FlyBC's Paragliding Site of the Day Page - from the Universe's Largest Paragliding Centre :-)

Date	Site	Forecast	Winds @ 3000' in kilometers	Lapse Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters	Comments
6-9-2021	Woodside is looking windy this afternoon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. 40 percent chance of showers early this morning. High 20. UV index 9 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (unstable) 1400 metres	Coaches Corner - FlyBC is back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am. FlyBC is open and offering training and shuttles with COVID-19 social distancing/separation practices in place. Recommended options for "hike & fly paragliding 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. Used Gear List: Updated June 9, 2021 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 Gin Gingo Airlite 4 Medium - Gin Gingo Airlite 4 new 2021 model - $1100 CDN Supair Access Airbag harnesses (new) - $750 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 Pod Harness (new demo) - $1100 CDN without reserve SupAir Delight 3 Medium or Large harnesses - $1700 without reserve Independence Tanga Hike & Fly Harnesses - new for 2021 with detachable airbags - $700 CDN. 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: Used HA Beamer 2 Reserve - 100/130 kgs model - $600 CDN 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 Independence Reserves - starting at $750 CDN Paragliders for Sale: All our used paragliders come with a porosity report and valid Inspection Certificate. 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. Independence Cruiser 4 - 95-115 kgs - 2021 EN-A Model - $3500 - excellent shape with 0 hours and no damage. Custom colours. Brand new wing for students and beginner P-2 pilots. Independence Cruiser 4 - 55-80 kgs - 2021 EN-A Model - $3500 - excellent shape with 0 hours and no damage. Custom colours. Brand new wing for students and beginner P-2 pilots. Ozone Swift 5 MS - 75-95 kgs - 2020 Model - $3200 - perfect shape with less than a year of use and includes a sauccisse bag and backpack. Just completed an Inspection and porosity test and it is ready to fly amny more seasons. Hi-Viz colour scheme (more are coming in in 2 months as trade-ins) BGD Lynx S - $2019 model with 10 flights - $3000 CDN - 65-85 kg model Ozone Alpina 3 ML - 85-105 kgs - 20198 EN-D Model - $2000 - excellent shape with 100 hours and no damage. Custom red/black colours. No taxes to be paid. I flew this glider on June 7th and it was very well behaved and top-lands with ease with a very controllable stall point. Ozone Mantra M7 SM - 75-95 kgs - 2019 EN-D Model - $3000 - excellent shape with 40 hours and no damage. Custom green colours. No taxes to be paid. APCO Karisma M - 80-100 kgs -$1500 CDN. One small patch. Perfect beginner wing! Winter wings: We have several Ozone Delta 2 MS and ML sizes and SupAir Taska XS and M for sale for winter flying. $1200 and up depending on year and shape. All tested and trimmed ready for winter expeditions. Miscellaneous Gear: - DJI Inspire 1 RAW Quadcopter with Zenmuse X5R 4K Camera & 2 Remotes - $2500 Five short reconn flights with 4 extra batteries 1967 CESSNA T337B SKYMASTER - $77,000 USD - AVAILABLE FOR SALE - 1967 Cessna T337B Turbo Skymaster 6 place and the safest twin engine aircraft available today 130 US gallons fuel Interior is good shape Robertson STOL equipped TTAF 3390 SMOH Front and Rear 1150 Props replaced 6/2016 good til 2026 Annual completed Jan 4 2021 Avionics: PMA6000S audio panel NARCO Mark 12D Nav/Comm Apollo SL60 Comm/GPS Narco ADF Stratus ADSB Out transponder 2018 Autopilot 300 everything works De-iced Prop two new cylinders replaced Jan 2021 on front engine based in western Canada but can deliver for expenses in continental North America.
6-8-2021	Woodside is looking windy this afternoon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: MA mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 18. UV index 9 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (unstable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - we were back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am. Amir was here to complete his final 2 flights towards earning his P-2 Licence. He was thermalling like mad on his second flight showing the experienced pilots where to find lift! If you are flying Grouse say hi to Amir, he is the Guest Services Manager. New PPG student Ryan also got 2 flights off Woodside oday and did really well. We are flying him on one of our Independence Cruisers as his used PPG wing has some skinned lines and we need to replace them. We have been impressed with Independence as a supplier during COVID as they have most gear in stock and get it here in 3-4 days after ordering it. It rained later in the day as it overdeveloped but we had a successful day despite the forecasts. Derek, Martin N, Norm all flew Bridal around 1 pm and it was going up everywhere and uncomfortably so! Derek mentioned spending 25 minutes escaping cloud suck. Not student friendly.
6-7-2021	Woodside is looking great all week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 26. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - busy day with 2 new PPG students and 1 PG student and Tayt was working with them in the LZ. I took John up for a high flight around 1130 and it was already thermalling well! A bunch of pro pilots were out today and they went to Sasquatch, Green Hill, and different places and top of lift was about 1400 metres. Alex said the air was ratty down low and better up high. He ventured to Sasquatch Mtn. and got to around 1200 metres there. We went up later to Woodside at 6 pm and the lift was still pretty strong. I launched after Alex flying one of our used Ozone Alpina 3 ML gliders (available for sale) and for a rare moment I was above Alex. Derek, Tayt and then Colleen launched too. We all got up to around 1100 metres swapping top of the stack honours. I flew around for 45 minutes and then started focussing on top landing to drive the Can Am down to save the retrieve. As usual . . . after 5-6 passes where I got popped up on final I made one last attempt and I was soon sinking to 400 metres. I was not sure I could even make Riverside at one point and I was eyeing up road landings. Then a magic bubble appeared from the dead snag and I was slowly climbing above launch and I came in lower and got the usual pop but it got me about 10 feet over the carpet and I just slowed the A3 down and hovered straight down on the middle of the carpet (no flapping just slow flight). Tayt tried a few times too and soon found out Woodside is an easy top landing! Derek and Alex headed to the Golf Course, with Colleen just behind them. Tayt left at 400 metres towards the Golf Course but had to land on the south side of the bridge.
6-6-2021	Woodside is looking damp today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: 30% Chance of showers. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - we had no students as the conditions looked too weird. We did have 5 tandmes booked for a stag party and it looked possible so I told them to be here at 1130 am. Of course best laid plans fell apart and some of the passengers were late as were some of the tandem pilots but we got Derek & Tayt and 3 passengers up to launch by 1230. I raced up with the rest of the group and Derek & Tayt had already launched and had a sled ride. I launched first with Ben and we caught some nice ridge/thermal lift and were soon at 1000 metres. I of course dressed for a sleddie and had just a hoody and light gloves on. At about 30 minutes Ben was shaking despite having a down coat on cause it was damn cold at altitude. We flew out to the Highlands area and were still at 800 metres when Dennie said he thought a rain squall was heading to Woodside and suggested bailing to Irwin's airstrip. Brad was low as we crossed back over the South Knoll following Dennie to the east. I was sure Brad was going to be in Riverside. We came over the Cameron Road area and the wind was a good 30kph in the trees! We setup into a nice hayfield south of Limbert Road and hovered in fo a soft landing. I looked west and here comes Brad on his tandem, as he managed to climb out and make it over here too! Job done! Five tandems completed and five happy but cold clients! And then it started to rain as we waited under a tree waiting for Norm the Shuttle Bunny to arrive (Thanks Norm!)
6-5-2021	Woodside is looking wet all weekend (of course)	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain at times heavy. High 15. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - rained out so we go a day off.
6-4-2021	Woodside is looking great all week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 31. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - it was too windy for safe flights today after 10 am, so lots of ground handling for everyone.
6-3-2021	Woodside is looking great all week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 31. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - busy day with many PG students and Tayt was managing them well with Gord's help. Again today it got strong mid-day so Gord and Tayt went for a solo flight. I stayed in the LZ with Peter and Bert and we did some more towing preparing them for the PPG solos.
6-2-2021	Woodside is looking great all week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 31. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - busy day with many PG students and Tayt was busy. PPG Students had more tows and Peter got a high flight! We got blown out by 2 pm after 3 student rounds.
6-1-2021	Woodside is looking great all week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 31. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - busy day with many PG students and Tayt was managing them well. I was doing PPG Training with Peter and Bert and we had some good tows today getting them high enough to do a circuit and land into the wind! The tow rig is working better than ever and the Ozone Roadster3s are towing straight and not falling back even with heavy pressure!
