EGG acquired from williams 5:20 pm today 5/22/02

Hollister has the Pasco Egg

Ramy & Brian with the EGG

Ramy and myself launched today (5/22/02) out of Hollister, I towed toward Case de fruita and releases near the foothills at 3900 at 11am under some immature cu's, I struggled there low for 30 minutes while the cu's cycles fast, after about an hour I was 12 miles from Hollister, and Ramy launched and took the Panoche toe, a few minutes later he reported 7,500 at the elevator. By this time I was around 5,000 

and I decided to make the jump toward Gusteen (25miles away) there was one cu higher in the middle of the mountain range, I headed right for it, got a little low for comfort, but hit 4kts and climbed to 6500, by which time more cu's were growing to the north, off I went, 7,000, 7500 then 8000 bases. 

IGC FILE HERE
Seeyou flight maps and stats.

  (3d & 2d image showing the zig-zaging in wave/ridge above the clouds - interesting wind shift)

Abeam Mt. Hamilton in the mountains, I struck an unusual event in my soaring, I hit 8kts after a left a CU and turned/ridge soared up the side of the cu in 10kts, once I was near the top of the cloud, I flew upwind into smooth 4kts lift all the way to 10,000. This was so extraordinary to me, I stopped and played and took pictures for a while, I did the same to the next couple of clouds on course by which time Ramy sneaked past me.

 I followed a few miles behind and took a more easterly course to Byron, while Ramy headed for Mt. Diablo. 

I worked the last cloud to the NE of Diablo to 6200 while I decided the next course, there were no more clouds over the delta, the next street was much lower and started near Rio vista all the way to Bariessa. I turned East and flat glided without a bump to Rio Vista, 

I got to the cloud at 3500 just in time for it to dissipate and found nothing, I turned left and headed for the next one, by this time 3000 ft, I finally found the climb I needed. Ramy  kept about 10 miles ahead the rest of the way, and he took the Bariessa Ridge to Williams, I was unable to get to the ridge, it seemed each cloud I got to was dying and I could only maintain about 4,000ft. about 25miles from Williams, I finally got a good cloud 4.5kts avg to 7500, an easy fast glide to Williams, I flew with Peter Kelly PK the rest of the way whiles he did wingovers and we took photos.

Meantime Ramy had turned Williams and was attempting to return to at least Byron. Turns out the cu's were falling apart, and he landed at Nut Tree. So the credit for the egg should also go to Ramy as he got there 1st and it was a HGC team effort!

Brian DG3