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FlyBC "Site of the Day" - February 7/2012
Torrey Pines today!
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Coaches Corner for February 7/2012 - Hoping for Torrey flights today at the Ozone Dealer Meeting. |  We sell and dispense ADRENALINE here at FlyBC. The best "over-the-counter cure" for weekday/workday boredom. Click here to find out why FlyBC is your "best and only" choice for paraglider/paramotor training. . At FlyBC all our Instructors are Certified Professionals, trained and registered with the HPAC and USHPA, unlike other schools who rely on untrained pilots to do student guiding. We offer the best & safest training value in BC! Put your TRUST in FlyBC. We are authorized dealers for Ozone, SkyCountry, Gin, Nova, Paratoys Paramotors, Advance, APCO, Wills Wing and many other Brands. SkyCountry SCirroco 18 Speed Wing, Nova Factor 21 & 23, Swift Small, Addict II XS are here for a few days for test flights.
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San Diego Report - I hopped on a Volaris flight at 7 am direct to San Diego this morning to attend the Ozone Dealer Meeting. Quite a bit faster than driving here, but I needed to be here and back in Jocotopec in a few days. | I did a few errands here before heading to Torrey Pines to meet up with the guys, and watch matt & Mike fly their speed wings down to a beach landing in no wind, cause they were bored with no wind here. It was sunny but cold compared to Guadalajara weather. We finally gave up and headed to dinner at a La Jolla Brew Pub. Sumas Report - Derek said they could not work on Sumas today, strong north winds by the main gate. Looks like more wind this week and rain at the end of the week. Colombia Report - Yeah, Colombia is cool, been a bit cloudy so real light in the mornings. 240m vert at 6:1 glide to LZ, so NO scratching. There is 1-4 hours of ridge lift here every afternoon, nice big top landing site. One flight this morning, 2 to top landing and 1 to LZ this afternoon. Launch is much like Coopers, except wider and completely covered in nicely mowed grass. It gets real strong from 12-1 to 3-4 midday, so everyone breaks, except the tandems, who launch with assistants. Pretty sweet schedule. Launch is 100m from my bedroom. Room rate ($30CAD for private room) includes breakfast and retrieves. Flying Niviuk Hook 1 (DHV 1-2) with a harness that is nice once in it, but does have the punching midget for a minute or two every flight - Eric G.
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Mexican Adventures - I dropped Sean off for his noon flight to Toronto and continued into Guadalajara for errands as it looked a bit lame. | I went to the Outlet Mall on the south road home and got the Suzuki washed and rubbing compounded and waxed for 200 pesos while I shopped and removed all the scratches for San Marcos & El Chante. It OD'ed later and rained as I watched no one takeoff at San Marcos, I guess they were waiting for better cycles. My first non-working day since Dec 3rd. What a great run this winter! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. Elk Report - Steve, Larry, Ivan, Eddy and a few others flew Elk early, while Kevin waited til later and he & Judy had a mini-XC to his HS field. Nice!!