5-31-2021	Woodside is looking good again today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly Sunny. High 30. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we were busy with students again this sunny Monday but it got windy by 1 pm. We did some tows for the PPG Guys. Tayt started instructing with us today and he was thrown into the dep end with 3 students of varying skills! He even fit in a tandem today with two young ladies and Derek's help. We got three flights in by starting early but had to stop flying later. We did go up at 6 pm and Linda got a flight despite a crowded launch area as a group was filming a DJ Video and had tons of equipment setup on launch. An un-named HG pilot would have had a helmet fire trying to setup his ATOS and trying to launch around this crowd, but Linda pulled it off on her GEO 4.
5-30-2021	Woodside is looking great again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. High 26. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we had a busy day with 7 students of varying levels and they all got 3-4 flights today. We had one tandem booked but they cancelled at the last minute freeing me up to help with students.
5-29-2021	Woodside is looking good	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A Mix of sun and cloud. High 30. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started towing Bert and Peter today and it went really well. Our Phoenix Winch System started right up and after putting some carb cleaner in the gas I could tow efficiently to 400 feet and allow the guys to do some circuits. We did about 7 tows each and they system worked well getting them ready for paramotoring. The Ozone Roadster3 tows very well and does not hang back under tow pressure. Also the Roadster 3 does not surge much after releasing.
5-28-2021	Woodside is looking good today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. High 28. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Peter and Bert are here for paramotor lessons and we started with a hang check for the weight and balance of the Kangook Paramotors. Both units are broken in and their new Ozone Roadster 3s are ready to fly! But ground handling and towing comes first.
5-24-2021 to 05-27-2021	Woodside is looking wet til Thursday afternoon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers early this morning. 60 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of thunderstorms late this afternoon. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Rain Report - FlyBC was closed for a few days for rain, but we got lots of gliders shipped out.
5-23-2021	Woodside is looking good today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 22. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started flying at 10 am and it got windy again mid-afternoon so everyone was out kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ. Do not ever stop kiting!
5-22-2021	Woodside is looking good today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 19. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started flying at 10 am and it got windy mid-afternoon so everyone was out kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ.
5-21-2021	Woodside is looking good today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 19. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started flying at 10 am and it got windy mid-afternoon so everyone was out kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ. One of our new Independence Cruiser gliders in the LZ. Very impressed with the fit and finish and they have decent performance for an EN-A wing.
5-20-2021	Woodside is looking good today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Day One of Brian's P-2 Course and he did well kiting and was in the air by late afternoon. We had him flying one of our Nova Prion4 demos and he had his first solo flight on it.
5-19-2021	Woodside is looking wet til Thursday afternoon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers early this morning. 60 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of thunderstorms late this afternoon. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - no flying today as it rained most of the day.
5-18-2021	Woodside is looking windy today and rain is coming	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain likely. High 19. UV index 7 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 30 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - no flying today but lots of landscaping and weed whacking in the hail and rain and it was very windyS.
5-17-2021	Woodside is looking windy today and rain is coming	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain likely. High 19. UV index 7 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 30 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - no flying today but a good errand day and some truck upgrades were completed.
5-16-2021	Woodside is looking good today and we are training students.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 24. UV index 7 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we started flying before 9 am and only managed to get 3 flights in for Brandon before it blew out. We noticed some smoke over behind Sasquatch Mtn. early on but thought it was a normal slash burn but then I remembered that the fire ban starts May 15 (yesterday). Then I noticed emergency crews stopped on the highway trying to locate where to go. No choppers or water-bombers so we kept flying as it was far enough away from us. Normal procedure is to stay 5 miles away from Forest Fire Activities but there were no NOTAMs posted by 12:30 pm when we quit flying due to the winds. BC Forest Fire Department posted this picture on Facebook saying that the firee was "of human origin". Campfire left unattended probably after some partying likely? Bridal Report - Martin N got away early and had a great flight and it got strong and windy there and pilots had to fight there way into the LZ later as it got very thermic. Reports of an un-named pilot tying up launch after multiple aborts prompted me to post this reminder . . . if you blow more than three launches in a row or if your equipment is not properly set-up please move to the back of launch and let others have a turn. Also, resetting a wing over and over for someone without reminding them of the launch protocol at WCSC sites is not helping the situation, tell them to move out of the launch queue.
5-15-2021	Woodside is looking good today and we are training students.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 24. UV index 7 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch Saturday at 10 am. Brandon was flying well until we had to stop as the winds picked up to over 30 kph around 2 pm. We got in 4 flights before that time. Some folks were flying Bridal and reported it to be quite strong!
5-14-2021	Woodside is looking good for students	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am. Cody got his first solo flight in this morning and Colleen guided him in for his landing but he opted for a 360 into the LZ and pooched his landing and hurt his ankle. He was out for the day. No turns other than 90 degrees close to the ground folks! Brandon followed Cody out and had a brilliant thermalling flight!
5-13-2021	Woodside is looking windy this afternoon.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - we had our normal mix of students plus two new ones doing a P-1 Course. Cody and Aiko spent the afternoon in the LZ kiting until it got too windy and gusty. It was too windy for cody to fly and Aiko opted for a tandem flight for her first flight so I took her tandem at 6:30 pm. It was strong and gusty in the air and despite being on a new AirDesign Ride 3 small tandem we were pretty unloaded for the conditions. Aiko go to fly for part of the tandem flight until it got too rowdy. Tandem flights are a very important part of the training curriculum . . . and don't let anyone tell you different. Unless they are not a tandem instructor or afraid to fly themselves! We were parked over the LZ for about 20 minutes but had a great landing as did Brad & Jay on Brad's tandem. Student Brandon followed us out on a NOVA Prion4 and did not do any turns, just a straight line to the Maple Tree and into the LZ.
5-12-2021	Woodside is getting some nice student conditions but is is getting windy in the afternoons (Sea Breeze).	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - Amir and Brandon were flying and Amir has caught the "thermal bug". Four good flights today for the students today despite it getting windy mid-day. Derek came over for an evening flight and managed to squeak out an hour.
5-11-2021	Woodside is getting nice student conditions and we are not having to travel.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this afternoon. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodsid Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch all day after 10 am. Brandon, Lorne and Leylan were flying here at Woodside. Here is Lorne climbing out well in front of Woodside launch. Despite living in Pemberton, he has found he can build his skills better here as there is less chance of getting caught in winds like the "Whistler Express" in Pemby. Smart Pilot! Martin and a gang were doing laps at Bridal the past two days. One day I will have enough nearly signed off students to take them to Bridal, but it is not appropriate for students under 10 flights.
5-10-2021	Woodside is getting some nicer conditions this Monday and we are back teaching all week.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Brandon is here doing his P-2 Course after a successful PPG Course 2 years ago. We had three flights today and the last flight was nicely soarable.
5-9-2021	Woodside is looking okay but we are taking the weekend off.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we took Mother's Day off and had a nice lunch at the Golf Course but did not see anyone flying Woodside today. Big flights at Pemberton as folks headed east toward Lillooett Lake but not further. Some pilots landed out in Darcy, one went to Lillooett town.
5-8-2021	Woodside is looking okay but we are taking the weekend off.	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 040° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is taking the weekend off for Mother's Day. Reports of a crowded launch here at Mother Woodside and some instructors not following launch protocol and tying up the launch for tandem operations, not cool!
5-7-2021	Woodside is getting nice student conditions	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch Friday and it was flyable all day and the students are progressing well.
5-6-2021	Woodside is getting nice student conditions	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am and we had new students Nathan and Amir were flying hard all day, there last available days this week.
5-5-2021	Woodside is getting nice student conditions	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness early this morning. High 24. UV index 8 or very high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch Wednesday at 10 am and we had new students Nathan and Amir were flying hard all day. No pics as I was too busy guiding them.
5-4-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showersin the morning. High 21. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - we had four students today and it was busy for me. As the only instructor now at FlyBC (excepting Colleen who is an unpaid employee) I ran the ground school, kiting and launching jobs. Fortunately I had a good crew of students today. Nathan was back and pretty self sufficient today. Mike was a former glider pilot and hangglider pilot from way back and had done one high flight in Pemby. Amir is a Grouse Guest Services guy and has talked to many pilots signing them in and could not wait to become a paragider pilot! Finally Brandon is a paramotor pilot with 31 flights and knew how to kite already so he was also pretty self-sufficient with his own techniques. We kited for 4-5 hours and finally around 6:30 pm we headed up the mountain. There was one P-2 PG pilot geting ready and Linda and Josh on their HGs so we had wind technicians. It was quite gusty but by 7:00 pm it was manageable for students. Mike launched first and thankfully the Independence Cruiser did what it was supposed to despite the flailing arms and legs and it flew Mike off! Colleen waited patiently in the LZ as it took a long time for the students to get out to the maneuvering area. Next off was Brandon and after another flailing attempt, he settled down and had a perfect launch. Amir did his own set of flailing and was off skimming the ground and was off and climbing to 1200 metres all the way out to the Ranch. Finally Nathan had his turn and he did a perfect forward launch and was soon higher than anyone as I drove down. Bridal Report - the big guns went to Bridal and there were about 21 pilots flying there. Bev reported flying for 2 hours and heading across to Agassiz High School for a landing later. Great work Bev!
5-3-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up early	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I had one new student arrive for a P-2 Course so he got great supervision today. We went through all the ground school stuff, simulator training and then out to the LZ to kite. Nathan was on one of our new Independence Cruiser gliders and they work very well in all wind conditions. We started with forward inflations but the winds picked up so I showed nathan the "A's & C's" method and he mastered it fast! After many hours of kiting we returned to the classroom for landing briefings but the conditions never became calm enough to fly so went shut down at 5 pm. Pilots were flying Bridal but they landed sooner as the winds got a bit nasty. Bench Report - A group of pilots hiked up to Dewdney Bench (a secret site) and flew all the way to Agassiz and then south to Bridal before "dirting it" in Rosedale.
5-2-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up later in the day	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 22. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - we did chores all day and then Derek decided we should go for a late flight. We arrived on launch at 6:30 pm to find it a bit gusty and NW but Colleen got off first and climbed fast to 1000 metres. I was off next flying a used Ozone Alpina 3 ML that came in on trade and it flew very well despite my overloading it by 5 kgs! Colleen and I soared above while Derek launched his tandem and we were all soaring together when Ricardo launched. I was contemplating heading to the golf course for beers and dinner cause Jacek offered to drive for us (thanks Jacek!), but the rest of the group wanted to head to Agassiz. Ricardo climbed out fast too on his Ozone Swift 5 and we were all at 1000 metres or more when I headed east towards Hopyard Hill. No beeps over the disappearing sandbars as the river is rising but I continued on hitting Hopyard at 700 metres. School field was in easy reach but I saw Derek coming in low below me so I headed north toward the UBC Research Farm and found a small climb to make way for Derek's approach. Colleen and Ricardo were far behind and high. Derek had a good landing and I swooped in behind them a few minutes later. As I was doing the approach I heard many sirens from ambulances and fire trucks headed north out of Agassiz. I captured Colleen and Ricardo's landings and you can hear more sirens in the video. Great flight for Ricardo as this was the first time he had ventured east and he had a super landing approach! By the time we packed up Jacek called to say an accident on the east side of Woodside on Hwy 7 had closed the road indefinitely. We headed to Derek's house as all the restaurants are closed on Sunday in the Bible Belt. At 10:30 pm the highway was still closed but Degas offered to drive the long way around to come and get us in Derek's truck. We were home at midnight. The golf course would have made more sense tonight but who was to know? Vlad flew a nice flight earlier at Woodside and made this video!
5-1-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up early	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers changing to 70 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we did not fly at Woodside because it was too windy but some adventurists flew Tunnel Bluffs and had some good airtime.
4-28-2021 to 04-30-21	Woodside is getting some some rain until the weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers changing to 70 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Rain Report - lots of chores and inspections completed during the rain including the new flat deck for the GMC 2500 so we can ditch the trailer. Big thanks to Norm for the welding help. I had to add some Suspension Enhancements to aid in levelling the extra weight but so far it is working well and is well below the legal GVW.
4-27-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up early	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 16. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we went up to Woodside Launch at 10 am with Leslie to test out her new Independence Cruiser 23. It was on the edge and the "Zak-o-Meter" was reading SW 15 gusting to 26 kph. There were lulls but mostly it was gusty in the trees with NW cycles and very thermic. The birds looked smooth but I was not willing to risk it so we headed to Dewdney Bench. We received word that the Blue Roof LZ owner is not happy with paragliders landing there, so the Bench is now an Cross country site only . . . unless you can glide to Dewdney Elementary. It was too gusty there as well so we headed back to the Ranch for some kiting. Leslie kited her new ship for several hours. On the way out to the LZ I spotted a Blue Heron feasting on bugs at the foot of the training hill, it did not seem to scared as I approached. It moved away and then flew off and circled the Ranch making angry noises at us as it flew away. We called the day and it never calmed down enough to fly.
4-26-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up early	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 16. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Team Desperado met at the Ranch at 4 pm and they dragged Colleen out of the office to fly. It was quite cross and got stronger after Norm, Derek and Martin N flew off. John W took a few tries and by the time he was off and headed east the conditions deteriorated and Colleen drove down with Bev. Norm, Derek and Martin N (on John W's Geo 6) flew to Agassiz High School, with John W landing at Harvest airstrip on Martin's Swift 5. I stayed in the Barn doing chores (wisely).
4-25-2021	Woodside is getting some clearing later today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - Team Desperado arrived around 1 pm and we went up Woodside in the CanAm. There were threatening cells in the distance but as usual Woodside had a "blue hole" that we could fly in. Bev, Martin N, Derek, Norm and I all flew. There was some pretty good lift all the way to cloudbase (1100 metres) and into the clouds if you weren't careful. I was test flying Brad's Bonanza2 and it took me sometime to figure out how to launch a heavier wing but I was off and climbing with little need to search for lift. Derek and Martin pushed way out into the Valley and were still going up. Norm circumnavigated the Harrison Mills peninsula and came back to launch low and got beamed right back up. Martin mentioned that the cells over Hemlock Resort were getting closer so we ran towards Harvest Market. artin found some sink at Cemetary Hill and landed at Irwin's airstrip. Norm had a great line over the Fraser River and I followed him and he was going up all the way while I was just maintaining. We went along Hopyard Hill and I finally got a small climb at the east end that took me into Agassiz High School where there was no wind. This is what the sky looked like right after I landed. Derek and Norm followed me in and we waited for Bev and Martin to come and retrieve us. We had to go back up to retrieve the CanAm so Colleen joined us and Norm, Derek and Colleen flew off for a late flight.
4-24-2021	Woodside is getting some rain today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - finally got some chores done as it rained all day long.
4-23-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have Strong SW winds forecasted later so we are going up early	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Increasing cloudiness. 40 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1300 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch Friday at 9 am and we got four good flights in for Jungmi and Jeff. Martin N and Lorne were also flying and had a good flight to Sasquatch Mtn. and back to Eagle Ranch. Students got to practice some skills today: big-ears, rear riser turns and hands-off flying.
4-22-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Woodside Report - it was blown out at Woodside but I had no students. Reports of big lift and rough conditions at Bridal with many pilots getting blown backwards at the LZ. I took a few guys up Woodside at 2 pm and we drove down as the thermals sounded like "freight trains"!
4-21-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Bridal Report - pilots were flying Bridal from 1 pm on til dark, some got above Cheam Peaks (2000 metres). Big lift and not too windy. We were flying Woodside Leslie had three nice flights. We had her landing at Eagle Ranch, HG LZ and another un-named field! And then it got too windy for anything but kiting.
4-20-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch with students. Leslie came out to continue her P-2 Lessons and she had a good day with many new skills to master. Rear riser turns, Big Ears, new landing spots (some intentional . . . some not). She was flying our latest trainer ship - the Independence Cruiser 23 - good for smaller pilots with a 50-80 kg range. The Cruiser has a three riser system with good handling and has good speed for those windier days. We ordered a few more so we will have a 23 and a 29 in stock for training. While I was hucking Leslie for her three flight today before it got too windy, the pros were flying in Pemby. Curtis and Gary P had a goal in mind and flew towards Lilloett and beyond. Igor led the other group on a merry chase down Harrison Lake where Peter, James E and Alex had to make a strategic move as they hit the Fraser Valley winds. They opted for a route that headed east north of Bear Mountain that took them to Laidlaw where they landed. Igor made it to Bridal LZ. Again big shout out to Igor (Ozone Zeno), Alex (Ozone Alpina 4), Peter (Ozone Delta 4) and James E (Advance X-Alps O3) for this daring flight!
4-19-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but no students so an errand day	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 22. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 5 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Seymour Report - I had no students so I was doing errands while James F led a merry band of pilots around the North Shore Mountains. The group took off from Mount Seymour and headed NW to Squamish and then down the Howe Sound to cross over West and North Vancouver to land back at Mount Seymour to retrieve their cars! Just a coincidence? All the pilots were flying their new Ozone Alpina 4 gliders and many had their personal bests today over "tiger country"!
4-18-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have NE winds so no flying here expected	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 040° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	SAvona Report - Jay and I flew the Cessna T337B to Kamloops to retrieve Colleen's pickup truck and meet Jeff & Jungmi at Savona. Forecast said nice light winds at 8 am. We arrived at 11 am to find strongish SW winds in the Toilet Bowl. Jay took Jungmi's 23 metre Independence Cruiser out for a spin. He got plucked and we put it away before Jungmi arrived. It got windier so I took the kids to Kamloops to Singh Park for some kiting. It was fine there for about 30 minutes and then it got really gusty and I had to save the students from getting dragged. We packed up and they headed home to Sasquatch Mountain and their cabin and I made my way to the Kamloops Airport for my return flight. Nice fast 45 minute flight to Chilliwack with lots of bumps and 1500 foot per minute thermals over Merritt. Later in the day I took Colleen, Derek and Rob S up Woodside and we had nice cycles and everyone was soaring. Derek made a few top landing approaches but did not land and then it was all over, no more lift. I drove down to save the retrieve.
4-17-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have NE winds so no flying here expected	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 040° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch but the winds were NE again.
4-16-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but NE winds	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 040° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing Glider Inspections but no flying as it was too windy.
4-15-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today but we have NE winds so no flying here expected	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 040° @ 15 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1500 metres	Woodside Report - I took the day off to get jabbed as the winds were too strong.
4-14-2021	FlyBC is getting some sun today in Savona	Agassiz Forecast Savona Forecast: Sunny. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Savona: 040° @ 5 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC was up early at Savona for today. We started flying off the Toilet Bowl at 8:30 am with light wind forward launches. After 3 flights here we then headed up to the Mid-Launch where it was blowing strong enough for reverse launches. We did 3 more flights off this launch until 1 pm when we headed home. Oddly when we passed by the Internationa LZ the winds were easterly? I guess we were flying in pure thermic winds.
4-13-2021	FlyBC is getting some sun today in Savona	Agassiz Forecast Savona Forecast: Sunny. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Savona: 040° @ 5 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC is in Savona for the week. We were not disappointed today! We had perfect 10-20 kph east winds til 3 pm. The Dump Ridge was working very well and the retrieval with the CanAm Defender made it easy to do laps. We had three eager students and Mickey was also here monitoring the student progress. Everyone was an independent pilot and I did some checks throughout the day but it was quite easy taking care of this crew. Leslie had been very cautious the past four days and not ready to launch Woodside despite her great kiting skills, but once she saw the Dump Ridge she was eager to fly! At the end of the day she had 8 flights on her logbook. Leylan was doing well but he has a sky-diving background and took to kiting very fast. The winds today were a gift and everyone got super-confident in the higher winds. We had some soaring, some top-landings and some side hill landings too (Leslie). We took out the paramotor and Glenn got in a great flight around the Dump area for 30 minutes. Meanwhile the rest of the crew kept flying off the Dump Ridge until 3 pm. At 3 pm the winds switched and we headed to the Mid-Launch and we got 3 more flights there. It was nicely thermic and the flights go some very high with nice landing conditions on the Crash Pad. By the end of the day Leylan and Glenn logged 17 flights!
4-12-2021	FlyBC is getting some sun today in Savona	Agassiz Forecast Savona Forecast: Sunny. High 16. UV index 6 or high.	Savona: 040° @ 5 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Savona Report - FlyBC headed to Savona for the week after retrieving Glenn's wing out of the trees. We spent a few hours sorting out lines and geting it back in flying shape, thankfully no damage and Scott got it out of the tree by 10 am. We arrived in Savona at 4 pm and started flying off the Toilet Bowl and then the Mid Launch and we got in 4 flights before heading to camp.
4-11-2021	Woodside is getting some sun today and it is gonna be busy at Woodside as the RASP looks really good	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Clearing this morning. High 13. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 5 kph after noon	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch on Sunday at 10 am. We need not have headed up to launch til noon, as the outflow winds kept a lot of pilots on the ground til then. About 45 eager pilots flying around today. We had a busy roster of students with varying levels of skills. By the end of the day most flew. Around noon Peter S was first off launch and headed east. Soon a bunch of pilots were climbing out at Woodside also headed east with Hope as the turnpoint for many. I started launching my students once launch cleared out and there were some great flights. Around 3 pm we were launching one of our paramotor hopefuls and he botched a few launches, and when I was trying to get him to stop as he frontalled his wing the wing reinflated and he flew off . . . with a tangle! He almost cleared the trees but he settled in safely and I had to go get him secured. While waiting for SAR, I managed to get a climbing rope up to him via his reserve which he dropped down close to my location. After 100 throws I managed to get said rope up to him (with a climbing sling and biners). I was all ready to belay him down (he is an experienced rope guy), when SAR arrived and they would not help me as they have a rope protocol that involves tree climber/arborist and a double rope backup system. I obliged them and they took over which took about an hour. Wing is still up in the trees so don't call 911! Meantime Colleen took over on launch and launched some new students and they flew for about 90 minutes in the nicest air we have seen for years! At 7:30 pm, I took Dennie up for a tandem and we launched a new stuent who has had a month of kiting and was finally ready to fly. Colleen was in the LZ to guide him in to a nice soft touchdown. As I drove down around 7:30 pm pilots were just arriving up at the Kettle after many long XC kms. Looks like Vlad won the XContest flight of the day, but Igor was also along with an expired InReach so I guess they were tied? Many great flights to Hope and back on this light wind day!
4-10-2021	Woodside is getting some rain and winds today so no flying	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon then a mix of sun and cloud. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 45 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1100 metres	Woodside Storm Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch on Saturday but we had rain, hail, and very strong SW winds all day. And there is new snow at Hemlock Valley and on all the surrounding mountains!
4-7-2021 to 4-9-21	Woodside is getting some rain and winds for a few days so we were closed for flying	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon.. High 8. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - lots of errands and chores done while it was raining for three days.
4-6-2021	Woodside is getting some sun finally	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is back at Eagle Ranch training. We got Jeff, Jungmi and Glenn their first solo flights in early with Colleen guiding them in. Leslie was a bit timid so we went tandem on my new AirDesign Ride 3 and we were pleasantly surprised as we logged over an hour of thermalling fun and Leslie got to fly for 15 minutes or more. Martin and Bev had flown before me and they flew pretty much straight out and I found out later that they hated the air. Meanwhile Leslie and I had a nice thermic flight with no weirdness. I flew out several times to Harrison Highlands and we always climbed out from there. After an hour I headed out to the Ranch and we flew over at 600 metres to see the windsock straight out and gusty from the South! Rather than have a weird landing after such a nice flight we headed over to Sandpiper Resort and landing on the practice green near the swimming pool. Light winds and a smooth landing on out feet. We spent the rest of the day kiting with the students.
4-5-2021	Woodside is getting some sun Monday	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is back at Eagle Ranch on and training 4 new students for PG & PPG. I drove up to Kamloops Airport early and flew the Cessna T337B home to Chilliwack to show it to some prospective buyers. We started Ground School at 10 am and by 1 pm we were out kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ. It was too windy to fly the students off the mountain but we had a great 4 hour kiting session. Meanwhile KVA and Andrei flew two tandems for us.
4-2-2021 to 04-04-21	Woodside is getting some rain and winds all long weekend (of course) so we went to Sun Peaks for the weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon then a mix of sun and cloud. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Sun Peaks Report - last days of skiing at Sun Peaks but it was too windy to fly.
4-1-2021	Woodside is getting some flyable conditions today after noon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Becoming cloudy this morning. High 11. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am and we had a great kiting day with two new students. Nice steady 15-25 kph east winds made kiting fun!
3-31-2021	Woodside is getting some flyable conditions today after noon	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 15. UV index 6 or high.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I got to do some personal training today as I took a new airplane out for a few circuits. Ryan was a PPG pilot and decided Ultralight Flying was easier on his hips so he bought a shiny new Zenith 701. This plane was built by EA Structures in Chilliwack and the owner offered to give me a few hours checkout to satisfy the Insurance Company. We did about 5 circuits before we had to stop due to too many birds on the east end of the runway. This is a very light and short coupled airplane compared to my T337B, so one has to be light on the rudder pedals. Meanwhile, back at Woodside we were up on launch at 11 am and the outflow was quite light in the Valley. I had Steve and Lorne in tow and they both had 17 flights at the start of the day and are quite self-sufficient. The first flight was a sleddy. The second flight was much better despite the inversion and Lorne stayed in the air the longest even though he launched first of three pilots. We got in four flights today and the last flight was very light requiring forward launches. I met up with KVA later and he and Paddy flew off Benny after a hike up and they made it out to Dewndey Pub but decided to land instead at the Elementary School to the cheer of school kids. They said 1100 metres was the top of lift. A few folks went up Bridal and it was hard work to get above launch (800 metres) but they still squeaked out 2 hours.
