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FlyBC "Site of the Day October 2013 Archive Page"
Woodside may be flyable, but not soarable
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 Agassiz Periods of rain ending late this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 10.
Jason was "jonesing" to try his brand new Ozone Swift 2 and he got a chance to fly it three times off Coyote Ridge. The winds were light to tailwind but the Swift 2 got off everytime with ease, as did Lynn on our Ozone Element III trainer wing.
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|  Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. Becoming cloudy near noon. 60 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 12. We had Lynn check the air for Jason today as she launched first and had a nice launch and flight right into the Circle! Yay!
A few other hopefuls were out, Denis & Gary P, but they only got sleddies as the winds never picked up and the late was rain too.
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| Agassiz Sunny. High 14.
Nat had been out this summer but was denied a first solo due to high winds and came back and showed me how to launch, again a perfect forward with commited speed in very light winds.
Later launch conditions were reversible and nearing +15 kph in strength making for solid launches for the newbies. Martin N, Andrei & Joe C were out too and they all had soaring flights with Andrei getting above launch but no luck top-landing. We had a few interesting approaches as Jason and Lynn on different rounds didn't watch their altitude over the Maple Tree and had to land short, oddly starting out with 200 metres or more? Teachable moments are good in the learning process.
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| Agassiz A few showers ending this morning then clearing. Wind northwest 30 km/h becoming northeast 40 to 60 this afternoon. High 12.
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| Agassiz A few showers ending this morning then clearing. Wind northwest 30 km/h becoming northeast 40 to 60 this afternoon. High 12.  Cawston Report - Well , after a long time winghandling and many many short and low flights up to 700', Meri finally takes the big step off of Cawston almost 2600' vertical. She is wearing the Go Pro and got a cool video of the two of us flying close. This was her second flight.
Priceless!! - Pete R
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| Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of drizzle over western sections early this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 14. We gave him some tips last weekend on his second training day for reverse launching and he took "FrankenBuzz" out to the LZ and he had N, NW, E, S winds switching rapidly but he had a good session for about 3 hours. Others started to arrive and once we saw Bev, Joe & Norm had launched we decided to take Peter K for a flight on the new Buzz Z4. Colleen took Peter K up to launch him while I was doing the ground control duties up on a ladder. It was fairly strong on launch, up to 20 kph, just at our "no go" threshold but Peter had a great launch and Colleen guided him skillfully above launch to fly with the other Peter & Norm.
Meanwhile, Peter S & Norm were "duking it out" near launch and Peter S ultimately top-landed to drive down.
Hooty Report - Event of the day. This injured flyer made it to Monica's flower garden.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches over western sections this morning. High 15.
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| Agassiz Sunny. Fog patches over western sections early this morning. High 19. Ihor & Joe C turned up and I had to leave for a trip in to Mission, but I think they flew? Mt Cheam Report - pretty late in the season but Claudia, Alex R & Kevin braved a hike up Cheam with Judy as driver and they had nice flights to the Bridal LZ. The following picture tells how strong it was for October 24th! And it was lame conditions down low at Woodside as it was inverted here. Click on the picture to get to the October album and more Cheam snapshots.
She's A Beauty from Kevin Ault on Vimeo.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. High 19. Speed Wings offer up a new chance to fly when it is too strong for conventional paragliders. Ozone is a best selling brand and available here at FlyBC. G-Force Trainer is a paragliding centrifuge that can be used to practice maneuvers at High G's . . . like reserve deployments. Watch for the backwards SAT rotation deployment failures, similar to what happened to Bill G a year ago on a SCirroco at out SIV Course (he too could not get the reserve pulled out due to the G's). New Acro Wing from Ozone! The Ozone Octane 2 from Ozone Paragliders on Vimeo. The Ozone Buzz Z4 from Ozone Paragliders on Vimeo.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny except cloudy over western sections. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. Elk Report - Biff solos Elk with his Delta 2 and flies to Prest Road. Pivothead Pilgrimage from Kevin Ault on Vimeo.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. It looks like the long range trend is for sunny skies through the next week, so come and enjoy the fall colours!