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El Chante/San Marcos Report - we had breakfast in Joco Centro, as I was getting my stereo mount repaired as it broke from too much offroading. The stereo shop didn't have a replacement mount so a combination of Crazy Glue & baking soda was used to repair it. After 30 minutes of repair I was back on the road for 50 pesos. Mexican Ingenuity triumphs again. | We headed to Tapalpa at 10 am, even paying the Cuota on the Cuota Highway and when we passed San Marcos it was already west winds. I called Granger who was at Tapalpa and he said he was heading to San Marcos at 11 am. We exited the Highway at KM14 and drove to Pedro's LZ at San Marcos to check the winds. It looked tail to south on launch so we headed to El Chante Launch to fly and kill time. Granger followed us up to El Chante grumbling about geting stuck but he made it to Launch. Nice cycles and Camilo & Sean flew off with Camilo landing at the condo to get his car, and Sean landing at his favourite football field. Grangers two most experienced guys flew down to land with Sean. Not much lift, even the birds were just maintaining above the Cross. But solid launches and landings. Then off to San Marcos after lunch at Ruben's Restaurant, where we picked up Eduardo (Ruben's son) & Edith (Ruben's waitress) as they wanted to go flying too.Camilo was now back to fly again. I launched with Edith between gusts to find little usable lift even in the sunny spots to the North, bit we had an enjoyable 15-20 minutes of flight. Sean launched after me and got above launch but was uncomfortable as he was going up at 4 m/s, and down at -4 m/s all at the same time near launch. Very punchy so he headed out to Pedro's as Camilo drove down. Edith was very happy and excited about her flight! Granger showed up and launched his three guys and they were getting nice cloud suck to the south of launch, getting to approximately 500 meters over launch. As Camilo showed up they were still soaring so it looked promising for us again. But as we got to launch, local pilot Rueben was launching and going up . . . in the rain. He was soon B-stalling and Big-Ear'ing to the south airstrips as we waited for the small rain cell to pass. I clipped in Eduardo (a solid 100 kgs), and waited through some gusts again to launch. We had a good wing overhead and instead of running forward, Eduardo tripped and dove off the launch ramp sideways to the north taking me with him. We swooped through the bushes and trees as I got the glider flying fast to swoop over the trees to the north, very exciting for the folks on launch! We found no lift and strong North winds aloft as a cell to the south must have been sucking all the surrounding air. We had many passes below launch looking for lift and finally bailed out to the LZ for an equally exciting landing as Eduardo bailed again instead of running, another swan dive made the landing less than graceful. He was very scared but didn't mention it. He was happy he flew though. Sean launched after me and again got above launch, to get parked in the North wind. At one time we saw him going backwards and the further north he got, the more turbulence he got. after some prolonged wobbling he flew south and got too far away from the LZ causing him to crab all the way out but he never got upwind so he had to land in the new hangar area to the south as it got stronger on the ground. Safe landing for his last flight of his Tour week. A few other local Paragliders launched and headed straight to the south airstrip. It was quite clouded over from big over-development so no lift for the last pilots. Again we didn't get home til 6:30 pm but it is still light here til 7:00 pm now, and we headed to La Vita Bella for one last meal there for Sean meeting up with Jorge after dinner for a hotel tour. All my tour guests are now gone til Feb 12th, so I have booked some rest days with Colleen in San Diego before coming back to finish the Mexican Tours. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . The last Task was run with a 76 km run to goal at the Lake and Nicole made goal. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog. Woodside BC Report - reports came in live from Derek about 12 minutes of airtime at Woodside with Lee, Martin N, Martina in leeside conditions. Some Americans flew Cheam too via Helicopter according to Facebook.
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FlyBC Mexican Adventure Report - after another great Gloria's Breakfast we headed out for El Chante flights early on arriving about 1130 am. Nice southerly cycles despite west wind forecasts around noon for the area. | Sean was joined by Eric A & Don who were still tired from last night's night flight adventure til 1 am. They stayed in Joco town as they are heading to Valle tomorrow. Peter B is back from Sweden and he & Jorge brought up Ivan for a tandem, Peter's first flight here in 18 months. Unfortunately it was an extended sledder landing at our condo, with a few scratchy thermals due to the inversion. Jorge did a flight into the El Chante Malecon ignoring the lift as he claimed a hangover had taken over this morning. It was Sean's turn to tackle the mountain after yesterday's 50% collapse and he was nervous, but he had a nice launch and a few turns out front with the bird before heading out to the Football Field in El Chante. It was Eric's turn and he had "taken the bait" to try a top landing as he heard about Wouter's 35 attempts one day in December before getting in. He made about 5 passes and nailed it on launch, and then proceeded to fly again and slalom thru the trees behind launch for fun. Don was too tired to fly and we drove down together to retrieve everyone. And then on to San Marcos leaving Eric's car at Casa de Marina Hotel. San Marcos was just turning on when we arrived at 3 pm. Some tailwinds as we got there but it started cycling up strong in a few minutes. Some locals arrived with Valdo driving them, and David and the Canuck HG team arrived too dragging along Pedro K & Mille, so pretty busy for a Friday. Don & Eric launched and were soon at 'base at 3500 meters under the CUs. The locals launched and did a few turns on their parapentes, but were soon in Pedro's LZ. Sean chose to wait til 4:30 pm, and he launched after David on the HG and Mille also on HG. He was maintaining but not getting high and I left after 30 minutes to retrieve him as he was sinking, when he called to say he was 550 meters over launch and he was going to fly over the back. Reports from Don & Eric were that they were over El Chante launch at 3500 meters heading east. The adventure begins again. I found Sean right away in a field near the Pond, where a cowboy on a donkey stopped to talk to him about where he launched from . . . and the cowboy knew San Marcos launch. Eric flew back to the Joco Malecon to be near his car, and Don landed at the Chapalpa Ultralight Strip and walked 4 blocks to the bus stop but apparently the Red Buses were slow tonight as it took him 2 hours to get home with a dead cell phone so we couldn't reach him. It was now 8 pm and they have to drive to Valle tonight so it will be 2 am before they arrive there for sure. We had dinner at La Vita Bella one more time and met some Vancouverites who have retired to Ajijic who were sitting next to us, small world. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task was run. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Mexican Adventure Report - we had breakfast at Gloria's today with Gary for the last time on this trip, as he is headed to New Zealand for 4 weeks. We decided on El Chante flights early on as I saw vultures circling over launch there from the condo. | We arrived on launch to nice SE cycles and an inversion layer, but the birds were thermalling in the gulleys and out front. Sean launched after sometime around 1145 am, and headed west to the cross gulley but got rotored and didn't manage a surge and he had a 50% collapse and fell into it and disappeared behind the ridge as I yelled "opposite brake and opposite weight shift". He heard me and did just that and the glider recovered nicely. He had enough of that thermal and headed straight out to the Lake and the new football field LZ pioneered by Gary earlier this week. By the time I drove down to get him he was 50 meters from the Hotel, where I picked him up. We drove to San Marcos and Pedro's LZ and met up with David and the HG gang from Ontario and told them about El Chante. The winds looked South on launch and we waited for a bit, before deciding to drive up and check conditions for the others so they didn't waste a trip in to launch. We arrived at 4 pm to perfect cycles and beautiful CUs all the way from Tapalpa to San Marcos, a perfect XC day. Sean launched and was soon "beamed up" to 3000 meters between two nice CUs. It was a bit lumpy for his no brake style of thermalling, so some coaching got him to min sink and smoother flight. as he topped out, I saw Don arrive from Tapalpa low just at launch height, but he soon climbed out too. Sean had enough thermalling by 45 minutes and was headng out to land as the HGers arrived, followed by Eric in his Honda chasing Don. I drove down to get Sean as Erc got ready to launch. Sean was packed up when I arrived and we headed back up for one more flight and some refreshments on the way. As we arrived I saw 2 HGs in the air, and the student Falcon was lying crumpled below the ramp. David was trying to extricate the wreck so I went down to help. The student was okay, just a few cuts but the glider sustained fatal damages: broken leading edge, keel, ripped sail, battens bent or broked. After removing the battens and folding the glider up, we dragged it back up to the flats, through all the trees and deadfall, not an easy task. Sean launched after the drama of removing the wreck and climbed out again to the north point, before heading over the back to land at 6 pm near the highway. Don and Eric were still in the air determined to have a night flight as the moon is pretty full reporting 4100 meter cloudbase. No idea how they were going to get their car afterwards as we were leaving for dinner. We headed east thru Jocotopec town, and on the east side we hit hard rain as the clouds OD'ed by the Lake. No thunderstorms but pretty close to the kind of instability that can cause one. We bumped into Peter as he arrived from Sweden last night and he is glad to be back where it is warm and sunny. Big family dinner for them, as it was just Sean & I for dinner. After dinner, as I got home I got a text from Don at 10:30 pm that they had just landed at Pedro's! I guess it didn't rain on them near the San Marcos Laguna. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task was run, rough air with 2 more reserve tosses. Nicole texted me that she was in a remote LZ partway to goal after hard flying. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Tapalpa Report - Sean and I arrived at Tapalpa Launch at 1130 am and heard that the Granger Group had already had a sled ride. | Sean was not interested in a sled ride, but when he saw Don launch and start climbing he was launching right after him, and they didn't come down for a long time. The Granger Group came and flew but only one guy stayed up as they all descended into the Piano LZ or scattered around that area. Sean was flying very well and was often "top of the stack" as the gaggle moved west over Launch to about 2700 meters. Eric A tried flying north but only found sink, but managed a low save 5 gulleys south to get him back to launch and the first top landing. Sean was 1:35 into his flight when he top landed at the back field and we headed towards San Marcos for the evening flight. On the way we saw virga near the Cross, but nice CU over San Marcos. We arrived on San Marcos Launch to tailwinds again despite the NOAA forecast of 15 kph west. David from Gravity was there with Terry from TO and a student but they were denied a flight too. We drove down to Jocotopec to unload the gear and headed to dinner at La Vita Bella for Gary's last night here before a 4 week flying trip to New Zealand. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures during January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task 8 was called off as there was no lift. valle Task 7 cancelled from broers philippe on Vimeo. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Tapalpa Report (plus some other sites) - we drove to Tapalpa after a Gloria's Breakfast in El Chante. | This time Granger beat us up to launch and his guys had a sledder and we only saw one wing in the air. When we picked up Sean in the LZ we saw some kiting action but no one launching, so we bailed and headed to Mazamitla. Mazamitla has yet to yield a flight this Tour as it has been North, too Strong South, and again North today. But it is a beautiful drive thru Pine Forests and a picturesque town, but we are here to fly so we headded to San Marcos. On the way out of town we hit a tropical rainstorm for a few kms, good thing we are leaving. We dropped off Gary at the hotel as he apparently ate too much at La Vita Bella last night and needed a nap, and headed to San Marcos. Light tailwind at launch, but it started to come in so Sean laid out his wing and got clipped in but before he could launch it started to spit. There was 0% POP in the forecast but Mother Nature had other ideas. We bunched Sean's gear into the Suzuki and headed down the mountain, glad he wasn't packing his wing in a rainstorm. The rain actually packed the San Marcos road nicely, as we were worried it might start running down the road as there are no cross ditches. We took Sean's gear to the condo to pack it properly under the Palapa roof, and as we were doing that, a large thunderstorm started with lightning and thunder. Hopefully this is the last of the rain we see on this trip. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . It rained hard last night in Valle too, and a task was run and despite epic clouds and some OD'ing there was not much lift and no one made goal. valle task 6 the flight from broers philippe on Vimeo. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog. Click here to find out who kicked butt in Mexico today!
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FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports
December 2011 Site of the Day archives - the Mexican Tours have been amazing with many hours and many more kilometers of XC flying with Wouter, Derek & other friends.
November 2011 Site of the Day archives - we had amazing thermal days at Woodside this month getting to cloudbase at 1400 meters many times.
October 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 100 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team! Road trips to Pemby, Hedley, Savona, Cache Creek to round out our students skills when the coast got rainy.
September 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 150 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
August 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 200 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team! Almost done the Groupons!
July 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 120 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
June 2011 Site of the Day archives - over 100 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
May 2011 Site of the Day archives - another rainy month with more road trips.
April 2011 Site of the Day archives - many long XCs in the Fraser valley by many pilots, and we roadtripped to the Ashcroft area many times to get flights between rain storms and snow storms.
March 2011 Site of the Day archives - got home from 2 glorious months in Mexico & New Zealand to try to fly in the Valley, but due to rain & snow we roadtripped to the Ashcroft area many times to get flights.
February 2011 Site of the Day archives - last days of the Mexico Tour went very well and then I headed to New Zealand to meet Colleen in Auckland and we had a great time flying there for 2 weeks.
January 2011 Site of the Day archives - Mexico Tour went very well with 8 attendees getting great airtime and safe guidance from us at FlyBC.
December 2010 Site of the Day archives - weather was so bad in BC, that Colleen and I had to book 5 days in LA to get a flight.
November 2010 Site of the Day archives - we had some sweet soaring flights at Woodside, and a really cold cold snap that limited flying for a week or more.
October 2010 Site of the Day archives - we had some sweet soaring flights in October at Woodside, and Robin flew to Hope in less than an hour!.
September 2010 Site of the Day archives - the wettest September in history had us running up to Savona and points east to fly, but we "got-er-done".
August 2010 Site of the Day archives - unstable conditions made for some great days at Benny and Woodside. Al & I had a Delta Day with me stealing Colleen's Small Delta and he on a Large one and we went over the back to Seabird on a strong day.
July 2010 Site of the Day archives - fantastic road trip to Revelstoke for 11 days of SIV Training and super weather.
June 2010 Site of the Day archives - wettest June on record so road trips to Savona a few times. Deltas are rolling in now!
May 2010 Site of the Day archives - nice flying in the Valley.
April 2010 Site of the Day archives - worst April in years weatherwise but we managed to do some awesome tandem groups and some nice flights with Justin, Nicole and Norm flying to Mission late in the month.
March 2010 Site of the Day archives - Crappy weather in the US on my return trip from Mexico. But when I arrived back at the Ranch there were some great days soaring Woodside.
February 2010 Site of the Day archives - super flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs. The locals were already flying at Mother Woodside back in BC due to the warm weather!
January 2010 Site of the Day archives - nice flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs.
December 2009 Site of the Day archives - our first time in Mexico for a full December and we flew everyday. 40-50 km XCs from Tapalpa.
November 2009 Site of the Day archives - very few flights as we had record rains and high winds.
October 2009 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly-In in Chelan WA with the Barbie Theme, took first place honours again! More good soaring flights of 2 hours plus on special days.
September 2009 Site of the Day archives - more decent flying weather with a few road trips to escape wind by heading to Savona.
August 2009 Site of the Day archives - best flying conditions in years with little rain. My first hike up Cheam with pals went well.
July 2009 Site of the Day archives - the FlyBC SIV in Revelstoke was a blast, 280 SIV flights and only one wet pilot intentionally that is. Jeremy wished he had landed in the water.
June 2009 Site of the Day archives - dry all month locally so lots of flying, Al has been test flying the new ShotGun launch near Stave Lake having great flights out to Woodside.
May 2009 Site of the Day archives - local flying is getting great with nice XC's! Bridal was working well. The new bathroom was installed in the Barn at Eagle Ranch enriching the FlyBC experience.
April 2009 Site of the Day archives - we escaped the local weather by flying in New Zealand for 3 weeks. We will be heading back soon!
March 2009 Site of the Day archives - we were flying locally in snow, relying on Derek's sleds and chains on the 'Mog to get up Woodside.
February 2009 Site of the Day archives - the Worlds PG Championships in Mexico was hard work for the Canucks, the tasks and speeds were unreal.
January 2009 Site of the Day archives - Manzanillo, Mexico was a BLAST, many new sites flown and we have a new tour Destination for 2010.
December 2008 Site of the Day archives - the annual FlyBC Christmas Party was a cold success with Head over Heels entertaining us all night. And we left early for Manzanillo, Mexico on Dec 28th.
November 2008 Site of the Day archives - some soaring between rain storms, and it was pretty dry in Agassiz.
October 2008 Site of the Day archives - we went ot the Women's Fly In on Chelan for the annual Halloween Costume Fly-In, great conditions there to offset the wet month on the West Coast. Steve Fosset's crash site was found in Nevada after a year of searching.
September 2008 Site of the Day archives - great student conditions at Woodside and Bridal all month, with 10 students getting signed off this month, a record.
August 2008 Site of the Day archives - our second SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke (except for a few water landings and minor injuries). Wet all month at Woodside except the weekends.
July 2008 Site of the Day archives - our first SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke.
June 2008 Site of the Day archives - a few good soaring days at Bridal, lots of new students this month.
May 2008 Site of the Day archives - the cost of gas is keeping pilots at home and the weather isn't helping either. One good XC in May for me, leaving Woodside with Norm and Martin H and ending up at Elk at 1600 meters before landing by Hopyard Hill. 3 hours and 85 kms later by the GPS.
April 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years but we flew every day we could.
March 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow and still hiking to launch at Woodside! But some major airtime for the locals committed to coming out to fly.
February 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow in BC than I can remember in 25 years of living here. We are still hiking to launch at Woodside!
January 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico and logged many hours of airtime, while it snowed heavily in BC.
December 2007 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico on Dec 29th for three weeks.
November 2007 Site of the Day archives - Colleen and I went to California to fly the new Falcon A-16 Advanced Ultralight prototype and it flew very well. Some good soaring days at Woodside, some folks were still trying to fly Bridal but that is a waste of time this late in the season.
October 2007 Site of the Day archives - mid-air at Woodside caused Martin H some paraglider damage, some great soarable days. The Women's Fly In was a success with the Canuck Team taking top spot for the theme of "Celebrities in Rehab".
September 2007 Site of the Day archives - we re-discovered and flew 'Horsefly' Launch for the first time, some mayhem at Woodside due to tree-suck, lots of good soaring in afternoon glassoffs, a great Indian Summer until late in the month when the rains came early. Derek, Martina, Robin and Diane went to Europe. Kirill went to Australia for a paramotor Fly-In.
August 2007 Site of the Day archives - fun two weeks at Mara Lake, followed by steady flying at Woodside and Bridal, making up for the dismal spring and summer.
July 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights at Bridal, some mayhem at Woodside from visiting pilots.
June 2007 Site of the Day archives - more crappy weather on the weekends. Some awesome flights between showers as Norm and Thomm flew to Mission on the last day of the month.
May 2007 Site of the Day archives - flyable every weekday, but the Fraser Valley XC Comp got crappy weather on the weekends, although it was student flyable.
April 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights are starting. Some complete triangles from Woodside to Bridal and back, some "musical triangles" from others.
March 2007 Site of the Day archives - fifth month of crappy weather on the Coast. We went to Santa Barbara for some flights, and to dry out. Some good days were also recorded locally.
Febuary 2007 Site of the Day archives - fourth month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we stayed in Mexico.
January 2007 Site of the Day archives - third month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we went to Mexico to fly Colima, Tapalpa, and San Marcos, while Brad and gang headed to Tenacingo, Mexico.
December 2006 Site of the Day archives - more ugly weather on the Coast. Severe winds damaged trees and property so not much flying happened. Some good flight reports from local PGers travelling world-wide.
November 2006 Site of the Day archives - the wettest November on record. We flew a few good flights but mostly we were rained out.
October 2006 Site of the Day archives - lots of good days with 3-4 hours airtime. The Women's Fly-In was on again in Chelan with about 18 Canucks, and a good day Saturday with 85 registered pilots.
September 2006 Site of the Day archives - still soarable in the Fraser Valley, little or no rain. Colleen is back flying! Some mayhem in the valley.
August 2006 Site of the Day archives - a great flying month everywhere, we had a super successful SIV clinic at Mara Lake with everyone SAT-ing and heli-ing.
July 2006 Site of the Day archives - road trip to Lumby, then on the 8th Colleen spun in below Gloria cancelling her summer plans (but she is recuperating well).
June 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Valley dried out, and we flew most days and every weekend.
May 2006 Site of the Day archives - more rain that ever imagined in the Fraser Valley. Very few soaring flights and even less XC.
April 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Easter Bunny was "run over" on Kilby Road, plus the train wreck on April 1.
March 2006 Site of the Day archives - a new pilot was born, Chloe. We also flew a few days between showers, some long flights up to 4 hours. A few Out & Return Flights to Deroche and Bear.
February 2006 Site of the Day archives - another wet month with some soarable days (2).