3-30-2021	Woodside is getting some flyable conditions today despite the cloud cover	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 40 percent chance of drizzle this morning and early this afternoon. High 10. UV index 5 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - I was here at Woodside to fly students all day long. First flights started at 11 am once we got some cycles. James. Renatta and Martin Z were installing the new weather station that Martin designed and built, bured deep in the forst away from vandals hopefully. Steve and Lorne were my two charges today and they are both around 15 flights so it is pretty easy getting them ready and off launch. On flight #2 Lorne was heading out to the Ranch when he got a nice thermal and worked it from about 100 metres back to launch height. Lots of hopeful folks and despite the cloud cover some great flights were had with many ending up in Agasiz High School LZ. Water bombers were out practicing and the Lockheed Electra was going through the Valley many times. Jacek got this shot of the Electra over Cemetary Hill. Steve went home after three flights but Lorne stayed and we got him a nice soaring flight around 5 pm. last flight of the day saw Derek, Wolf, Norm and others getting up to 1000 metres and flying home to Agassiz.
3-29-2021	Woodside is getting some very strong thermic conditions today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly sunny except mainly cloudy near Agassiz this morning. High 10. UV index 4 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 2 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 2000 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch at 10 am and we were going to have to fly students early as it looked windy this afternoon. The winds never materialized and the lift was smooth and abundant. First launch off the mountain was Steve on his NOVA Prion4 and he did very well for being away for many months. Nice bouyant flight for Steve with NW flow in our LZ. Second flights were more lifty, with flights of around 30 minutes for Steve. Nice shot of Ken launching his new Ozone Swift 5! And here is Ken climbing out, at one point he got to 1100 metres where he froze. KVA launched and was reporting crossing the Fraser toward Elk at 1400 metres. Kevin was being chased by a OD-ing CU that was dumping virga and it outran him by Ford Road in Rosedale where he "dited it". Martin N and Normando were last seen over Hopyard Hill low, but they caught a climb ovver the sand bars and were then seen at Bridal Falls where Martin got high. And then out of nowhere . . . big sink and they were both in the Bridal LZ. Reports from Dewdney Bench where AXL launch after a short hike and he did the run up to Benny and back landing near the Native Orientation Centre east of Mission.
3-28-2021	Woodside is rained out	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Hevy rains and high wind warnings. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 65 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - we had rain, hail, some snow and very strong winds all day.
3-27-2021	Woodside is rained out	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 30 percent chance of drizzle. High 10. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - as expected we had some mist and drizzle so I called the day off. There were a few flyable moments though.
3-25-2021	Woodside is flyable today after 10 am	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers near the mountains this morning. High 12. UV index 5 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-3.0°C (stable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing training at 10 am with John and a few others. It was very cloudy at 11 am. We waited for a break and a lull and then John was off and climbing . . . disappearing out in the soup on "big ears". John got 2 flights today while others got some nice soaring and a run to Harvest as it got stronger. Wolf flew for over an hour landing at Eagle Ranch in light conditions.
3-25-2021	Woodside is getting rained out today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this morning with a mix of sun and cloud. High 13. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Reportr - FlyBC was training students today and we only had one show up so he got special treatment. We arrived at launch at 11 am to find some clouds forming to the south. John got ready as did Wolf, and when the clouds cleared enough for safe flight John was off with a great forward launch. The cloud filled in so I could not see John's flight path but he had a good approach and landing in no wind. Wolf took off and was able to stay up for an hour despite all the cloud cover so it was unstable. We raced back up around noon and by then Martin N and Don had arrived after hiking up. We got John ready again and this time he had a nice reverse launch and we found him some lift to the SW and he was above launch and thermalling like a pro! John had a great flight and he landed near the circle on his feet again! Other pilots started flying and everyone stayed up with ease all over the Valley and Mountain. Martin made a run toward Sasquatch and the storm brewing over there dumped him into the airstrip at the Golf Course. Norm ran away from the storm and was last heard over Green Hill an hour later. We went back up after the rain storm receded, and Malcolm came up this time for his first flight in 2 years. He tried thermalling too hard and hit the NW winds and failed to make the Ranch. John flew after Malcolm and had tons of lift and Colleen took the guiding duties so I could drive down.
3-24-2021	Woodside is getting rained out today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 9. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - rain most of the day and later when ths sun did come out the clouds blocked launch.
3-23-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, and I will be doing a shuttle run at 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 30 percent chance of drizzle. High 10. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding and paramotoring after noon. Lorne and John were my only students today so it was pretty mellow. We went up for the first flight at about 11 am and we had light in-flow cycles and the mist was showing the thermal formation. It was quite cloudy but we could see sunny spots on Harrison Bay and Chilliwack showing blue holes were coming. Lorne launched first with a nicely controlled reverse launch and was off and looking for thermals. There were none at this point. John got off with a forward launch and had a great landing near the circle. We went back up at 1 pm with Martin N and Kevin in tow. It was much stronger with thermic cycles and Lorne got off nicely and was thermalling out near the Construction Zone. Martin and Kevin launched and started to get to 900 metres right away. Martin reported only 7 kph forward speed at 900 metres. John and I kited on launch for some time but it was too gusty as he was pulled off his feet a few times and I had to save him! We bagged up and headed down. Kevin followed Martin over to the Sasquatch range but bailed when he saw the white caps on Harrison Bay. Martin kept going and eventually landed at Sandpiper Airstrip. Kevin was back over the Ranch at 500 metres asking for wind reports and then disappeared over Woodside. Plenty of lift everywhere but gusty. Kevin reported in as he headed east towards Agassiz landing at the high school. The rest of the day we spent kiting in the LZ as the winds never dropped as the rain front approached the coast.
3-22-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, and I will be doing a shuttle run at 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers ending this morning then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 9. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1200 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding today. As forecast the rain was on and off for the morning and then we went kiting in the afternoon. Wind on top was gusty and strong and the sky was Over-Developing all around us. Even Martin N declined flying! But we had a good 4 hour kiting session with Lorne and John. The new Independence Cruiser came in for smaller pilots and we chose the "Colorful" option. Looks familiar? Reminder about the waterbomber training, as we had a Q400 doing training laps up and down Chehalis and Harrison Lakes today despite the over developing skies. Folks were flying at Blanchard WA and reported bumpy skies . . . not that we can go there!
3-18-2021 to 3-21-2021	Woodside is getting three days of rain of course because it is a weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is getting rained out for three days.
3-17-2021	Woodside is getting rained out	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC took the day off due to rain.
3-16-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, and I will be doing a shuttle run at 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding and paramotoring after 1 pm. I flew in in the Skymaster from Kamloops Airport at 9 am, after going VFR-on-Top from Merritt to Hope. Great way to get back and it only takes 42 minutes from CYKA to CYCW. I was taking Lorne up for flights and he got in some really good thermalling today on his two flights. Yes, that is Lorne on top of the other very experienced paragliders. Alex R was out trying his new Ozone Alpina 4 and he was not disappointed. He fleew from Woodside to Dewdney and back and then top landed to warm up while I was launching Lorne for flight #2. Claudia was seen enroute from Benny as well.
3-15-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, and we will be doing a shuttle run at 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding and paramotoring after 1 pm. Tony and Dennie were managing three new students and one intermediate student who has been doing great Woodside flights the past week. Claudia and Peter were flying off Benny and flew to Woodside and Peter made it back to his car at Cascade Falls Park.
3-14-2021	Woodside is getting rain	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks avoiding the rain.
3-13-2021	Woodside is getting rain this weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was at Sun Peaks avoiding the rains.
3-12-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, and I will be doing a shuttle run at 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding while the XC crew went to Benny. Looks like Tom G was the only one posting on XContest there but he had a good last flight on his Swift 5 before it came back on trade for an Ozone Alpina 4. The Swift5 was sold in a day or two.
3-11-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, Tony will be managing the operation as I have to take the Skymaster to Kamloops	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 12. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - despite the inversion at 600 metres, a few pilots got very nice flights with some early XC flights to Agassiz. Martin N and Kevin ended up at the CrossRoads Esso. Martin's tracklog is an combination of yesterdays flight to Sasquatch Mtn. so I cut it off, today he flew Woodside and then east to Agassiz Mtn. and then Green Hill before landing. Tony had just one student today and Lorne got 3 very nice flights but we had to hold him off for flight #4 as it got too thermic. New paramotor student, Spencer, managed about 6 flights even flying mid-day on his Ozone Ultralight 4 and his new Kangook paramotor. He burned up about 6 litres of fuel so about 2.5 hours of paramotor time to get him halfway to his required 5 hours and 30 flights. Claudia had a nice flight at Benny (flying with James and Paddy) but not sure why her tracklog stopped on top of a mountain? Looks like spring is here, dress warm for the higher and longer flights.
