Let’s be Safe!

On April 4 we had flight operations at SOSA after check rides conducted a couple of weeks previously; the earliest regular operation I can recall in many years. We were limited to single pilot flying due to covid restrictions, which meant that I was free to fly XC since there was no need to do any instructional/check rides. The forecast from the night before was for 2-3 kt thermals to 4500 ft with light winds over most of the task area, with soaring conditions starting after noon and continuing past 5pm on a completely blue day. The same day’s forecast update also showed a ridge of higher thermal heights and strength on a north-south band about 10km wide going from north of Lake Erie to south of Collingwood, possibly an artifact of the XCSkies forecast.
 
It was fun to see all the activity in the club after the winter layoff, with almost every glider in the club fleet being readied for flight. I was also surprised not to see any of the private gliders being rigged and I wondered if I misread the forecast. I rigged DD after the winter layoff, while assisting a separate crew rig PNN and debugging issues with other gliders that had not flown in a while. I was able to take off around 12:45 pm and joined a gaggle of two Juniors and a K21 over Lion Safari. After scratching there for a while I started going north. I punched Toronto Soaring as a waypoint in XCSoar, and the thermals' strength and height matched the forecast. A low point over Hwy 401 with a good thermal to put me back on track, and then on to south of Fergus (not very fast, still trying to size up the day, and with zero visual cues on a completely blue day), when I got an indication that the higher “ridge” was actually there, with a good 5 kt thermal up to 6000+ ft. Made it to Toronto Soaring (the only place with a few small Cu’s in the whole area). Now south to Woodstock, out of the high ridge and taking again 2-3 kt thermals to 4500 ft, but with the wind at my back. A low point over Woodstock, but saved by the quarry southeast of town. Then point back to SOSA to cash in, make final glide and keep it safe; but when going east I entered again the high ridge area and was able to climb back to 6500 ft. Now I got greedy and wanted to get the nice round distance of 300k, so I veered south to the Hagersville turnpoint. Back into mushy air, so I hit the turnpoint and turned around, now 1500 ft below final glide, late in the day (around 5 pm) and second-guessing my decision to hit Hagersville. Finally I found a climb, got part of the final glide back, and was able to go into the known good air to get the rest of the final glide. Back at SOSA with room to spare at 5:15 pm. The flight was scored as 318 km@75 km/h on the OLC, best flight in Canada for the day (duh!), although with a red stamp due to issues with the igc file.
 
We have learned that there are very soaring good days in early spring. Back on March 7 we had a winching day, and we had excellent thermaling conditions starting at 10 am and continuing up to 4:30 pm. I always wondered how to make use of those conditions given the soft field at that time of the year. Can we negotiate an alternate winter location for local flying? (XC flying would be limited by the soft conditions of all landable fields other than paved/maintained runways). 
 
Rafael