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One of my personal goals was to reach a point in my soaring career wherein my flight time was greater than my drive time to and from the field. This day, I did it. My fight was 3 hours, 16 minutes. It was then 5:15 PM, and I could see most of the planes had been put away and the hangers were closed, the lift was weakening, so I called it a day -- a great day. |
The conditions were great, so staying aloft wasn't really a problem after I got over my initial climb right after tow release. I dropped from 3000' down to about 2300' before finding lift, but from that point on, I was never below 4500', and I topped out above 6500'. My peak altitude was reached in a thermal that had just started and hadn't formed a cumulus yet, so I was able to climb above the bases of the neighbouring clouds. That was a first. When I leveled out to leave at the top of the thermal, I was between two clouds and had to fly around the outside of one of them to continue on my southbound route. It was an amazing view, but hard to capture with my camera.
Like I said, the conditions at Bermuda High were great this day, resulting in my longest flight, and if the logger in the PW-5 worked as promised, this flight should have scored my Silver Altitude (1000 meter climb from lowest point in flight). That leaves the Bronze Badge written test, and the Silver Duration (5 hour flight) and then -- with a little more training -- I'll be qualified for cross-country soaring.