3-10-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today, Tony will be managing the operation as I have to take the Skymaster to Kamloops	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 11. UV index 2 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - we were all ready to continue training for Bentley when he decided paragliding made him too nervous despite having 4 great high flights here this week? He had fun but his fun factor was not enough. Tony was then able to go flying with Martin N and Curtis. The day started out great with nice CUs everywhere at 11 am. Conditions at launch were great when I dropped the guys off on top. I headed to Chilliwack Airport to fly to Kamloops to drop off the plane for the weekend and spring break week. I pre-flighted the plane and headed east and near Hope the weather turned to snow but I kept going until I saw the cloudbase had dropped to about 1000 feet over Hope. The traffic webcams in Boston Bar were okay but no safe way to punch north so I turned back to Woodside to enter the circuit at CYCW. Big over-development at Woodside. Harrison Lake was also clouds to the deck. Martin reported great flying for 1:30 before the OD. He was able to fly over to Sasquatch Mtn. where he arrived at 500 metres. He saw the OD forming and headed back to Eagle Ranch so he would not have to walk back and arrived over the Ranch at 900 metres in big cloudsuck. A strong gust front came through as he was approaching the LZ and he said it was the roughest air he had ever encountered and he was quite busy keeping his wing open right to touchdown. Over at CYCW I entered the circuit and it was bumpy and thermic but I had a nice landing despite the strong north crosswinds. As I taxied in the hail started. After tie down I had to walk to the muffler shop where I left the Tracker earlier for a new exhaust and I got rained on pretty good. Back in Harrison Mills as I drove home I stopped to get this shot of the Sasquatch Range, all new snow down to 300 metres after the storm.
3-09-2021	Woodside is getting nice conditions today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 12. UV index 3 or moderate.	Agassiz: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 2400 metres!!	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch doing lessons for paragliding and paramotoring today and Tony was managing the students. Lorne was here on Day Two and aftr a great ground based day yesterday he was ready to fly, as was Bentley who is on Day 3. At 10:30 am, Endre (a seasoned P-2) launched and flew out low to the Ranch after scratching around for a bit. We watched is rather unconventional approach over the corn field when his wing tightened up and he pointed straight north at about 30 metres and he got "tractor-beamed" up to about 500 metres. He was doing "big-ears" forever to get out of the strong lift and despite the fact that the wind on the LZ was SE he was fighting a NW headwind aloft. When he finally landed behind the training hill, he yelled "Don't launch the students!". We waited an hour for the sun to shade out before launching the students after everything had mellowed out and they had great flights. Lorne was all smiles after his first solo flight! Bentley had a great flight too and was working on his turns. A large group of pilots came out because the RASP looked awesome but the clouds came in and shaded us out so it was good for students but not so good for the pros. But everyone had a good day. Martin was captured by Rod here in this photo coming into Eagle Ranch. Derek landed just before Martin right next to the firepit where I was burning "blow-down" as the winds went to NW in the LZ. Bev was doing a "happy dance" in the landing circle as she tried out a "new-used" Gin Verso harness to improve her landing odds. Ask her about it!
3-08-2021	Woodside is getting outflow winds til 3 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 10. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 040° @ 25 kph until 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - Tony took students to Mission as it was howling from the north in the LZ here. When they returned at 3 pm, Bentley was ready to fly so I took him up the hill after dropping off Martin, Denny, Endre and Tanner earlier. When we first headed up there was light tailwind on the launch. By the time we arrived and taped and pinned down the new carpet it was blowing straight in. Martin, Endre and Denny got up to 1500 metres right away. When we got back up with Bentley, Norm and Tanner at 4:30 it was just turning back to outflow but we got enough puffs to get everyone off for a shorter flight (but Martin and Endre were still in the air). Wind in the LZ was strongish NW so a different approach than normal but great for training flights. Alex and Nicole came by to say hi after flying Benny with Peter & Claudia and they got to 1600 metres there. This is Peter's tracklog (Alex left his tracker on so his tracklog looked a bit weird with a sidetrip to Sandpiper Golf Course and then home to Burnaby!). Spring is here!
3-07-2021	Woodside is getting rained out today but Monday thru Friday look great	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Showers beginning this morning. Risk of a thunderstorm and hail this afternoon. Becoming windy near noon. High 8. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we did not get as much rain as forecasted but it was windy . . . too windy for ground handling but good for ground school.
3-06-2021	Woodside should be flyable after 3 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Chance of showers mid-day. High 8. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch and we had 4 new students for a P-1 Course. Tony manned the classroom duties while Martin N and I headed up the mountain to fix the carpets that had been shredded up with all the winter storms. Dave H left two large sections of landscaping material with us last year and we used one piece to fix the middle of launch last summer where the rednecks lit a fire. We used the other piece to fix the front of launch proper today. Martin worked the pick axe while I rearranged the carpet and re-pinned it down with spikes and big washers. It is too wet to tape up the seams and washers so beware of the snag potential. We were able to drive the carpet down into the launch area using Colleen's Tacoma but the spur road in from 4.5 kms is a challenge with 18 to 24 inches of soft snow. Two young 4x4 dudes helped us carry the carpet up to launch as it was one big roll too heavy for us two old dudes. Partway thru the job, Grant & Martin Z arrived on launch and helped us finish the digging and the placing and we had everything pinned down nicely in a hail storm. Grant and Martin Z hiked back down to the trail building party that Alex R & KVA had organized while we packed up the Tacoma. The results looked quite nice. The area on the north side of launch is still shabby but secure, we need another 30'x 20' of material to finish it off. On the way down our 4x4 dudes were attempting to dislodge the smashed up wreck at 3.2 kms, so we suggested dragging it down to the highway so the authorities could tow it away. The "Catch 22" of vehicle abandonment on a Forest Servie Road is that ICBC or the RCMP won't take responsibility for the removal unless it is reported stolen so it sits. Even Forestry won't deal with it unless it is leaking fluids into a creek. We drove down and apparently the wreck made it down alright as I found this picture on the 4x4BC Facebook page. Martin Z also took this shot of the wreck as he hiked down to his car. We will see how long it takes to get picked up now. But watch out for spare parts on the road for some time as the wreck looked somewhat smaller at the bottom of the road. Great reports from the trail builders after 8 hard hours of trail blazing. Many saws and tools were used. The trail starts at the 3 km spur road and there are pink ribbons to mark the skidder trail that leads up to the forest trail now marked in blue ribbons. Estimate of a saving of 1.5 kms of hiking by using this trail. Great work by everyone involved. When we got back Colleen and I headed out to the LZ to help Tony and all his new students were kiting up a storm as it was too windy to attempt first flights today. By 6 pm everyone could forward and everse launch with confidence. We just need a calmer day to execute some flights as the Ground School and Ground Handling and Landing Briefings are completed.
3-05-2021	Woodside rained out	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning late this afternoon. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 12. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC had a good errand day but no flying, but got the gear ready for a student weekend.
3-04-2021	Woodside should be flyable after 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning late this afternoon. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 12. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was back at Eagle Ranch but it was raining all day.
3-03-2021	Woodside should be flyable after 1 pm	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. High 10. UV index 2 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 5 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we up Woodside around 1 pm in the canAm Defender and it made it through all the bad spots just fine with 5 of us on board with gear. We arrived on launch with sunny breaks and light up-cycles and Bev got ready and flew first but she missed all the good lift. Nice SE landing conditions in the LZ. Next off was Martin N and then Derek and they "duked it out" on the South Knoll for a good hour, while Norm and I were faced with outflow on launch for the same amount of time. We drove down and met up with KVA who decided it was trail building time today. We arrived in the LZ as Martin N was packing up and Derek caught a climb over the highway and was almost back to launch as the wind switched to strong NW in the LZ for smooth landings.
3-02-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for the week and beyond as we get rained out again on the Coast	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers early in the morning. High 8. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - we were coming back from Sun Peaks when Derek called to say they were heading up the mountain. This is what our LZ webcam showed as we started the drive home. Some blue bits were coming in. Martin N had hiked up, KVA and Alex R/Tom G had driven partway up. Derek, Bev and Norm drove to 3.5 kms and hiked the rest of the way in as the road was very icy. Reports after they landed of many top landings and Martin N topped out at 1440 metres as the RASP had predicted. Bev was Driver of the Day and Photo Journalist. She caught Alex trying to get down to topland. Appratently the air was very smooth from 1400 metres down to 500 metres and then it was mixed up all the way into the LZ.
3-01-2021	FlyBC is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers early in the morning. High 8. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for the balance of the week, as the coastal weather looks wet. Today was too windy to take a wing up the mountain as it gusted to +40 kph most of the day. But it was sunny! Reports of an icy road up Woodside and a "so-so" flight with a big blowout for Martin N had everyone else hiking down to the truck, waiting to fly another day.