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny except cloudy over western sections this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. Miquel was keen to fly as this was his second time up here, but the winds were very light.
By the end of the day, Miquel & Peter got three solo flights in. The Eagle Ranch LZ had interesting +15 kph south winds all day but launch never got anything over 5 kph. Landing were smooth and easy with little turbulence even at the ProCircle.
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| Agassiz Sunny. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. We had Peter K, a new student start today, and thanks to Colleen's tandem flight and Bev's ground handling tutelage with a followup kiting session with Colleen, Peter was able to get 2 solo flights today in light (very light) conditions. Other students included Miquel, Paul, Donovan, and Blake and they got 4 flights each in landing at the ProCircle when the winds were light in the morning and at the Big Circle when it went south. What an awesome group today launching in very light winds. It was Miquel's graduation flight around 3 pm, and I had a tandem to do so I left him to launch himself and he said he reversed off fine after seeing me reverse my tandem with Ed from Red Deer. The air was super buoyant today with a few smallish thermals so everyome came out over the Ranch at almost Launch altitude. The last flight of the day around 6 pm was amazing as the Bailout Swamp area fogged in but the Ranch and the Harrison Mills Peninsula stayed clear. Everyone had to do no wind forwards and they all had amazing launches with perfect acceleration and control! Good commitment from all!
OK Falls Report - Pete & Merel were flying down south today off Ripley's launch.
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| Agassiz Sunny. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate.
Janey got another solo after a few duffed launches and this time she heard me & Colleen and had a textbook flight! We came back up with two tandems from the last of the Groupons and took Andre & Karen tandem in light conditions, it is very stable but the air is beautifully clear and we had good landing conditions all day for students.
In the end Janey got 2 flights, Paul got 3 flights in on the Ozone Buzz Z4 and is progressing well and he is up to 8 flights now overall.
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| Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. She mastered the forward launches perfectly on Day Two and we were ready to do one more tandem flight before she commits to solo flight. Martin N offered to drive so we headed up around 11 am to find light east or southeast winds on launch. We waited and Denis arrived with a tandem in Chris' Jeep. We started getting up cycles but they were short and lame. Denis setup and he was off in a decent cycle but they had to run hard to get off. We didn't see anymore cycles and Denis had a short flight so we drove to the Sasquatch Inn for lunch and returned around 3 pm to find nice cycles and soaring eagles.
There were some nice thermals with interesting tracks on the mountain and on the way out, but smooth enough for a student so we planned to go straight up and try again for Janey's solo flight with Martin as wind technician. When we arrived back on top around 4 :15 pm, there were still a few cycles and Martin demonstrated a forward launch and was thermalling around for a bit but it was getting too late for the thermal enegy to keep him aloft (the sun is getting really low these days).
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| Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. it was wet on the grass and the NW winds were "howling through" so we spent several hours on theory in the classroom and the winds never abated. This would have been a good Horsefly Day for advanced pilots! We packed up the truck and headed to Mission as oddly the Abby forecast was showing SW winds? Sure enough as we passed the firehall just near Lil Nic, the flag there was blowing SW. Up on Heritage Park Hill, we had perfect cycles and soon Janey was flying off the Hill on our new Ozone Element II trainer wing. Janey was having some issues landing on her feet but the landings were smooth even if they were on her butt. About 50% were successful feet landings out of 12 flights.
We decided it was not going to be light enough to kite here at the Ranch so we headed towards Bridal to try the LZ there. When we arrived it was NE there and light enough for safe kiting so we practiced some reverse launches, ending with a perfect forward launch and some nice kiting for Janey. No flying but a really productive day of theory & ground handling to prepare for her solo flights. Challenging forecasts lately but Mother Woodside has been providing up til today. NOAA is back up as the US Gov't is back in operation as of last night.
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| Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. Gord was out from Saltspring and Joe C from Agassiz were flying with Martin N. I saw Gord & Joe have a sled-ride during the time after our tandem flight which had some weird mixed up air and punchy thermals. I drove Gord & Martin back up around 3 pm but didn't wait to see how they did as I had to race to Sumas before 5 pm.
