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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archives" - May/2013
It may get soarable at Woodside later today.
"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else." - Winston Churchill
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 18°C Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 18. We did our normal chores and went up with Al for a flight around 1:30 pm, and encountered some problems on the road where they were trying to block access due to some rock hauling. It turned out they just wanted to escort us up, and in fact even gave pilots rides up later in their pilot truck! Al launched first after hearing Denis tell us of +5 m/s lift under a black cloud and having to fight to get in to top-land dueing his earlier flight. The only lift Al got was out by the HG LZ, but he got a ride back up with Matt J. Colleen launched after Al and did better getting about 45 minutes just before the sun came out and it really turned on. I was test flying Stefan's Delta 1 Large, as it is now on the used page and I had a few goofy inflations due to the strong thermals out front and I launched into a big one which took me up & back for a few hunderd metres! Martin N, Peter, Claudia, Roger (HG), Norm & Paddy were all thermalling around and trading "top of the stack" honours and we all flew for over an hour with some of us landing at the Ranch in strong S winds. Peter eventually top-landed when it calmed down and drove Matt's truck down. The last flight around 5 pm was smooth and lifty with pilots getting to 1000 metres fast.  US PG Nationals Report - only 4 pilots in goal, with Nicole McLearn in 12th place today after a long upwind battle. Results for Task 7 here. Nicole shows in 7th place with an odd km number? From Nicole: "No goal for me today. Landed to assist downed and suspected unresponsive pilot but turns out they were fine. Idiot pilot stayed in place for 30 minutes without moving or his gear. Glad they're ok but also highly irritated at their lack of good etiquette. Bundle your gear when you land out!"
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| 15°C Showers ending early this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate. Martin N dropped by mid-day when I was in Chilliwack for an oil change and he said it seemed windy but doable, but no one else came out. After 6 pm it rained hard all night. US PG Nationals Report - only 4 pilots in goal, with Nicole McLearn in 12th place today after a long upwind battle. Results for Task 6 here.
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|  18°C Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers early this morning. Periods of rain beginning this morning. High 14. US PG Nationals Report - 12 pilots in goal, including Nicole McLearn in ninth place. Results for Task 5 here. Guy & Tom M are flying hard too in the Sport Class!
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|  18°C Merritt: A few showers ending this morning then a mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h late this afternoon. High 18. UV index 6 or high. It was a quick drive up the Coquihalla arriving there at 10 am, to sunny skies and developing winds from the SW as forecasted. We packed in his gear and headed up to Sugerloaf Mtn. and launch, and the road is a muddy mess. We got to the last gate and had to go through a mudhole near the fence and further on it was impassible due to mud. Everything is very green up here as it had been raining heavily all of May. We tried a few more ways to get to launch and just as we were going to hike in a rain cell unloaded on us and we had to retreat down the mountain. Chris had to leave for AB, so we parted company and I went for lunch in town. While I ate the sun came out, but alas Chris was gone, and it was probably too windy for students by then. If you are coming to Merritt, be prepared to hike in for a few weeks, as it is very wet up here. I called Colleen at the Ranch and behold, she said it was sunny and flyable here at Mother Woodside. Should have stayed home and ignored the forecasts.
US PG Nationals Report - Only 2 pilots in goal, including Nicole McLearn in first place. Results for Task 4 here. Unfortunately not many made it out of the Bomb Out Zone so the task was devalued, but she outflew all the men!
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| 17°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. Periods of rain beginning this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate. We headed up just after 10 am, and Chris was in the air by 1040 am. We had light inflow cycles with clouds forming from the NE, and definitely NE winds aloft . . . yet perfect launch cycles and normal SE winds in the LZ. Chris' task for flight #1 was to touch the clouds as he flew out to the Ranch.
We had 2 tandems arrive at 1130 am, a bit late but we got them both in the air thanks to Colleen. Chris launched first on flight #3 to test the air for us tandem pilots and had a nice flight landing in the circle. Ellie bought her brother James a tandem flight for his Birthday and we obliged them with a flight despite the forecast and it paid off.
We went to the Sasquatch Inn for Lunch and watch it get sunny and keep raining all at the same time? After lunch, it cleared up enough to get one last flight for Chris before he headed home to Harrison. Total for the day - 4 solos and 3 spot landings!
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| 16°C Cache Creek: Sunny this morning then a mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 20. UV index 6 or high. We arrived at Coyote Hill at noon, and the winds were lightly blowing from the west, so no good for even a quick sledder. James, Ben, Dale & Kelly all need some high flights at different sites, so we headed to Deadman's at Savona where the winds were forecast to be westerly.
I saw clearing on the FlyBC WebCam at Woodside so we raced back to arrive on launch at 6 pm, and everyone bagged a cloudy sledder and after they packed up it started raining. 500 kms to go kiting, with a Woodside flight at the end! I could have stayed home and napped!
US PG Nationals Report - Thirteen pilots in goal, including Nicole McLearn. Results for Task 2 here.
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| 16°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. Showers beginning this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. It turned out to be a great day for all that came out to fly. We were trying out the new FlyBC Shuttle after dabbling into Unimogs, Buses and "what have you" we are back to the venerable Suburban (this time a 2003).
Highlights of the day: Students soaring with great ease around 2 pm, Denis & Tonya soaring and toplanding after some whiteroom action, Jeff doing his first helicopter (unintentionally after a frontal), and Dale heading to Harvest at 7 pm when the rain finally hit.
US PG Nationals Report - Six pilots in goal, including Nicole McLearn. Guy & Tom M did really well on older EN-Cs, just think what they would do a newer wing! Results here.
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| 16°C A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 6 or high. The only student in the air was Chris and he showed us all how to thermal smoothly, staying up for nearly 45 minutes on the Element II L. He got a bit off course in the wind but made a great approach and landing despite a dead radio. Derek and I did a tandem each and we both got some thermalling in with about 35-45 minutes in the air. Martin N went XC when it blew out and Denis top-landed to save $10.
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| 16°C Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. 60 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm late this afternoon. High 16. UV index 6 or high. That left me with Chris, so Derek came and helped guide Chris through 5 flights today.
By flight #5 Chris was thermalling nicely with little guidance and he landed himself too near the ProCircle.
On the way into Vancouver, it rained hard as a few thunderstorms let loose.
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| 12°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning. Showers beginning near noon. High 14. UV index 4 or moderate.
We checked conditions in the telescope and it looked pretty light so we did some landing briefing in the Barn. I was killing time because I had to take both students tandem today and they weigh in at 235 & 245 lbs. I was hoping for some inflow winds at launch so we didn't have to run too far. We headed up at noon, and waited and waited as it was cross from the N. Then is started crossing from the SE, even worse. Then finally back to N, so Duke & I took the cycle and we were off amazingly fast and headed out to the Ranch with Duke on the controls. He did an perfect approach, controlling the Magnum II well, and I took over on the downwind and we had a nice no wind approach and we were smoking in and Duke ran two steps and sat down, but it was good as he skidded in a few feet. Martin N had arrived and when Chris drove the Suzuki down, we packed up and went up for Chris' flight down. Duke wasn't feeling confident enough to solo, so he drove for us. Much better cycles this time and we even got to thermal up in front of launch, despite being at the top of the weight range. Chris took over and was thermalling nicely, and we found a nice line of thermals behind the construction zone, where we followed a bald eagle. The eagle came out of a turn and came in very close to our right side and then crossed in front of us within 2 metres. A blessing! We lined up the approach and were getting popped up on final so I took it down the patch landing just past the training hill, and Chris ran it out well. Neither guy was feeling committed enough to launch so we headed back to the Heritage Park Hill with two sets of gear, and did another 1.5 hours of kiting and flights before calling it a day. As we drove back to the Ranch it started raining, anbout 6 hours later than forecast so we lucked out.
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| 12°C Rain. Amount 15 to 25 mm. High 12. Heavy rains most of the day, although I did mow the parking lot during one dry period. Chris is here because he saw Broc coming in to land at Harrison Beach after his XC flight on Monday! He wants to learn how to do that too!
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| 21°C Increasing cloudiness this morning. High 21. UV index 3 or moderate. Old friends Annette & John were over and flew many flights, despite being a bit hung-over from last nights' Birthday Party for Colleen. Nice launch conditions early on, but cross from the SE mid-day which took a long time to get folks off the mountain. We had Ben, James, Alex, Dale, Kelly, Leslie & Dan out today and everyone got 4-5 flights. Derek & Denis did two tandems each and got way above launch. I had one tandem mid-day as it shaded over and had an extended sledder but Tamera loved the flight.
One glitch with Leslie's approach into the Ranch as he decided to fly into the willows near the neighbours house to the west, glider & pilot unharmed but very far from the landing circle in calm winds?
The Ozone Delta 2 from Ozone Paragliders on Vimeo.
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| 16°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 18. UV index 4 or moderate. Pretty busy day with 6 students and 6 tandems, thanks to Brad M & Derek K for flying tandems and to Colleen for excellent student landing guidance on her Birthday! New student Kelly from Squamish was on his 7th flight when it got lifty in front of launch and a mature Bald Eagle started thermalling with Brad & Martin N, so I said to Kelly "follow the eagle". Follow he did and and Kelly was soon at cloudbase with the pros! Everyone got as many flights as they could handle with most students getting 6 solos in in perfect conditions, light winds in the LZ and inflow at launch right until 8 pm. The forecasted strong winds never materialized.
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| 16°C Showers. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. We arrived to a few clouds developing and occasionally we got whited-out, but Brad M took new student Dale H for his first tandem after we ground handled him hard yesterday. Nice cycles as they took off but we got whited-out again and lost sight of them for 10 minutes and when the sky cleared I looked out toward the Ranch and couldn't see them. But then we saw them further north and apparently they had been dodging clouds and had to divert north. They had to be on full trims all the way to the Ranch.
I could see some turbulence at the ridge line near Duncan's and Dale handled it well. By now the winds on launch had picked up to 25-30 kph as forecasted and we drove down after Dale landed, being guided in by Brad as it was windy at Eagle Ranch LZ. Nice landing just in the circle for Dale! We packed up the gang and headed for Heritage Park and everyone had some great flights and we were joined by a German couple, Dale & Kelly from Squamish, Annette & John, Thomm came out on his Hog, and it was a huge thrill for the park visitors to see so much silk in the air!
Sure enough at 6 pm, Mother Woodside delivered us two great flights. I was going to take Damon H for his tandem but he declined saying he was ready to solo. We sent out Brad & Colleen first to check the conditions, and then Dale C & Kelly flew off as they are the most experienced students. Then Damon took off with a perfect forward launch on his first try, followed by brother Dale H on an Element II. Brad was guiding them in as part of his recert course, and did a great job calmly guiding the students into the Ranch. We had to do a retrieve run to get a truck back from launch and so the students got one last flight before sunset and it was still coming in perfectly.
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| 16°C Cloudy. A few showers beginning this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. Cloudbase was low at Woodside and we could not do tandems with Dale & Damon so off to the training hill. We only got some kiting at the bottom for Dale & Damon and one flight down the hill for Ariel as it was blowing cross and it looked like rain on the other side of the Fraser River.
We then headed to Cherry Park to see if it was better there and it was raining even harder there. We headed back to the Ranch and it was gusty but dry so we kited for 2-3 more hours and it confirmed that the day was going to to be too strong for tandems as it was blowing every direction with some really strong gusts. But we made great progress as they all know how to forward & reverse launch on Day One. Actually, Ariel has some advantage as he has been kiting his Ozone Buzz Z4 for a month since receiving it and he was doing really well right off the start.
We are hoping Saturday gives us some flyable windows as driving to Cache Creek on a loong weekend may not be very smart.
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| 14°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. High 19. UV index 4 or moderate. It looks like the Bus is grounded until then according to the CVSE guy who stopped me on the way home. I got back in time to see the first launchers and they were doing fine climbing fast under the developing CUs. Bev wanted me to test fly her Buzz after Norm line-stretched it, so I took the challenge and was soon climbing with the others but wary of the wind and the sink as I felt underloaded on the Buzz L. I went to the north cliffs and decided it was a bit windy over there, and saw othes hitting big sink at times. Norm was flying his new Delta2 and we were "dukin' it out" with Brad M from Revy out front when I decided I had enough fun and headed out after 40 minutes, and it took a long time to get to the Ranch and I did a few spirals to cut through the turbulence and almost got blown back as I got lower. I had a nice landing despite switchy thermic winds. Norm & Al headed to Sasquatch with Nikolai, and they all got trashed in the leeside thermals there. Nikolai landed at Bill Best's, Norm got his feet wet in Chimp Creek and Al was checking out the corn field for growth. Yikes, glad I landed when I did. Then over the radio we heard Denis asking Miguel if he was okay - "Are you in the trees?" as they got blown over the back of the north ridge and were forced to land out. Miguel in some soft maples and Denis perhaps on a boat dock at Wilson Point. Denis hitched a ride on a boat and Miguel was trying to hike out when I found a boat that would go rescue him - at a cost of $100!
The last flights of the day were shorter at Woodside but 10 pilots were flying Bridal in the afternoon and had 2 hour plus flights at 1500 metres.
Camrose Alberta Flat Land Report - Alex, Nicole & Brett Y are making record attempts in AB and today Alex & Brett went 170 kms.
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| 14°C Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning. Periods of rain beginning near noon. High 14. UV index 4 or moderate. Derek reported getting a nice 40 minute flight at Woodside after work. The webcam looked good too from town.