January 2006 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South for great Mexican or Chilean flying.
December 2005 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South.
November 2005 Site of the Day archives - rain, snow and not much flying.
October 2005 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly In in Chelan yielded two soarable days before the snows hit.
September 2005 Site of the Day archives - dry most of the month. Some great 4 hour flights at Woodside getting to cloudbase most days. Three crash-landings in the same clearcut by pilots scratching too low, but no injuries.
August 2005 Site of the Day archives - road trips to the Interior gave us an opportunity to rag out some gliders at FlyBC SIV 2005 (Part II). Also a great road trip to Savona.
July 2005 Site of the Day archives - good flying all month, no rain but some windy days shut us down. The Willi started in Golden with a few good days, but one tragedy as Charles Warren perished in a crash near Harrogate.
June 2005 Site of the Day archives - too much rain, but good days to fly between showers.
May 2005 Site of the Day archives - our Instructor/Tandem seminar yielded some good flying. Our May 2005 SIV Clinic had a good turnout, with many wet wings/pilots! Many nice flights at Woodside and Bridal, with some long "out & returns" at Bridal.
April 2005 Site of the Day archives - some great soaring at Woodside and Bridal. Sad news from the US Hanggliding Nationals as Chris Muller crashes at goal.
March 2005 Site of the Day archives - we had to head out of town to Savona a few weekends due to wet weather on the Coast. Wetter than normal according to Environment Canada.
February 2005 Site of the Day archives - some good soaring despite early time of year. Flights as long as 3 hours at Woodside, some good flights at Whidbey Island for first timers, too!
January 2005 Site of the Day archives road trips to Mexico, not much flying locally due to strong north winds and rain. Record rain kept Eagle Ranch quite wet for kiting.
December 2004 Site of the Day archives a dry month with some good soaring including a fantastic day on Dec. 11 where we thermalled for 2+ hours!
November 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain. We installed a fireplace in the barn to keep pilots warm between winter flights.
October 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain, but sweet soaring between showers. Many new students signed up and making quick progress. We missed the Women's Fly In for the first time in 9 years, and there was some interesting flying on the Sunday!
September 2004 Site of the Day archives rainiest September on record for the first 3 weeks, made flying difficult. But Alan and others logged some pretty nice flights later in the month. Lots of student tandems for both Colleen and Jim.
August 2004 Site of the Day archives Great Maneuver/SIV/ACRO course at Mara. Jack got wet! Some great soaring at Woodside. Norm made it 68 km from Mara to King Eddie, Derek made it from Lumby to Enderby the opposite direction for 67 kms. We also did our BC roadtrip from Ashcroft to New Denver, and flew everyday.
July 2004 Site of the Day archives the Willi was on at Golden. We missed the mayhem due to work and school commitments but Norm did a great job representing the West Coast.
June 2004 Site of the Day archives Canadian Nationals came off with many great rounds. Pemberton-Whistler Championships were blown out most days so we headed to Cornwall.
May 2004 Site of the Day archives great flying at Woodside and Bridal. We held a very successful SIV Course at Mara Lake, and hope to run another one in August if they keep the forests open.
April 2004 Site of the Day archives good flying in the Valley. The Fraser Valley Cross Country PG Series was successssful.
March 2004 Site of the Day archives Nicole won in Brazil, otherwise the month sucked for flying time.
February 2004 Site of the Day archives some local flights extended to an hour with vigourous scratching above the trees. Good paramotor month.
January 2004 Site of the Day archives Mexican road trip yielded 20 hours of flight and a wet Canadian January kept most local pilots on the ground.
December 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew a few times but it got really cold at the end of the month as we prepared for a gala New Year's Party for 40 of our close personal friends and neighbours.
November 2003 Site of the Day archives windy and wet with the odd good soaring day, not many pilots out these days.
October 2003 Site of the Day archives Women's Fly In was great fun, some good soaring days mid-month, most of the students are signed off.
September 2003 Site of the Day archives good conditions until the last days of the month when it got stable. Most days were flyable at Woodside or Bridal.
