It was a windy night, then a windy day, and we all headed out to the tow paddock with one waypoint in our instruments - Wallaby: 171 km to the north.  If anyone made this goal, it would be a new state record. 

But it was windy.  Way windy.  Had we been in the mountains, nobody would have launched (unless they were on a speedwing).

I, not wanting to be the first into the air in these conditions, sat back and watched the locals.  Dave Prentice went first, and had a relatively smooth, easy-looking tow.  Luis (the US Gradient importer) went next, and his tow looked a bit more active.  He released early and flew back down to the tow paddock.  In the meantime, Dave had found a climb and was on his way towards Wallaby.  Luis launched again, Terry Bono went next, and eventually I launched.  I was lucky enough to find a climb on that first tow, and dribbled back behind the tow paddock in strong winds.  Eventually I got high and was on my way through the infamous “Triangle of Doom.”  The triangle is known for no roads, long walkouts in ankle-deep water, and alligators.  No problem here, and I cruised north a few miles west of highway 27 for awhile. When I got to about 50 km (Lake Placid) I heard Dave come clearly over the radio.  He had landed here after encountering a blue hole.  Since I was almost an hour behind him, the sky was now producing beautiful cumulus clouds everywhere I needed them.  I continued down the course line.

When I got to FL, I was under the impression that it was a land of suburbs and people, roads and infrastructure, sparse landing zones and lots of pavement.  While this may be true along the coastlines, down the middle of the state it’s fields, lakes, forests, marshes and very few people.  Great for XC flying! 

I tried not to watch my GPS, as it still read 120 km from goal.  Cloudbase was only about 3,500 ft above the ground, so climbs were needed much more often than in the rocky mountain west, where we’re maybe 8,000 - 12,000 ft above the ground on a good XC day.  I continued with the game of climbing and gliding, looking for birds, watching the cloudstreets develop, and often using speedbar on the downwind glides.  I was getting around 62km/hr on every downwind glide, without bar.  Soon I was over the relatively populated area where I took the photo above.  This was about 130 kms from launch, and about 40 kms short of goal.  This was the only time I felt a little pinched because the green fields you can see in the photo are actually airports - maybe not the friendliest place to be doing an “emergency landing.” Other than that, there were about 67 random circular lakes between a lot of city - not good for landing.  This was also the point at which I made a critical decision: I could have left the cloudstreet I was under and headed towards Wallaby, slightly off to the right side of the photo, or I could have stayed with the cloudstreet for awhile and tried a more crosswind transition to Wallaby near the end.  Or I could have simply stayed under the cloudstreet as long as possible and forgotten about Wallaby in an attempt to break the state record.  I chose the latter. 

Luis was the only pilot behind me by about 20 km, and he ended up landing in the green field in the upper left side of the photograph for a total of about 129 km, or 80 miles.  I caught some good climbs over this wet, populated area, and continued under the cloudstreet.  It was getting late, and I started to do more gliding than climbing, assuming that at some point I would have climbed my last climb.  The thick Floridian air kept producing, and I continued on past the 171 km mark, meaning that if anyone made goal at Wallaby for a new state record, I would still have flown further!  Selfish, but effective.

As the sun was going down and the last clouds in my cloudstreet were dying, I drifted to the right to land near highway 33, about 20 kms northwest of Wallaby, for a total distance of 186 kms, or 115 miles.  It’s a new state record, but will it last the week?  Will Dave get his revenge on Will Gadd for stealing his world record from him 24 hours after he obtained it? 

The Florida air is smooth and wonderful, even on windy days.  Numerous birds help pilots down the course line, and the weather and terrain seem great for tropical XC flying. 

We got back to camp at almost 1 am after an Olive Garden dinner. 

Today looks good, but not as good as yesterday due to a strong SW flow aloft, pushing us towards the enormous lake of Okeechobee (sp?). 

We shall see...