2-28-2021	FlyBC is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Wet snow mixed with rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of rain showers. Local snowfall amount 2 to 4 cm. Becoming windy this morning. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Sun Peaks looked gusty from the SW so we went Cross Country skiing on Holy Cow. Skiing was ok until I landed on my back on a steep downhill, no injuries! Then at another steep downhill turn at 2 kms, Colleen lost it and had a yard sale! I went back to help her up and she had injured her wrist so she got a snowmobile ride down to the Clinic. The rest of Holy Cow was fast and I didn't fall again thankfully!
2-27-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Wet snow mixed with rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of rain showers. Local snowfall amount 2 to 4 cm. Becoming windy this morning. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again at Woodside. Colleen and I went downhill skiing and I showed her some new launch spots off Sunburst Chair. It was strong from the SW so we went to Grannie Greenes just below the Sundance Chair and it was blowing straight in but a bit gusty. I tried a different technique, kind of a sideways reverse launch, with a quick turn downhill. The gusts made the wing come up a bit quick and you can't sidestep or run under the wing and I failed to stop it fast enough so it collapsed but not enough to land on my head thankfully. Once it was on the snow I just started moving forward and eventually a gust got it overhead. Not elegant but it worked. More practice needed in gusty winds.
2-26-2021	FlyBC is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with sunny breaks. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 20 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Benny Report - a group of hike & fly pilots went to Benny to fly today. Mixed reviews: Martin N & KVA got away to Dewdney and back, while others got sled rides. This was Martin's tracklog, somehow KVA left his SPOT off? Jonathon & Thomas had great flights with cloudsuck and Jonathon liked Norm's Swift 5 so much that he bought it! Colleen & I went skiing at Sun Peaks but it was too windy from the SW to fly, but the snow was great
2-25-2021	FlyBC is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Wet snow mixed with rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of rain showers. Local snowfall amount 2 to 4 cm. Becoming windy this morning. High 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Road Report - FlyBC was planning to be flying Friday at Woodside but it was too cloudy, so off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again. There is 4" of new snow at Eagle Ranch so I don't know what the road will be like?
2-24-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 4. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC was at Eagle Ranch today shipping gear and setting up John W's new harness while the desperadoes assembled. A truck went up at 2 pm, while Martin and others hiked up. The road is somewhat icy at 4 kms so have good winter tires. After delivering a new Ozone Dragonfly 18 to a Keremeos client, I went out to watch the action as Bev came in to land. apparently it was too cold for her. Derek and others stayed up for over 1:30 before succumbing to the cold. Dennie got a nice shot from above launch. I had to go to Chilliwack Airport to meet a potential buyer for the Skymaster so I took it for a warmup flight and buzzed launch at 4:45 pm and folks were still soaring including Kevin who was waving at me. Reports from Elk said "good soaring" til your hands fell off - from Klaus & Monica. David S also reported a nice soaring flight at Elk. Spring is just around the corner! Bennie also delivered today for Alex, Claudia and Peter according to XCFind!
2-22-2021	FlyBC is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend and beyond as we get rained out again at Woodside	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 040° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside is rained out again with low cloudbase, so no flying.
2-18-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks	Agassiz Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. SW winds at 25-40 kph in the alpine. High 2. UV index 1 or low.	Sun Peaks: 240° @ 30 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Colleen was working and Brad said that it looked like light winds in the alpine so I packed up my wing and headed out to the hills. Sun Peaks has windtalkers on all the lift lines and most are online to check the winds. They also agreed that the winds were light SW. By the time I got to the top of OSV, there were light up cycles . . . followed by big gusts from the West. Not so good, so I went down the Cruiser Run to the west of the Sunburst Chair and it was even gustier there and the clouds were "scudding by" from the west. The new Cruiser Launch looks good, nice and wide and far from the lift lines. I bailed and headed home to drop off the wing and stopped at the middle of the Rambler Run to scope out a new spot. By the time I got home it was howling from the SW. I guess I have to stop sleeping in, but I did find some new launch spots.
2-17-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today doing errands and chores but it is raining so it is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers or drizzle. Windy this morning. Temperature steady near 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Kamloops Report - I headed up to Kamloops Airport to pick up the Cessna T337B and return it to its parking spot in Chilliwack after the Polar Vortex left BC. Another crappy Coquihalla drive through ice and slush. Weather was sunny with broken clouds at the airport. Uneventful departure from CYKA despite bird crews trying to scare away the snow geese. Heading west towards Savona and the clouds were still low at around 4000 feet. Lots of snow on the hillsides and the air was smooth except for some leeside hill action. The sky opened up further west as the valleys got tighter. Good ground speeds of 165-175 mph in the Fraser Canyon and little traffic. Some tailwind before Hope according to the NE in the clouds higher up, but still smooth. Hope town is still snowed in as I flew over at 4000 feet on the descent into Chilliwack. A few planes in the circuit at Chilliwack after crossing over Eagle Ranch to descend into the pattern. Easy landing to the east and a quick taxi to the tiedown. Thanks to Bev & Norm for the ride back to the Ranch. Woodside Report - Woodside beckoned the "desperados" at around 330 pm. Derek was off work, it was Dennie's Birthday so Linda brought him over and I dragged Colleen away from her computer. I hauled the CanAm out of the barn and got it ready to take us up the mountain. So many stuck trucks this past few days made me a bit concerned about the drive up Woodside but the mighty CanAm did not even slip even in the deep snow. In fact it was so easy that I drove down into the parking lot to unload. Kevin was just getting ready to launch as he hiked up earlier. He got off in a westerly cycle and was soon high over the South Knoll. Derek, Dennie, Linda then Colleen launched and they were struggling to stay up as the sun got shaded out. Kevin was in a better spot and stayed up above the Knoll for some time as everyone else descended. I was just packing up to drive down when Kevin top-landed and offered to drive down, but conditions were so lame that I told him to relaunch and enjoy the flight down to Riverside. A gang of pilots was at Benny and I later found some great XCFind tracklogs. Alex and Peter got ambitious and overflew Mission North.
2-17-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today doing errands and chores but it is raining so it is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers or drizzle. Windy this morning. Temperature steady near 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Coaches Corner - FlyBC is at Woodside for a few days but if it keeps raining we are going skiing at Sun Peaks until Monday.
2-5-2021 to 2-16-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today doing errands and chores but it is raining so it is off to Sun Peaks for the weekend	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers or drizzle. Windy this morning. Temperature steady near 7. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 240° @ 25 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC has been not flying for some time as the cold arctic air was too cold to even kite even though it was sunny.
2-4-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today doing errands and chores but it is raining hard	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Periods of rain. High plus 5.	Agassiz: 240° @ 15 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 500 metres	Woodside report - Woodside received heavy rains today but it was a good day to reorganize the Barn for an upcoming Beginner Course this Monday Feb 8th.
2-3-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Clearing early this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Agassiz: 050° @ 5 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I was doing shop work changing lines and doing porosity tests when the gang went to fly Woodside. We had light outflow winds on top but the thermals powered through and gave nice reversible launch conditions. Bev launched first folowed by Martin N and they soared up to 1050 metres for over an hour in nice spring-like thermals. Snow from 3 km up with some icy sections on the road but nobody got stuck. About 8 pilots flying here and they all got nice flights. Jacek says he got to 1200 metres before an un-named pilot knocked him out of his thermal as he was setting up to top-land, so I had to drive him up later in my Tracker (with studded tires, a 2021 addition). A blast from the past . . . Jeremy arrived on his motorcycle and drove it up to launch to say hi to everyone. He came down to the Ranch and borrowed a SupAir Taska and harness and had a nice late afternoon flight. This Taska is for sale for $1200 and is like new shape. As I drove down I was treated to a nice sunset! Is is really February? Jacek made a nice video for Bev's first flight on her new Ozone Swift 5.
2-2-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside for a week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain at times heavy. Wind light west shifting early morning to east 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 6 C.	Woodside: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - Derek and Martin arrived at noon but it started raining so we had a fire in the barn to keep warm, and it never cleared up all day.
2-1-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside for a week	Agassiz Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain. Wind light west shifting early morning to east 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 6 C.	Woodside: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 500 metres	Woodside Report - we were at the Ranch but it was raining and foggy so no flying.
1-31-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Snow. Wind light west shifting early morning to east 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 6 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - it was snowing heavily and fog right down to the base of the hill so we drove back to Woodside thru rain and snow.
1-30-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Snow. Wind light west shifting early morning to east 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 6 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC was skiing at Sun Peaks today, lots of new snow but cloudbase was too low to fly. Woodside looked wet.
