Ramy's Soaring blog

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

2024 Statistics:

36 Cross Country Flights
13,418 miles (21,595 km)
223 hours
373 miles (600 km) average per XC flight
60 mph average
Covered California, Nevada, Oregon
Visited 10 airports (planned and unplanned)

Highlights:

5th place in the OLC-USA Champion category
8th place in the OLC-USA All Flights category
4 flights between 1000km-1200km
Slow year with half my average number of flights but many fantastic memorable flights and personal best:
wave flight from williams to near Eureka to the north to the Golden Gate Bridge to the south.
reverse sierras wave from Williams along the western sierras to Lassen and back.
Crewless straight out from Hollister to Warner Springs near the Mexican border and return to Hollister the next day (aka Travel by glider)
Another Travel by Glider to Warner Springs, this time from Truckee, but instead of returning to Truckee the next day, continued to Lakeview Oregon for a 1050 km straight out distance (start to finish), my longest straight out flight and 2024 SSA Barringer trophy.

Photo Highlights:

Watsonville

Lick Observatory (photo by Andre Sosinski)

Tracy (photo by Andre Sosinski)

Point Reyes

San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge

Bass Lake

Lakeview, Oregon

Big Sur

San Ramon

Monterey

Emerald Bay - Lake Tahoe

2023 Statistics:

66 Cross Country Flights
24,126 miles (38827 km)
405 hours
365 miles (588 km) average per XC flight
60 mph average
Covered California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming
Visited 18 airports (planned and unplanned)

Highlights:

4th place in the OLC-USA Champion category
2nd place in the OLC-USA All Flights category (7th worldwide)
6 flights over 1000km (including one over 1250km)
Downwind wave flight from Minden to King Mountain, Idaho.
Flying over the Tetons from King Mountain.
Flying to the Grand Canyon from Ely.
Visiting the Carrizo Plain superbloom from Avenal.
“Around the horn” from Minden to Williams via Shasta and back the next day to grab the PASCO egg.
750 km O&R from hollister to Palmdale and back to King City.
Dust Devil Dash from Tehachapi to Calexico on the Mexican border.
Epic landout at Eureka, CA from Williams resulting in multi days retrieve.

Photo Highlights

San Luis Obispo

Over Mt Diablo - Photo credit Andre Sosinski

Near Borrego Springs

Clear Lake

Over the Grand Canyon

Moab, UT

Grand Teton

Sawtooth Mountains

Panoche Hills

Carrizo Plain

Mount Diablo

Mission Peak

Friday, March 03, 2023

The map below shows traces from 66 cross country flights in my ASG29 during 2022, totaling 27923 miles or 44,873 km (which is 10% more than the earth circumference!), and 438 hours, averaging 423 miles (680 km) per cross country flight, at an average speed of 64 mph. The flights spanned from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, covering most of California, Nevada, Utah, Washington, Idaho, including visits to Oregon, Wyoming and Arizona. During those trips I visited 20 airports (planned and unplanned), and 1 farm field in the Cuyama valley.

This was my most successful soaring year by many measures.

Highlights:

6th place in the OLC-USA Champion category
2nd place in the OLC-USA All Flights category
Flew more hours and more distance this year than any prior year (nearly 45,000 km, more than circumnavigating the earth)
Had 13 flights between 1000-1300km, the most I ever done in one season, another personal best
Very scenic straight out wave flight from Williams to Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez along the Big Sur Coast
Memorable Out and Return 1000km flight to Crater Lake from Truckee
Straight out to Truckee from Warner Springs
Scenic flights over the northern cascades to the Canadian border from Methow valley
Straight out from Methow to Boise, ID

Some of my favorite 2022 soaring photos: