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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archive" - February/2016
Pelican Bay en Manzanillo, Mexico
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| 2-28-16 |
 Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 31C. Winds WSW at 15 to 30 km/h. 2200 metres Ozone just released the 2016 Ozone Glider Brochure with Delta 3 referenced in it. 2-28-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 31C. Winds WSW at 15 to 30 km/h. 2200 metres Separate reports from Denny & Claudia showed great climbs and extended soaring until one could not stand the cold!
 Mike M had some fun in Mexico last month on the FlyBC Tours and is now preserving it for all of you on YouTube. 2-27-16
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| Manzanillo MX A mainly cloudy sky. High around 26C. Winds SE at 5 km/h. 2200 metres Miguelon was doing some tandems at the big launch but they had to do forward launches and flew straight to the Piano LZ. After flying a few flights off La Ceja, I think we can use that launch for our tour guests next year. We are going to concentrate our tours into the month of January 2017 and will have a Tapalpa week where we stay at the cabins at La Ceja and focus on XC from here. We will still base the operations in Manzanillo for the Beach experience but will have one week of XC fun here in Tapalpa. Keep your calendars open for January 2017! I headed back to Manzanillo, two hours on the toll road, and arrived at Indio's Restaurant to see a fire running up the hill towards El Toro. I headed closer and there were no fire trucks and the fire was slowly climbing the hill, thankfully there was little wind today to fan the flames.
The WCSC is sponsoring a repack clinic on March 19th. Last year several pilots had malfunctioning gear, so get yours checked ASAP. Strong thermals await this spring.
2-26-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sun & Clouds mixed. High around 27C. Winds SE at 10 to 15 km/h. 2800 metres Apparently he got a late start and decided not to drive in the dark. Good thing he had a wood stove, it was near freezing at the top of Tapalpa at 2300 metres. Now I remember why we decided on Manzanillo this trip! In the morning I went to La Ceja for breakfast and Juan Carlos had a set of tandems to do, so I offered to help out. It was a second anniversary for a GDL couple and I took the lighter lady to endure I could stay in the air. It was only 10 am, a bit early and no birds soaring yet. But they wanted to get finished early as they had other plans. Juan Carlos took off first from the launch slot, while Moncy and I took off from the side of the launch hump. Nice conditions and we were soaring the road thermal and soon got above the antennas. Soaring became thermalling and we were soon at 2500 metres and the zopilotes came out and started thermalling with us. We got the highest (of course with a lighter loading) and it was getting choppy as we got higher. Not much drift so we could puch back over the plateau and still push back out front. I heard someone say something about landing over the radio, so I set up a top-landing approach in the normal field by the highway and we had a nice touchdown on the grassy area. Moncy had her own GoPro so I did not get any footage of the flight, sorry. Juan Carlos did his usual crazy wingover approach and had a bit harder landing and his passenger was feeling a bit ill. Back to La Ceja for after flight drinks and a pizza for me. While I was waiting for the pizza I was chilling on the hammock watching a CU develop right where we had been climbing earlier.
This phenomenon had been happening at Colima too this year. We would get an early morning pulse of lift and then less lift around noon? When they got back up for the last passenger it got quite strong and Camilo had no problem finding lift even with the heavier passenger.
2-25-16
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| Manzanillo MX A mainly sunny sky. High around 26C. Winds SE at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres He wants to try my Delta 2 but was busy working so we booked another time next week. When I got back to Tapalpa, no one had flown all day. 2-24-16
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| Manzanillo MX A mainly sunny sky. High around 30C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Stefan got his Alpina 2 set up and it was moderately strong on launch, but more SW than we have seen it here this tour. He got into the air and made a few passes right in front of the launch cliff, but sadly landed on the beach.
2-23-16
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| Manzanillo MX A mainly sunny sky. High around 30C. Winds W at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Stefan did launch from the helipad, but I was not feeling like that was a good idea so we drove down. Next year we will improve the launch slots for tandem flying.
2-22-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres Woodside Report - Lots of clouds, lots of birds, and lots of pilots!
Martin, James, and Al landed at the golf course after failing to get up on the Sasquatch cliffs.
2-21-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds S at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres We had low cloudbase, just above the towers, but the CU looked lie good lift from 10 am on. We setup on the regular launch which turned out to be a huge issue as the roots have grown back in and it was snagged line after snagged line until I finally was able to nurse the SORA tandem gently off the crap and launch. Thanks to Wayne & Ken who were up there helping us and driving! Next time I am using Wouter's Launch. We were able to soar between clouds and even surf the front of the big cloud over the towers, but at one point we got pretty "whited out", just keep it pointed SW and we were okay. We popped out somewhat SE of the planned route, kind of the route that Stefan was trying to pioneer here towards the back mountains.
