FlyBC "Site of the Day" - November 27 - 2020

"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else." - Winston Churchill

Date	Site	Forecast	Winds @ 3000' in kilometers	Lapse   Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters	Comments
11-27-2020	FlyBC is closed from 11:30 on today as we are heding to Sun Peaks	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers this morning. High 10. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Coaches Corner - FlyBC is closed after 11:30 am today, so if you want a flight come over early. Tony Evans is running a HAGAR Course on November 28-29th in Burnaby and has two spaces available. Don't wait for it to fill up. FlyBC is open and offering training and shuttles with COVID-19 social distancing/separation practices in place. Recommended options for hike & fly sites include: Benny, Lil Nic, or Elk Mtn. FlyBC and the Eagle Ranch LZ are open for clients that complete the 2020 waivers below, print them out and show up with them signed to fly into the Ranch. You can download the waivers below and sign & witness the waivers to be scanned to FlyBC E-Mail and also to have the hard copies dropped off with one of our staff. FlyBC waiver. WCSC waiver. HPAC waiver.
11-26-2020	FlyBC is closed til the sun comes out again (maybe December)	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Amount 5 to 10 mm. Becoming windy late this afternoon. High 9.	Woodside: 240° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - heavy rain all day, even too wet to do any tractor work. Used Gear List: Updated November 24, 2020 Harnesses for Sale: Gin Genie Lite 3 Large - Gin Genie Lite 3 POD new 2020 model - $2400 CDN Gin Genie Lite 3 Medium - Gin Genie Lite 3 POD new 2020 model - $2400 CDN Woody Valley Wani 2 T-Lock harness- reversible hike & fly model - new in box - $995 Supair Access Airbag harnesses (new) - $650 without reserve (great lightweight harness) Supair Radical 3 reversible airbag harnesses - $850 without reserve Gin Yeti Xtreme 2 - hike and fly - $400 or $850 with airbag Ozone Ozium S Harness - $1400 CDN without reserve SupAir Delight 3 Medium or Large harnesses - $1700 without reserve Assorted used harnesses from $350 CDN. Speedwings for Sale: Ozone Rapi-Dos 13 metre - demo with no flights - $2400 AirDesign Susi3 - 13 to 23 metre mini-wing - EN-B - 2020 Models - $3200 CDN Ozone Dragonfly - 16 to 18 metre mini-wing - Maximum Stability & Fun - The DragonFly is a stable and versatile hybrid speed wing, designed for pilots of all skill levels. It is the perfect wing to launch your speed flying career, and is equally at home soaring a dynamic coastal cliff or carving a mountain descent. - 2020 Models - $2250 USD Reserves for Sale: HA Beamer 3 Reserves - 100/130 kgs model - $1300 CDN HA Beamer 3 Light Reserves - 100/130 kgs model - $1550 CDN SupAir Shine Light Round Reserves - all sizes - $850 CDN Paragliders for Sale: All our used paragliders come with a porosity report and valid Inspection Certificate. AirDesign Eazy 1 M - EN-A - with 20 hours total - built in 2015 but hardly flown - $2100 CDN and no taxes. Nova DoubleSkin - EN-B - new for 2020 in 17 & 20 sizes at FlyBC - $4000 CDN - besides the 2.1 kg weight and small pack volume, a 1 year warranty/replacement plan is a key selling point - damage is covered for a full 2 years once registered with Nova Protect. Nova Prion 4 - EN-A - new for 2020 in all sizes in demo stock here at FlyBC - $3500 CDN - includes a hiking harness and radio and all taxes - a great deal to close out the season - A 1 year warranty/replacement plan is a key selling point - damage is covered for a full year once registered with Nova Protect. Ozone Swift 5 MS - 75-95 kgs - 2019 Model - $3200 - perfect shape with less than a year of use and includes a sauccisse bag and backpack. Hi-Viz colour scheme (more are coming in in 2 months as trade-ins) Ozone Geo 6 Small - 65-85 kgs - 2020 Model - $4400 - new demo still in the box Geo 6 S GN6S-V-28D-086 Lime/Light Blue/White/Light Blue on White Ozone Mojo 6 SM - 75-95 kgs - 2019 Model - $3200 - excellent shape with 50 flights and no damage SupAir Step Small - used 2018 EN-B glider with under 80 hours - 60-80 kgs - $2000 cdn. SupAir Leaf 2 - new 2020 EN-B glider - 80-100 kgs - $4400 cdn.
11-25-2020	FlyBC is closed til the sun comes out again (maybe December)	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Amount 5 to 10 mm. Becoming windy late this afternoon. High 9.	Woodside: 240° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - the excavator was finishing up around the next door property, spreading gravel and topping up the burn piles before coming over to remove the maple tree stump. The blackberries and the stump are now gone, ready for levelling and re-seeding to keep the blackberries down. Net result is a 1550 foot runway from N-S for small aircraft and HG Trikes.
11-24-2020	FlyBC is closed til the sun comes out again (maybe December)	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Amount 5 to 10 mm. Becoming windy late this afternoon. High 9.	Woodside: 240° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Rain Report - it rained all day so I just did firewood and cleaned up around the maple tree we dropped this week.
11-23-2020	FlyBC is closed til the sun comes out again (maybe December)	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 9 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed but Jim kept busy getting the excavator operator to move the leftover big debris and blackberies from around the fallen maple tree.
11-22-2020	FlyBC is closed til the sun comes out again (maybe December)	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 9 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed but we kept busy with the maple tree wood removal, Colleen doing the tractor loading and driving and Jim chopping the firewood and larger debris to be moved into the ditch. Elk Report - Claudia and Pete joined the Elk Crew and had some sweet ridge soaring in the snow! She says she could have soared all day on her new Ozone Ultralite 4 but she was worried about getting rained on so headed out early.
11-21-2020	FlyBC is back at the Ranch hoping the sun comes out today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 10. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 9 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we were hoping to fly Woodside after noon. Forecast said light NE winds but sunny so the hope was that the clouds would clear and some thermals would offset the catabatic flow. We arrived to pretty cloudy skies around 1 pm. One student (not ours) flew off into the clouds deliberately avoiding a big clear opening but he made it out to Riverside. A fairly large turnout of pilots today as it looks like the last flyable day of November. Colleen even put her keyboard down and flew today! I brought up an Ozone Ultralite 4 to fly as I knew launch conditions would be dodgy, but Claudia borrowed it and flew off with it and it left with her at the end of the day. I drove down as we had a big work project to complete. Recent vandalism has made the old HG ramp unsafe as they tore up the ramp sloping angle iron and board leaving a sharp edge to catch wayward pilots plus the footings were loose. A pilot almost hit the sharp edge last week so we decided to remove the ramp before a pilot or spectator gets hurt. It didn't take much jacking with a bottle jack and it was all loose and five of us lifted it and tossed it into the trees. It is far down the slope and out of harms way. If the trees out front are ever dropped, we can build a new ramp for the hangies.
11-20-2020	FlyBC is back at the Ranch in the rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers. High 8. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 29 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Eagle Ranch Report - chore day at the Ranch Friday getting ready for a long winter of lockdowns. The new neighbours are starting to clean up the property west of us and there was a faller and big 210 Excavator taking trees and buildings down. I asked them to take down the old rotten Maple Tree on the west property line as they are taking the rest of the trees bordering our two properties to make room for a new cedar nursery. The tree faller makes art projects and wooden bowls and was glad to get some solid wood from the two maples he dropped today but mostly it was firewood. The runway will be extended next spring and the views to the west will be better as the rest of the trees get removed this weekend.
11-19-2020	FlyBC is back at the Ranch in the rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers changing to 70 percent chance of showers near noon. Risk of thunderstorms early this afternoon. High 7.	Woodside: 240° @ 35 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we were working around the Ranch when it was not raining but that did not last long, with heavy rain in the afternoon and some hail too. But someone had a nice flight at Savona from an unusual launch spot landing at the Steelhead Campground . . . go Mickey! This is why Savona is so good in the spring and fall months, far away from the Coastal rains. The Cessna Skymaster has been in the shop in Pitt Meadows for a week or more getting the annual done. Some parts delays as we needed a new fuel injection pump ($$$) and a new cylinder for the front engine ($$). But it is all coming together. One of the important performance items I did was to remove the unservicable de-icing boots and replace them with satin black paint which gives and additional 5 mph of airspeed with less drag. Cynthia sent me this picture after the paint job was cured and the plane moved out to the ramp waiting for the pump. She hangs out at CYPK attending to her plane and hangar!
11-16-2020 to 11-18-2020	FlyBC is back at the Ranch in the rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers this morning. Rain beginning this afternoon. Amount 10 mm. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - rain, rain and more rain the past three days and windy but no power outages like towns closer to the ocean.
11-15-2020	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness late this afternoon. Wind up to 15 km/h. High plus 3. Wind chill minus 5 this morning. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - we drove past Savona around noon today and there was soarable SW winds but we did not see anyone flying. We took Hwy 1 home as the Coquihalla was closed at time due to accidents at the Snow Shed, so lots of heavy truck traffic both ways as traffic diverted, but Hwy 1 was clear and dry. We may have to head back to Sun Peaks after Wednesday because the coastal weather looks dismal.
11-14-2020	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness late this afternoon. Wind up to 15 km/h. High plus 3. Wind chill minus 5 this morning. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Colleen and I were hiking around Sun Peaks and we got about 8" of new powder snow. We took the CanAm Defender out on Sun Peaks Road from P-6 and almost got stuck. The ski racers are up on top training so the lift was operating but only if you had a race pass so no flying for us but the puffy CUs looked inviting. The season opens November 21!
11-13-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Snow changing to rain showers this afternoon. Snow level rising to 700 metres this afternoon. Snowfall amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind becoming south 20 km/h gusting to 40 this afternoon. High plus 4.	Savona: 040° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - we got at least a foot of new snow today but we still got outside for a hike. Apparently the Coquihalla Hwy was quite dangerous too. It looked possibly flyable at Woodside but snowy, with strong SW winds. I had time to make a small video of Brad's progression to P-2 this past week. My editing missed one small expletive I uttered as he was getting dragged, so my apologies! Brad did very well during his 5 days of training and was landing like a pro on most of his flights despite the small landing areas in Savona.
11-12-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of flurries in the afternoon. Wind becoming east 30 km/h gusting to 50 in the morning. High plus 3. Wind chill minus 11 in the morning. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I was back at Eagle ranch today shipping out gear and we had northerly outflow winds on the ground and no pilots. But it was beautiful and the rain held off til after 1 pm when I headed back to Sun Peaks. I was chatting with Kevin and Alex through YouTube about creating a trail from the 3 KM spur road up to launch through the North Forest beside Woodside Launch. There is an old skidder trail that has debris on it but we could move it with a work party and some chainsaws to create a shortcut to launch. Maybe the wrong time of year as more snow dumped on Woodside last night. I could volunteer some tractor time with the front end loader to help move some debris, but not if it is snowy!
11-11-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud with 30 percent chance of flurries early in the morning then sunny. High plus 4. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - we took the day off and sent Brad home to Edmonton with his 25 flights, extensive ground handling sessions and ground school sessions. The weather was nicely flyable with light east winds and puffy CU but we had shopping to do for condo lighting. Meanwhile back at Mother Woodside the "Desperados" were assembling for their "hike & fly" missions. The road up is quite icy at the 3 km mark so beware. I saw Don launch on his Gin Carrera when I checked the webcam just after lunch. It looked quite snowy on the webcam and in some Facebook videos pilots posted but nice on the ground. KVA sent us this tidbit.
11-10-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain on the Coast	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Snow ending this morning then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of flurries. Amount 2 cm. High plus 3. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 240° @ 5 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - I woke up to 8 inches of new snow at Sun Peaks and a treacherous drive to Savona. I arrived in Savona to find the forecasted light SW winds and we headed right to the Toilet Bowl. Light winds meant all forward launches today for Brad, after yesterday's strong East winds all day. We did four flights off the Toilet Bowl Launch and then headed up to Mid Launch after it cleared of cloud. Brad is doing very well with his landing approaches and he is getting in the cleared areas most times. The snow was pretty deep in places but the Defender is fast at doing retrieves and we were stuffing Brad's new NOVA Prion4 in the trunk between flights. Not much wind at Mid Launch but we got four flights off there after waiting for cycles. Back to the Toilet Bowl launch area as the winds picked up to maybe 10 kph but we still focussed on forward launches today. By 3 pm Brad had done 15 flights!
11-9-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. 60 percent chance of flurries late this afternoon. Wind becoming east 20 km/h this afternoon. High plus 1. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - I met Brad at the Dump Ridge at 9 am and the wind was fairly strong from the East. We drove up the hill in the Can Am and setup the Nova Prion4 XS and did some kiting, but the muscle memory is not there yet and wrong inputs were much more effective in the strong wind. I broke out the AirDesign Susi 3 - 13 and at 11 projected metres it is rock solid even in gusts. After 30 minutes of kiting the Susi 3, Brad was back to the Prion4 and flying! Brad had 10 great flights by 2 pm and I could see the snow was closing in from the West so we left.
11-8-2020	FlyBC is in Savona avoiding the outflow winds and rain	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Sunny. Wind northwest 40 km/h gusting to 60 diminishing to 20 gusting to 40 near noon. High plus 3. UV index 1 or low.	Savona: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - I brought new student Brad on a Savona Roadtrip. Today was way too windy for flying but we had a good day of ground handling in Ashcroft and Savona with decent wind in the parks. When we got to the Toilet Bowl Ridge at 10 am it was blowing +40 kph SW with higher gusts. Not even safe on a 13 metre speedwing. When I checked Ashcroft weather, it was blowing 15 kph NE, so we headed there. It was certainly stronger when we got there but it was manageable and great for reverse kiting practice. After a few hours of kiting in Ashcroft we headed back to Savona and there was a point mid-way between the two locations where the wind was calm so we had hope but when we got back to the Toilet Bowl it was still gale force winds just on the ridge but not so windy at the Lake level. We went to the Savona School field and the wind was great and Brad managed to perfect his technique and he was ready to launch. we waited til 4:30 pm and the wind never calmed down at the Toilet Bowl but there is a switch tonight to NE winds so we will be on the Dump Ridge for flights early tomorrow.
11-7-2020	FlyBC is open but it looks like a training hill day in Mission due to strong outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 11. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Brad and I headed up Woodside after a ground school session and it was too much NE to even take a wing out to kite, so we drove to a new clearcut at 14 kms to see if it would be launchable. There is a possible launch spot but it may not be a soarable face, so you would have to launch and go right towards Harrison Lake to connect with the cliffs there in outflow winds. We went back to Woodside Launch and there were up cycles at 2 pm. Brad had one attempt but the wing overshot and collapsed and we reset it and then it was all over as the east wind was back after the sun got shaded by cloud. We went back to the Ranch to do a repair on Thomas' wing and when Thomas was kiting to check the rigging it was too strong for Brad for sure.
11-6-2020	FlyBC is open but it looks like a training hill day in Mission due to strong outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 11. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Heritage Park Report - I headed to Mission with new student Brad for his first flights. We started in Cherry Hill Park because it was North winds everywhere and over 60 kph at Eagle Ranch. The wind here was light east so we got some kiting in but no flights. Brad was doing well in light winds! We headed to Heritage Park where we started there on the bottom flats and kiting was better due to stronger winds from the East. And then all of a sudden there was no wind, so we went to the top of the hill and it started blowing up the slope! Brad got 4 flights off the top before we headed back to the Ranch. Back at Eagle Ranch we had strongish NW winds and Brad kitied til dark perfecting his reverse launches.
11-5-2020	FlyBC is open closed til Friday due to the many coastal rain storms coming through this week	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Periods of rain. Amount 5 to 10 mm. High 15.	Woodside: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - CanaadaRASP had an update at 7 am and it looked flyable after 2:30 pm. Derek had a day off and he organized Martin N, Bev, Norm to meet at Eagle Ranch at 2:30 pm. My new student Brad arrived for his first ground school session and we all went up in the Defender. We arrived to find Sean T on launch clipped in and waiting for a lull. He had been up there since 1:00 pm but had to wait for the gusts to die down. Sean launched around 3 pm and climbed out fast. It was mostly ridge lift so one had to stay in close initially to get above launch. Everyone launched and had good flights until they got cold. This is Derek & Martin soaring after launching with Derek flying an Ozone Alpina 2 ML cause Bev took his Swift 5 to replace her Swift 5 ML that was recently sold.
11-4-2020	FlyBC is closed til Friday due to the many coastal rain storms coming through this week	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Periods of rain. Amount 5 to 10 mm. High 15.	Woodside: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Aircraft annual Report - the Cessna T337B is in the shop getting an annual done. This process reminds me of why paragliding and paramotoring is so much less expensive than General Aviation. Everything on a Cessna needs to be "certified parts" which means costly! We found a few snags and they are being dealt with. My part on this annual was removing the "de-ice boots" which were "unservicable" due to aging. Boots are now gone and the adhesiver removed ready for painting this weekend.
11-3-2020	FlyBC is closed til Friday due to the many coastal fronts coming through this week	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain at times heavy. Amount 30 to 40 mm. Temperature steady near 10.	Woodside: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	New Toy Report from KVA - Kevin ordered a SkyBean ChaseCam 2 and has been playing with it in the calm stable days recently. Chore Day Report - FlyBC is closed this week as a huge front comes in this week, but we are shipping gear and organizing one last P-2 session for Savona starting Saturday. The Cessna T337B is in the shop getting the annual done and it is a big job. The aircraft has de-icing boots for "flight into known icing" but they are unservicable and I decided to remove them as they cost some speed penalty and add weight. They are basically two layer rubber panels that inflate and deflate to shed ice but smart pilots don't fly in mountain icing regardless and my IFR rating lapsed many years ago. The only way to remove the boots is to peel them off and try to get the contact glue to release from the leading edges. Good news is these are quite old and they peeled away with some cutting and channel lock pliers. This is what the plane looked like before I started. I started peeling at 11 am and by 4 pm I had the glue removed from the tail section and the left wing using "PEERCO ADHESIVE REMOVER - 321" - which is a lemon based product that disolves contact adhesive without affecting paint or plastic surfaces and it doesn't burn your skin. But it takes some elbow grease! This is what the left over adhesive looks like before the Peerco treatment. I will post more pics of what the bare wing looks like after removing the adhesive. The plan is to paint the leading edges with a "go fast paint" to improve speed and fuel economy but COVID has limited our destinations this year.
11-2-2020	FlyBC is open Monday but won't fly til after 1 pm or later due to outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating early in the morning. High 14. UV index 3 or moderate.	Woodside: 160° @ 6 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was working Monday and it looked like the only good day for Woodside this week as a huge front comes in tonight. Martin N, Norm & Bev arrived at 1:30 pm, so I had to drop tools from Colleen's Yoga Studio project and take them up the mountain in the Chevy Tracker. The Can Am trailer is getting beefed up springs this week so no way to get to the bottom of the hill. Light cycles from the SE at launch but they all got off and today they were competing in the 2020 Best Glide Contest. We often do this on a lame, stable day with no wind. Takeoff and head straight west and see how far you get. Martin went first and landed on the dyke. Bev went next and landed next to Martin. Norm went last and circled over Kilby Campground before landing in the field just east of the park. The amazing thing is that the 2020 Ozone Swift 5 (EN-B) gliders now glide as far as the 2010 Ozone R10 competition glider (un-rated comp) from only 10 years ago. A correction was noted for Saturday's flights - Claudia logged 50 minutes on her Swift 5 at Woodside and Peter got 45 minutes on his new Ozone Delta 4.
11-1-2020	FlyBC is open but won't fly til after Noon or later due to outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Clearing near noon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 040° @ 4 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - one last good sunny day for the weekend and the outflow forecast looked too strong to fly but at 8 am the wind was calm and it was flyable. We had a few tandems to get done and I delayed them til 1 pm, but pilots were launching solo by noon and getting short, smooth flights. Dominik came out after being away all summer and showed us how to do a no-wind reverse. Derek took the first tandem at 1:30 pm and while it was short they had a great launch, flight and landing at Eagle Ranch. Andrei took Emily for her Birthday tandem at 2:30 pm and they also had a great no-wind launch. We did not go up again after 3 pm as it was just so lame, totally inverted but sunny and warm.
10-31-2020	FlyBC is open this Halloween Day but won't fly til after Noon or later due to outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Clearing near noon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 040° @ 4 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - another sunny and flyable day despite the outflow forecasts. Again the topography at Woodside deflected the NE winds and provided safe flying conditions for Sung on his last two flights to get his P-2 rating. Sung spent the morning writing his P-2 exam while we waited for conditions to have some up-cycles, but a large group of pilots were already on launch and flying. I estimated about 20 pilots out today, grabbing what they could. Short flights with 50 minutes being the longest airtime as it was very stable. Most got around 20 minutes. (A correction was noted for Saturday's flights - Claudia logged 50 minutes on her Swift 5 at Woodside and Peter got 45 minutes on his new Ozone Delta 4.) Colleen even got out for a flight today on a break from her weekday calls and meetings. Derek came out later after work and got a short flight as the sun was setting.
10-30-2020	FlyBC is closed til the weekend unless the weather changes from rain to sun	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy in the morning. Temperature steady near 11. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 40 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed due to high winds and rain but lots of errands and chores were done. Big thanks to Martin N, Derek and Kevin for lifting and cutting beams for Colleen's Yoga Studio! The sun did come out and the wind died around 5 pm and we had a beautiful rainbow appear over Andrei's house.
10-29-2020	FlyBC is closed til the weekend unless the weather changes from rain to sun	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Periods of drizzle. High 13. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 16 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed for rain but after I got back from Chilliwack I heard Martin and Dennie chatting outside the Barn as the sun came out briefly. I stoppped working and took them up in the Tracker as the can Am was staying dry in the Barn. We arrived to perfect cycles and Dennie took off first and was soaring above launch on his AirDesign Volt 3. Martin took off and also started soaring on his Ozone Swift 5. I watched for a bit and when I left to hike up to the Tracker they were bth high above launch. As I got to the 3 km marker, I saw both pilots thermalling around with a group of Eagles. But the lift was short-lived as Dennie was already heading out to the Ranch as I got onto Kilby Road. Martin was also soon on his glide out as they said once they hit 450 metres it was all just sinky air. But they flew and stayed dry!
10-28-2020	FlyBC is closed til the weekend unless the weather changes from rain to sun	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Periods of drizzle. High 13. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 16 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - rain all day at Woodside.
10-27-2020	FlyBC is closed til the weekend unless the weather changes from rain to sun	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers in the afternoon. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 140° @ 6 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Fraser Valley Report - FlyBC was closed today but I did get a flight in the Cessna T337B today before the rain started with a trip to Pitt Meadows Airport for the annual inspection. It has been more than 34 years since I last flew into CYPK, where I kept our first Skymaster for a year. Great airport for incoming flights from Calgary when I used to commute to and from AB in the C337. Usually better weather than Boundary Bay or YVR for nicht flights. I left Chilliwack at 10:48 after a good runup since I haven't flown it since mid September, and it flew beautifully. Some roughness around Dewdney Mtn. in the lee somewhat with North winds. I came into the CYPK Control Zone at 2500 feet and the controller vectored me towards the Golden Ears Bridge and into a cloud but it was small and I was back in VFR conditions and into the dowwnwind right for Runway 36. Lots of training aircraft in the circuit and I was cleared to land. Nice smooth landing and quick exit to taxi into the Apron 1 Area to find parking and meet the AME. Cynthia offered to fly me back to Chilliwack in her 182 but the weather closed in at CYPK before 1 pm. So she drove me in her car instead and after lunch we came out to this at Chilliwack too!
10-26-2020	FlyBC is at Mother Woodside Monday after noon	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A few rain showers or wet flurries ending early this morning then a mix of sun and cloud. High 8. UV index 3 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 5 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I thought noon would be a good start time today, and there were 10 eager pilots standing around as I arrived at the Ranch. After Grant & Tony helped me unload some lumber from the trailer, we were loaded up and heading to the top (Thanks Guys!). We could only fit seven pilots and gear into the Can Am, so three pilots elected to hike up. I got everyone up to the top and raced down to get the three hikers, but they were already half way up. Thomm offered to drive the Can Am so I could fly today. Thanks Thomm! I was last pilot off flying a nice used Ozone Delta 2 and trying out a Gin Genie Lite Pod (that some thought looked like a coffin as it has a large tailcone). Conditions were amazingly "spring-like", with strong small cores and lifty air everywhere else. Kevin was the first off the hill and he got to 1000 metres in a few minutes. All 10 pilots were in the air at once for at least an hour. Pilots were also spread out all over the mountain and valley still going up. I stayed around the South Knoll for 30 minutes, then over to the North Bowl, then freezing cold despite having layered leather mitts and two layers of overcoats I heded out to the Construction Zone. Bingo! Good lift and warmer there as I orbited around with Martin N getting in close and we climbed back up to launch. Martin was more determined and he tagged the South Knoll and climbed to 800 metres from being just above the Construction Zone. Martin finally top-landed to warm up and drove Derek's truck down after he arrived later. I headed out to the Ranch arriving at 500 metres and just "boated around" looking for sink and had a nice "tippy toe" landing at the training hill. Kevin flew out to Kilby Park where he is camping this week and had a nice landing on the beach. He reported getting in close with many eagles today, so we are waiting for the Eagle cam video. Kevin landing at Kilby Park today. Flight of the Day was Grant test flying a demo wing and he got almost 90 minutes of airtime and his longest flight ever. Last report was Braydon & Scott were hiking back up for a second flight after 4 pm.
10-25-2020	FlyBC is at Mother Woodside Sunday but the outflow looks pretty strong here until 1 pm	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. Windy this morning. High 6. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 5 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside Report - it was strong outflow til noon, then the wind dropped to 10-15 kph NW for students to kite wingsuntil mid-afternoon. Around 2 pm a large group went up to Launch and they flew for 2+ hours! Even when the sun got shaded out they were thermalling over the valley. We went up at 4 pm to do a couple of tandems and it started to go catabatic for 30 minutes but we waited and then it started coming in straight and enough to reverse launch. Derek and Andrei did the tandems and we retrieved some trucks from the top. The sky looked amazing! Outflow is the best time to fly as long as you can launch as it pushes the lift out over the valley and it becomes more widespread too.
10-23-2020 & 10-24-2020	FlyBC was at Mother Woodside Friday and Saturday but the outflow looks pretty strong here and in Savona	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain except snow over higher terrain. Snowfall amount 2 cm over higher terrain. Temperature steady near plus 4 except near zero over higher terrain. UV index 1 or low.	240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 300 metres	Eagle Ranch Report - FlyBC was at Woodside Friday & Saturday to kite wings as the outflow looked unflyable but the winds were way too strong +60kph NW. Good day to set up gear for Grant and others though as it was semi-warm in the sail loft.
10-22-2020	FlyBC is at Mother Woodside Thursday but we may do a reconn run up Horsefly around 10 am to scout out a new launch spot	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 9. UV index 3 or moderate.	Savona: 240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was at Woodside Thursday at 10 am, expecting moderate outflow earlier and then light SW after 1 pm. But I looked at the Woodside Webcam and it was blowing up at 8 am, so plans to go to Horsefly were shelved. CanadaRASP and SpotWX both showed outflow til 1 pm. But they are using the same Model for calculation. We started flying at 11 am and it was blowing in well enough for reverse launches. Later flights yielded 1300-1400 metre elevations and frozen hands. Hour + flights even for the students. Here is Normando on his Ozone Swift 5 climbing out on a later flight. Samuel was flying all over the peninusla climbing with the eagles over Harrison Bridge. Then he got to fly his new Ozone Zero 3 into Riverside. Highlight of the Day: Shaun S flying his 15 metre Escape 2 speedwing and veering right instead of left and threading his way through the trees below launch! We got four rounds of student flights in today! Shaun is finished and Grant is nearly at 25 flights after 5 days of flying with us.
10-21-2020	FlyBC is at Mother Woodside Wednesday	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers early this morning and late this afternoon. High 11. UV index 3 or moderate.	Savona: 240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC as at Woodside Wednesday and the RASP said 1400 metres top-of-lift of the sun came out. Forecast was optomistic as we hunkered down in the Barn in rain/hail/thunder til noon. I took Grant, Shaun S, Pete, Claudia and Martin N up on the first shuttle ride and we had full cloud and light down cycles. But we managed to get Shaun and then Grant off launch and out to the clear skies beyond the clouds with forward launches. Pete and Claudia launched later as I drove down to get the students and they flew til the clouds got too big and they ended up in Riverside. I picked them up on Round Two and the students were in the air again. This shot is of Pete thermalling up the South Knoll on his new Ozone Delta 4. We flew three rounds today and this is Grant headed south on the last flight and I turned to help Shaun get ready and didn't notice how low Grant was as he tried the South Knoll area but by now there was little lift and lee/down air there and he had to make a low run to Eagle Ranch but there was lift over Harrison Highlands and he made it easily on the NOVA Aonic whcih glides very well for an EN-A wing. We went up one last time after 5 pm but it was just steady outflow on launch so we headed back down for beers.
10-20-2020	FlyBC is at Mother Woodside Tuesday	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. High 12. UV index 2 or low.	Savona: 240° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - the forecast was wrong all day and it pissed rain on and off til dark. If you are looking for a new glider, AirDesign has a demo stock sale on all their wings right now! Save 40% on a new glider by getting a demo one now.
10-19-2020	FlyBC is heading home Monday but not flying til Tuesday	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of drizzle changing to 30 percent chance of showers near noon. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Savona: 240° @ 40 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona/Woodside Report - FlyBC was heading back to Woodside today but not flying cause it is raining or snowing depending on your elevation.
10-18-2020	FlyBC is in Savona for the weekend	Woodside Forecast Savona Forecast: Periods of rain ending this morning then cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Snow over higher terrain this morning. Snow level 600 metres rising to 1200 metres this afternoon. Snowfall amount 4 cm over higher terrain. High 8. UV index 2 or low.	Savona: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC was back in Savona for Sunday but the weather gods were conspiring against us. I awoke to snow at Sun Peaks and thick fog on the drive to Savona but arrived to clearing skies and east wind as forecasted. SpotWX and CanadaRASP both said light east winds but we had +35 kph at the Dump Ridge so we sat and waited. By noon I pulled out the Independence Draco 16 and Susi 3 13 and got the students kiting. Sung did some flights to the bottom on the Draco 16 and Grant flew the Susi 3 down a few times too. But it was gusty. Newest student Matt kited the Susi 3 for hours while we switched up to larger wings and Grant started soaring and top-landing. We had a good weekend and the students gained lots of experience in varied conditions. We would not have flown at Mother Woodside this weekend likely. I found this tidbit on YouTube with Simon and Jon at Mt Ipsoot.
10-17-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside and it is raining hard so we are heded to Savona for the weekend	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Gusty winds. High 13. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - we were in Savona Sturday with three students. Grant is on Day Two with only one flight off Woodside, Sung has been out a bunch of days and has 20 flights and new student Matt arrived this morning. We had light SW winds so we started at the Toilet Bowl, so Grant & Sung could fly down while Matt kited on top. Within an hour Matt had the "A's & C's" figured out. By then Sung and Grant had already logged 5 flights. On the sixth round I launched Matt on a nice first flight and he landed right in the cleared section on his feet. After a few more flights off the Toilet Bowl Rim we headed up to Mid-Launch and the guys were getting some bouyant flights despite the thick cloud cover. Conditions at Mid-Launch were quite cross so we decided to finish the rest of the flights at the Toilet Bowl. By 4 pm we had logged 12 flights for Grant, 9 flights for Sung and 7 for Matt on his first day! Some of the Mid-Launch flights were "touch & go's" with relaunching off the Toilet Bowl for a "double hitter".
10-16-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside and it is raining hard so we are heded to Savona for the weekend	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Gusty winds. High 13. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Road Trip Report - FlyBC headed to Savona for the weekend, nothing but rain at Woodside today and the Coquihalla was clear.
10-15-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside and it looks soarable!	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Becoming cloudy in the afternoon. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 13. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside at 10 am and we had two eager students but the winds were not good til noon. Kevin & Andrei did a couple of tandems for us at 1 pm. Sledders but the passengers had fun! Here is Kevin flying off on his Ozone Magnum 3 tandem. Good cycles by 1:30 pm. About 15 pilots were out today for the first break in the rainy weather for some time, but it was most sledders except for John W who got above launch for a few passes before heading out to perfect landing conditions at Eagle Ranch. This is John on his approach into the Ranch on his Ozone Geo 6. New student Grant got his first flight after a day of ground school and kiting and he had to launch into quite cross winds from the north, but he got off cleanly and had a great landing. We are headed to Savona for the weekend as the coast looks rained out and the winds are calm with sun at Savona for Saturday & Sunday.
10-14-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside and it looks soarable!	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 14. UV index 3 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was at Woodside at 10 am but the winds were pretty strong by noon with rain/hail cells appearing at times. Shawn wrote his P-2 test while waiting and we finally called the day around 2 pm. Derek called around 4 pm to go up to Woodside Launch and repair the carpet where we had patched it in the summer with grey material. The grey stuff did not last well and had become very fragile and was getting torn up in the wind storms. This is what it looked like last Monday and by today it had been blown right off launch. Derek, Jay and I hauled up new carpet (thanks to David H for the donation), tools, tape, spikes and washers and started working on re-patching the burn holes. We had just enough carpet to patch over the nasty burn holes. We had just finished taping down the seams when the hail started. Hope it holds for the rest of this season! We also righted the outhouse and placed it back on its foundation and planned out a new floor which we can complete tomorrow.
10-8-2020 to 10-13-20	FlyBC is back at Woodside but it looks too windy	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers or drizzle. Fog patches dissipating late in the morning. High 17. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Thanksgiving Weekend Report - we cancelled all training and tandems due to the large front that was coming in to BC. A group did fly Savona and got a few short flights. Martin, Derek and I flew Woodside on Monday and it was a total crapshoot as it blew hard all day and we saw Martin Z on top for many hours waiting for it to calm down. Martin N launched first, then Martin Z followed by Derek and I. Martin N got to 1100 metres and bagged an hour long flight. He just missed the top-landing as a tandem pilot brought his wing up and kited it on launch for a minute or more, so Martin had to abort his landing. By then it shut down and he was below launch. Derek did managed to get in to top-land before it totally shut down. I landed at the Pro-Circle to avoid the long walk in as I had pulled a groin muscle doing some carpentry this week. Mike M just finished this great edit of our Cheam flights last weekend.
10-7-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Clearing. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 22. Humidex 26. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Tony was busy with four students today. Shawn is at 20 flights now; and John S, Kyle and Ritchie were at 1 flight each when they started today and they logged 3 more flights in differing conditions. It got thermic around 3 pm and they felt it in the air although the NOVA EnN-A wings we use are "rock solid" in any turbulence. Martin N was the star today with 2:12 on his only flight, working hard at the dead snag. Shawn was flying our Ozone Geo 6 demo and liked it a lot!
10-6-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Clearing. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 22. Humidex 26. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside at 10 am but it was not launchable until noon. Tony had Tina & Matt for their second day of a P-1 Course and they got three flights in to add to the first solos last week. He was able to spend quality time with them both as they were the only students today.
10-5-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of drizzle early in the morning. Clearing near noon. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 20. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Tandemonium Report - FlyBC started flying tandems around noon. We had a "so so" forecast on the RASP and Chilliwack had very low clouds around 10 am, so we weren't expecting more than a sled ride but we were rewarded with nice long flights. Kevin took off first and climbed out above launch fast. I launched with Mariah next and we too climbed out with Kevin. We were joined by Sam testing out his new SupAir Radical 3 harness and he flew for 45 minutes, top-landed to adjust the harness and then got another 25 minutes soaring around. Kevin and I kept swapping "top of the stack" honours. In this shot we were above Kevin on his Ozone Magnum 2. Brad got low and headed out to Eagle Ranch and found a great climb off Harrison Highlands and got way above launch. Here is a great shot from Kevin's GoPro of Jim (near the cloud) and Brad slightly lower. It was like spring flying with great strong climbs! Kevin had a very happy Birthday Girl on board today and what a great day to go tandem! Mariah and I flew all over the mountain for an hour. I did a few top landing passes but it was pretty spicy down low over the launch area, so I bailed on that idea. When I saw Kevin headed out to the Ranch, we floowed but we were still at 800 metres over Harrison Highlands where we also caught a great climb, so I continued out to the Harrison Bridge. From there we crossed over to Sandpiper Golf Course and a beautiful landing right next to the swimming pool at Rowena's Inn. Brad came and retrieved us and it was beers all around. Later Brad, Kevin, Martin N and a few others flew and they also had great flights after 4 pm.
10-4-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside with low clouds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Drizzle with 40% chance of showers. High 16C.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 600 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed today due to low clouds. This was the view from our field webcam at 4 pm today. Launch was never visible.
10-3-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 22C.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Tony and Dennie were managing the students and it was busy today with seven students of various levels from Day One to Day Ten. Derek dragged Colleen, Wofie and me along for a chopper ride up to Mount Cheam, where 20 hike & fliers assembled. Derek mentioned that the baggage space was limited so I put a light kit together with an AirDesign Susi 3 23 and a Gin Yeti Harness. We met the pilot in the Bridal LZ and we took a quick 10 minute flight to the top. I got ready and was off with Alex, JP and Kyle already in the air. I did a few passes but the lift was small and tight on my little mini-wing and more traffic was coming off so I headed west along the spine. Clear skies and light winds at 2000 metres. Lots of soaring for the regular sized wings. I crossed the ridge line and headed NW towards Woodside in a straight line along the Fraser River. I was just at the inversion layer and making good speed and my glide was good too. I crossed over Hopyard Hill at 800 metres with a light tailwind but as I got closer to Woodside I hit the SW layer of wind and there was no lift over the sandbars. I was too low to risk heading to Riverside, so I opted for the Dyke LZ near the pump station and I landed right on the dyke. Bev was nice enough to pick me up, and Colleen and Derek landed at their trucks at Bridal. I was back at the Ranch around noon and the parking lot was full of cars. Everyone was hoping for a few more flights as October is usually the last good flying month around here. Dennie was working with John, Tina and Matt on their first day out. I came out to the LZ and helped Dennie as Tony was "hucking" the other students. By 4 pm the newest students were ready to fly and briefed on landing approaches. Derek took a load up and the Can Am was full too. By 5 pm the new students got their first flights! And all had good landings too! Derek & Dennie took a tandem each at 5 pm and we were finished flying by 6 pm. A few incidents marred the fun today. Two experienced pilots were top landing on top of Cheam, and one came in hard and required 10 stitches when he got down to the LZ. The other pilot had a bad sprain as he misjudged his approach to top-land. Third incident was an un-named student from another school in the trees in Riverside LZ. No injuries.
10-2-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 21C.	Woodside: 040° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Tony was busy with 4 students all working on their P-2 ratings. The winds were light again and forward launches were the only way to get launched. June, Sung and Mike all flew three flights.
10-1-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 19C.	Woodside: 040° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside Thursday at 10 am. Tony had a few students and the winds were very light so he had them landing at various fields to improve their approaches.
09-30-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Hazy late this morning and this afternoon. High 27. Humidex 32. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 040° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Shaun logged three flights in calm, smooth conditions today flying with Bev & Wolfie. As forecasted there was light inflow winds and no lift, but nice bouyant air.
09-29-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside but outflow is making us head to Horsefly	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 26. Humidex 31. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Horsefly Report - FlyBC headed up to Horsefly today due to forecasted NE winds. The road up is perfect as the loggers are working at 5 kms. They allowed us under their tower and cables as they were pulling logs up to a new log landing that looks like it will be a perfect launch platform when they are done. Launch proper is all overgrown as we have not been up there for 3 years. Work party needed. We had some tools but not enough to get the job done plus there was no wind? We contined up to the end of the road up Sasquatch Mtn. and found several possible new SE facing launch spots. This is the view of the spots from Woodside Launch. This is the view out towards Woodside from the most likely spot. It would be a road launch that would require decent cycles. We went back to Woodside as the winds switched to light inflow and we got the students a flight. Andrei did a birthday tandem flight for John around 3 pm. Smooth sledders despite the outflow winds.
09-28-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 23. Humidex 27. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was training today despite the NE winds. Big day with weather ground school sessions and 2 great flights into Riverside and the smaller HG field for the students. It was not launchable after 4 pm here at Woodside but Dennie & Derek had a nice 30 minutes at Bridal.
09-27-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we headed back to Eagle Ranch after a fun week at Sun Peaks. As we rounded the corner from Agassiz, we saw many paragliders above launch. Andrei & Derek did some tandems for Lisa's friend and they got 30-45 minutes of soaring in beautiful conditions. Jacek reported +4.4 m/s of lift at times. A second flight happened with pilots getting over an hour of nice soaring til sunset.
09-24-20 to 09-26-2020	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Colleen & I headed to Sun Peaks to avoid the rain at Woodside. We had rain up there too, but there were breaks that allowed us to go hiking. We went up the chair lift as the CU were looking good, but the many windtalkers on the mountain were reporting +20 kph of SW or lee winds. These sucker clouds showed that you could fly but there was a problem finding a launch spot facing SW plus we never took our wings on the lift. There are many SE facing launch spots right near the chair lift top station but the wind was definitely over the back here.
09-21-2020 to 09-23-20	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Heavy rainfall.. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Monsoon Report - huge rainfall with a large storm system shut everything in BC down.
09-20-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun & cloud. High 22. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside Sunday hoping the forecast is wrong. We cancel four of our junior students because it looked too weird for newbies to fly. Steve came out after a weekend in Savona where he logged seven flights. Steve got one flight around 1 pm, and it was pretty bouncy but his NOVA Prion 4 flew right through everything into a safe landing. Colleen came in 30 minutes after Steve and had a "wild rodeo ride" with switchy winds and thermals breaking off on the approach but she landed soft as a feather. Meanwhile back at Woodside lots of pilots got above launch for several hours. I took a tandem at around 2:30 pm and Katherine mentioned she gets ill easily in a car so she took ginger pills before we flew. Unfortunately an hour into our great flight she commented that she was getting dizzy when we were at 1000 metres. The flight out to the Ranch would take about 25 more minutes in the thermic conditions so I elected to head east and she took over the controls and flew us to Cemetary Hill, which made her feel somewhat better, Derek was coming from Agassiz to Woodside so he radioed us to land by Hwy 7 for a quick pickup. We went back up with Steve around 4:30 pm, and he had a great flight climbing out above Woodside in a nice smooth thermal. Steve decided he had had enough thermalling so he headed out to do a nice approach into Eagle Ranch. Coleen went for a second flight with Derek & Norm, and got high after some unintentional acro over the lower launch switchback and headed to the Gold Course to dodge airplanes. Derek was supposed to follow her there too, but got greedy and finally suink out after topping out at 1250 metres. I overheard Alex and Kevin talking about landing at Treasure Island in the middle of Harrison Bay, where Kevin was camping. An offer was made to rescue Alex with a canoe after landing. Mission accomplished, no word on wet shoes or glider though? We had another set of tandems to do at 5:45 pm but as Derek and Norm flew out they noticed east winds on the windsock on top and in the forest at 400 metres so we cancelled going back up.
09-19-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Showers beginning early this morning. Local smoke. High 18. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside Saturday but it was not flyable with low cloud base so no students, just a project day.
09-18-2020	FlyBC is back at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon with risk of a thunderstorm. Widespread smoke. High 20. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Woodside Friday hoping the forecast was wrong but it stayed smoky and we did not get any rain til after 7 pm. The remaining Instructor/Tandem pilots stayed at Savona and cranked off a bunch of flights in calm conditions. A rainy day video to cheer up all our "hike & fly" pilots. On a NOVA Bantam 12 meter glider!
09-17-2020	FlyBC is heading out of town to avoid the smoke	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Widespread smoke. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC had one last day in Savona for the Instructor Tandem Course. Some smoke but again great conditions at Mid Launch at 930 am. I was doing some wind sock maintenance in the Toilet Bowl when I saw the tandems landing to the east as the winds switched. We headed to the Dump Ridge where it got up to 20 kph, good but not enough to soar and top land. New P-2 pilot Lorne came out and did 7 flights at Mid Launch and the Dump Ridge, hanging out with the Instructor Crew.
09-16-2020	FlyBC is heading out of town to avoid the smoke	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Widespread smoke. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC remained at Savona to avoid the smoke in the Lower Mainland, but it was also smoky here just lower altitude launches so you could see the LZ. Lots of great tandem flights for the Instructor/Tandem candidates starting at Mid Launch early on and then switching to the Dump Ridge. I did some cleanup at the Dump Ridge landing area and installed a wind sock there. Apparently I did not clean up enough as one unfortunate tandem landing ended up in a cactus patch. Pilots were doing the shuttling in the Can Am Defender so no hiking required and fast retrieves back to the top. We had some spectators today!
09-15-2020	FlyBC is heading out of town to avoid the smoke	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Widespread smoke. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Smoke Report - FlyBC stayed in Savona to avoid the smoke. I arrived on Mid Launch to see tandems setup in light west winds. Oddly it was blowing east at the Lake but great cycles for tandems. The tandems would fly down to the Crash Pad and then relaunch into the Toilet Bowl.
09-14-2020	FlyBC is heading out of town to avoid the smoke	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Widespread smoke. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC was Savona to avoid the smoke. Great conditions for the Instructor Tandem Course attendees as they did many tandem runs at the Mid-Launch and Dump Ridge. Pilots were camped out at the 4 km campsite.
09-13-2020	FlyBC is heading out of town to avoid the smoke	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud near noon. Widespread smoke. High 19. UV index 5 or moderate.	Woodside: 240° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC headed to Savona Sunday to avoid the smoke. We did Instructor Seminars til 10 am when Steve arrived for Day Two of his Intro Course. By 10:30 am we were on the road to Savona arriving there at 12:30 to clearer skies and light east winds and as we arrived we saw a paraglider descending off the Dump Ridge. We got everyone up the hill in the Defender UTV and Steve got his first high flights, with a total of 5 flights off the Dump Ridge before the wind switched to SW. The Tandem Candidates took turns being pilots and passengers and got as many flights here too. When the wind dropped off we moved to the 4K mid launch and Steve got 3 more flights down to the Crash Pad, and then relaunched into the Toilet Bowl. Tandem pilots did the same rotation and we flew til 6 pm.
09-12-2020	FlyBC is open Tuesday but the winds seem to be blowing the wrong direction?	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Local smoke. High 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started our annual Instructor/Tandem Course today at 8 am. Six new Instructors here to learn how to train new pilots. We spent the morning doing Ground School Preparations and delivered it to a group of new students. It was far too smoky to even think about flying the students once they had completed their Ground School and Ground Handling sessions at 3 pm. Some experienced pilots flew in the smoke but just got sleddies. After the students went home we did some maintenance in the Barn, changing out a simulator rope thanks to Dave S. The Instructor Candidates left for a Bridal Speed-Flying session before sunset.
09-10-2020	FlyBC is open Tuesday but the winds seem to be blowing the wrong direction?	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Local smoke. High 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we are busy these days but trying to keep everyone safe with social distancing in the classroom and in the shuttle UTV. Tony & Dennie were busy with four students today and everyone did really well. Five rounds as the winds finally blew inflow all day. The last round had students getting high and enjoying their first real turbulence caused by the inversion layer. I love how the new Nova EN-A wings just "boat through" the rough stuff with barely a tip tuck. It started getting smoky around 3 pm, but by 6 pm we could not see Woodside from the Sasquatch Inn patio. Dense smoke. We are starting our Instructor/Tandem Course September 12-19 so students will have lots of different options for support this week.
09-10-2020	FlyBC is open Tuesday but the winds seem to be blowing the wrong direction?	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Local smoke. High 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open today and despite the NE winds in Agassiz we flew five rounds for the students. Woodside is a very special mountain. The very shape of the NE part of Agassiz Mountain that connects to Woodside Mountain create a wedge that divides the NE wind much like the bow of a ship, and the resultant air on the lee side where launch and Eagle Ranch are located is calm and bouyant (until you get to around 1000 metres where you hit the NE flow aloft). We saw this effect happen today. Agassiz was reporting +20 kph of NE winds all day, yet by noon we had beautiful launch conditions and nice long bouyant flights for the students. We had Lorne, Aidan, Mike and a few visiting P-2's flying today and Tony managed the launch duties while I critiqued a few landings. Later flights had the students landing at the HG field and Riverside. Sometimes the Riverside field can surprise a pilot!
09-09-2020	FlyBC is open Tuesday but the winds seem to be blowing the wrong direction?	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open today at 10 am. The outflow winds in Agassiz were blowing at up to 30 kph from the NE. But at the Ranch it was normal SE winds in the LZ so the students spent the morning kiting. Then as the winds dropped off Dennie and Tony took the students to Agassiz for some high wind kiting til 4 pm. As forecasted the NE winds dropped at 4 pm and they instructors took a load of pilots up to Woodside Launch. All flew including Derek & Martin N who got 25 minutes of light soaring . Only new student Jason didn't fly as he was beat from the days kiting.
09-08-2020	FlyBC is open Tuesday but the wids seem to be blowing the wrong direction?	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 28. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Dewdney/Woodside Report - FlyBC was open today at 10 am but the winds did not look so good for Woodside so we road tripped to Dewdney today. I had Lorne and Mattias along as Shaun slept in and mssed the bus. We arrived at the LZ to find east wind but light. We drove up the logging road to launch to find inflow cycles and birds soaring! The water on Hatzic Lake was also calm. Lets setup! After rearranging the carpets that had blown down last night, we setup the two gliders and Lorne was off first with a solid forward launch. Next off was Mattias on our new demo SupAir Leaf 2 with a solid reverse launch. Both pilots were able to soar and gain altitude before heading out to the LZ where they landed in no wind. I drove down and collected them and we headed back to Woodside to find Shaun and head up Woodside as the RASP said calm winds by 2 pm. Sure enough we found the webcam to show up-slpoe winds so we drove up. We had to wait sometimes for a cycle but everyone got away cleanly on round #1. Note the clear skies on our first trip up. No lift but we elected for an Eagle Ranch landing this time. We went back up with Derek in tow and everyone had great cycles to launch into this time. Derek of course stayed up while the students flew out to the HG LZ for a change in venue. We raced back up for flight #4 for some and cycles were even stronger as the inflow winds really kicked in bringing smoke for the WA State wildfires into the Valley. We were done by 6 pm and we had great, safe flights adding more flights to the student's log books. Kevin and Dennie did a bunch of tandems for us this weekend and they had great and excited passengers on all rounds!
09-05-2020 to 09-07-2020	FlyBC is closed this weekend for some rest and relaxation	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 29. Humidex 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 040° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Weekend Report - FlyBC was closed for the Labour Day Long Weekend as we went to Sun Peaks for biking, lakeside tours and dining. The winds were not favourable for flying at Sun Peaks but a group was flying in Savona and had some fun.
09-04-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am, but closed this weekend for some rest and relaxation	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 29. Humidex 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. We spent the morning kiting waiting for inflow winds to kick in. Then Tony took five stuents up to launch after briefing them on Riverside LZ. Three flights into Riverside by 5 pm with only one bush landing by the most experienced student who know says he will take more training as he is not ready to be signed off at 25 flights. I left to work on a leaky fuel strainer on the Cessna T337B and replaced it by 4 pm and I did a fly-by at 5 pm over Woodside (no lift and light winds) before strafing the Ranch from the north at 200 feet! After a student debriefing we sent everyone home for the weekend so we can take some time off from training til September 8th. We woke up on Saturday morning to low clouds and east winds.
09-03-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 27. Humidex 31. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC had a busy day with seven students and many shuttle guests. I dropped Tony off at Launch at noon with a batch of students after a great kiting session at Eagle Ranch waiting for the wind on launch to build. I kept the shuttle going with the Can Am Defender taking 5 pilots up at a time while Tony kept "hucking" students. I did 8 runs today and was getting dizzy by 6 pm from all the bumps and turns. Dave W completed his P-2 in time to head to Salt Spring for the long weekend to fly with friends. Congrats! Most of the students got four flights today in much milder conditions. Finished by 6 pm but it was flyable til dark as Colleen and I enjoyed the Bat Airshow over our swimming pool as they swooped in for insects and drinks of water. I captured them on video to be reviewed later.
09-02-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers this morning. Clearing this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 24. Humidex 29. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. But the low cloud kept persisting until 2 pm. We had seven students so we kept them busy kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ in perfect easterly winds perfecting those reverse launch techniques. Tony was wrangling the students today. At 2 pm everyone headed up in the big white truck as we had too many bodies for the Can Am Defender. One by one Tony launched the students and the first three had sled rides into bumpy landings at the Ranch. Some thermic conditions set up close to the ground so pitch control was necessary and they all did great! First three in were Lorne, Shirley and finally June. Then the last four students were all in the air at the same time. A convergence line setup from Launch to the Fraser River over the Harrison Highlands Construction site and they just kept climbing. Mattias got 45 minutes flying the new SupAir Leaf 2 Medium, Dave got over 60 minutes on his AirDesign Eazy SL, Mike was flying the Gradient Golden 4 and got 40 minutes and Sonny was thermalling around for an hour on the Ozone Mojo 6. The last four pilots coming in had their hands full in the thermic LZ but no one lost a wingtip except Priscielle who is already signed off. Derek and Martin flew for about 90 minutes and flew out over the Harrison Mills peninusla and Martin reported 800 metres over the bridg before coming back in to Eagle Ranch to land by his car. By the time Martin and Derek landed the air in the LZ was silky smooth. Jonathon launched last and went to 1200 metres for over an hour before finally landing at sunset. Only one flight but the students learned a lot!
09-01-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Clearing this afternoon. High 22. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Wooddside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. We had 5 students; Sonny 17 flights, Dave 18 flights, Mattias - 0 flights, Lorne - 6 flights, Mike - 0 flights. Tony kept the newbies busy on the ground doing exercices while I took Sonny & Dave for four rounds. CanadaRASP and SpotWX both predicted strong inflow winds by 3 pm but it never happened so we flew til 6 pm, and everyone got at least one flight while others got four flights. Both RASP and SpotWX use the same models so expect similar errors in forecasting. Highlight of the Day: Dave flew to the new Harvest LZ at 5 pm. Bad news was he missed Game 5 as he retrieve took too long. Sonny got to test fly the new SupAir Leaf 2 which he loved until we weighed him and he was 1 kg under the weight range so we switched him onto the Gin Sprint XS for a few flights. Despite the gloomy skies the more experienced students got to thermal on all flights. Colleen managed to break away from her academic chores to get an evening flight and there was an impromptu party in the LZ after 6 pm.
08-31-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Clearing this afternoon. High 22. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. Tony is back training newbies and Dennie flew one more day with us before going back to work. We had a full house with Sonny, Shirley, Dave & Shaun all flying well. Tony was managing launch chores while I landed the students between mowing and gardening chores. At 4 pm we went up to launch in Deek's truck as the Can Am was full of students and gear. Derek, Norm, Bev, Dennie and I flew and Thomm offered to drive for us (Thanks Thomm!) I launched after Sonny and got "hoovered" right off launch to 900 metres. Kinda strong for students but their EN-A wings are bulletproof and they flew well all landing nicely at the Ranch. I soared around trying various locations and the best climb was in the North Bowl. Dennie and I were on the North Cliffs for sometime before I bailed . . . hating the rough edges of the lift. None of the climbs were particularly nice even though we could get up to 950 metres at most times. I suggested flying over to Sandpiper Golf course for a beer after 30 minutes of getting beat up. Dennie followed me out and I hit the bridge at 450 metres before crossing Harrison River where we got climbs back up to 550 metres. Even though Harrison Bay was frothy, the wind on the golf course was calm and smooth. Very bouyant all over the golf course. Nice landing by the swimming pool off the runway by all and a nice packup area too.
08-30-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. We had five new P-1 candidates, and three P-2 students and it was super busy. Colleen managed the kids on the ground and training hill while I shuttled the P-2s up the mountain. We only got two runs in before it got too strong for students around 1:30 pm. We continued with ground handling til 5 pm on the Eagle Ranch Training Hill with erfect 15-20 kph east winds and many good flights for the newbies.
08-29-2020	FlyBC is closed due to high winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Windy this afternoon 30-40 kph. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 30 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Chilliwack Report - I took the day off to do errands, picking up Can Am parts to customize the rig for students. It blew hard all day and even at 6 pm we looked at the web cam hoping but the sock was still dancing. Appently HGer John B flew sometime in the afternoon and had a strong lift flight, with a "rock & roll" landing.
08-28-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. Dennie managed the students while we were still at Sun Peaks til noon. Another three flights before it got too windy for the gang, who are all progressing through the P-2 Course with good speed.
08-27-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. Dennie was taking care of everything so I could go to Sun Peaks for my Birthday today. I went up the Sunburst Chair around 11 am and headed to a ski run that faced SW as I knew the forecst was SW. I had one inflation with a cravatte on my Ozone Alpina 3 L that I decided to fix on the ground rather than in the air on a narrow ski run. I laid the wing back out on the wild flowers and then it started to blow down hard. I waited for 15 minutes and then packed up and headed to a different run arriving at the top of the chairlift to find NE winds. I walked just a short distance to the "OSV" run to find light up-cycles. I laid out on some shale and waited for enough to reverse the Alpina 3, which came up easily in the light stuff. I flew down OSV quite low until I hit "5 Mile" and took that down to the Village. No lift as the CU had shaded everything out until I got over the Village where it was pumping good lift where the sun was hitting. I thermalled out over the Village and it took me east to Parking Lot 5 where I had planned to land but I could see "dust devils" popping off all the dusty parking lots. Yikes! I continued flying trying the Morrissey Mountain to the south. No lift over there as it is too green. The wind on the ground had picked up to 25 kph from the SW. This mixed in with the dusties made me change my landing plans to sind a nice golf course fairway with no golfers. I could fly anywhere I wanted over town but the upwind beat was a bit slow. I picked a nice straight into wind part of the course where we had landed our little wings in the winter, and I found big sink on final where I landed nicely in the rough off the fairway and bunched up to get out of the way of errant golfballs. Nice to be able to take a chairlift up and fly and not have to worry about the retrieve as you can walk back to the truck or condo in 10 minutes.
08-26-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was busy with four students flying hard today. Dennie was managing the launch and driving chores while I managed some landings and errands. Only two flights before it got too windy.
08-25-2020	FlyBC is open again today at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 7 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was busy with many students today. Looking for perfection in launches we spent the morning on the training hill here at Eagle Ranch. Then Dennie took them all up and they had a great thermal flight and I guided them into the LZ. It was already getting strong but they handled it well! We decided it was too windy for safe flights even though it was calm on launch, too much thermal wind. Many hours of kiting practice in the LZ in strong gusty winds made for some fun! Even at 6 pm it was too windy so it was beer time.
08-24-2020	FlyBC is open again today despite the morning rain	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. A few showers this morning. Clearing near noon. High 24. Humidex 26. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am Monday. Dennie had four new P-1 candidates in the Barn doing ground school while I took Steven up for the first of four flights today (he is now at 20 flights). Steven is working on prefecting his thermalling technique, and today was a challenge as the lift was small and punchy. But he did double his flight times on all four flights. Martin N joined us mid-day after looking at the low cloud at Bridal and while he got pretty high at Woodside, he did not like the air and flew out after 30 minutes. Dennie deemed the newbies "ready to fly" and we took them up at 4 pm to nice cycles and now smooth conditions and they all flew their first solo. We regrouped and took everyone including Colleen, Linda, Dennie and the four new pilots back up to launch around 6:00 PM. The plan was for everyone to fly including driver Jim but the only one getting very high was new student Sonny flying straight out. Oh and of course Colleen who always gets high during the evening flights on her SupAir Taska! Since everyone else sunk out except Colleen I decided to drive down rather than spend an hour retrieving the truck.
08-23-2020	FlyBC is open again today despite the outflow	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Clearing this morning. High 24. Humidex 27. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am Sunday. We had two eager students today as the others got lost in Savona and forgot to come home to Mother Woodside. Dennie had it pretty easy with Ken & Matt (both at around 15 flights). I was busy in the shop shipping and getting new gear ready for customers. At 4 pm we had a tandem to do, so I had Dennie do it as the students headed home. Colleen came up for a flight too. Dennie got a few passes and then lost the lift and headed out but Colleen and Jacek were "dukin' it out" at 750 metres for some time. Jacek finally got in for a top landing after students were cleared off launch. Tip of the Day: A pilot in the air on approach to top-land has priority over a launching student/pilot. Read up on your air law. Colleen landed after 1:30 and we headed to the golf course to eat. Life is good!
08-22-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Clearing this morning. High 24. Humidex 27. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students today and Dennie was managing the launch duties while I manned the shop. Priscelle and Ken were the only students so they got great treatment by Dennie, who thermalled them on all three flights. Priscelle logged her 25th and 26th graduation flights today! P-2 exam next weekend will finish her training. Other pilots were reporting +6 m/s thermals around Woodside but it was still calm enough for Ken & Priscelle to practice thermalling on their respective wings. I got this shot of one nice CU north of launch while going to Kilby for a sandwich. Jacek had a great first flight on his Ozone Delta 4, which arrived this week. Jacek flew all over Woodside and Harrison Mills before crossing to Bridal Falls. There was another wedding on Launch today at 5 pm. The preacher/official has figured out how to get around CV-19 rules by doing outdoor weddings. I recognized her from last weekends two other weddings. Note Jonathon hovering in the left background as the ceremony went on. As I went out to the LZ to collect students, I bumped into Kim & Mike M who flew from Benny to Woodside today. I noted the nice cloudstreets from Deroche earlier today but cloudbase looked low then. They made it to Woodside and were going to go further east but the retrieve was going to be epic as it was.
08-21-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers at times heavy. Risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. Local amount 10 to 15 mm. Becoming windy near noon. Temperature steady near 19. UV index 3 or moderate.	Woodside: 200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Monsoon Report - FlyBC got rained out pretty good today, but lots of chores completed.
08-20-2020	FlyBC is open again in Savona today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC escaped the rains and headed to Savona today. It was quite strong at the Dump Ridge but Caleb put on a good show on his Ozone Geo 4! We then did a recoon trip to all the launch spots in Savona. Still too strong. We contacted local Simon H to see what was happening around Kamloops where the winds were light, and he was headed to the "Pimple" We hiked to the top and Simon took his dog for a flight. Caleb launched next but we decided this launch spot was too advanced for the chimps! We collected everybody and headed back to Savona and behold . . . the winds switched to SW and we got 2 flights off mid-launch and the Toilet Bowl!
08-19-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am again and we had a marvellous day. Dennie again managed four students and I took off to test fly a Merlin EZ Ultralight for a client. This Merlin EZ had been in the hangar or a year getting many upgrades and it was ready to fly. We taxied it out onto the active runway 19 at Abbotsford Airport and it hopped into the air in less than 200 feet. It is a turbo-charged Rotax 912 with about 115 HP. The prop was pitched too fine so I had to back off the throttle to keep it under 5800 rpm but we still climbed fast. We flew to Chilliwack to do circuits and s I was taught many years ago: treat every circuit like to engine is going to die. I did a curving base to final approach and as I gave it a last burst of throttle to get us to the threshold the engine gave up! We landed on the grass and bounced onto the runway left of centre line and now I had to miss a few landing lights, but we stopped with 100 feet in one piece. Needless to say it was not a successful test flight and the mechanic is looking into the fuel injection issue. I was now stuck at Chilliwack Airport but Kevin A was headed to Brial and picked me up. I was going to take Derek's truck home and unload his mowing gear as they just mowed Bridal Launch and then come back to get him. I arrived just in time to see a tree rescue from an un-named student pilot (not one of ours) who had flown into the trees near the LZ. Tip of the Day: At Bridal Falls do all your "figure-8's" inside the tree line, not on top of it. This is the fourth tree landing at Bridal LZ this year, normally we never have this happen.
08-18-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am. Dennie was managing the launch chores and I was in the LZ guiding. Four students with 0 - 15 flights experience so not too busy. Few pictures lately as I have been too busy shipping gear and landing students, got to get the GoPro working again.
08-17-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is running 7 days a week and today we had a new student start with some 4000 skydiving jumps, so landings won't be an issue for Ken. Winds however did not cooperate beyond 2 flights. Bridal was better for Derek and Martin later but still windy in the LZ.
08-16-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Mission/Woodside Report - FlyBC had a record 9 students today due to some scheduling issues, but we managed to get everyone geared up and training. First flights for Bala and gang, with 2 rounds into Eagle Ranch.
08-15-2020	FlyBC is open again	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 31. Humidex 34. UV index 8 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was open for students at 10 am and we had 5 newbies for a P-1 Course. Thanks to Bev & Dennie for working hard in the hot sun with the students all day and it paid off.
08-14-2020	FlyBC has one last holiday day	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Derek convinced us that it would be good again despite the gusty day. We met up at the Ranch at 5 pm and this time we had Norm, Bev, Derek, Colleen and Andrei along. We got to launch and it was still gusty but doable. Derek launched first. I clipped in and had the wing in a big ball at the back of launch and I inflated it to build a wall. It came up straight with no tangles so I launched. My Delight 3 L is a bit too big so I fell back into the harness as I launched despite many adjustments (if anyone wants a nice pod harness this one is for sale for $1300 inc taxes). Climbs were slower than yesterday but we still got to 1000 metres. Andrei and Colleen launched next and of course Colleen was "top of the stack" at 1050 metres! After an hour I made a run to the Harrison Bridge arriving there at 900 metres and getting 20 kph ground speeds. But it was bumpy there and the bay was quite frothy so I flew back to the mountain. I suggested heading east towards Hopyard Hill. I got to Hopyard Hill at 700 metres and flew the length of it getting a few beeps on the north face before heading to Agassiz High School. I landed in a light west breeze on the nice grass. Andrei had followed me but his wing did not have the same glide as my Ozone Geo 6 so he landed at the Rec Centre. Derek and Colleen came in at the same moment into the High School. I was flying with a t-shirt and bare arms and it was quite nice in the air despite being up for 1:20 (inversion).
08-13-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Derek suggested an evening flight as it had been very windy all day but it was forecast to calm down after 6 pm. Alan & Martin N had flown Bridal earlier but landed when it got too wild with wind-blown thermals. Martin did stay in the air about 2 hours before bailing. Colleen, Derek and I drove up in the Defender at 6 pm and while it was quite windy, there were lulls. I laid out first and had a nice "zen" launch and was soon climbing fast. Derek was off next and catching up to me quite quickly. We broke thru 1000 metres and still had +20 kph of ground speed. Colleen offered to drive down to save the retrieve, so after an hour of soaring I suggested landing at Sandpiper Golf Course. We headed west and tagged the bridge at 500 metres before crossing the river. I noticed a Cessna parked by the runway and because it was getting near sunset, I knew it was going to takeoff soon. Sure enough as I crossed over the runway I saw the red beacon come alive. They taxied to the west end of the strip and I was now on the east end of the same strip at 100 metres. I stayed closer to the swimming pool area, north of the runway and the Cessna took off straight east as I stayed out of their way. No conflict as they climbed out near Woodside before heading west. I landed in no wind at the edge of a practice green. Derek came in a few minutes later right next to me. When we got to the restaurant, Colleen was already here with a beer getting ready to order dinner. It was now getting dark.
08-12-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is closed and it was too windy at Woodside to fly as the front rolled through, even Martin N stayed home.
08-11-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Mountain Bike Report - Colleen and I headed off to McGillivary Lake via mountain bikes today. Colleen bought me a slick new full suspension bike in Kamloops and it is so smooth I barely complained the entire 11 km ride to the lake today!! Then a long nap before dinner. Again too windy to fly at Sun Peaks today with lots of NW wind.
08-10-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Back Country Road Report - Colleen and I packed up a picnic lunch into the Can Am Defender and headed towards Niskonlith Lake near Chase BC. The Sun Peaks Road joins onto McGillivary Lake Road which is 34 kms to Chase. The road is in great shape except for some potholes near McGillivary Lake and we could maintain 60 kms on the road on the straight stretches. This is the view of Niskonlith Lake from above. You can stay on Forest Service Roads all the way to the Provincial Park to stay legal with Off Road Plates. We found a nice picnic spot between some campers.
08-09-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Revy Report - FlyBC headed to Revelstoke to deliver some gear to Revy PG and watch the SIV mayhem. I found the back road from Sun Peaks to Chase and it shaved 45 minutes off the trip today. The SIVers were doing manuevers over the slough, landing at the RC Field. We watched Chris D and gang landing tandems at Catherwood LZ. Nice conditions but the lift lines looked too long and the shuttles were likely busy to get to the top, so we headed back to Salmon Arm.
08-08-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Mara Report - Derek organized a Mara Trip so we met Bev, Norm and Derek there at 11 am. Big skies as the evening rains dried up and big CUs formed. Norm launched first and got high for a bit before sinking into the Green Farm LZ. Derek launched next and skied out and we lost sight of him as I got ready. I launched and started climbing easily to the south and I had a 20 km tailwind from the north so as soon as I got to 1700 metres I headed south towards Enderby. As I headed south I called Derek and he said he was in the Green Farm LZ, as he had decided the sky looked too wild so he found sink over Mara Lake to get down. As I approached the Enderby Cliffs everything was going well, I had +52 kms on the GPS. Vario was beeping steadily too. But off to the west towards Salmon Arm, it was starting to rain. Not heavy but it was definitely raining. I continued south and when I hit the north end of the cliffs, it was all down air! WTF! It was the sinky air caused by the rain closing in, so I headed towards Grindrod . . . and beer! I was trying to make it to the ball fields across from the Pub but the sink made me chose a hay field just east of the bridge. This is what I flew through, and everything got wet. But the beer was cold at the Pub.
08-07-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 6 or high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC headed to Sun Peaks for the week and it was too windy to fly today.
08-06-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 20.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - no flying today as a rain storm drenched the Lower Mainand.
08-05-2020	FlyBC is closed until August 16	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating early this morning. High 28. Humidex 31. UV index 9 or very high.	Woodside: 200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was closed for vacation until August 16, but Randy, David & Dave flew one short sleddie today.
08-04-2020	Woodside/Bridal looks good today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 29. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - we went up to Woodside around 3 pm for a flight with Derek, Martin N, Bev, Norm, Jay & Ryan M. We were not expecting much as the inversion lingers in the valley and it was not that windy, but as Martin launched he got hoovered just to the right of launch. Derek was off next and they were both above launch. I launched third and was soaring nicely too. We got to 1000 metres tops and everyone stayed up as long as they wanted. After 45 minutes I noticed Norm heading east and Derek was close behind him when I mentioned going to the golf course instead. Martin, Ryan and Jay followed me that way and I was getting 22 kph into wind and maintaining nicely as I got near the bridge. Martin took a wider line to allow him to go to the Ranch if he sunk out. Jay was quite higher and behind us all, not sure where we were headed. I crossed over the water downwind of the bridge and hit nice +1.0 m/s up lift everywhere. Martin joined me and we thermalled up to 500 metres on the north side of the river with ease. Jay joined us and we were doing upwind laps still climbing. Martin's tracklog does not show how far upwind we went as he has only 10 minute tracking. Meanwhile over on Vancouver Island an un-named pilot got into some trouble sinking out into a forested area and declaring an emergency as they were hung up in a tree but safe. Folks got prepared and pilot was soon on the ground and safe, with help from many in the valley!
08-03-2020	Woodside/Bridal looks okay	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 22. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Bridal Report - Martin N was flying Bridal under cloudy skies and was 30 minutes into a nice flight and he flew out to some sunny patches near launch and suddenly had -2.5 m/s down all the way to the LZ. Not one bit of lift al the way in and then he got dumped on final too. Weird day. We did not fly Woodside as it looked too stable.
08-02-2020	Clearwater	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 22. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Clearwater Report - another stable day of flying reported so we stayed at Sun Peaks to hang out. Peter flew his new Ozone Delta 4 a few flights and reported that he gets +18 kph on speedbar, can't wait for some long triangles from him soon.
08-01-2020	Clearwater Fly-In Weekend	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 22. UV index 4 or moderate.	Woodside: 200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Clearwater Fly-In Weekend - we headed to the Clearwater Fly-In Weekend event as this is our first days of vacation. Big turnout with 45 pilots flying. Conditions were somewhat stable on the first day, but everone got at least 30 minutes of light soaring. The LZ is 75 acres of hay field and right next to the local store, complete with beer and other cold drinks. Camping was a bit primitive so we opted to stay at Sun Peaks, 90 minutes away. Less bugs and a warm bed and hot-tub. Thanks to Willy and Sigi for the great briefings and organization.

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FlyBC Airsports   1253 Kilby Road,   Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0 Cell: 604-618-5467 E-Mail: FlyBC E-Mail

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