| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| Follow @flybc |
FlyBC "Site of the Day September 2017 Archive"
Woodside after 11 am
|
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ 3000' in knots |
Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9-30-17 |
 Rio de Janeiro, BR Niteroi Forecast: 90% Precip. / 0.06 in Rain. High near 75F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. 500 metres We were not disappointed as we arrived to see gliders sledding down to the LZ, probably novice pilots or students judging from the gliders. We found the launch road and it was a nice cobblestone road leading up to a 350 metre launch spot. Colleen got her Taska ready and launched in a perfect cycle and was soon climbing high. When I drove down see looked like she was at 700 metres. I arrived to the LZ to see a glider trying to soar the hill and they were soon on the ground, but it was a tandem that launched after Colleen. I could not see her because she was at 'base at 1000 metres directly overhead the LZ. After 30 minutes of spirals, big ears and some sink searching she landed in the LZ in +25 kph winds but it was laminar at least (similar to landing at Harvest). On the remaining drive to Niteroi we encountered heavy rains as the sucky clouds started to dump precip. 9-26-17 to 9/29/17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR Vila Forecast: 40% Precip. / 0.00 in AM Showers. High 77F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. 500 metres Then magically on Sept 29th the winds and the weather aligned and we hiked up the hill to Morro de Moreno. We arrived to gusty cross winds and I waited 2 hours to get a launchable window and it still took some skill to get a fully loaded wing. Previous attempts ended up with frontals or wing all twisted up when trying to inflate as it was so cross. But I got off and recreated Brett's flight from 2013, that he posted on Vimeo. The beach landng was somewhat technical as it was blowing +25 kph right across the beach and there are lots of obstacles; lamp poles, trees, posts and bikini-clad spectators. This is a magical place to do tandems I am sure, just not so reliable. 9-25-17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR Baixo Forecast: Sunny. High 83F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. 2000 metres As we hit the highway it started to drizzle, not good for trying to get up Baixo as it is a clay road and gets very slippery, and then it started coming down torrentially. It is spring here now and it is a jungle area so one would expect some rain days. We only had 130 kms to drive to the coast but it took over 3 hours as the roads are windy through many towns that slow traffic down to 30 kph at times but it was very scenic. We arrived in Vila Velha to find a nice beach restaurant just below the takeoff here. Brett H flew here while in Brazil in 2013 and had an amazing flight. Sea Gull from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. We ate lunch, got a nice hotel room on the beach and went to find launch. The roads are well marked with proper signs pointing to "Rampa Morro de Moreno" installed by the local government. Paragliding is big for tourism in Brasil. The road up to launch is impassible unless you have a ATV or a tricked out Jeep as it is a river bed of river rock as the cobble stone failed many years ago.  Yes that is Jim hiking! Picture by Colleen. It took 25 minutes to get to the top by the antennas and the launch area.  The wind was very cross when we arrived and the vultures were trying to soar. I waited til 5 pm but it kept getting more cross and you could see the cargo ships all showing the same direction from due north. After an hour of hopeful waiting we hiked back down passing many mountain bikers, hikers and site-see-ers on their way to the top. We went back to the beach for late night drinks and a snack and it was cold as the sun went down. Tommorow promises better winds and possible morning showers, so we will try again.  Coupe Icare Ozone Report - the biggest free flight festival is now over and Ozone unveiled some big news of upcoming products. New tandems, new acro glider, new harnesses, new EN-B high performance glider too! Stayed tuned for release dates.  9-24-17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR GV Forecast: Sunny. High 83F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. 1000 metres We arrived in Baixo Guandu mid-day to find the LZ but no one was flying as it was too windy I guess? 9-23-17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR Rio de Janeiro Forecast: Sunny. High 83F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. 1000 metres Eight hours of hard driving and we found our hotel in the woods on the same mountain as the launch, Pico do Iburturuna. We went to launch around noon on the 23rd and waited in perfect conditions but no one was launching? Finally a tandem launched and had a 20 minute sled ride into the LZ in town. This site was threatened with closure due to airspace issue with the local airport, but a compromise was reached. Paragliders and Hanggliders must stay south of the Rio Doce until below 500 feet, and then they caan overfly town to the LZ. I launched and had a leeside rock & roll flight fighting upwind to the east for 30 minutes to find I was almost in the same place, but I had not lost any height at least.  I made my way to the LZ and observed the rules using "big ears" to maintain legal height as it was lifty everywhere.  Colleen drove down and we headed back to the hotel as it was nearing dark at 530 pm. 9-19-17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR Rio de Janeiro Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 77F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. 