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| 16°C Periods of rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate. We started flying at 11 am, and it was already soarable and he was above launch all the way to the Ranch after a little ridge soaring.
The tandems went well and both landed on their feet! They may come back for lessons in fact! Next flight was more thermic and we were joined by a World Famous Paraglider Pilot from Russia, Dmitry of the "Eagle vs Paraglider" YouTube Video who is flying here with Elena. They had a nice thermic flight, and Alex joined them and had some nice turns getting high above launch on solo flight #9.
Alex got one last flight before heading home and it was now 6 pm, time to call it a day. Six solo flights, three were soaring flights and all good landings made for a very happy student today.
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| 15°C Periods of rain. Risk of thunderstorms late this afternoon. Amount 10 to 20 mm. Becoming windy near noon. High 15. Good day for mowing between showers. Alex, Nicole and Brett Y are in AB doing some XC flights and Nicole logged a 90 km flight out of Camrose.
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| 17°C Rain at times heavy changing to showers late this morning. Amount 10 to 20 mm. Becoming windy this morning. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate.
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| 22°C Increasing cloudiness. High 22. UV index 3 or moderate.
Bridal pilots were reporting getting to Elk (KVA), not bad for such a mellow day!
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| 26°C Sunny. High 26. UV index 6 or high. We had newbies Tanya, Kelly, Austin joining up with more experienced pilots Dale, Max, Alex and they had 6-7 flights at Heritage Park in perfect conditions with thermal pops to give them extended glides.
We managed to get 2 solo flights in by 6 pm, a really good day with good conditions for first flights with little wind & little turbulence.
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| 24°C Sunny. Becoming windy early this afternoon. High 24. UV index 6 or high. We then headed to Mission Heritage Park for some training hill practice with Yasu, and Alex did extremely well with both forward & reverse launches on the FrankenBuzz. Yasu was also kiting at the Park after 5 days of flying, always good practice. We headed back to Woodside for tandem that was waiting, and Alex got his first solo flight (after 3 tandems he was ready), and he had a perfect forward launch that was straight and committed. He also made a perfect landing approach right into the circle.
The later flights were smooth and somewhat soarable, despite the smoke haze they are now claiming is coming in from Russia? Alex logged his second solo flight just before 7 pm, and he was one happy pilot at day's end. Derek also joined us for a tandem with Candace.
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| 24°C Sun & Cloud. High 24. UV index 6 or high. We went up to launch after noon, and we had perfect cycles and inverted smoky skies. Yasu brought the Element II up a bit to the left and despite my urging to brake right, he continued to the left and when he figured out it was off course he tried to stop too late and the Element flew him off the hill. He survived and had a good thermalling flight over the construction zone, plus a good landing in the end of the flight. We both were not happy with his ground-handling skills and headed off to Mission Heritage Park for the afternoon.
He was able to kite forward & reversed. He could run the entire length of the bottom field without a surge or collapse. He was ready to fly again.
Yasu had a perfect controlled forward launch, perfect approach into the Eagle Ranch LZ and he missed the hay bales too.
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| 25°C Sun & Cloud. High 25. UV index 6 or high. We finished the Ground School Part of the Instructor Course and went flying and Andrei & Guy logged two more tandem flights, with the last tandem heading to Harvest Market for a mini-XC flight. Alex R was here recertifying hs Instructor Rating too, and took a few gliders for test flights: Joe's Swift2 (which Alex says flies fine despite a low porosity reading) and Simon's Delta 2 MS (which also flew very well as Alex thermalled with Dale & an eagle in front of launch).
Reports from Alan D came in at Bridal with climbs to only 1100 metres for Martin N & Alan and one other pilot. Pretty stable.
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| 30°C Sunny. High 30. UV index 6 or high. We only Dale as our test student as everyone else went back to work after the weekend. Instructors included Alex R, Guy H, Andrei K, Brett Y, Mike W and they were all doing tandem certification flights. Everyone got in 4 flights.
The : Source from Brett Hazlett flying his new Ozone R12 on Vimeo.
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| 29°C Sunny. High 29. UV index 6 or high.
On the way back through Hope we talked to Martin N soaring north of Cheam at 3000 feet so we were hoping it would be good at Woodside. Back at Woodside we got a tandem off with Andrei piloting Guy, and Wolfie launched too before it went catabatic. Too iffy for students after that and they are all in for the full Certification Course anyway so they are coming back next weekend. Pemberton Report - looks like pilots flew Pemberton today despite outflow winds. Click here for the Leonardo Tracks from Canada .