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| Agassiz Sunny. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.
Woodside Report - nobody showed up early to try Horsefly so I did chores, but after 1 pm many came out to sample Leeside Woodside. Bev was voted "Wind Technician" and she had a nice sleddie and was followed out by George, Martin, Stu while Norm drove down for the first round. The next flights were better with Norm, Martin and George soaring nicely for about an hour. Even Bev did a few turns in lift on her second flight! Normal east wind in the Eagle Ranch LZ made for nice landings too.
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| Agassiz Sunny. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate. John W came out to write his P2 exam and did well passing with ease. Another signed off FlyBC Pilot is heading to Elk to join the Hike & Fliers. I had two tandems booked at noon, and they were supposed to call first before they came out to check the weather but they just showed up at 11:45 am. It was blowing down lightly on launch, so I suggested they take a lunch break and come back at 1 pm. In the meantime I drove Cynthia up to test the air and she had a nice sled-ride after a crazy launch! By the time the tandems came back, it was cycling in nicely and Colleen & I took the passengers up. Tom C & Joe C headed up with Martin N, Norm, Bev, Cynthia in tow. Colleen launched first and was soaring as I got Rob ready for his tandem. We had such a nice cycle that we got "plucked off" the carpet and we were soaring north of launch. The thermals were small & punchy but we managed 20 minutes each with super landing conditions at the big circle. Cynthia drove our rig down and got to watch Norm, Martin & Tom climb out and they got about an hour in the air with some landing at Riverside. A surprising day after looking at the RASPs but Mother Woodside provided again!
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|  Agassiz Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers early this morning. Clearing this afternoon. High 15. It was also a good day to pick mushrooms at Eagle Ranch as Tonya & Elena picked a huge bag of orange ones from the LZ.
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| Agassiz A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. High 14. UV index 3 or moderate. I had new student Janey here for her first tandems and we followed off after a few solo pilots and got only a few bumps but it was good for her to fly the flight path. During our first launch she lost her boot so we landed her on her butt nicely in the ProCircle to avoid any injury to her foot. We went back up after a few hours after the sun came out and Pete go a few turns on the South Knoll with some eagles but was soon in Riverside. We launched as a large group of eagles showed up but there was little to turn in but we had an awesome flight with Janey piloting the tandem for the entire flight. This time her boots stayed on and we landed her on her feet in the Circle. Ryan managed 2 flights on his new Ozone Swift 2 and he is managing his launches well with some encouragement from Martin N! The grass was wet all day from the morning dew and it never dried out so the wings were drying out in the Barn between flights and all night too after flying.
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| Agassiz Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 14. Martin N & Pete R missed the ride up with Normando as they were having lunch but joined us and we arrived on launch at 4 pm, to nice cycles and soarable conditions. I launched Ryan and drove down to retrieve him and we picked up Pete at the Kettle as he had a quick sleddie.
Ryan launched again and was in the air heading out when a rain cell started dropping light mist, but he was packed up quickly and waiting by the Barn when I arrived. Kevin had relaunched and was in the air and had tro divert to Riverside to avoid the cell. The Roverside Bear was grazing in the NE corner of the LZ as Kevin approached and no amount of yelling or whistling got the Bear to move . . . until Kevin flared and dropped his wing and then the Bear took off into the woods. Kevin walked back to the Ranch on the railroad tracks and we headed up for a last flight at 6 pm. We arrived to soarable winds and Thomm was kicking himself that he hadn't brought up a glider! Kevin launched and started going up.
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| Agassiz Sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. High 14. UV index 3 or moderate. Ihor had flown an earlier flight and got "sleddie" testing out cameras and Martin drove that flight. Morgan & Sam were also out on their HGs and got in a little flight too. Belated Elk Mtn. Hike & Fly Report - Daryl Sawatzky test flew an Artik 2 and flew it to Kevin's school in Chilliwack. Alex Raymont was lured by the sirens of Mt. Thurston and almost had to land at Eddy's but "scunged his way back up", high enough to fly to Prest Rd.. I played in the weird, punchy leeside thermals waiting for Alex to get back and then flew to Prest. Brilliant Fall flying - Biff (stolen from Facebook).