We had a crosswind coming 90 degrees across the beach, so we went long but had a nice touchdown and Debby dragged her heels, but stood up nailing the landing to a cheering squad at the apartments. 2-20-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres 2-19-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres 2-18-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres
We think this will prove to be a good site for tandems, as there is no logistics for vehicles and you can topland or if it gets light you can land on the beach below. After 15 minutes of kiting on the edge with Colleen, she got bored so I unclipped her and tried flying the SORA Tandem solo. No ballast needed and I kited on the edge for a few minutes before hucking myself off the edge.
I was able to get high enough to topland after a few minutes.
2-17-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres It was quite hazy today over El Toro too so we didn't even think to try there. 2-16-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres It didn't look all that great initially but the cloud deck soon broke into glorious sunshine and nice soft thermals.
It then got sunnier and easier to stay up; cloudbase was around 1000m.
2-14-16
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| Manzanillo MX Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres Juan Carlos from La Ceja had told me about it last month so we went to check it out.
2-13-16
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| Manzanillo MX Lots of sunshine. High 29C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Pelican Bay is on most days after 3 pm and one needs to see a few whitecaps (not too many or it is tough to launch). Stefan and I laid out together on the top launch and I managed to "cobra" my Delta 2 up and work my way to the east face of the cliff before committing to launch.
We are starting to get a good feel for this site after 2 months here. It is a bit advanced due to the proximity flying required to get up on light days. 2-12-16
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| Manzanillo MX Lots of sunshine. High 29C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Kiwi Open Report - Alex reports it was mellow on Borah launch but windy from the south on the flats so the first part of the task was a difficult 90° crosswind. You can see that in the tracklogs of the pilots that got blown off course to the north.
(Alex took the in-flight pic. The screenshot shows all the pilots who got blown off course ;) 2-11-16
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| Manzanillo MX Abundant sunshine. High near 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres Conditions at launch were good at 1230 pm, nice inflow cycles but hazy and not so many birds soaring. Stefan got ready first and was off and getting some lift but he was soon on the way to the Beach. Sean had a decent inflation but let the E7 overshoot again with a left asymmetric collapse but he got away after it reinflated. He tried thermalling for a bit but there was an inversion causing the haze and little lift.
Sean had overshot his LZ yesterday so this time he looked good on final (photos from Hector at Indoio's Bar).
He over controlled to the right, notice how he is looking down and not forward.
After packing up I took Sean to the airport for his flight home. Last tour guest this year, what a busy time! Stefan & I headed to the condo to get Colleen and head to Pelican Bay despite the winds in town being light. Forecast was 15-25 kph West Winds but in the city it was less than 5 kph. We arrived to decent wind and Stefan took off first and just got into the lift band around the corner and out of my sight.
2-10-16
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| Manzanillo MX Abundant sunshine. High near 30C. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres We headed up El Toro arriving on top at 1130 am, to nice light inflow cycles. But we waited til noon when the birds started soaring. Sean was ready and he had a great inflation but forgot to break it at 12 o'clock and when he turned the E7 frontalled as he went forward, and he did nothing but the wing reinflated with a turn to the right 90 degrees and he missed the trees and rocks thankfully. After that the thermalling was a bit erratic as he was probably rattled.
After fixing Sean's wing we headed to Pelican Bay where Sean had a really nice kiting session and a short flight down to the beach as he failed to connect to the lift band. He landed near Richard's Rock, but stayed away from the rock.
The Ontario HGer group got high above La Cumbre, with Gravity Dave claiming to be 5280' over La Cumbre Launch on tandem. 2-9-16
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| Manzanillo MX Partly cloudy. High around 30C. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 km/h. 2500 metres Just Sean & me today. But we did bump into Gravity Dave and his homies at Colima. We decided to come here as the coast had towering CUs out over the ocean and SE winds forecasted.
It was damned cloudy too. But when we got light cycles up the front, Sean showed us how to reverse launch like a pro!
