Two years ago at the Std. Nats at TSA, I went thru mile after mile of sink getting to the second turn in the blue. Mitch Hudson helpfully had his ADS-B indicating a decent climb. It was a long glide but I went for it and rolled into a turbulent thermal at something over 1,000 ft. AGL. It was work but I was finally breathing a sigh of relief and getting ready to leave when I realized the thermal wasn't rough anymore. It was smoother. A lot smoother.


I shouldn't have stayed because it wasn't that great but I tracked back and forth in classic wave lift, watching the flatlands around Dallas, and picked up another few thousand feet over the thermal tops that day. It was still going up when I turned downwind. I went through another area of sink, another weak up section, then more sink. When I turned crosswind for the final leg, I was more focused on not getting caught flying in the down cycle of whatever was going on than I was pushing to go fast. Apparently no one else had problems with falling out of the sky nor did they have the chance to climb up high like I did.


We had a laugh the next morning hearing Walt Rogers, met man and daily winner, describe how he looked up at one point and saw my glider above 9,000, several thousand feet ABOVE his forecast for max for the day. Anguished, he briefly imagined that everyone else was romping around at that altitude before reality set in.


Chip Bearden
JB