1000 metres Not nearly as crowded as Sunday, so getting a ride up with Jorge was easy, only 15 reals. Launch was much more casual too with just a few HGers and maybe 10 PGers. I did get entertained by some little monkeys fighting over a banana that the ramp attendants threw them. The local club president showed me plans for expanding the launch area to provide a longer PG takeoff run by moving the HG ramp more easterly, which is the natural fall line of the hill. As it is in a Natural Park, approval from the Park Manager is a must. He seems to be on board. They will have to cut 8 trees to the east and create a new overhead ramp made of concrete. It all seems grandeous, but they are making do in the meantime. I tried the west launch and it is even shorter as you have to run down on a wood ramp. I was maybe a bit slow bringing up my wing, but with a minor course correction I was off and "thermal hunting". It was 2:30 pm and peak heating time but there was just a few beeps. Total airtime today was 10 minutes, and I did not see any gliders stay up longer than that. We lucked out on our first flight! Back to the hotel for my afternoon nap and then off to dinner. This is almost like a hoilday. 9-18-17
|
| Rio de Janeiro, BR Rio de Janeiro Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 77F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. 1000 metres 9-17-17
|
| Agassiz BC Rio de Janeiro Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 77F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. 1000 metres Colleen & I ventured down the beach to Sao Conrado and the local launch.  We had to pay the Club for the tax for a week, 55 reals, and got our passes. Then we waited for a shuttle ride and we were soon in a small car with 3 other pilots heading to the top (cost was 15 reals each or about 5 bucks), and it was crowded as there were many HG and PG tandems beng conducted.  What you can't see in the picture is the other 20 HG tandems lined up behind these wings. We went downstairs to the PG Launch which is directly below the HG Ramp. Precise coordination is required to avoid accidents, but they have happened in the past. This launch is the shortest I have ever seen or launched off in 22 years for flying, but they do it everyday so one just needs to watch the pros. There were many tandems going off here too but they got us into the queue after about 6 of them went off. They were launching in lame cycles, all forward launches. We saw one solo pilot do a reverse launch and it was not pretty! Colleen got into the east launch slot first and waited for some cycles but it was mostly cross and down. She had a nice forward launch on her SupAir Taska and off she went towards the beach. I got into place and the launch monitors were very good at sorting lines and getting me ready. A good job for Martin N if he want to come to Rio. As for Colleen it was lame and I watched the PG Tandem pilot aboort a launch next to me when he felt no tension on his lines. I waited for a puff and one of the local PG tandem pilots gave me some encouraging advice. As he said one just needs to give a light pull moving forward and the wing is up and overhead in a second and you brake and you are off. I did not bring the Zeno because of this small launch spot, which may be okay in stronger cycles but we had 2-5 kph of north winds today. I headed west into the bowl and got nothing, and then booked it to the beach where we found idiot lift all over the place and smooth north winds. Colleen & I soared together with the vultures and frigate birds and plaed in the light lift and we saw many tandems race to the beach to download their videos and get more passengers. Cost for a tandem here is 430 reals ($150 CDN), good pay for a Brasilian! I had to do wingovers to force down through the lift band to land after an hour. Nice flight for our first here in Rio. 9-14-17 to 9-16-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunny. High 24. UV index 4 or moderate. 1000 metres 9-13-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers this afternoon. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. 1000 metres But the forecast was all wrong and we had sunny skies with huge development to the west and over Bridal Falls. Also we had outflow winds all day and we only got one student flight with George getting his 25th flight and graduating to P-2. When George launched in a lull he was soon going up everywhere but he was not used to the strong lift so it was good he was on an auto-correcting SupAir EONA glider as he was not controlling the surges well. Reports from Stefan P as he came in to Sandpiper Golf Course from Bennie of +7 m/sec climbs and rough air in Miracle Valley on his Gin Explorer. Reports from Bridal of nice climbs over Cheam in NE winds, I guess we should have headed over there rather than waiting on Woodside for 90 minutes? The RASP said inflow after noon but it was wrong for Woodside area for sure.  Colleen & I are headed to Brasil until October 2 so we have closed the school down til then. Go kiting or practice on the training hill until we return. 9-12-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers late this morning and this afternoon. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 21. UV index 4 or moderate. 1000 metres But it turned out pretty good til 3 pm. George was first off the mountain in the morning when we had some cloud layers but good visibility on launch.  