August 2003 Site of the Day archives Forest closures made the end of the month a non-flying period unless you headed to Blanchard. FlyBC SIV 2003 was a great success with 9 stunt pilots and no deployments or crashes.
July 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most days early at Woodside until it got windy, then over to Bridal. Good Golden flying reports from the "Willi".
June 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most weekdays at Bridal, Woodside worked most weekends. Bridal Air Races had one great day with only two tree landings!
May 2003 Site of the Day archives not a great weather month on the coast, especially on the weekends but a few pilots managed to get some great airtime at Bridal. The Nationals were held in Lumby and it didn't rain!
April 2003 Site of the Day archives rain for 28 of 30 April days, but we managed to get a few flights in between showers. Even the golfers were complaining!
March 2003 Site of the Day archives some high spring flights in early March, but not a great weather month. Still no HPAC Insurance!
February 2003 Site of the Day archives some nice long spring flights in late February. HPAC Insurance expired on Feb 14, so many pilots stayed home instead of getting USHGA coverage.
January 2003 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month in BC so we bailed and headed to Tapalpa Mexico for three weeks. Norm and Lucille had a great XC flight the first day we arrived.
December 2002 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month.
November 2002 Site of the Day archives not a great flying month, lots of rain in the beginning and then super stable and inverted for the balance of the month. Even the Savona Road Trip wasn't that great. Looking forward to Mexico!
October 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable some days, great fun at the Women's Fly In 2002 in Chelan. Allan logged 15 hours and only flew a few days. Most of the students are ready for signoff soon to get ready for Mexico trips!
September 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable most everyday! Some scary incidents at Woodside. Fun flying at Ashcroft.
August 2002 Site of the Day archives More spring-like days with super lapse rates, great fun up-country at Revelstoke and Mara, with some good XCs for all.
July 2002 Site of the Day archives Some spring-like days with super lapse rates, but still rather wet at times.
June 2002 Site of the Day archives another rainy and windy month with great lapse rates, some great flights at Bridal with some getting above Cheam Peak. The Club Cup was nearly rained out but they got one valid task in on Sunday June 30.
May 2002 Site of the Day archives an extremely rainy month with the more spring mayhem, another reserve deployment at Lil Nick and a pilot crashed at the top of Deroche Mountain, uninjured but with a ripped glider and long hike down the mountain. Colleen placed 5th place at the Canadian PG Nationals in rainy Lumby!
April 2002 Site of the Day archives a rainy month with the usual spring mayhem, one reserve deployment at Woodside and a pilot hit a parked car at Bridal LZ, fracturing his leg.
March 2002 Site of the Day archives a few great days days with lots of snow and rain mixed in.
February 2002 Site of the Day archives two epic days already (4.5 hours and 2.5 hours!).
January 2002 Site of the Day archives Mexico vacation shots, some local flying but it was wet on the coast.
December 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, wettest December on record, some good days sprinkled thru the month.
November 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, had some good days at Woodside +2 hours, lots of rain later in the month.
October 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, but great flying at Chelan at the Women's Fly In.
September 2001 Site of the Day archives starting to get pretty stable, more sled rides forecast for October.
Aug 2001 Site of the Day archives Mara, Bridal, till some great flights locally
July 2001 Site of the Day archives Road Trip Month, Golden, Mara, points east!
June 2001 Site of the Day archives Great Month, 3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower! Some getting up to 6 hours in a single flight!
May 2001 Site of the Day archives Unstable Month, 2-3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower!
April 2001 Site of the Day archives Rainy Month, not as much airtime for some pilots
March 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring has Sprung!
February 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring is in the Air!
January 2001 Site of the Day archives - Mexico Flying Trip
December 2000 Site of the Day archives
November 2000 Site of the Day archives (great month for airtime!)
October 2000 Site of the Day archives
September 2000 Site of the Day archives
July - August 2000 Site of the Day archives
June 2000 Site of the Day archives
March - May 2000 Site of the Day archives
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