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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archives" - April/2010
Woodside for flying around noon, Bridal later after 4 pm
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Woodside Report - good weather . . . if you had "balls of steel"! We finished our Indoor Sessions after lunch and headed out to the Kiting area of Eagle Ranch to train the new students: brock and Lorne. Lorne is an old pro after 4 hours of kiting last week and 3 tandems but it as still hard work as the gliders got wetter and wetter and heavier. In the end of the 2 hour session both Brock and Lorrne looked pretty strong. We made a trip to the top with Alex R, Tonya, Ed R and myself but it was blowing pretty darned strong. And cold with clouds ripping by launch. We waited 30 minutes and drove down. Even around 6pm, it was still blowing hard on top. So no flying but great ground school sessions for the Instructor Candidates. Mexican HG Nationals Report - Last week we had the Mexican Hang Gliding Nationals. This year it was one FAI-2 comp of 7 days, held at the launch site of San Marcos, Jalisco State. It is a beautiful mountain take-off with a big dry lake in front and a spectacular view to "the volcano of fire" with its snowed peak at 4,200 meters. There were thirty pilots flying, with ten of them international pilots. 
HGers queued up on San Marcos Launch - photo by Rodrigo 
A competitor launches off San Marcos Launch - photo by Rodrigo Results: 1- Rodrigo de Obeso, MEX, Litespeed RS 4 2- Rodrigo Russek, MEX, Litespeed RS 4 3- Erick Salgado, MEX, Litespeed S 4.5 Mexican HG Nationals Location - this launch location is where our FlyBC Mexican Tours operates from in the afternoons on west wind days, but we usually only saw 5-6 m/s in the January-February timeframes (much more manageable than 15 m/s!!)
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Woodside Report - Woodside worked again after 4 pm, and the tandems and solos logged an hour landing at the Ranch. Another flight later was almost soarabe for some. | 
Tandems at Woodside today - photo by JPR
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Blanchard Report - Al called around noon to ask what Woodside was doing and I couldn't lie to him. It was either sunny or rainy, depending on how often you looked up,
very changeable. So I told him to head to Blanchard for a safe bet. | Al later messaged me to say that he and Matt J flew to Bellingham and landed at Mud Bay. Woodside Report - it was a very changeable day with lots of OD'ing and rain showers at times, so Norm and I went to Subway instead of flying in the rain like Dennis (on his My Stick 2). I instead installed the logos on the new Van between showers and did some other chores. 
The new Van is logo'ed up and has a new VHF base station installed - photo by JPR It didn't look quite soarable, as it was quite north but I laid out the Ozone R09 and after a few flubs was off and climbing. I was soon thru 900 meters to the north and I watched Alastair launch and chase me around for a bit and then he top-landed (for gloves or such) and then re-launched. I was keeping my eye on Harrison Bay for wind as the forecast said "Windy in the afternoon". Brad M also launched and was soon climbing too. After 45 minutes, I started setting up a top-landing to keep getting lifted to 800 meters. GPS was showing 10 kph on the R09! I saw an ominous cell forming by Cultus Lake and it was heading our way and all I could think was "GUST FRONT"! I was now at 1000 meters over Riverside and still climbing so I headed to Hopyard Hill. GPS now saying 63 kph on the crosswind glide. I crossed over Hopyard with plenty of height and started climbing on the south side as I approached Agassiz. A few turns on the way there showed me the wind speed and direction, west at 25 kph. When I came over the High School there was a game going on and it was quite chunky over town, so I bailed over to the Research Farm for a nice landing near the main offices. I interrupted Derek's dinner (sorry) and he came and drove me up to get my car at Woodside. Both Brad and Alastair had finally top-landed with some drama, so I made the right call on heading to Agassiz. The storm cell did not get to Woodside until I was at the top again so it was little threat ultimately. My iPhone tracklog from today openable in Google Earth right click and save it to your desktop to open in Google Earth. 
Soaring the R09 at Woodside - photo by Alastair
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Whidbey Island Excursion - we left Woodside's beautiful blue skies and developing CUs around 10 am and headed south. Derek, Martina & I in Derek's Dodge, Lucien in his car and Al ("the Hammer") followed later in his rig. | If it was nice at Blanchard we thought we would fly there first, but it was blowing 50-60 kph on the highway and the wind was blowing the truck around. Not good at Blanchard! We continued on Hwy 20 towards Whidbey and it was still howling. Nice CUs here too! But way too windy! We crossed the Deception Pass Bridge and it was still windy from the South, arriving at Fort Ebey to: NO WIND! We took a drive to re-live the days when one could fly Ebey's Landing and it was windier there, but not soarable. so back to Fort Ebey to wait. Eventually the wind picked up and the kiting started. Briefings included a warning about the "Dangerous Ditch" that someone has created there since my last trip down, which crosses the entire launch area from East to West. 
FlyBC was researching dangerous ditches around flying sites - photo by JPR Martina got her feet in the air a few seconds but I missed it. Al had better luck, once he got to the edge as it was NW and crossing too much for decent lift to that point. 
WCSC President Al T got in the air several times today - photo by JPR 
Martina was flying the Bullet XT-16 this afternoon - photo by JPR Tandem Pictures from Sunday's Tandem Group - Kevin says this is the highest tandem flight he has done, and the most fun with Leanne. 
Kevin and Leanne at 'base over Harrison Mills BC click on the picture for a high res version and for more Tandem Pics - photo by Leanne Ozone Marketing Campaign in UK - apparently Ozone UK has recruited some "taggers" to spread the word! 
Graffiti artists spreading the Ozone Gospel in the UK - photo by Google Search
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Woodside Report - good day for kiting in the blustery NW winds, which is what Ryan K did most of the day, but it never got flyable. | Louise's Blanchard Weekend Report - When reports of the valley were looking questionable on Friday, Andrei and I drove down to Blanchard. After a few calls, we met up with some local pilots and were soon preparing to get into the air. I launched first and after a few passes, was able to look down on launch. The cycles were starting to kick in and soon there were more wings in the sky. Conditions were, strong ridge lift intermixed with some thermals. We soared for well over an hour when it started to pick up even more and we needed bar to make it back to the LZ. 
Louise`s view from Blanchard - photo by Louise Saturday, even though it started dismal and rainy, proved to be the best day. By far the best flying day I’ve seen at Blanchard. 
Hangie over Blanchard Hill - photo by Louise Several loads of hangies preceded us to launch with a few more loads of paras hot on their heels. I counted fifteen wings in the air at one point. Looked like the eagles were also making up for lost play time over the winter months, a pair were putting on an acro show, while darting in and out between the various gliders. 
Eagles over Blanchard Hill - photo by Louise After some additional play time, a few wings could be seen making their way over to Chuckanut Mtn. I decided to join in on the trek, and soon we were making our way along the coast, over Larrabee State Park and on towards Bellingham. Five of us made it, surprisingly all on Ozone Wings. With a few more calls, retrieve were soon organized and we were all happily back on our way to rejoin the rest of the gang for a well deserved beer and some food. 
Nick & Beckie over the Bay - photo by Louise Sunday’s flying was capped by some high level cirrus, and the best anyone got was an extended sleddie to the LZ. 
Louise over the Bay - photo by Louise All in all, a fantastic weekend of flying with the Boundary Bay crew, a few from Seattle and Andrei, Al and myself from the Canadian side - Cheers, Louise 
The Bellingham XC Crew back at Blanchard`s LZ - photo by Pam 
The flight log from 04-24-10 - photo by Google Earth
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Woodside Neener-Neener Report - on advice from Martin Henry we have renamed the "Woodside Gloat Report" the "Woodside Neener-Neener Report" for those who chose not to come flying today! | We had 7 tandems booked with some lovely folks from the Meet Market Adventure Co. and Kevin, Brad, and Alex volunteered to help out. In the end they did all the tandems as we had one passenger pull a calf muscle trying to run off on the first session and I had to nurse her most of the day hoping she could fly later, but we decided she would come back for another day. The first tandems went off around 12:30 pm, and they got high immediately in the strong leeside lift. Many solo pilots were also flying and got very high too. The new Harrison Mills thermal was working again today near Duncan's and Rob H took it to cloudbase several times. 
Tandems from FlyBC flying at Woodside today - photo by JPR Launch conditions deteriorated after the tandems flew flight #1, and it took a long time to get solo pilots off, but magically as the tandem pilots came back for flight #2 it switched again to inflow. Magic! Martin H and Martin N flew over the back to Agassiz Mountain and reappeared back at Woodside about 30 minutes later. Thomm M also went over the back but decided to keep going and "had his ass handed to him" landing in the Harrison Lake Gap in strong outflow winds? Later Martin H, Justin K, Nicole and Norm headed west over Sasquatch and we lost radio contact with them. Martin H flew back to Woodside landing in some blueberry fields near Mill Road and had to do the "Walk of Shame", while Nicole, Justin and Norm landed in Mission near Justin's home. 34 kms as the crow flies. 
Nicole's Flight path (34 kms straight line, but with a dog-leg up Sylvester Valley) - photo by Google Earth The second set of tandems were magical too with all tandems getting to cloudbase, with Kevin topping out at 2000 meters getting above 'base for a picture session. I had to drive the remaining passengers down so I had to live vicariously therough the others :-( 
Rob's new Ozone R10.3 flying its maiden voyage - photo by JPR Rob got his new Ozone R10.3 Comp Ship and had to launch it in leeside cycles and was all over the valley for 1:30 testing it out. Fast trim speed, but he didn't test the speed bar today. We were done by 4:30 pm, save a couple of retrieves as there were many trucks on top today. Over 30 PGers today and only one HGer (Tom) who stayed up for 2 hours +, landing at the Ranch as he thought it was "too snotty" over the HG LZ. I think he was just lonely. Bridal Report - Alan launched early around noon and scratched out a tough 45 minutes landing with 4 other pilots who weren't that successful at staying up. Tough launching conditions too. Many came over to Woodside after that to taste some of the great leeside lift.
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Woodside Report - I left around noon cause it was raining hard, to do some chores in Vancouver and pick up the new Ozone Mantra R10.3 for Rob Samplonious! Hopefully he can get a test flight in tomorrow. | Reports of an outlander in Duncan`s around 4 pm, so I am not sure who was flying but they better get their $20 ready. Blanchard Gloat Report - Al phoned to say that the Ozone Team all flew from Blanchard Hill to Bellingham today. Team members: Al - Addict II, Doug M - Addict II, Delvin - Addict II, Louise - Rush II, Nick - Geo II, Beckie - Geo II all flew into south Bellingham and landed at a school. Pam was retrieving them back to get their cars. Nice flying!! TJ`s Blanchard Post Frontal Report - 6 paraglider pilots flew to Bellingham and I flew with 5 others for an hour and 1/2 in delightful big-Ebey conditions at Blanchard. I spent an hour above the top of Blanchard Mt, in smooth big lapse rate aided ridge lift. Becky, Nick, Delvin, Louise (White Rock), and Bob all landed at Fairhaven Middle School while Doug landed at Boulevard Park. Delvin, Doug and Louise were the only ones from an early first flush who went back for more. There were still 7 or more hangs in the air, but they vanished for long periods of time as they zoomed about - TJ 
Flight path for the Ozone Team from the Hwy 11 marker north to Fairhaven District in Bellingham (14 kms of no-where-to-land) - photo by JPR
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Woodside Report - an awesome day unfolded despite the gloomy forecast. | Martina was knocking off some more practice tandems with Jason and Heiko. Ryan K from the Interior showed up with his sister Diane, and they were camping at Chehalis and flying today. Ryan has only had a few mountain flights since being signed off with us last November, and he did really well getting at least 2 hours of airtime today. Diane went for a tandem flight and really enjoyed it, and we were going to get her another flight at 4 pm, just before it blew out. Luc from Gambier was here with Lou, to see how paragliding worked and we had an awesome tandem at around 2 pm. We launched into a nice cycle and we followed two eagles around the north cliffs and they took us to cloudbase almost immediately. Derek and another pilot on a red Aeros were duking it out with us and the birds for most of the flight. 
Derek with an eagle chasing him over the North Towers - photo by JPR Derek had mentioned how nasty the thermals were behind launch, and my helmet cam video proved that as the image was much shakier than normal. We headed further out so Luc could fly the tandem and the lift was actually smoother and stronger out front. 
A view of the North Towers from the tandem - photo by JPR Landing at the Ranch was fairly smooth with some bubbles on final to make us miss the spot, but Luc was a good runner. Apparently Heiko chose to surf in the landing with Martina just before us, but we missed it. We went for lunch and by the time we got back to launch around 4:30 pm, it was blown out but unfortunately Rick H had launched and was pinned onto the hill. Speedbar and calm nerves got him to a point where he could ``turn & burn`` towards Harvest along with 4 other pilots.
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Woodside Report - Alex R, Ryan L and I headed up to launch around noon, to find pretty strong cycles but Alex R launched his Ozone Addict II into a nice lull and was climbing fast without a turn.
He got to 1000 meters and near 'base before he started to do any turns to maintain his forward penetration. | He radioed that it was okay for me but not for Ryan as this would be Ryan's 30th flight. That was all well and good, except that there were "freight train thermals" racing through launch threatening to knock over trees. It was coming straight in however. So I waited for a lull and launched cleanly and was soon going straight up and a bit backwards so I got on the speedbar immediately and was soon through 800 meters. Oddly, there was poor ridge lift and only the wind-blown thermals were keeping me up. When you fell out of the thermals it was "sink-city", and going straight down over the trees! Yikes! I spent 15 minutes maintaining my height at 800 meters, but couldn't get any higher so I headed to the south most part of the South Knoll where a cloud was forming and climbed there before heading to Harvest. Ryan was driving the Suzuki down to Harvest, and then we were heading to Bridal. 
Heading towards Cemetary Hill on the Ozone Mantra I going about 65 kph downwind - photo by JPR With the tailwind I had and the fact that we have to land in the west Harvest Market field, I didn`t tag Cemetary Hill, rather I thermalled over the flats but it was pretty windy so an upwind setup to land was the call today. 
Heading towards Harvest Market where you can see the normal LZ is in new grass or hay seed - photo by JPR I setup for a midfield landing to avoid the creek, powerlines and barns and it went well. Not so strong on the ground due to the wind gradient, but one never knows. Alex was right behind me and landed pretty much in the same spot. He logged about 45 minutes, to my 22 minutes and we were happy to have survived as it had picked up during my flight. We packed up and headed to Bridal. Bridal Report - we met Derek, Martina, Al, Rob S, and Alan at the Bridal LZ where they were mowing the swamp LZ. Your 2010 WCSC Directors working hard for you today!  
 
 
Everyone took a turn doing the relay mowing, only Derek and I weren`t captured on film, but we aren`t directors either. We loaded up Kevin A`s new Tundra with a load of pilots and headed to the top. It was pretty strong at launch and Alex decided to take the Bullet XT-16 for a ride. It was a good call as we couldn`t see the strength of the thermals south of launch but they were ``pounding the trees`` over there when he was flying and you could see the turbulence even in the highly loaded Bullet. 
Alex flying the Bullet XT-16 Cross Terrain Glider at Bridal - photo by JPR He managed a number of passes before the sink got to him, and he headed out to land in the freshly mown Swamp. It had clamed down in the LZ, so Derek loaded up his truck and brought a group up to launch along with Alex. I was feeling a bit sick from a cold and decided to forgo a flight lending Rob S my Mantra M1, and Al started off the flights here and was seen heading to Alan`s Ridge. Alex, Rob, Kevin and Derek followed Al and they were soon all at 1500 meters and al even managed a Upper Launch top-landing. Alex deemed the air to be pretty smooth for Ryan`s 30th flight so he was getting ready when it started blowing down at 6:15 pm. We waited and waited and it just started to bubble up calling for an aggressive launch, and Ryan brought his Ozone Buzz up smoothly and kited it for a second before powering into the ``best launch of the day``!. we was soon climbing and heading towards Upper Launch but the wind was still pretty strong from the south, so he wasn`t doing any turns but climbed to 1400 meters near launch. I headed down to talk him into the LZ and arrived to see him still at 1400 meters. Alex had landed after coming straight in from the west side of Cheam without a turn on full bar. Al was doing all kinds of maneuvers to come down. Derek landed and then Rob, and we saw Kevin heading towards Woodside at 800 meters. We had suggested Ryan get far upwind so he crossed over to Rosedale and he radioed back that he was climbing all the way. Classic ``glass-off`` had setup, hence the down cycles at launch. Kevin was already over Harvest Market on his Ozone Mantra M3, and hadn`t lost any altitude on the crossing so we suggested Ryan should head over to Agassiz and he crossed the River at 1400 meters and started to head west to Harvest. I was following him on radio and saw him cross over Hopyard Hill and then to the north of Cemetary Hill. Kevin was already landed at Harvest when I arrived, saying it wasn`t pleasant trying to head further west to Riverside. The wind was switching to SE so I grabbed a roll of toilet paper for a wind streamer and showed Ryan the direction and landed nicely in Harvest West Field just before legal dark. Off to Jack`s for dinner before they closed to celebrate Ryan`s 30th flight and a great XC.
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Vancouver Report - it looked ugly in the Valley so I stayed in Vancouver doing errands all day, and getting some needed rest time to fight a cold, but it looked good later at Woodside on the Webcam. |
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Woodside Report - the forecast soarable winds didn't touch down until it started raining around 2 pm, but it was flyable before that. | FAI has received the following Class O (Hang Gliders) World record claim: ================================================ Claim number : 15907 Sub-class :O-3 (Paragliders) Category: General Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 25 km Course/location : Aiguebelette, Savoie (France) Performance : 44.35 km/h Pilot : Charles CAZAUX (France) Paraglider : R 10 / Ozone Date :20.04.2010 Current record : 41.15 km/h (23.07.2006 - Charles CAZAUX, France) ================================================ The details shown above are provisional. When all the evidence required has been received and checked, the exact figures will be established and the record ratified (if appropriate).
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Woodside Report - the forecast was all wrong with high cloud coming in by 10 am, blocking any thermal producing heat, so we skipped going up Bridal. | Martina has her eye on getting her tandem licence fast, so she was out again with Martin N & Wylie both ready to be passengers, with Wiley getting first dibs as it was rather light at launch. Martina had a good reverse launch and a few turns above launch. Tom C was the star today, scratching around for 20 minutes before landing at Riverside. A few others flew off as I drove down to save the retrieve. Everyone had appointments around 4 pm, so we didn't go up again but I think Andrea G may have gotten her first flight in 4-5 years, as Martin N offered to drive her up.
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Woodside Tandem Report - great day for tandems with Martina starting early at 10 am, taking Ihor twice. | By noon, Woodside was very crowded with lots of hangies and baggers occupying launch. We had a 50th Birthday party for Ken arriving at noon, with 5 tandems to complete and Kevin and Colleen were doing the pilot duties with myself. Colleen's first tandem was a bit short as the cycles were not quite there, so Ken got 2 flights as she got him well above launch on tandem #2. Kevin took Ken's daughter Chloe on the second tandem and they snagged an interesting thermal over Duncans that took them almost back to launch when the valley winds switched to North. Later as many as 6 gliders were in that same thermal later, best guess it was coming off the corn field west of Eagle Ranch. Kevin's last flight with Max was even longer and she was all smiles when they landed. 
Colleen and Ken on the Magnum 38 over Duncan's with Kevin and others in the weird Valley thermal - photo by JPR Martina came back later and did a tandem with Cynthia, and I took new student Lorne for a evening sledder as he is getting ready for solo flight soon. Bridal Report - Bridal was working pretty well later, as Derek flew all over the place eventually landing at home in Agassiz. Al made a low save near Gloria that amazed many! Best altitude here was 1700 meters, to make up for the lame launching conditions earlier. Al and Brad H top-landed at Upper Launch in the snow. Miguel and Nikolai had long flights out to the Butterfly and back, while others were "knob-bobbing". Blue Grouse Kelowna) Report - I was driving my daughter to Price George this weekend and we decided to take a road trip. 
Brad and Melanie at Blue Grouse Launch - photo by Christine We ended up at Okanagan Lake where we knocked of some tandems from Blue Grouse, one of the main OK sites across the lake from Kelowna. 
Brad and Melanie in the air at Blue Grouse - photo by Christine Our 2 flights were mostly sledders but really beautiful as you fly over the lake. Both the LZ and the launch are in great condition. Drive time to launch is about 20 minutes. Our afternoon was wineries, wine testing! - Brad
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Woodside Report - Martina took Martin N tandem around noon, and just as they clipped in it started to sprinkle. Undaunted, Martina took off anyway and they had a good launch and solid landing, although Martin was looking like a "drenched cat" at the bottom. | After tuning up the Van and replacing an offending ignition coil I took it for a drive up Bridal. It was blowing down there. So off to Woodside for some firewood gathering with Thomm and Derek, and they flew off afterwards at about 6 pm. Thanks for the hard work, guys! and thanks for mowing the Bridal Swamp yesterday too Derek! 
Thomm just off Woodside last night, pretty clouds below - photo by JPR
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Testimonial Contest Winner Announced - Matt Jesson was awarded his Ozone Oxygen Hiking Harness for his best testimonial from last May's Contest. There were so many good entries that it was a tough decision, but Matt prevailed in the end.
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Matt Jesson and his new harness from Ozone Canada & FlyBC (Ozone Gliders Largest Canadian Dealer) - photo by Rob H. Banjo Report - we were up on Banjo Launch around 1:00 pm, and it was cycling in, but not strong so we waited. There was a defined inversion layer at 800 meters. Alex R was first to clip in and there were a few issues with the short runway, but he got in the air around 2:00 pm, to find a significant headwind and he landed on the road near 3 kms. After seeing that I packed up and we all drove down. More reconn flights needed when it is more thermic. After that it was off to Woodside, where folks were getting up but not high and not for long. Bridal Report - Alan flew for a bit and then top-landed to drove Derek's truck down. Kevin reported 2 hours of flight time and topping out at 1100 meters.  Ozone celebrates Luc's win in Italy on his own design - the Ozone R10.2 Ozone Delta News for those waiting for their 2010 wing refresh, it is nearing production status and worth the wait! Ozone R10 PG Forum Link - wow, interesting reading for those interested in Comp Gliders
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Woodside Report - Martina logged her first tandem flight as "pilot-in-command" today with Rob Harding as passenger. | Strongish conditions on launch but they launched nicely in a lull and were soon climbing through 930 meters without turning much. 
Martina and Rob at Woodside Launch - photo by JPR Norm launched right after Martina and was also climbing but not so fast or as high, despite Martina's high wing loading. He eventually got above the tandem. 
Martina and Rob at Woodside flying above Norm - photo by JPR After 35 minutess of thermalling around, Martina took the Maple Tree approach into Eagle Ranch and had time for one 90 degree turn onto a short final as it was quite windy from the south. Nice touchdown with 4 feet firmly planted to not get dragged. Norm decided to spend a little longer in the air, and unfortunately took too long as he was getting trashed on final right to the ground landing in a heap. We stopped on our way up to Banjo Launch to watch the carnage! He was okay but didn't like the turbulence. Later in the day, Derek called me and we went up Woodside for a late afternoon flight. When we arrived at launch around 5:30 pm it was getting quite light and we had some work getting in the air as the cycles weren't very straight. I was flying the venerable Ozone Mantra M1 and Derek was on his Ozone Addict II, and I launched first with Derek right after me. I caught a thermal near Lower Launch and was working it hard, while Derek was higher near launch and we weren't geting any higher. I went over to the large clearcut and was working the lower fringes but just maintaining when I caught a small thermal that took me towards the South Knoll where I could work the gulleys. Slowly we started working together and we were gaining height but after 20 minutes of scratching we still weren't getting above the Knoll. I went back to the clearcuts and the thermals there were weaker, and eventually at 400 meters I bailed towards the Ranch. Derek landed a few minutes after me for a grand total of 35 minutes this evening, but we had to drive back up to retrieve as we couldn't top-land - Jim Not a bump until the construction site and there was a little lift to carry me into the Stonehenge Circle. Nice landing conditions now with light east. Banjo Launch Update - we located the spot Justin had scoped out a week ago, a SW facing clearcut at 740 meters on the east side of Chehalis River Valley. Nice road up, a bit rugged in some places requiring 4x4 but overall a good road. Martina, Al, Rob H and I went up there to scope out LZs and terrain, with no intention of flying after watching Norm's landing in strong South winds. There are nice LZs below in a clearcut with road access and on a soarable day Chehalis Band Ball Fields are within glide once you get to the south end of the ridge and they are PG friendly there after Andy and I landed there 4 times over several years. 
The view from Banjo Launch north to the Mt. St. Benedict and Shotgun - photo by Martina We are likely going to do some reconn flights here this spring to test the air. We saw a crow climb out from a clearcut and it was smooth despite the strong south flows today. We are hoping this valley is out of the Fraser valley flows that often shut down flying in mid-day due to strong winds. Sign up now for test pilot duties.
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Chehalis Reconn Report - I found the right road up Chehalis East today and confirmed early reconn trips by Justin that he found a launch site at 700 meters in a new clearcut. | Woodside Report - a very good day for many pilots who got out today. Ryan L got out after a 6 month hiatus and was rewarded with 3+ hours of soaring for his 28th and 29th flights toward his Novice ticket. Nice flying! James F was burning up the skies on his Gangster, showing us how tight it would thermal (almost spiralling up!). I finally got in the air on the R09 around 3:00 pm and it was pretty "rock & roll" around the north cliffs and I heard Rob and Al were heading up so I "top-landed" so Rob could take the R09 XC-flying with the other pilots. Al, Alex, Rob had triangles in mind. In the end: Al made it to Ruby Creek, Alex to Bridal and west towards Gloria, Rob went the other way and was at the Sandpiper Golf Course Airstrip where Ian J retrieved him. 
Woodside from the Ozone Mantra R09 just before top-landing - photo by JPR A later flight I took the Mantra M1 out for a flight with "sky-dogs" Mike D on his Zoom and Ryan on his Buzz, with Ryan getting one last big climb out of the north bowl. I went in to grab some of it and almost got into trouble as it fizzled when I got there! 
Mike D at Woodside on his Gin Zoom Race, from the Ozone Mantra R09 as I climbed out (he logged 2+ hours today) - photo by JPR In the end about 12 pilots flew Woodside and an equal number at Bridal. Cloudbase was about 1200 meters all day. Bridal worked later around 5:00 pm, where Woodside was working from noon on with more sun and instability earlier. Nikolai and Alan were doing the "Butterfly to Elk" route, and Miguel was able to top-land to drive down at the end of his flight. Wouter's Easter Holiday - Everythings doing well here, the weather is changing into something flyable finally so we get back into towing pretty soon. This report is a little late but me and Johannes drove to Italy during the long easter weekend. At first the plan was France but the weather was forecasted to be crap everywhere except Bassano, Italy. After a long drive with lots of traffic jams in Germany we arrived to see a paraglider and hangglider filled sky because of the Montegrappa Comp. During most of the days we had perfect conditions and Johannes got to fly ten flights which he needed for his license. The dutch school I sometimes fly tandems for was there and guided him if he needed it and the team and students was a great group of people to hang out with. The italian food is excellent and cheap, the espresso's strong! Bassano is known to be a very reliable flyingsite, it's really on the south side of the Alps and the mountains rise from the flats pretty steep. The sun heats those mountains and together with some inflow winds from the flats it generates strong thermals in sort of a "microclimate". When most of the alps are blown out or have Fohn this is the place to be! - Wouter
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Valley Report - the day started out okay but when I headed to chilliwack for errands around 2:00 pm, it went bad with light rain and fog. Cloudbase lifted above Woodside around 5:00 pm, but other points were "socked in". | I decided a reconn trip was in order to find the new launch areas created last year by logging on the east side of the Chehalis Valley. Unfortunately the fog was so bad I lost my bearings and was way far up the Chehalis River well past Hemlock Resort. See Google Earth Image below. 