The HGers launched much later and claimed to have good flights on FB. We headed back to the coast for possible soaring but got back to light winds and sunset. We thought we had a rough few weeks with some injuries to tour guests: a few broken ribs suffered at Tapalpa (failed launch on the nicest launch around), two damaged gliders (one outlanding & one rockslide), some sore tailbones due to bad approaches. But, we got the mayhem report yesterday about the action at Colima: one broken leg as a PG tandem pilot had a passenger fall back on them into a hole, one broken arm of a Quebecois HG pilot who blew a landing, one outlanding in the jungle below Colima Launch by another Quebecois HGer but no damage or injuries. Sheesh people, lets start flying safer! 2-8-16
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| Manzanillo MX Partly cloudy. High around 30C. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres Sean had never been to this beautiful launch before and I think he was overcome with glee and it took 4-5 tries to get off in perfect conditions. Considering he was doing so well at El Toro on a small launch this was odd? But when he did launch he went to the moon! He is flying Josh's old Epsilon 7 and Josh trained it well as Sean was going up at +5 m/s sustained for many minutes just going straight and wondering when the lift would stop! Sean was soon top of the stack and after about an hour he finally found sink and headed out to the Piano LZ.
Tip of the Day: Make sure you have a nice straight final for at least 30 metres with no turns once you hit tree top height! No damage or injuries, just sore tomorrow.
Reports from Tapalpa from PG & HG alike said too windy from the east. I am the luckiest tour guide around, not so much good planning as lucky with the weather this season and the new venue. Kiwi Open Comp Report - Around 120 pilots in the Kiwi Open taking place in Manilla right now. Mostly blue and windy from the SE so the 2 downwind goals have been to the NW so far. Today was slow going with low saves and difficult conditions about 20 km into the course. But Alex made goal today along with about 20 other pilots, 104 km to Terry Hie Hie. Apparently the wind is like a hairdryer - Nicole 2-7-16
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| Manzanillo MX Partly cloudy. High around 30C. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres Richard's wing suffered an unfortuante end, as he flew off Pelican Bay last night, swung a bit wide and landed below the pointy rock softly but his wing triggered a rockslide and he has 14 damaged cells as the rocks tumbled down on his wing. Probably a write-off! We arrived to perfect winds at El Toro at noon, and Sean got ready.
2-6-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 30C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 3200 metres We arrived a lot earlier today at 1130 am, and we had perfect cycles. We chose Wouter's Launch again as it is less snaggy. Jeff launched first and got up over the towers. Sean launched next and flew around to the north side as suggested, and disappeared out of my view. Richard also got up after scratching around the north side for 15 minutes kicking trees.
I drove down and saw the guys still up high over El Toro!
The Suburban was still in the shop getting its second steady bearing this trip, must be the sandy roads here (or just a faulty part). It is a cheap part to replace, just 1000 pesos this time.
It took about an hour round trip and when I got back Jeff was in the air soaring, Richard & Sean had had a flight and Sean had been dragged through the shale on launch tearing his swim shorts and almost hurting some parts under the swim shorts. Tip of the Day: Never land on your weiner! Jeff eventually landed after 2 hours with a nice top-landing on launch!
2-5-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 31C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Good launch conditions as Sean G arrived last night and he has not flown for a few months. We used Wouter's Launch as it is less snaggy and also has less obstacles after yesterday's mayhem at Tapalpa!
I stopped at VASA Rental Agency and got a 2004 Suburban so I could drop off our Suburban to get it fixed again and we headed to Pelican Bay.
Colleen took the Rapido put for a kiting session on the beach.
Australia XC Open Report - Alex has been in Manilla for several weeks now and it's generally been a bit on the windy side. However he was able to launch safely and get away from Mt. Borah today and fly to Burren Junction for 162 km. It's the XC Open this week and the Kiwi Open next week (he's in both comps) so there's lots of pilots around; not sure if/where everyone else flew - Nicole
2-4-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 27C. Winds SE at 10 to 15 km/h. 3200 metres Kylene had a great forward launch into strongish winds, and got some lift but mostly sink requiring an outlanding on the hill side of the big powerlines. A group from Colorado had many outlandings too as it was sinky in places. Jeff & Richard had minor crashes due to frontals on launch, remember to load and accelerate your glider to keep a positive angle of attack! Tom borrowed my Delta 2 and had an awesome first Tapalpa flight getting way above launch for over an hour. First flight for him on an EN-C. I took Harlee for tandem #2 and we found a nice thermal off the fingers and climbed back above Launch and got an hour before heading out to watch Jeff outland again.
