching. Everywhere I think there should be lift, there is nothing. Steve confirms that he hasn't found anything out front, but it doesn't matter, as I can't find a blip of lift and am at 800' trying to get a read on wind direction for my landing. The dust off the dirt road is coming straight up and the small pond in the middle of the field doesn't seem to have a ripple in it. Austin is now just ahead and below me setting up his approach in the same field. We land within 30 seconds of each other and 75 yards apart.

Austin packing up the U2.

Breaking down my little Freedom. It has been good to me on this trip so far.

 Right after landing Austin makes his way to me to offer a bottle of water. What a great kid! Missing a few days of school to fly in the Team Challenge with us and taking it all in stride. As we are breaking down, two of the Russian pilots flying Combats are low over the field and working hard to save it. One of them is able to dig out, but the other lands between Austin and I.

R to L: Austin, Me and Dma

To put the finishing touches on a great day of flying, my wife is retrieving for me today and arrives just as we are done packing up. We hang around for a few minutes and manage to get all three gliders on the hoaky ladder rack that I have rigged up for this trip. After a quick recap with the guys at the flight park we are back to the cabin for a quick shower and headed into La Belle for some Mexican food.

One more quick pose before some chips and salsa.

This trip has already surpassed all of my expectations and there is three more days of flying........  There is lots more that I could say here, but I have got to go to bed. If you have any ambitions of flying XC, you have got to participate in one of these events.

1:26 for today's flight and 18 miles.

 Let me summarize the day for you, WOW!

Day 3 is in the books.