We are back in Chelan, yesterday was a free flying day
Overcast in the morning, light wind after strong wind overnight.
The sky cleared around 10:00 and some cu began to build. We got to launch for 12:00 by which time there was good cloud everywhere. A big cu nim cell was building to the North west, towards Omak.
We launched into strong climbs with a dark cloud directly over launch. It was immediately giving 5/6 m/s in the core - I climbed halfway than left it to have a look around. Cu regularly over the plateau and all surrounding high points, unstable but not yet blown vertically.
Returned to the launch cloud, climbed to 2000m, 300m short of base and transitioned across to Farnhams / MacNeill spur with Conrad.
Reclimbed on the rim and headed in towards Mansfield watching the cloud v carefully. The CuNim cell over Omak was spreading to the East and although upwind and 100km away, was looking ominous - the Cu all around were beginning to develop more vertically, cloud cover was 4/8.
Pulled the plug and flew back to the Soccer LZ, landed and packed up looking at a great sky and questioning my decision.
1 hour later a strong gust from came down the Columbia river valley, blowing a lot of dust with it. Validated my decision which was reassuring following my previous Chelan stuff up.
Gust front hits the Chelan Falls Soccer LZ
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