Guess who from 2006?
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|  Agassiz Rain. Gusty winds. High 16. Indian Arm Report - James F reported sunny skies and sweet soaring on his Ozone Ultralite 23. No reports on the landing (wet or dry). Preflight distractions can be a big problem, Sunday was a case in point with lots of pilots on launch and small spaces to pre-flight and many people talking as pilots got ready. Fortunately everyone was safe at Woodside, not like this pilot who launched unclipped to his harness.
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| Agassiz Rain. Amount 15 to 25 mm. High 13.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 21. UV index 3 or moderate.
We headed straight back to Woodside and the boys got a nice flight with Ryan going to Bill Best's field and Miquel played around too long on Woodside and sunk out with not enough altitude to make it to our intended LZ. But he made the Ranch and the ProCircle with ease. Reversible cycles at launch this morning. By the time we retrieved the boys, Blake had arrived a few trucks had left the Ranch with eager "desperados" on their way to the top.
The only ones to get above launch was Brett H early on on his Gin Boomerang 9 in the North Bowl (just above launch height) and later Normando got way above launch further back on his Ozone Delta 2 following an eagle.
The winds came up stronger after dark and there were some trees down near Kilby Road. Sumas was reporting SW at 14-17 mph after 9 pm. No flying for the next few days as a front comes through.
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| Agassiz Cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. Clearing this afternoon. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate. As forecasted it got cloudier during the day but we experienced no precip locally. It was reversible most of the afternoon so Ryan & Miquel could practice that skillset today on two launches. A few others were out but it was pretty stable and hard to stay aloft but again a great training day with light winds in the LZ from all directions to keep things interesting.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 4 or moderate. Ryan & Donovan are on their third days of lessons and it was time to train them on reverse launching. We also had brand new students Dayle & Rohan arrive today, so out to the training hill. One small problem though . . . no wind or wind in the wrong direction. Undaunted we stuck it out and finally got a few puffs and the reverse launch coaching went well and Ryan & Donovan were pulling off "Downwind Dereks" with ease! Dayle & Rohan were focussing on forward launching and were doing very well too! Good thing we were using our kiting fleet as the gliders got very wet on the dewy grass and the Barn was soon filled with gliders to dry out while we went flying with real gliders. Denis & Tom Clark were doing some tandems for a stag party and Denis had a great flight outlasting Tom, but it did shade over making it difficult to stay up or even launch as the cycles died down.
Rohan won the "grass stain of the day" award for his faceplant on tandem with Colleen (and later to be discussed too). We headed back up and Justin & Jessica arrived for her first tandem flight since I took her 14 years ago in Pemberton when she was 5 years old. Justin purchased Kevin A's JoJo tandem and has been practicing with his family and doing pretty good after a long hiatus away from tandem flying. They got three flights in today in really light launch cycles. Ryan & Donovan got their first reserve launches in today using our patented "FlyBC Technique" and had excellent control inflating the wings (both on the new Ozone Buzz Z4s). Colleen was in the LZ for the newbies and for the last flight of the day we actually got some decent inflow cycles and Rohan launched first solo and was unable to get into his seat so his weight-shifting was ineffective but he had a great flight and another faceplant landing with more grass stains. We were about to give up for Dayle's launch as the winds died down. But we persevered and it came up enough for her first attempt at launching which was a success and she was off and flying on the Ozone Element II. I handed her over to Colleen just as my radio died, and Colleen talked her into the Ranch for another perfect landing! No grass stains for Dayle!
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| Agassiz Clearing this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.
We arrived first at Heritage Park and the wind was NW and it was fogged in and damp, so no point laying out a wing.
We gave up and headed back to the Ranch as it was clearing on the WebCam.
Both Ryan (Day 2 student) and Donovan (Day 3 student) are flying our new Buzz Z4 trainers and Oxygen Hiking Harnesses with Supair front mount reserves and they are keen to fly, but when we arrived at launch it was almost clear enough but I wanted an additional few hundred feet of cloud spacing in case of cloudsuck.