Track log from my adventure looking for the Chehalis Launch denoted by the placemarker, the bailout LZ would be the Chehalis Ball Fields, with Bill Best and Eagle Ranch as alternates. - photo by JPR Another trip tomrrow morning on the right roads should yield better results in the sun.
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Woodside Wacky Weather Report - it was howling from the NE again today, so chores day at the Ranch. | Congratulations to Martina Lang who wrote her Advanced PG Exam today and passed nicely. Rob S was in attendance for the debriefing portion and did a great job explaining polar curves and their importance to Martina. Around 4:00 pm, the wind switched to inflow and by 5:00 pm it was soarable, but we had a plan to attend the "Climb for Prostate" Video presentation in Chilliwack at 7:00 or 7:30, so we did not want to risk being late. Kevin Ault created a beautiful video that almost made you feel like you were there for the training hikes and the real climb up Aconcauga (without the blisters and frostbite). 
The Climb for Prostate Team on stage at GWG School in Chilliwack - photo by JPR The winds brought in some rain by 9:00 pm, so it looks like another day of not flying until Wednesday which looks sunny with outflow/leeside winds hopefully not so strong!
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Kamloops Report - Al, Matt J and Matt S flew the "Dome" with Ed and the Kamloops Fliers today. I believe a record of three flights each was accomplished, just extended sledders but a good site intor for the boys. | There was no flying around Woodside as the North winds were pounding in at 40 kph all day long, and just as strong at Sumas. There was one Red Bull Athlete flying in Greece!
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Savona Desperado Reports - we were completely blown-out in the Fraser Valley today with 40-60 kph NE winds at Woodside. | A crew was assembled and headed to Savona from Vancouver, Kamloops and other points. 
Desperados at the Punch Bowl near Savona - photo by Terry B We met first at the Dump Ridge in Savona, as Ed called that it was east there. You have to hike up now as the gate was wired shut last year due to off-road bikers causing too much erosion. The wind was nicely "kiteable" but not soarable, but some folks got some great practice on the ridge there. We went up to Deadman's Launch with a group but it was crossing too much from the NE so back down we went. 
Desperados on the Dump Ridge near Savona (Harold, Dave, Alex W, Unidentified Paratoys Pilot) - photo by Terry B We decided to go to the Punch Bowl just west of the gas station, but apparently the neighbours are not fond of paragliders, except for where we launched from. There is one neighbour at the bottom that Ed went to visit and he said it was okay to land there, but the rest of the neighbours have horses that are a bit skitterish. 
Desperado Dave (DD) on the Punch Bowl Ridge near Savona with Matt J launching - photo by Terry B Dave got the first flight in with some soaring and a road landing to save the hike, followed by Matt J who was voted "Sky-Pig of the Day" for his advanced soaring skills. 
Matt J (Ozone) on the Punch Bowl Ridge near Savona - photo by JPR Once Al saw Matt soaring he was rushing off launch too, and they were soon soaring out front. 
Matt J (Red Ozone) and Al the Hammer (Blue Ozone) on the Punch Bowl Ridge near Savona - photo by JPR The winds were lightening up, so we thought another trip up to Deadmans' was the call, with the others waiting at the bottom. Still too cross and no thermals. We headed down and the others were going to head to Kamloops but Al, Matt J, MattS, Norm, Thomm, Alex W and Nataliya, Dale and I headed to a new ridge right at the gas station called "Barbie Ridge" (more on that name later!!). 
Matt J (Red Ozone) on Barbie Ridge near Savona - photo by JPR This ridge is smaller than the Punch Bowl in height but longer in width. Hazards include junk at the bottom in a few piles and barb wire fences along the ridge with an opening to launch through. It was going well until an un-named Advance pilot did a touchdown on the ridge and his wing frontalled into the fence ripping a few holes, he was unscathed. A fairly advanced site, but Matt J flew for quite a few passes even with the lighter winds. 
Matt J (Ozone) on the Punch Bowl Ridge near Savona - photo by JPR Gerry's Woodside Report - Gerry L claims his Swift can handle any winds! Swift's Rule! 
Gerry Lamarsh at Woodside today (sure!) - photo by JPR Kevin and Richard`s Pitt Lake Kayaking Report - the intrepid duo were heading up Pitt Lake for a kayak adventure when Mother Nature threw them a rough ride, forcing them to turn back. Those that know Kevin and Richard know this must have been some serious wind and waves!
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Woodside Report - we had high hopes for the day and we met at noon at the Ranch for the first load - Martin N, Mark T. new student Lorne, and several others were raring to go flying. | Martin launched first and was soon above launch in a nice little snow squall and doing really well. The winds switched on launch to NW and Martin was immediately plummeting towards the bailout swamp. He caught a few bumps on the way into the Ranch and just squeaked in. Hmmm? I guess that snow squall dumped some cold air. Snow storms on Woodside Launch today. Martin was soon back on launch catching a ride with Al and after the snow left us, they were ready to fly again. Lorne and I drove down after they launched to get some warmer clothes and the tandem gear. The cycles of pilots flying off went on with no one really staying up, as the sun never broke through. Bridal was more in the sun and several gliders were spotted flying over there but not really staying high either. Then when we got back up for the tandem flight, we watched another group of pilots fly and get sledders until about 4:30 pm, when the sun broke through and we had solid thermic cycles and Lorne and I got set up to launch tandem. Lorne is not small weighing about 215 lbs, plus my weight plus three layers of clothing each so we were loaded to the max. We had a solid inflation and launch and we were going through some light lift but no beeps. I finally figured out that the vario had bumped into silent mode and I was into "seat of the pants" flying. I found a thermal near lower launch and it was small and ratty but it was our last hope so I worked it hard and we were soon climbing back to launch. We were soon above launch over the big clearcut.  Jim and Lorne climbing above Woodside today - photo by Martina Mark T had launched his Advance Sigma 6 and was working the same area as we got lift. Lorne & I were soon climbing thru 1000 meters and the turns weren't so tight and the lift got stronger as clouds were forming above us! The next top-out was at 1345 meters just below 'base. 
Jim/Lorne (red) and Mark T (blue) above Woodside - photo by Martina We were staying just above Mark and climbs "petered out" at 1400 meters but we weren't sinking either and we watched Derek and Al launch and they had to really work to climb out, at this point we were starting to descend too. Oh, and it was bloody cold even with three layers! The rest of the group launched and was either working hard or getting sledders, as Derek finally broke through and was above launch as we headed out to warmer air. Mark T hung in a while longer enjoying the nice thermals. 
Jim/Lorne heading out to Harrison Mills and warmer air - photo by Martina We had a nice landing at the Ranch into NW winds right near Stonehenge in the circle. Our flight lasted 40 minutes and we were totally iced up by then. We were packing up while the others all landed within a few minutes of each other. 
Colleen launching her Ozone Addict II off Woodside - photo by Derek We had to drive up to retrieve the FlyBC Van, so another group went up for sledders: Laura, Colleen, Martina and Mark T all flew while Derek and I drove down. 
Laura off Woodside on an Ozone Rush II - photo by Martina 
Martina off Woodside - photo by Derek
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Woodside Report - on the drive out past Lil Nic cloudbase was low and it was too strong to risk the hike up. I continued out to Woodside where it was super windy all day but around 6 pm, it calmed down and clouded over and the telescope view said it might be flyable. | 
Woodside today - photo by JPR
I decided to drive up alone as no one else was around, and arrived on top to nice cycles from the NW . . . but before I could do a further analysis it started to snow lightly. Then I saw gust lines on the Fraser River. After 10 minutes more a huge blizzard formed and the winds picked up to 40 kph. I drove down happy that I didn't hop in the air too soon.
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Lil Nic Report - I couldn't get any takers for a hike&fly adventure on Lil Nic today. Pilots were working or just plain worried about the rain and wind. In the end it was probably good conditions with SW winds and no precip til later. I may drive up there today to see if the road is gated yet. |
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Blanchard WA Report - another wild goose chase . . . that paid off! | I had to go to Bellingham to get a tire replaced and pick up some car parts at Les Schwab Tires anyway, and the weather in the Fraser Valley looked like crap, so a roadtrip was organized last minute. Derek and Martina were free so they decided to waste the day too. We took 2 trucks in case mine took too long to get serviced, and met on the US side of the Sumas Crossing after intense security by US Border Patrols ensuring that some paragliders were not a national threat. Doug M offered to drive as he was nursing a sore hip, and we met him at the Blanchard LZ at 1:30 pm. It was raining! We drove up the mountain and during the drive it was raining! We continues on as 3 HGers were setup on top and hopeful, and it started hailing! We continued on as this indicated instability! 
Clouds at Blanchard today - photo by Martina We arrived on launch and it was still raining, but we waited and it opened up by 3:00 pm. Nice inflow winds on the west launch and a soaring bird. Konrad, Local HGer had just launched and was climbing too. So I went to get my Mojo 3 L and was setup fast on the gravel and clipped in. The launch cycles called for an A-C launch and I was soon in the air climbing with 9-11 kph ground speed and steady climbs. 
Jim just off Blanchard West Launch and soaring above launch today, note killer dog "Rickie" looking for Rob to bite! - photo by Martina I climbed up to 200 meters over launch and speed was good, so I headed North to see if I could cross the gap but the South wind was pretty strong if one started sinking. One by one: Delvin, Derek, Martina, and Roger launched and were climbing followed by 5 more HGers. We were all climbing well for about 15 minutes and then the lift diminished and we were hunting for thermals on this small ridge. 
Roger on the orange wing just off Blanchard today - photo by Martina We were having to share the ridge in tight quarters and only a few near misses were noted: Derek and I were trying to thermal and ridge soar at the same time and had to do some evasive maneuvers to avoid each other and Konrad and I nearly had a "head-on collision" but we swerved at the right time (common theme was that I was involved in both incidents?) 
Martina and a HGer sharing the skies over Blanchard today - photo by Martina We bobbed around the sky for nearly an hour before I noticed the sun was more shaded and the wind more south and we were gradually losing height and the windline on the ocean were getting more defined, not capping yet but close. 
Blanchard Launch - photo by Martina I decided to test the penetration as I had the slowest glider/loading combination of today's group and I was heading out over the ocean and getting 8-10 kph on the GPS and climbing all the way. But one has little option here if you get blown back as there is no Harvest Market escape route, so I was vigilant on my path and speed control. 
Jim and a HGer heading upwind over Blanchard - photo by Martina At one point I was getting parked and started using speed bar which made a huge difference in forward motion and I started to lose height too which was needed as I was at launch height a few kms upwind of the LZ. 
Over Blanchard LZ - photo by Martina I spiralled down from a few hundred meters backing into the LZ and it was okay with little turbulence despite a 25 kph headwind over the road and dykes. By the time I packed up the rest of the crowd started heading out to land too, but the wind never really picked up any stronger. Off to the Long Horn Pub for lunch and beers with Delvin, Pam, Scott and Doug before heading north. Good road trip and a good place to fly in unstable days where the Fraser Valley socks in. Four hours of driving for a one hour flight but worth it. 
My flight log - photo by JPR
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Woodside Report - just like clockwork, the phone started ringing at 2:00 pm. Just as I was completing my nap. | The skies cleared at 2 pm, and we thought we were in for a sledder, but that was better than nothing. 
Taylore and Jim soaring around launch today - photo by Colleen Thomm arrived with daughter Taylore, followed by Martin N, Derek and Martina so we assembled a truckload of gear in the new White Van and Colleen joined us. We arrived on top at around 3 pm, to perfect cycles and blue skies to the west and a 1200 foot cloudbase with embedded CUs. Perfect! Taylore and I clipped in tandem, and we were first in the launch slot and we were off fast and climbing over the first clearcut. Strong lift and small at first so we had to crank it tightly, but as we climbed we could relax the turns and enjoy the views . . . until we "whited out". A few quick spirals and we were below 'base again and watching others launch. We saw Norm drive in after we launched and he was soon in the queue too. Martin N and Colleen were off right after us and soon soaring with us. Cycles were not as good as when we first launched so there was some spacing between launches, but we had no problem staying up . . . rather the problem was maintaining VFR flight with all the development. You could surf the cloud fronts and get even higher but then it was super cold. Eventually everyone got off launch but when Thomm and Norm went there must have been a sinky cycle, as Thomm never climbed at all and Norm stayed pretty low until getting out to the Valley, where we all climbed in a "magic railway thermal". Thomm ended up in Riverside.
The skies at Woodside today - photo by Colleen After about 45 minutes I was getting pretty cold, Taylore not so bad but we headed out to the Ranch and found the thermal forming over Kilby Road and the railway tracks that kept taking us up to 500 meters from down low when we were setting up an approach over Duncan's. Norm joined us and started turning the wrong way (left), and Martina came in low and found it at 130 meters and climbed out. It was steady and oval shaped from west to east and it was very predictable. 
Norm (lower) and Martina (higher) in the thermal at Harrison Mills today - photo by JPR We played in that thermal for 10-15 minutes and then flew out to the North to find sink to setup a landing to the west. No apparent wind on the socks but the prevailing was west wind and we had a nice landing at the circle. 
Derek and Martin landing together at Eagle Ranch - photo by JPR 
My flight log today with Taylore - photo by JPR Pepe Wins in Brazil, Again - March 2010 - from Ozone News
Top Canadian Brett Hazlett came in 4th place flying a borrowed Boom7 in Brazil!
Andreas ‘Pepe’ Malecki has made a strong start to the comp season, winning the Valadares Paragliding Open with his new Mantra R10.2! Pepe won 5 out of the 7 tasks and it was said that the R10.2 had a clear performance advantage over every other wing in the competition, although Pepe is not a stranger to winning comps in Brazil, where he stood on the podium barely one year ago for the PWC (click here). Congratulations Pepe, from all the Team, we’re so happy to have you flying Ozone and we’re glad you like your new wing Full Valadares Open Comp results here.  Andreas launching his Ozone R10.2 APCO Light Hiking Reserve Testing MayDay Light from Apco Aviation on Vimeo. 
APCO MayDay Superlight Reserve Container We have sold many of these great reserves, compact and light and they fit in all harnesses and containers easily. They are very affordable compared to some euro brands, and we stock them here at Eagle Ranch. The APCO front mount container that comes with them is the best I have seen in years.
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Savona Report - Norm called from Kamloops around 10:30 am, and said there was little wind on the river there, but the forecast was still for +30 kph east winds. | We didn't get any gloat reports until later as Norm, Bev and Wiley headed to Lumby and had a 20 minute sledder at coopers followed by a "booming flight" avoiding clouds around 2 pm, even the HGers drove down as conditions were not ideal! We decided it wasn't worth the drive up to Savona to sit in the cold winds, so we went straight up to Spences Bridge for dinner, where there was south winds on the Nicola River and no flying. Savona Report #2 - Went to Kamloops to visit. Deadman's on Saturday was howling. The Pimple on Sunday was howling, on the way home stopped at the Punch Bowl. It was howling plus. Stopped in Cache Creek for fuel and it was out of the south at about 3 kph. Go figure. Ate too much, slept a lot, froze, laughed a lot, slagged everyone in sight, visited with a lot of old faces and a few familiar faces. Left the wing in the trunk. All in all it was a typical Easter Meet Fly In - The Other Martin
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Woodside Report - one of the nice things about the weather this time of year is that if you don't like it . . . just wait 5 minutes and it will change! | I headed to Chilliwack to get some truck parts at Pick-a-Part and was fortunate that the rain stopped long enough to unbolt a fender. Then I was driving through rain, hail and occasional snow before getting back to Eagle Ranch where it was clearing up. Around 4:00 pm, just when I thought it might be flyable (I had already taken the telescope out) Derek called and he and Martina were heading over. Derek, Martina, Colleen and I drove up bundled up against the cold we expected on launch and it was cold! I had three layers on and then tried to fit into a small flight suit and could not get the zippers done up! 
Does this flight suit make me look fat? - photo by Martina Derek launched first and was just above launch for some time before sinking down to the construction site. 
Derek flying Woodside today on his Ozone Addict II - photo by JPR Colleen was up next and she headed to her favourite thermal and was climbing fast and then she headed back towards launch and lost the thermal. I later found out it was intentional as she was frozen without mitts. 
Colleen climbing out and freezing - photo by Martina Martina flew last and I decided to drive Derek's truck down as it didn't look that motivational at that point in the day, and I started to layer down to fit in the truck. Louise's Hawaiian Gloat Report - The flying has been incredible. Still have not had chance to get out and see the volcano, maybe tomorrow... The flying is a bit different here. What looks like thunder clouds that we wouldn't normally fly with, we do here. They are vog clouds, (volcano fog - think dark and ominous looking). It was again setting up to be and active day. Yesterday's last flight took me to cloudbase and beyond, I was thankful for the GPS - 240 is a great heading. After some time and a few more smaller cummies I was well on my way to the reefs and bay. Realizing I was still just below base, I turned around and started to play around with the clouds. What an experience. By this time there were only four of us left in the sky, Don was making his way for the "Brown Spot - the lava lz" and Peter was setting up for the church. Scotty was boating around with me. How much fun can one have in one flight. I motioned for the beach and Scotty followed. This part was fabulous. I flew out way over the ocean, beyond all the reefs and snorklers, looked for dolphins and whales and admired the Island view from the outside. After some more filming lost enough altitude to start setting up for a beach landing. Narrow beach here with palm trees leaning over. Large lava boulders the ebb out from the water until the sand line. Different feeling going on final over snorklers and kayakers, seeing fish down below and making sure you don't come up short. In the end the landing was perfect, to the appreciation of the beach dwellers expressed through cheers and applause, the wind safely lowered away from the water and a grin bigger than a cheshire cat's pasted on my face. Scotty soon joined me on the beach and after reliving some of the highlights of our flight, we packed our wings in the shade of the palm trees. Soon the other boys arrived with the truck for a ride back up to launch. On the way back, the skies opened up and a tropical downpour ensued, but there was no dampening our spirits after this flight. It ended as soon as it started, and I begun the task of drying tent gear :) - Cheers, Louise :) Will try for pictures later, though the puters here don't recognize my card.
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Woodside Report - we stayed at the Ranch and worked indoors while it rained all day, no flying in Savona either due to high winds except for 2 crazed HGers. |
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| Bridal Report - we took a few new students to Bridal today to challenge the new rules that said you must be an HPAC Intermediate to fly there! They did! The following story was the 2010 April Fool's Prank from Jim. Report on a recent WCSC Board Meeting - I am a bit dismayed that the current WCSC Board last month passed a motion to require all pilots flying Bridal Falls Launch (known as Lower Launch) to have HPAC Intermediate or equivalent USHPA P-3 ratings after: 1. a recent rash of outlandings on the Golf Course, 2. an injury accident in the Swamp LZ, 3. an injury accident on launch during a recent leeside day, 4. Complaints from advanced pilots that lower airtime pilots are not following ridge rules while "knob soaring". This motion is of course to promote safety, but limits the number of flying sites by 50% in the Valley. At least pilots flying Woodside can drive into Riverside now that the new road is in and the gate is installed for retrievals. I am waiting for backlash from certain pilot groups that frequent Bridal, but FlyBC can get you signed off to your Intermediate Rating quickly without a $500 fee. Call us at 604-618-5467 to book an exam session. ps: the part about getting your Intermediate Rating without a fee is true at FlyBC - if you have the required hours all you need to do is write the HPAC Exam and pass it. Announcing the New Baby BBHPPWill the innovation ever end? We think not! We’re proud to announce another revolutionary step forward in paraglider design: The Baby BBHPP. The Baby Baby High Performance Paraglider is another complex and magnificent project that the Ozone Test and Design Team have been working on. 
By drastically decreasing the surface area of the wing and using a highly advanced profile derived from extensive aerodynamic research, and then greatly reducing the overall line length, we have created a wing with truly record breaking performance. 
In the photos at right, we are allowing the public a sneak preview of the new Baby BBHPP, piloted in this instance by Cade, who is demonstrating the very benign ground-handling and flight characteristics of the wing. The smile on his face is a direct result of the wing’s extraordinary comfort and ease of use. While the performance and safety are something to admire, it doesn’t end there: The Baby BBHPP is so light and packable that it actually fits into your pocket, making it the ultimate wing for travel, mountaineering, hike and flies, and of course World Cup Competition. 
Stay tuned for more info and updates, but for now this is all we can tell you! Cheers from all the Team. ps: Happy April Fool's Day View Larger Map Tenancingo Report for Thursday April 1st - The same “perfect” small cumulus clouds as the last three days had formed in the Tenancingo valley by mid-day. I got off from work at 1:00. The lapse rate (for Toluca) was 2.1, not so strong as most of this season. By three I was up on launch, and it seemed that conditions were getting stronger just as I arrived. There were lulls but the gusts were a little too strong. Furthermore the cumies by launch were blown away, and the margins of the clouds in adjoining areas were getting broken up. I took a nap until around 5:00pm when Alfredo Carsolio and Daniel Pedraza arrived. The winds seemed to have dropped a little, but the cumulus clouds had cleared out of the skies in all regions. I set up to launch and had difficulty with keeping the wing in place because of intermittent cross winds from the right (west). I launched and the wing immediately centered to a strong cross wind to the right did not penetrate and was doing minor collapses in turbulent air. The Malinche can be deceptive that way. It can appear to be blowing in at launch but really be blowing cross, or even downwind. There was some ten minutes of full speed bar just maintaining and rising up to 2560 meters, where I did a 180 to jump over the back, but I was still flying cross to a strong wind there and could not penetrate, and set it down in an emergency LZ just behind launch in Terrenate. Typical for this unusual flying season. Moral, no use waiting for late in the day with these strong afternoon winds. Seems like flying earlier should have been the ticket - Daniel Miller Tenancingo Report for March 31st, 2010 - I have been wanting to start to leave a flight log once more, and this seemed like the most logical place to post it. I don't like the controls here, can't cut and past and the spell check does not work, but I will probably learn my way through it. I don't see that this blog has threads, but perhaps Bernie could figure out if we could have a thread for this log so as to not run over other CDP posts. 2010 has been a VERY differient year possibly everywhere in the world, but especially in Mexico as it pertains to paragliding weather. Since January I have been flying La Malinche several times per week, and until just a few days ago I have experienced NONE of the classic days of this season where one arrives to the Tenancingo valley and finds thermals, whereas usually 95% of the days in this season have been good paragliding thermal flying. La Malinche Most of the time this January, February, and March, the lapse rate has hovered around 3 degrees centigrade per thousand feet (very strong), and there has been such strong winds that the thermals are all blown out. There has been none of the classic cumulus formation. The typical flight is launching into strong conditions, or conditions which are too strong at a slightly higher altitude, holding on for dear life, and having no choice but to turn downwind and cruse into Tenancingo with a ton of velocity downwind, and just arrive at insurgentes LZ with enough altitude to do a 180 and land in high winds, often very dangerious. A few "I thought I was gona die" stories, which I will spare you for now. Malinalco (El Picacho) Griff of Pennslvania visited earlier this month and we visited Malinalco. Malinalco from what I have experienced and heard has also been blown out much of this year, but it is usually a little less intense there than at La Malinche Launch. What I experienced with Griff were some really fun flying conditions where I could both thermal and top-land, although it did get blown out later that day. The next time someone asks me about doing tandem flights with a group I am going to suggest Malinalco where we can launch multiple times for short flights and top landings. That seems more practical for me for groups, whereas at La Malinche the goal is one really high and perhaps far flight for the day. Griff pointed out the obvious how Malinalco is so well suited for training, and I saw how tandems could be a more practical business venture from that beautiful site. Iguala I normally don't leave the area to fly other sites, but I have gotten more flexible to travel just a little this year to explore other nearby sites. Some 3 or 4 weeks ago I traveled a few hours down the road with Daniel Pedraza to a fly-in event at Iguala. The longest XC flights It is a really high AGL launch and the primary LZ is a soccer field by a big lake. It looks like it would be a great place to practice aerobatics to me, if there were someone waiting in a boat on the lake. There are no resident pilots there. The contact, Shaq, lives in Mexico City. It looks like one would definitely need a driver to get to launch, and probably for retrieval too. This event seemed to be hosted by the city of Iguala, and the police drove us to launch, did retrievals, and saw us safely through the whole event from start to finish. (A nudge to D.Pedraza... see how the city helps out here!?) Daniel and I were the first to launch and had extended sled-rides. Of the other 15 or so pilots, most thermaled a little while before getting flushed to the LZ by the lake by a northerly that kicked in early. A handful of pilots made it to goal some 5 or ten miles from launch, where there was a banquet afterwards. A German pilot visited the area for the first time last week. We had a few good flying days at Mali, although it got blown out in the afternoons. Last Saturday four of us launched from La Malinche late in the day. It was blowing in from the west so perhaps the wind was deceptivly low at launch. In the air it was both strong and turbulent, blown out, and what was worse is that it kept getting stronger and more turbulent as the sun was setting. We all wanted to top-land, because the winds usually die down when the sun sets, but not this day. We found ourselves flying in the night under the full moon in turbulent air too strong to either land in and not able to fly over the back. We finally put down in the dark in the rocky Cabanas LZ in air that was switching 180. My buddy Noel, from Spain, Mali Africa, and now Malinalco, broke his ankle. Ixtapan de la Sal The German pilot was talking about flying Ixtapan on Sunday so I invited myself to join him, never having flown there, just across the ridge from La Malinche. The local pilots Hector and Gerardo have always been inviting me to come try the site out. The German pilot did not show, but ni modo, Gerardo picked me up from the Soles (Suns) restaurant in his monster truck. Miguel Gutierrez of Valle de Bravo was with him and it was fun chatting with him. I had never met Miguel here in Mexico, but recoginzed him because surely I saw him during the years that I was flying in Southern California, when he was in that region too. We launched later than we would have liked to, around 1:00, and we were both concerned about the strong winds, which have been effecting Ixtapan equally this year. Gerardo launched first and was obviously battling strong conditions before putting down out by the highway. I launched afterwards and the lift in the thermals was often off the scale, the turbulence around the thermals intense, and there were areas of sink which must have been some of the strongest that I have ever experienced in paraglider. I made it out by the highway in some of that strong sink, and then about a thousand off the deck hit a monster thermal that just wouldn't quit. I scanned up and down the valley, noting that aside from my justified fear of strong general winds, it was awsome XC conditions. I continued flying up the highway towards Ixtapan, hitting more strong lift than heavy sink, and noted that I was flying a forming cloud-street. I finally found some real ratty sink between thermals and forced the wing down with high-banking turns behind a eucyliptis hedge. Gerardo and Hector have some really nice places there in Ixtapan, and it was great keeping up the friendship with them. La Malinche again Monday March 29th (lapse rate mellower, 2.4) Miracles!!! The first day in 2010 that I saw puffy little cumulus clouds forming. Had to work, but made it up to launch when it was probably too late, and the lately usual high winds were kicking in and clearing away the thermals and the clouds. I crused into Tenancingo in the usual wind, but knowing that something had changed. That afternoon a girl called me about a Tandem for the next day. Couldn't decide if I should suggest Malinalco or La Malinche for the next day. Tuesday March 30th (lapse rate 2.5?) There was no one else in her group that would be flying so I decided for La Malinche. We launched around twelvish into nicely spaced small high cumies and shot up into the most well formed and very strong thermals that I can rembember in years. What awesome XC conditions! We were flying at 12,000ft at the highest point, leaving still very heavy lift in order to cover some distance. Landed next to the city of Malinalco about an hour later. Could have flown more but I was concerned about the passengers comfort, and about her family waiting back in Tenancingo. Got it all on video! There were some issues with the camera and also my Movie Maker program half-way crapped out, but I got a decent recording on YouTube, which I intend to add English subtitles to. Wednesday March 31st Looked like a repeat of yesterday but I had to work.