1-29-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Mainly cloudy with afternoon sunny breaks developing. Wind light west shifting early morning to east 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 6 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks skiing but it looked good at Woodside but no one flew.
1-28-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Cloudy with occasional light snow beginning late in the morning. High near minus 2 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week and there was more new snow so we went Cross Country Skiing - 11 kms today and only one fall each. Bev drove a group up Woodside today and they flew but it was not epic. The drive down for Bev was epic as she almost slid into the ditch on the icy drive down. Time to use low range and never touch the brakes! The cycles changed quite quickly to down so no more flights.
1-27-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Cloudy with occasional light snow beginning late in the morning. High near minus 5 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks and it was snowing so Colleen and I went downhill skiing. Bev, Norm, Martin and Derek were at the Ranch visiting Bob but it was not flyable, too much NE wind.
1-26-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Cloudy with occasional light snow beginning late in the morning. Amounts 1 to 2 cm. Wind east to southeast 8 to 20 km/h. High near minus 10 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week and we received more new snow so it was not flyable. Derek and the Desperado Team went up Woodside and got a short flight today.
1-25-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Cloudy with occasional light snow beginning late in the morning. Amounts 1 to 2 cm. Wind east to southeast 8 to 20 km/h. High near minus 10 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks and it was snowing all day. We signed our paragliding waivers and got our Paragliding Passes and the Guest Services Staff arranged for a special hiking pass for non-skier pilots. This hiking pass is $25 a day and get one up the Sunburst Chair where you can walk a short distance east to the OSV run for foot launching in East or light winds. Unfortunately cloudbase was too low to try out the OSV Launch today.
1-24-2021	FlyBC is heading to Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Cloudy with occasional light snow beginning late in the morning. Amounts 1 to 2 cm. Wind east to southeast 8 to 20 km/h. High near minus 10 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is at Sun Peaks for a week. It was raining and lightly snowing at Woodside yesterday so no one flew. Cloudbase was pretty low too! A 4x4 person posted some pics on FaceBook as they drove up to 10 km on Woodside, just light snow on the road. Colleen and I went Cross Country skiing to check out some nearer LZs for flying at Sun Peaks. Hole 15 is a great runway and just above our condo.
1-23-2021	FlyBC is heading to Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Sunny with cloudy periods. Wind northwest 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 11 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Colleen and I are at Sun Peaks for a week and today we went skiing. We woke to -12C temps and light snow but there was blue sky to the West. Colleen was trying out her new stance on her snowboard and I was skiing. At 1 pm, we went up to the Top of the Mountain and it was blowing +20 kph over the back . . . but down below Crystal Chair we had inflow cycles again. I laid out by Ozone Alpina 2 and got all ready, but it got blown by a gust and I failed to lay it back pout properly hoping it would inflate with some speed. But alas no, I skiied a few hundred feet and no go. I had to bunch up and hike back to the start point and the second time was a charm! I bit thermic and rotory in the air but a good flight to land behind Brad's condo on the golf course where I landed in 20 kph of east tailwind but the powder snow was good to land at speed. Loving the skis for landing. Bev should come and try it! Colleen got my launch as did some skiers. Woodside Report - Derek and about 15 other pilots flew Woodside today. The first round of flights were extended sledders as the winds started to pick up and the thermals started to form. The second flight had pilots up for over an hour with many complaining of cold hands. Alex flying off into the sunset tonight. Thanks to Claudia and others for the pictures I scraped off the WWW. Reports from Bennie of 2 hour flights from 10 pilots flying there. Spring is just around the corner!
1-22-2021	FlyBC is heading to Sun Peaks for a week	Kamloops Forecast Sun Peaks Forecast: Sunny with cloudy periods. Wind northwest 10 to 15 km/h. High near minus 11 C.	Sun Peaks: 050° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 1800 metres	Woodside Report - FlyBC is at Eagle Ranch today until 4 pm, but no flying today as it was howling out of the North at 50 kph.
1-21-2021	FlyBC is at Eagle Ranch on January 21	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 8. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 190° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - FlyBC was at Eagle Ranch today after noon but it was blown out with strong NW winds (outflow). But Brad had another good day at Sun Peaks. Sun Peaks Flight Report - Launch @1pm lovely light cycles up. Clear blue skies. Forecast was light north winds. - 11 when I launched but sunny radiant heat helped. Caught an everlasting thermals just past the Crystal chair to the left. Soared up to launch height again and again, could have gone higher but my hands were toast in 20 minutes. Continued soaring for 30 minutes easy smooth thermal but the cold capped my earnest. Decided to fly home to the Sunpeaks East village and landed behind my place. Cold mid winter thermals, two words unexpected and awesome!! I going to the specialty store in the village and getting -20 mitts and boot covers - Brad Summary : 43 minutes of winter beauty, lift sustained 1.9ms, top lift 3.5, max sink 3.5. Local paragliding friendly factor 9/10! Fun factor 8/10, need mitts! A nice shot of Brad flying by one of the local photographers. Brad's proof of a great flight and no collapses.
1-20-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 8. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 190° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - Brad and I met with the Sun Peaks Ski Patrollers today and I showed them some launch spots for different conditions. The best launch for light winds is the Crystal launch Point just below and between the Crystal Chair Line and the Burfield Chair Line. Remember you must remain 100 metres away from lift lines horizontally and vertically! This is the view SE from Crystal Launch down into the Valley. We had a "blue bird" day today! The location on the map is here. There is also an east facing launch at the top and just east of the Sunburst Chair on the OSV run. Layout to the east side of the run so skiers can see you. You can land on any of the Golf Course Fairways but we find Hole 10 is the easiest access back into the Village or back to the Chair Lifts. Brad launched first today after we gained approval from the Ski Patrollers. He had a duff that looked like he might have snagged a brake line on the snow but I reset his wing and he was off and thermalling around.
1-19-2021	FlyBC is at Eagle Ranch on January 19	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 8. UV index 2 or low.	Woodside: 190° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Terry came out for lessons but it was too cold with strong NW winds so we just did Ground School, no one flew.
1-18-2021	FlyBC is at Woodside today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - I had a new student starting P-1 Lessons today and we had to fire up the Barn fireplace to run ground school lessons. Terry was very attentive and we had a good simulator session before heading out to the LZ to kite. We had nice E winds at 10-15 kph and Terry did very well with his forward launches. He got pretty tired so we went up to Launch to watch Derek, Martin, Dennie, Andrei and Norm fly off as Bev offered to drive. Martin was off first and he got up right away. Derek was off next and he was "grovelling" on the South Knoll for 15 minutes before he climbed out above Martin. We drove down and restarted kiting and the winds switched to NW in the LZ. We watched Derek, Norm and Martin land as the lift died after 1:20 of soaring for Martin.
1-17-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks this weekend but back at Eagle Ranch on January 18-19	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Report - Team Desperado was out flying at Woodside while we travelled back to the Ranch. Good reversible conditions at launch and in the LZ, with 5 pilots flying and some longer flights according to Bev.
1-16-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks this weekend but back at Eagle Ranch on January 18-19	Sun Peaks Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 240° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Sun Peaks Report - still no flying allowed yet at Sun Peaks but we are having a meeting with management on January 20 to get things approved. But the skiing has been great with small lift lines as the resort is operating at 20% capacity.
12-28-2020 to 01-15-2021	FlyBC is at Sun Peaks until January 17	Sun Peaks Forecast Woodside Forecast: Clearing this afternoon. High 6. UV index 1 or low.	Woodside: 040° @ 10 kph after 1 pm	-2.0°C (stable) 800 metres	Woodside Gloat Report - Colleen and I have been up at Sun Peaks since after Christmas skiing and snowshoeing staying away from the coastal rains. But the local "Desperado Team" led by Derek has been getting some flights in. Mostly "sleddies" in light outflow conditions this month but Derek, Martin, Andrei, Bev and Norm have been out several times and most flew. Today (January 16) was one of such days but this time it was lifty with some strong SW winds at launch. Derek had to remove a few fallen trees at the 3 km mark and others had hiked from there. The carpets were all torn up due to last week's windstorm but Tonya and others had repaired it pretty well by the time Derek's truck load had arrived on top. Martin launched first, followed by Derek and Claudia and later Andrei and Norm. Bev drove for the team. Apparently it was quite lifty and they could cloudsurf up the front of the growing CU. Claudia as usual got some great shots of the flying action. It is going to be hard to identify the pilots involved as Derek and Martin have new Ozone Swift 5 gliders and I can't remember what they ordered? It was lifty for their entire 1:41 flights and they arrived at FlyBC Eagle Ranch at 600 metres to land in smooth conditions. Derek said it was not even that cold in the air. Spring is just around the corner!