Greetings fellow soaring pilots;

Here is a flight report on 2 flights I had this week which illustrate what can be done by the average x-c pilot on many spring days from Hollister. I have included gps traces over topo maps and barogram printouts for both flights.

First flight; Thursday 4-12-01 Hollister; 203sm (327km) Out & Return, 3.5hrs

GPS Trace click image to enlarge

Barogram click image to enlarge

Took ½ day off work, left work at 12noon with trailer, barreled down to Hollister arriving at 1pm,  assembled and was launched by 2pm. This flight was 203sm (327km) Out & Return from Hollister, from a 6000ft mountain tow provided by Drew to encourage x-c flights. Release was in the first range of hills ESE of Hollister, with a glide to the first ragged cu on the east ridge. Conditions were good with cu to 6k base, a classic post-frontal day, but not very warm. Tracking south to Panoche gave a climb to cloudbase and I was well on my way. Conditions began to overdevelop over the high ground south of Hernandez reservoir, but thanks to an airmass with a solid inversion at around 8000ft, the clouds could not develop to the point where they could generate rain. They did spread out significantly and there was lots of shade south of Parkfield and the cu’s/convergence ran out south of Cholame, so I turned at the road junction near the Cholame rest stop(41/46 junction) and returned home. Conditions were heavily shaded and I took the westerly route home, getting spectacularly low near a nice looking strip which I have christened Indian Valley strip (See waypoint on flight trace); I saw this on the way down and thought it might come in useful. I climbed away from the canyon and was never low again. I flew on the western side to use lift generated from sunlit ground, figuring it would be stronger that way, rather than risk getting stuck in the high ground in dark conditions. A climb to 7000’ 36mls out from Hollister gave a comfortable 80kn final glide home.  Not bad for a 2pm launch!!

Second flight; 4-14-01; Saturday 4-14-01 262sm (420km) 4 t/p flight, 4.5hrs

GPS Trace click image to enlarge

Barogram click image to enlarge

Ramy (TG, LS-4), Dave Greenhill (GJ, DG300) & myself (2T, LS8a) decided we’d go x-c since we all had a day pass from family duties. I drew the short straw and was the first glider to launch; followed 10 minutes later by Ramy and 15 minutes later by Dave; Another 6000ft tow to the middle of the east ridge in very stable air and very poor visibility (Asian dust in the air, by all accounts) Conditions were completely blue and hazy, and not a ripple above 2500’ near Hollister. I was having visions of a led slide ride into Panoche; released from tow at 6000, and glided slowly south. Hit my first bump over the hills to the north of the Panoche pass entrance when I spotted a Golden Eagle circling (but not going up very fast) and worked 1kn into 2 and then 3 kn to 5300ft, then I headed out over the Panoche valley. The hills to the south worked, and I headed into the New Idria valley on the west side, and took a couple of ‘step-up’ climbs to get to cu’s over the high ground to the east of Hernandez, which were starting to pop just as I got there. From then on it was all go, but again the lift stopped before I could get into the California valley; I pushed further south in exploratory fashion, but could only find weak lift near Blech airport, and after struggling a little, worked 2-3kn until I was high enough to push north, where I hit 8kn near 41/46 junction.  Here I saw Ramy for the first time, coming in under me, while Dave turned north near Avenal having launched later. We all headed north separately; I had quite a good run but Ramy stepped in a hole and took a while to get back into the lift band. Dave was now north of me, and suggested a trip from Hernandez toward Harris ranch and then home. This was an excellent idea since it allowed us to check out some more terrain and log some more distance for the day. When I got to Hernandez, I made the turn and dolphined down the San Joaquin ridge to turn at the microwave towers at the end of the ridge (you can see these clearly from I5 in the central valley) since lift was weaker and stopped at the end of the high ground. On the way into the turn, I saw Dave for the first time, on his way out of the turn back to Hernandez. From then on, things started to get weaker; climb rate dropped a knot or two, and I scraped over the high ground just above the ridges to the Hernandez convergence, which formed a nice street which stopped about 40 miles out from Hollister; a 3kn climb to 8000ft gave a comfortable 80-90kn glide home, even with bugs and a head wind. Dave and Ramy were together by now, but Dave hit some bad air and ended up doing a straight in approach to 31 at Hollister, which made for some interesting radio chatter at the airport. He made it just fine, of course.

Keys to flying the Diablo range;

The high ground nearly always works well given a suitable sounding, since it is sheltered from the marine air. The mountains are ‘knarly’ & remote; it looks forbidding but there are several key places you can land

• Panoche valley (airstrip & fields - known good; checked from ground)
• New Idria valley (fields - only fields checked from air to my knowledge)
• Hernandez reservoir (dirt strip - looks ok from the air)
• Priest valley (fields); fields at north end; I’ve seen these up close from the air…)
• Indian Valley (dirt strip & fields; only seen obliquely from the air)
• Pinnacles airport; known good; grass has been cut for big birds..)

On the west side there are several valleys with cultivated fields (mostly alfalfa) and these can be used as stepping stone ‘outs’ from the main ridges to the east.

  Other key enablers are ;

• If the high ground is working, you can usually make a final glide back to Hollister

• There are the Bickle and Christensen strips in case you turn up a little short

• The Panoche hills usually work when Hollister doesn’t

• Drews 6000ft mountain tow will get you to the lift comfortably in any modern ship.

  Lastly, thanks go to Ramy for scouting out early flights and figuring out it was all possible;  Next, we need to start double tows, pioneered at Williams, to get pilots launched into the high ground together.

            Never low, only deep…

            Peter Deane (2T)