2-3-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 31C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres We arrived at noon to perfect launch cycles and got Kylene ready for Flight #3. She had a perfect forward launch and followed Denys out to the LZ, and when she caught a small thermal I had her 360 to the right and she was climbing fast. Many other gliders launched and headed out to the same area and they were not getting as nice a climb and they were very experienced local pilots! After about 20 minutes, Kylene lost the thermal (as did the others) and she headed out to the LZ and she had a very nice approach and landing deespite getting "bubbled up" on final. Jeff, Richard, Tom & Shaun also launched and had decent flights but they too were in the LZ, so I asked them to hop in Jonathan's truck to come back up. The second try at the thermals was much better for the boys, but it was a bit strong for Kylene for her fourth flight, so she sat this one out. It was gusting +20 kph on launch and when Shaun launched he was going backwards and up for a bit.
But the others were high on the east ridge but not penetrating well.
I suggested that the boys should get high over the launch and head North to the highway LZs. I overheard Jeff saying something about an outlanding but when we got to the cane fields both Jeff and Richard were there. We doubled back to the gravel pit area and reached Tom on radio. He had tried to thermal rather than fly straight out and got blown into the lee side of La Cumbre and fought rotor all the way to a creekside landing in a tree. His feet were on the ground but the wing took most of the force of landing and had 3 ripped cells. Tip of the Day: In windy conditions the thermals will be upwind and stronger as you Figure-8 rather than trying to 360 in them which often results in getting dropped out the back of the thermal. We headded back to Manzanillo and Pelican Bay but it was too light to do anything but kite a bit. Meanwhile . . . back at Woodside the loggers are working hard on creating a new thermal generator for us.
2-2-16
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| Manzanillo MX Plentiful sunshine. High 31C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres Kylene got her second solo in early as wind tech for the rest of the group and she had a perfect launch, perfect flight path and a nice landing even if she was a bit close to the trees and fence on final . . . because she could not hear the radio. Looks like she has this flying thing figured out pretty good! Harlee stayed on top while I drove retrieve and left Richard, Shaun, Tom & Jeff on launch to launch themselves. It apparently was too early for them to launch as they were all in the LZ when I arrived. We drove straight back up and the thermals were pumping hard, so the boys got ready and Karlene sat one out.
I suggested the others fly to the cane fields north as they were parked over the antennas.
Awesome day but it was too late for Pelican Bay and it was light winds near sunset. Woodside Report - Claudia flew Elk and later came over to Woodside and took this photo of the new clearcuts. Hard to recognize the mountain!
2-1-16
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| Manzanillo MX Partly cloudy. High 29C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 2200 metres First time up here for everyone in the truck. They were most impressed with the astroturf launch.
We got Kylene ready for her first high flight and she had a brilliant forward launch, nice flight path with some soft thermals and lift, and a perfect Figure-8 approach into the LZ. She had a cheering squad on launch as the Mexicans whistled and cheered as she launched! Jeff was next up and he had a nice launch too and it looked like he might sink out but he caught the Magic Bubble back above launch.
We got everyone loaded and headed back to the coast and Pelican Bay. Perfect but strong conditions for us mountain flyers, and after some fun kiting on top where Harlee & Kylene were making everyone look bad as they kited the Rapido 13 like pros! I helped Jeff with some ballast and we got him launched and he climbed out first try on his Buzz Z4.
Richard was in the weight range on his Buzz Z4 too, but tired after kiting for 20 minutes so we packed him up too. Jeff was still in the air overhead at Secret Cove. Harlee was kiting here in Secret Cove where she got 3 little flights off the dunes before sunset. Long days but very productive all around.
1-31-16
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| Manzanillo MX Partly cloudy. High 29C. Winds W at 15 to 25 km/h. 2200 metres We headed up El Toro in Stefan's big Ford as the Suburban was making a funny noise in the driveline and the mechanics were off for the long weekend. Jeff, Tom, Mike and Stefan launched and all went up. Mike is here for his last flying day before heading home tonight and he was not disappointed, getting to cloudbase and 1400 metres for well over an hour. Stefan tried his new XC route but it didn't work out, despite being quite high when he left. I launched the SORA Tandem off the top launch with Harlee and we climbed out well over the towers and had an hour long flight as Colleen & Kylene drove down.
When we packed up and ate some ceviche everyone was ready to try Pelican Bay. High winds on the top launch are but perfect for kiting on the black dunes at Secret Cove. Later at Pelican Bay, Kylene & the EONA clicked and she was getting 5 metre hops on the beach landing very nicely. She will fly tomorrow!
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