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Woodside Report - Alan, Dennis and John were already up on Woodside Launch when I arrived to the Ranch. | Dennis had launched and was scratching over the clearcuts, and then Alan and John. Alan was quite vocal about "not liking the air" and he flew further out and was climbing near Harrison Hill, and pretty much anywhere he went. Dennis was much lower when Derek, Norm and I arrived on launch at 1:30 pm and we watched him fight his way into Riverside. He recommended that John land on a sandbar as Riverside was turbulent. Alan was following John to the sandbar but was going up everywhere, and when he had enough height we suggested Eagle Ranch as a suitable LZ. He made it in to the Ranch easily from east of Riverside. Norm launched at 1:50 pm, and pretty much had to spiral down to land before leaving for work. Sucks to be working afternoons on a good day! I drove the newest FlyBC Bus back down the mountain on our maiden trip as the throttle was sticking . . . no it isn't a Toyota! We had a large group congregate at the Ranch after 3 pm. Al, Derek, Jason, Alan (as driver), Rob and I drove up in Derek's rig and conditions were weird at launch. Lots of aborts and twisted up wings despite the windsocks saying it was straight and steady? Once in the air you could feel the strong turbulence and lift as it was very unstable today. Al had launched before me and was scratching over the highway before he got a climb above launch. Derek launched next and was climbing right off launch. I was flying the Mantra R09 and it was flying very nicely despite the bumps, with a steady climb right off launch. Al had launched before me and was scratching over the highway before he got a climb above launch. A few minutes into the flight Derek reported that "he didn't like the air" and he was heading out toward the Ranch abandoning plans to leave the truck at the Kettle, but Alan took the truck down to the Ranch later. The air near the north cliffs was pretty strong, but not that bad where I was so I got well above launch around 1100 meters before heading south across the river to a large CU. 
Woodside around 3:30 pm today - photo by JPR (GoPro Helmet Cam) Slow progress even on an R09 but I crossed over at 1000 meters and it was lifting everywhere at 0.5 m/s. When I got to the cloud I could tell I was on the leeside of the lift as it got rougher and sinkier. No way to get to Bridal this way! 
On the other side of the Fraser as the camera started to fog up near cloud - photo by JPR (GoPro Helmet Cam) I hung out over the sandbars where the lift was nice, not windy but a long way from Riverside and the Ranch, but I was on an R09 that glides really well! When I turned toward the Ranch I was getting 42 kph groundspeed so no issues getting there, in fact I had to spiral down to get through the lift over the Harrison Mills flats even later. 
Spiralling down to the Duncan's Maple Tree Field - photo by JPR (GoPro Helmet Cam) Conditions at the Ranch had calmed down with light south winds and the odd thermal popping off and I had a nice approach and floated almost to the training hill before the R09 landed. A later flight with everyone but myself yielded great glassoff conditions with everyone freezing and having to land to warm up. |
FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports
February 2010 Site of the Day archives - super flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs. The locals were already flying at Mother Woodside back in BC due to the warm weather!
January 2010 Site of the Day archives - nice flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs.
December 2009 Site of the Day archives - our first time in Mexico for a full December and we flew everyday. 40-50 km XCs from Tapalpa.
November 2009 Site of the Day archives - very few flights as we had record rains and high winds.
October 2009 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly-In in Chelan WA with the Barbie Theme, took first place honours again! More good soaring flights of 2 hours plus on special days.
September 2009 Site of the Day archives - more decent flying weather with a few road trips to escape wind by heading to Savona.
August 2009 Site of the Day archives - best flying conditions in years with little rain. My first hike up Cheam with pals went well.
July 2009 Site of the Day archives - the FlyBC SIV in Revelstoke was a blast, 280 SIV flights and only one wet pilot intentionally that is. Jeremy wished he had landed in the water.
June 2009 Site of the Day archives - dry all month locally so lots of flying, Al has been test flying the new ShotGun launch near Stave Lake having great flights out to Woodside.
May 2009 Site of the Day archives - local flying is getting great with nice XC's! Bridal was working well. The new bathroom was installed in the Barn at Eagle Ranch enriching the FlyBC experience.
April 2009 Site of the Day archives - we escaped the local weather by flying in New Zealand for 3 weeks. We will be heading back soon!
March 2009 Site of the Day archives - we were flying locally in snow, relying on Derek's sleds and chains on the 'Mog to get up Woodside.
February 2009 Site of the Day archives - the Worlds PG Championships in Mexico was hard work for the Canucks, the tasks and speeds were unreal.
January 2009 Site of the Day archives - Manzanillo, Mexico was a BLAST, many new sites flown and we have a new tour Destination for 2010.
December 2008 Site of the Day archives - the annual FlyBC Christmas Party was a cold success with Head over Heels entertaining us all night. And we left early for Manzanillo, Mexico on Dec 28th.
November 2008 Site of the Day archives - some soaring between rain storms, and it was pretty dry in Agassiz.
October 2008 Site of the Day archives - we went ot the Women's Fly In on Chelan for the annual Halloween Costume Fly-In, great conditions there to offset the wet month on the West Coast. Steve Fosset's crash site was found in Nevada after a year of searching.
September 2008 Site of the Day archives - great student conditions at Woodside and Bridal all month, with 10 students getting signed off this month, a record.
August 2008 Site of the Day archives - our second SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke (except for a few water landings and minor injuries). Wet all month at Woodside except the weekends.
July 2008 Site of the Day archives - our first SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke.
June 2008 Site of the Day archives - a few good soaring days at Bridal, lots of new students this month.
May 2008 Site of the Day archives - the cost of gas is keeping pilots at home and the weather isn't helping either. One good XC in May for me, leaving Woodside with Norm and Martin H and ending up at Elk at 1600 meters before landing by Hopyard Hill. 3 hours and 85 kms later by the GPS.
April 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years but we flew every day we could.
March 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow and still hiking to launch at Woodside! But some major airtime for the locals committed to coming out to fly.
February 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow in BC than I can remember in 25 years of living here. We are still hiking to launch at Woodside!
January 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico and logged many hours of airtime, while it snowed heavily in BC.
December 2007 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico on Dec 29th for three weeks.
November 2007 Site of the Day archives - Colleen and I went to California to fly the new Falcon A-16 Advanced Ultralight prototype and it flew very well. Some good soaring days at Woodside, some folks were still trying to fly Bridal but that is a waste of time this late in the season.
October 2007 Site of the Day archives - mid-air at Woodside caused Martin H some paraglider damage, some great soarable days. The Women's Fly In was a success with the Canuck Team taking top spot for the theme of "Celebrities in Rehab".
September 2007 Site of the Day archives - we re-discovered and flew 'Horsefly' Launch for the first time, some mayhem at Woodside due to tree-suck, lots of good soaring in afternoon glassoffs, a great Indian Summer until late in the month when the rains came early. Derek, Martina, Robin and Diane went to Europe. Kirill went to Australia for a paramotor Fly-In.
August 2007 Site of the Day archives - fun two weeks at Mara Lake, followed by steady flying at Woodside and Bridal, making up for the dismal spring and summer.
July 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights at Bridal, some mayhem at Woodside from visiting pilots.
June 2007 Site of the Day archives - more crappy weather on the weekends. Some awesome flights between showers as Norm and Thomm flew to Mission on the last day of the month.
May 2007 Site of the Day archives - flyable every weekday, but the Fraser Valley XC Comp got crappy weather on the weekends, although it was student flyable.
April 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights are starting. Some complete triangles from Woodside to Bridal and back, some "musical triangles" from others.
March 2007 Site of the Day archives - fifth month of crappy weather on the Coast. We went to Santa Barbara for some flights, and to dry out. Some good days were also recorded locally.
Febuary 2007 Site of the Day archives - fourth month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we stayed in Mexico.
January 2007 Site of the Day archives - third month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we went to Mexico to fly Colima, Tapalpa, and San Marcos, while Brad and gang headed to Tenacingo, Mexico.
