Cherokee out and about

With excellent soaring conditions forecast for today, I decided to
take the Cherokee on a trip. Sure wouldve been nice to put more miles
on, but I fell out of booming skies after about an hour and a half
flight. Made it about 50 nautical miles to a really nice field. Here
is the report copied from another forum:

The flight was really good. I got off tow in some pretty good lift,
and got up around 6000 feet before departing to the south of Ames. I
was definitely hopeful for a good day after about a 400 fpm climb at
the airport. I did declare a goal to somewhere in MO that wouldve
given me the state record. I was never really confident that I would
be able to make it there but figured what the heck might as well have
a goal.

After departing the airport I cruised for about 15 miles before
picking up another thermal. along the way lost around 2000 feet.
caught another nice strong thermal, which seemed well organized and
was generally easy to stay in. I veered to the east a little to make
sure I avoided Des Moines Class C airspace and saw a few airplanes out
flying around. Heard a train as well. As I passed directly east of Des
Moines I caught the best thermal of the day (for me). It was so
incredibly good that I was even able to stay in it while turning to
the right! The vario was wobbling between 600 and 1000 fpm up for most
of the time in the circle and I felt like I was on an elevator. That
is where I saw the corn leaves, mistakenly reported as cornstalks.

I continued to the south, over Red Rock Lake and in the general
direction of Knoxville. caught a few more good thermals with strong
climb rates, but also suffered from the associated sink. I eventually
found myself down around 1500 AGL headed towards a large area of black
fields followed by some not so friendly creek bed and trees. I decided
that if I was going to get some lift it was going to come off the
fields and otherwise I was going to have to land. I worked all over
the fields but couldnt find anything that would give me a lift so down
I came and landed in a nice uphill area that had been recently tilled
but not planted yet.

I made a quick call to Matt and my crew and took a few pictures. no
one was home at the house I landed by so I walked down the road to get
another landing witness for my Silver Distance application. The old
fellow was really friendly and came down to check out the glider and
helped derig in the field. That was really appreciated as the wind
made it somewhat challenging.

All in all it was a great day. Probably didnt take full advantage of
all the soaring that couldve happened but any day that I get to land
out and make it back for supper is a good day.

Here are some pictures from the day. The only in flight photo was
crossing red rock lake. thats a lot of water to be over without an
engine!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cherokee373Y/Soaring51808