THE MANLY, THE GIRLY AND THE EGGLY

By Sergio Colacevich

What a title, ha! It reminds me of that movie that was titled something like “Hercules, Tarzan and Godzilla versus Superman and Zorro”. But actually, the title wants to mimic the movie titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

Saturday, August 21, 2004 , in Truckee . An uncommon animation from a number of pilots characterized the morning. It soon came out that the reason for the electrical atmosphere was a planned attempt to capture the Egg, kept in Bishop at the time.

For the few people that don't know about the Egg, we will say that it is a wooden artifact with the shape.….of an egg, about 6 inches tall. It is a trophy to be held by a gliderport or soaring club until a glider pilot comes from another gliderport or soaring club, captures it and takes it back to his place. It will be kept in the new place until somebody else captures it. The Egg started in Williams, and for several years was object of contention between Williams and Crazy Creek, until one day it began to travel, touching Hollister, Avenal , California City, then Bishop.

Because the towplane in Bishop A/P was allegedly not operating, the common agreement was that Peter Kelly would land there, get the Egg and climb out with his motorglider. Everybody else would go in that direction, prepare the way for Peter, escort him in and out, and generally facilitate the trip.

Consideration was given to the best tactics: “If a pilot finds a good thermal, he will wait there all day to mark it for the Egg bearer”. “If the Bishop holders make difficulties to release the Egg, everybody will land there and fight”. “Remember, according to the new rules the important is to land there, and claim the Egg. It is not necessary to make it back”. “What's the battle cry, Bonz….Banz….?” “It's Banzai, you silly”. “I am ready and I put on my bandana”. “Egg or Death”. “Geronimo!”.

The weather forecast was good without being spectacular. The promise of isolated thunderstorms was accompanied by cloud heights around 15,000' and by 600 fpm lift. The air was clear and lukewarm as often found in Truckee in the morning. Sergio was the first in flight at 11:10 at the sight of an early cloud. He found about 14,000' half way to Mt. Rose and left the Truckee valley at 11:40 . Papa Sierra immediately followed and so all the others, forming a squadron of 7 or 10 gliders – the number is uncertain because the resolve of some of the pilots was uncertain as it will appear later.

The sky around Mt. Patterson was already filled with clouds, and the Pine Nuts themselves soon flourished with cumulus. The lift was around 6 knots and occasionally better, as promised, and the height a comfortable 15,000. But, the clouds soon became too many, the sky darkened, virga appeared here and there, shadows on the ground ate the sunny areas and the heart of some pilots shrunk. “The area around Patterson will all blow out”, mumbled somebody on the radio.

Sergio was a good 20 miles ahead of everybody and could see happy skies beyond Mt. Patterson , with well-formed, isolated clouds, and so relayed to the crowd. But after a while, another pilot, maybe out of Minden , said: “There is virga close by”. And after another 15 minutes, another said: “It sure looks pretty murky ahead”.

Sergio hates these kind of gloomy statements, made publicly so as to convey the impression that the skies are unfriendly, that the situation is unsustainable, twisting the information so as to convince other people that is better to return and therefore have an excuse to come back together with them. Sergio proffered: “Overdevelopment is isolated. Don't be Girly Pilots”. “What?” The proclamation resounded from one glider to the other over the 100 miles or so of the widely scattered group. “What? What's the word?” “The word is don't be Girly Pilots”. “Got it. Don't be Girly Pilots”. “Copied. Negative Girly Pilots”.

After a while the Negative Girly Pilots made it around the Mt. Patterson area and continued toward the Whites, while Girlys faded away finally bringing their whining to an end. Everything went as planned, with Papa Kelly taking possession of the Egg, motoring out of Bishop and joining Papa Sierra and Uno Bravo near White Mountain Peak . It was fine flying back up to Boundary Peak , at which point came the realization that the situation had changed and required profound tactical decisions. The sky was completely overcast from the Sierras to Hawthorne, and the overcast was slowly moving east. To the extreme east, towards Mina, the territory was sunny with fine looking clouds.

So a tentative decision was made to go to the east around Hawthorne and cut through under the overcast towards Yerington. C2 was 30 minutes ahead of the others and slowly made it to Topaz International with the help of three low altitude miracles. He finally found a monster thermal in the sun at the foothills of the Pine Nuts and made it home. MX at pattern altitude in Yerington found miserabilia that would increase in strength the more he was going to the west, got to the Pine Nuts by means of a continuously improving miracle and made it home too. PK, PS and 1B barely made it to Yerington and landed there, PS with 300' to spare. They waited up a little for the rain to quit and made it home by tow or by using the motor.

The Manly Pilots this day were Key Dismukes, PS; Jim Darke, 1B; Yuliy Gerchikov, MX; Peter Kelly, PK, and Sergio Colacevich, C2. Decorum and courtesy forbid listing the name of the Girlys, but we can mention that some of them can be seen going around with a propeller on top of their heads. The Egg is in Truckee now and it is expected that it will be disputed among Truckee , Minden and Air Sailing. It will stay in that area for a while, since it is quite challenging to fly there from Williams. Fear not, Williams has the manpower to retrieve it, and it is expected that some pilots might do a step up in quality, redeeming themselves and changing their genderly category.

Disclaimer: This article was intended to be on the funny side - no harm intended to anybody, cross my heart. If you liked it, tell everybody. Critiques, tell Sergio. Complaints, tell Arnold .

The Rules for the Egg and its colorful story can be found at the Valley Soaring Association website, http://www.valleysoaring.net .