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| 25°C Sunny. High 25. UV index 6 or high. Kiting in North winds was awesome and everyone mastered strong wind forward & reverse launches. We did go up the mountain at 7 pm, but we only got one puff up the hill (otherwise it was all outflow winds). A group at Bridal was also on launch late but we didn't see anyone fly.
Pemberton Report - looks like a bunch of pilots flew Pemberton as Facebook & SPOT messages flowed in later today. Click here for the Leonardo Tracks from Canada . Some amazing flights given the outflow winds.
Ozone Buzz Z4 ML Flight Report 
Just thought I would pass on a quick review of my first flight on my new Buzz Z4 ML.Solid like a brick! . . . (no offence is intended to OZONE, I did say I was looking for a glider that was as structurally stable as Concrete to build up some confidence that a paraglider is actually an aircraft ;-) So, in Lee side conditions I got a taste of what a stable safe wing can be like to fly. The glider dished out no drama and handled the spicy lee side conditions amazingly well. There were a few tip collapses and a nasty little asymmetric frontal East of Cheam but they happened so fast and self corrected that I had to ask myself if there really was an event? Brake pressure is higher then the Delta but the solid “feel” did help build back some confidence. Of course.... it’s still just a “Paraglider”.... glide is not as good as the Delta and truly could be flown by a Monkey. It has a bit of a positive sports car feel for snappy scratchy turns. It also requires substantially more weight shift to lock into a thermal but at the same time requires practically no outside brake to control speed. Well my real wing will remain the ATOS, I’m satisfied the Buzz Z4 will safely allow me to build up some PG experience and improve my skills. I would easily recommend the Buzz Z4 to any pilot that is either looking for a first wing, or wanting a wing that can safely provide airtime for the casual weekend pilot. The net of my first flight on the Bozzo-BBBB-Buzz.... 4hours airtime, peak alt 6200ft (to stay legal ) and 44km’s of the Alex R FAI Triangle..... Thanks for setting up the trade and who knows.... in a few hundred hours, might even think about trading up to Delta3? Cheers, Comrade Martin The Lightest Aircraft in Existence from Ozone Paragliders on Vimeo.
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| 24°C Sunny. High 24. UV index 6 or high. Perfect south cycles. First tandem launch by Andrei K was a perfect forward launch with Mike W on board as passenger. They glided out nicely to a soft landing.
We could see the winds were still leeside, but Martin H was on the hill with his ATOS so it must be good! We waited down below doing some ground school and debriefings until we saw hope of a inflow cycle. When we arrived at 2 pm we were starting to get cycles and Doug M & Roger B from Bellingham flew off and had stellar thermalling, with some of the best thermals over the valley. The Gradient Aspen 4 24 in this picture is for sale for $2500 with only 30 hours.
Martin H took apart his ATOS in favour of flying his new Ozone Buzz Z4, and climbed out through 1900 meters before heading over to Bridal to fly with the group over there.
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| 18°C Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness late this morning. High 18. UV index 6 or high. Instructor Candidates were working with the students guiding their landings as I guided the launches. Other Tandem candidates were doing practice tandem flights as per HPAC rules and we had a good day right til 630 pm, as the last flights were getting sprinkled on and the air was a bit turbulent, so we stood the students down for the last flight.
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| 16°C Sunny. High 16. UV index 6 or high.
Woodside Gloat Reports - while I was busy with the students, most of the local pros were launching and disappearing. Some went west towards Benny. Some headed east to do the Raymont Challenge over to Bridal and back. Everyone flew amazingly well as it was all blue thermals here. And no mayhem, except Hammer had some pine cones in his boots after getting back to Woodside. Click here for the Leonardo Tracks from Woodside . Some amazing flights! Extra kudos to Kevin A who busted the Raymont Challenge and top-landed back on Woodside to drive down after draining some ballast!
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| 12°C Rain mixed with snow ending early this morning then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of rain showers. High 12. UV index 4 or moderate. By the time we got up to launch it had overdeveloped and pilots were running downwind to escape the storms. Reports from Bridal had Kevin & Derek heading to Annis Road to land going up at +5 m/s with `big ears & speed bar`! Martin N was landing at Seabird Island when he caught a low save and climbed out heading to Ludwig where it was getting windy. Brett H picked up his new Ozone R12 race ship, and he and Alex R were doing the triangle to Bridal and back arriving over Woodside high, good thermals over the Chilliwack flats brought them and Guy H home to Woodside.
The last pilots to launch Woodside were forced to head to Harvest Market for smooth landings.
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