| Sunday 4/7/02 I arrived at Hollister to find
Ramy waiting for Walter to put his Discus B together, and learned of there
plan to head south, Ramy offered to mentor and I decided to take up this opportunity
to learn from the expert himself. I launched last and took the usual
Panoche high tow, Ramy and Walter waited for me at the Panoche elevator
(thanks guys) we headed off and dolphined most of the way only stopping
for to occasional 8 kt thermal, the flight south was easy and we all stuck
close together, It sure was nice flying with all 40:1 std class ships,
made it easy to keep up. We talked about turning back after Hernandez, but
I voted for pressing on to the end of the cloud street (aprox Black
Mountain) I almost regretted that decision later. We tanked up at Black
mountain, turned back in to a headwind and headed home. Just before
Hernandez we crossed the valley and all got low before contacting the last
street home. We independently scratched around at about 3-400 ft agl (with
hernandez in glide) Ramy lead us to a less broken thermal that eventually
lifted us all to cloudbase, Walter left 1st and Ramy waited for me, we
headed NW once again and got to the last cloud in the street, it was still
working when Walter left about 4 kts, Walter left at around 6,900 ft 30Nm
from Hollister, Ramy was ahead of me and left at 6,700 ft, I got there and
the cloud started to breakup I got to 6,500 and headed home, personally
concerned I would not make it... but I had Bickle in safe glide and
continued at best glide with 7kt headwind, I passed Bickle at 3,200 ft the
same as Ramy had, so I figured he said he could make it, so could I, I
pressed on, 5 miles 2000ft... wow this is the flattest longest glide I
have ever done, I arrived at 1200ft enough for a nice pattern and landed.
I learned allot about speed to fly and dolphin flying by following Ramy.
Thanks Ramy for being the lead pilot! I highly recommend this approach for
the novice xc pilot wanting to experience xc out Hollister. This was my
longest ever flight out of hollister.
Thanks again Ramy and Walter for a great
flight!
Brian
Flight time: 3:30
Dist: 338Km
Avg speed : 68Kts
Conditions: 6-800fpm - bases 6,000 to 7,500 winds
7 out of the north
Flight Map and analysis by SEEYOU
GPS Trace
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Flight Stats
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Ramy
TG, Walter NT and Brian GD - 300K flight from Hollister 