Launch eventually cleared up and I sent off Donovan and he had a briliant forward launch and was climbing out front. Ryan quickly followed Dononvan out with an equally brilliant forward launch in light cycles. Colleen was in the LZ and guided the guys into the circle. We repeated the pattern three more times and it got nicely thermic as Denis flew and top-landed after almost sinking into Riverside. It wasn't too strong for students, nice October thermals with some turbulence over the ridges to require some wing management . . . perfect for training. The last flight was soarable as Colleen went for a nice flight with Morgan on his HG getting higher than anyone else after his buddies had sledders.
Reports from Bridal early had folks doing sled runs in leeside conditions, while Woodside was soarable. When it is leeside, Woodside is always a better choice, especially when the sun is so shallow in October. Additional gloat reports came in from Alex R at BJ in WA State getting to 1000 metres in minutes over launch and having a nice October flight with Claudia. Lenami honoured by colleagues with a Bursary in her name - Click here for the News1130 article.
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| Agassiz Showers ending late this afternoon then cloudy. High 12. We added ALB's CanadaRASP to our weather page to give another perspective on the forecasted winds, as NOAA is down til the US figures out their budget crisis. Pity the poor government workers all being sent home due to politics without a paycheque - mandatory layoffs while the US spends $billions on the war machine.
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| Agassiz Cloudy. Showers. High 14. Now some may say that driving 2.5 hours for one student is not worth it, until you see the progress this one student made in one day! We started at 10 am on the small training hill just above the Crash Pad LZ and Ryan had many runs in light and cross winds using FrankenBuzz, our Ozone Buzz I trainer. He had a great sense of where the wing was and good brake feeling right from the start. At this time I received a text from Colleen that Woodside Launch was open and she noted light winds in the LZ.
Off to the Dump Ridge for 2 more flights again with perfect launches and approaches and landings. It started to switch to NE winds so we raced off to Coyote Ridge near the Ashcroft Manor (which faces NE) but it was South there and gusty so after checking Merritt for winds (it was light south there and clear) we headed for Merritt on the 97C back roads. By the time we got to Merritt it was hailing and gusty there too, so back to the Ranch where the webcam looked good but I missed the fact that the socks were pointing from the NW (outlflow).
It was not raining here but the outflow was too strong to kite in and the windsocks on top were blowing down so we hunkered down in the Barn for videos & ground school sessions til dark. A very successful day for Ryan with 4 actual high flights and many training hill runs too! Bali Report - Hi Jim, Colleen . . . I feel like I've finally started really paragliding. I just had the most amazing four days in Bali, tripling my time in air, soaring the full length of Bali's south coast and nailing (and being nailed by) top landings. When I arrived I had five hours logged over six countries of parawaiting: frustrating. Now I have over 15 hours including my fantastic flight over the 1000' high cliffs of Bali with a view to the Uluwatu Temple at the west end of the island. Here's a YouTube video of ten minutes of my hour flight crossing the stunning Shark's Fin, getting to the end of the ridge with a view to Uluwatu and the start of my return. Amazing experience. Thanks to both of you for helping keep me on the path and safe, and for equipping me so well. The Ozone Geo III is a delight and the harness has finally seen enough airtime to become properly adjusted. Thanks again, and I look forward to flying with you in the future. FYI, one of my Singaporean fellow novices might be going to Vancouver and I gave him your names with a strong recommendation to look you up for further training - Cheers, Mike Coupe Icare 2013 from coupeicare on Vimeo. What is new at Ozone? Our long time friend and pilot Jeffrey Miller is in the Honduras and is looking for some support to help his local flying community. Honduras CloudBase Foundation Link He is looking for gear donations that can help some of his neighbours get airborne. Honduras residents have a very low income and can use all the help they can get. If you are an instructor and can donate some time, that would be appreciated too. Honduras CloudBase Foundation Facebook Page |
FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports click to select the month and year you wish to review.
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Box 79, Harrison Mills, BC Canada V0M 1L0 Mobile: 604-618-5467 Skype: flybcpg E-Mail: FlyBC E-Mail |