December 2006 Site of the Day archives - more ugly weather on the Coast. Severe winds damaged trees and property so not much flying happened. Some good flight reports from local PGers travelling world-wide.
November 2006 Site of the Day archives - the wettest November on record. We flew a few good flights but mostly we were rained out.
October 2006 Site of the Day archives - lots of good days with 3-4 hours airtime. The Women's Fly-In was on again in Chelan with about 18 Canucks, and a good day Saturday with 85 registered pilots.
September 2006 Site of the Day archives - still soarable in the Fraser Valley, little or no rain. Colleen is back flying! Some mayhem in the valley.
August 2006 Site of the Day archives - a great flying month everywhere, we had a super successful SIV clinic at Mara Lake with everyone SAT-ing and heli-ing.
July 2006 Site of the Day archives - road trip to Lumby, then on the 8th Colleen spun in below Gloria cancelling her summer plans (but she is recuperating well).
June 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Valley dried out, and we flew most days and every weekend.
May 2006 Site of the Day archives - more rain that ever imagined in the Fraser Valley. Very few soaring flights and even less XC.
April 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Easter Bunny was "run over" on Kilby Road, plus the train wreck on April 1.
March 2006 Site of the Day archives - a new pilot was born, Chloe. We also flew a few days between showers, some long flights up to 4 hours. A few Out & Return Flights to Deroche and Bear.
February 2006 Site of the Day archives - another wet month with some soarable days (2).
January 2006 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South for great Mexican or Chilean flying.
December 2005 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South.
November 2005 Site of the Day archives - rain, snow and not much flying.
October 2005 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly In in Chelan yielded two soarable days before the snows hit.
September 2005 Site of the Day archives - dry most of the month. Some great 4 hour flights at Woodside getting to cloudbase most days. Three crash-landings in the same clearcut by pilots scratching too low, but no injuries.
August 2005 Site of the Day archives - road trips to the Interior gave us an opportunity to rag out some gliders at FlyBC SIV 2005 (Part II). Also a great road trip to Savona.
July 2005 Site of the Day archives - good flying all month, no rain but some windy days shut us down. The Willi started in Golden with a few good days, but one tragedy as Charles Warren perished in a crash near Harrogate.
June 2005 Site of the Day archives - too much rain, but good days to fly between showers.
May 2005 Site of the Day archives - our Instructor/Tandem seminar yielded some good flying. Our May 2005 SIV Clinic had a good turnout, with many wet wings/pilots! Many nice flights at Woodside and Bridal, with some long "out & returns" at Bridal.
April 2005 Site of the Day archives - some great soaring at Woodside and Bridal. Sad news from the US Hanggliding Nationals as Chris Muller crashes at goal.
March 2005 Site of the Day archives - we had to head out of town to Savona a few weekends due to wet weather on the Coast. Wetter than normal according to Environment Canada.
February 2005 Site of the Day archives - some good soaring despite early time of year. Flights as long as 3 hours at Woodside, some good flights at Whidbey Island for first timers, too!
January 2005 Site of the Day archives road trips to Mexico, not much flying locally due to strong north winds and rain. Record rain kept Eagle Ranch quite wet for kiting.
December 2004 Site of the Day archives a dry month with some good soaring including a fantastic day on Dec. 11 where we thermalled for 2+ hours!
November 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain. We installed a fireplace in the barn to keep pilots warm between winter flights.
October 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain, but sweet soaring between showers. Many new students signed up and making quick progress. We missed the Women's Fly In for the first time in 9 years, and there was some interesting flying on the Sunday!
September 2004 Site of the Day archives rainiest September on record for the first 3 weeks, made flying difficult. But Alan and others logged some pretty nice flights later in the month. Lots of student tandems for both Colleen and Jim.
August 2004 Site of the Day archives Great Maneuver/SIV/ACRO course at Mara. Jack got wet! Some great soaring at Woodside. Norm made it 68 km from Mara to King Eddie, Derek made it from Lumby to Enderby the opposite direction for 67 kms. We also did our BC roadtrip from Ashcroft to New Denver, and flew everyday.
July 2004 Site of the Day archives the Willi was on at Golden. We missed the mayhem due to work and school commitments but Norm did a great job representing the West Coast.
June 2004 Site of the Day archives Canadian Nationals came off with many great rounds. Pemberton-Whistler Championships were blown out most days so we headed to Cornwall.
May 2004 Site of the Day archives great flying at Woodside and Bridal. We held a very successful SIV Course at Mara Lake, and hope to run another one in August if they keep the forests open.
April 2004 Site of the Day archives good flying in the Valley. The Fraser Valley Cross Country PG Series was successssful.
March 2004 Site of the Day archives Nicole won in Brazil, otherwise the month sucked for flying time.
February 2004 Site of the Day archives some local flights extended to an hour with vigourous scratching above the trees. Good paramotor month.
January 2004 Site of the Day archives Mexican road trip yielded 20 hours of flight and a wet Canadian January kept most local pilots on the ground.
December 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew a few times but it got really cold at the end of the month as we prepared for a gala New Year's Party for 40 of our close personal friends and neighbours.
November 2003 Site of the Day archives windy and wet with the odd good soaring day, not many pilots out these days.
October 2003 Site of the Day archives Women's Fly In was great fun, some good soaring days mid-month, most of the students are signed off.
September 2003 Site of the Day archives good conditions until the last days of the month when it got stable. Most days were flyable at Woodside or Bridal.
August 2003 Site of the Day archives Forest closures made the end of the month a non-flying period unless you headed to Blanchard. FlyBC SIV 2003 was a great success with 9 stunt pilots and no deployments or crashes.
July 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most days early at Woodside until it got windy, then over to Bridal. Good Golden flying reports from the "Willi".
June 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most weekdays at Bridal, Woodside worked most weekends. Bridal Air Races had one great day with only two tree landings!
May 2003 Site of the Day archives not a great weather month on the coast, especially on the weekends but a few pilots managed to get some great airtime at Bridal. The Nationals were held in Lumby and it didn't rain!
April 2003 Site of the Day archives rain for 28 of 30 April days, but we managed to get a few flights in between showers. Even the golfers were complaining!
March 2003 Site of the Day archives some high spring flights in early March, but not a great weather month. Still no HPAC Insurance!
February 2003 Site of the Day archives some nice long spring flights in late February. HPAC Insurance expired on Feb 14, so many pilots stayed home instead of getting USHGA coverage.
January 2003 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month in BC so we bailed and headed to Tapalpa Mexico for three weeks. Norm and Lucille had a great XC flight the first day we arrived.
December 2002 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month.
November 2002 Site of the Day archives not a great flying month, lots of rain in the beginning and then super stable and inverted for the balance of the month. Even the Savona Road Trip wasn't that great. Looking forward to Mexico!
October 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable some days, great fun at the Women's Fly In 2002 in Chelan. Allan logged 15 hours and only flew a few days. Most of the students are ready for signoff soon to get ready for Mexico trips!
September 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable most everyday! Some scary incidents at Woodside. Fun flying at Ashcroft.
August 2002 Site of the Day archives More spring-like days with super lapse rates, great fun up-country at Revelstoke and Mara, with some good XCs for all.
July 2002 Site of the Day archives Some spring-like days with super lapse rates, but still rather wet at times.
June 2002 Site of the Day archives another rainy and windy month with great lapse rates, some great flights at Bridal with some getting above Cheam Peak. The Club Cup was nearly rained out but they got one valid task in on Sunday June 30.
May 2002 Site of the Day archives an extremely rainy month with the more spring mayhem, another reserve deployment at Lil Nick and a pilot crashed at the top of Deroche Mountain, uninjured but with a ripped glider and long hike down the mountain. Colleen placed 5th place at the Canadian PG Nationals in rainy Lumby!
April 2002 Site of the Day archives a rainy month with the usual spring mayhem, one reserve deployment at Woodside and a pilot hit a parked car at Bridal LZ, fracturing his leg.
March 2002 Site of the Day archives a few great days days with lots of snow and rain mixed in.
February 2002 Site of the Day archives two epic days already (4.5 hours and 2.5 hours!).
January 2002 Site of the Day archives Mexico vacation shots, some local flying but it was wet on the coast.
December 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, wettest December on record, some good days sprinkled thru the month.
November 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, had some good days at Woodside +2 hours, lots of rain later in the month.
October 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, but great flying at Chelan at the Women's Fly In.
September 2001 Site of the Day archives starting to get pretty stable, more sled rides forecast for October.
Aug 2001 Site of the Day archives Mara, Bridal, till some great flights locally
July 2001 Site of the Day archives Road Trip Month, Golden, Mara, points east!
June 2001 Site of the Day archives Great Month, 3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower! Some getting up to 6 hours in a single flight!
May 2001 Site of the Day archives Unstable Month, 2-3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower!
April 2001 Site of the Day archives Rainy Month, not as much airtime for some pilots
March 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring has Sprung!
February 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring is in the Air!
January 2001 Site of the Day archives - Mexico Flying Trip
December 2000 Site of the Day archives
November 2000 Site of the Day archives (great month for airtime!)
October 2000 Site of the Day archives
September 2000 Site of the Day archives
July - August 2000 Site of the Day archives
June 2000 Site of the Day archives
March - May 2000 Site of the Day archives
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