February 13, 2013: Too many
clouds
The forecast looked good and
even the morning clouds looked like it would be a great day. I got up early to do laundry. $3 a load and you hang it up to dry. We waited a while to take some of the clothes
that had dried off the clothes line so were a little late getting to
launch. We got to the East launch around 12:15 and I did my usual eat a sandwich and watch conditions before launching. As I watched conditions were deteriorating. To the north there was a high overcast and lower cumulus. In front of launch there were lots of cumulus and a lot of shading. Winds were light and occasionally cross from the south. There was also quite a few pilots hooked in and waiting for a good cycle to launch.
I decided I should try the South launch and I put the wing in the Pathfinder and we drove over to see what was going on. Winds on the south were variable but I saw a chance to get off and there was sunshine on the west side of the mountain. I decided to try my luck launching and hoping to find a thermal on the spur or a field on the west side. Unfortunately by the time I was ready to launch things were pretty well shaded over. I waited and there was a small improvement so I launched. About 6 minutes later I was on the ground at the west bomb out.
Mary Beth picked me up and we drove back to the East launch. I decided not to wait for things to improve and launched very shortly. I managed to climb above launch and watch Mary Beth drive down as I scratched for thermals along the ridge line. I was not getting up so headed for the bomb out hoping there might be a big thermal waiting for me on the way. There wasn’t.
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| Mary Beth driving to the East bomb out LZ |
It was just 3:00 at this point
so I asked Mary Beth the question she nearly always answers yes to. “How about going to the movies?”
We drove to Tamworth and made
the 4:15 showing of “Zero-dark-thirty”.
Great movie. Dinner at McDonalds
and we were back at River gums just as it was getting dark. 
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