On the second flight we had fog obscuring launch at times but it lifted for another flight for George & Cheryl. At noon we had two tandems and Denis & Andrei did those flights while I managed students. We were getting behind on our schedule due to the weather so the next tandems that were supposed to be at 1 pm were delayed til 2:30 pm. By now it was getting windier but it was okay to launch George who soared the South Knoll with Bev giving him tips as I readied my tandem passenger. Denis launched next and had a great soaring flight with his passenger who was celebrating a birthday today. Andrei launched next and was soaring the South Knoll too and George followed them over to Harvest Market for his first mini-XC on Flight #24. I tried Colleen's new Gin Osprey, a 34 meter tandem, designed for high wind days and light passengers and I had both with 52 kg passnger Seti and spicy launch conditions. My passenger fell down while I was inflating the glider, Cobra style, but I was able to stabilizie it enough to give her time to get up with Bev's help. We soared with Denis and the Osprey climbed pretty well for its loading. Easy to fly with light brakes pressures. After this flight we went to the Sasquatch Inn Grand Opening to see the new rooms, and they are gorgeous. Nice place to stay while out in the Valley with good food in the Pub below. At 6 pm we went back up to try to get George's 25th flight for graduation but it was too spicy. Derek launched and went high but after he got a lull it mever got good enough for P-2 level fliers. So we drove down to Harvest to get him. 9-11-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 25. Humidex 27. UV index 6 or high. 1000 metres George is very near his graduation flight but we only got two flights in today. We went back up at 5 pm, when we saw Derek & Dennie launch and climb out. They left Cheryl on launch and she got off and flew straight to the Ranch going up the entire way. Derek & Dennie followed her out and they were parked but climbed through 1600 metres. Dennie flew home to Rosedale while Derek flew to Green Hill. Cheryl never made it to the Ranch, landing out in Duncan's hayfield. We waited an Jacek got off and had a 56 minute flight on our borrowed Buzz Z4, He made the Ranch with ease. But it got even stronger and we drove down at 6 pm rather than risk a bad launch. Reports from Elk had Alex R, Kevin & Brad soaring up to 1800 metres.  Also reports from Bennie of Tom C getting to 1600 metres and landing near Deroche. It is great that this "WCSC funded site" is available to all pilots but I recommend you are P-3 or above to fly here even on light days as the LZs are few and far between once you head south. 9-10-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 19. UV index 6 or high. 1000 metres We had five students on the training hill in the morning and by noon they were all ready to launc, but some elected to take tandems first so it slowed down the day somewhat. Meanwhile the local pros took off around 1 pm and got into the clouds at 1000 metres as forecasted. Mallory & Martin got two more flights on their second day out. The last flight of the day "glassed off" and the students got a nice long flight while Colleen too Matt for his first tandem and they got almost an hour in the air. Reports from Bridal of good high flights, as well as Benny with 3+ hours of thermal flying. Not bad for a September day! 9-9-17
|
|  Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: 60% Precip. / 0.08 in Showers. High 59F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. 500 metres Soon we are headed to Brasil but not sure we will fly this site. Paragliding Magic from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. 9-8-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers late this morning and this afternoon. Widespread smoke becoming local smoke early this morning. High 21. Humidex 25. 800 metres 9-7-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Mainly cloudy. Widespread smoke. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 26. Humidex 29. UV index 5 or moderate. 1000 metres WA State Flatland Report - if you wonder why you don't see Martin & Mia much in the Fraser Valley in the summer . . . this is why. Video posted by Mike B from WA when he towed up with the M&M Towing Team. Nice cloudstreets. 9-6-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Widespread smoke. High 31. Humidex 32. UV index 6 or high. 1000 metres I took Glenn up the hill for his last two flights before signoff and he and Martin N battled the smoke.  We did ultimately get some motoring flights in after 5 pm on the new Blackhawk Lite Trike with MZ175 motor powering it. I did a demonstration flight and then Glenn took a flight himself and he had a perfect launch and landing.  Steph also got another foot launch motor flight on the 125 Lite motor and also had a perfect flight. The Blackhawk Lite Trike is perfect for a short box Ford or Chevy pickup as it fits in without breaking it down. My friend Phillipe has been busy flying in the PWC in Brasil this week recording the highlights. We should be in Brasil by the 15th of this month to savour some of the spring thermals! World Cup Pico do gaviao task 2 from Philippe Broers on Vimeo. World Cup Pico do gaviao task 2 from Philippe Broers on Vimeo. 9-5-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 37C. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres 9-4-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunny. High near 95F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. 1000 metres We tried kiting at 2 pm and it was way too strong. Then at 6 pm it went to too light to paramotor except for taxi-ing the quad around for Kelly. 9-3-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunny. Hazy this afternoon. High 30. Humidex 33. UV index 7 or high. 1000 metres My mid day tandem with Zayden took us to 1100 metres and he was stoked!  We had many students here from Day One to Day 10 levels and everyone got to fly. Highlights of the day including flying tandem with Mallory for her first flight and thermaling with Thomas & Stefan who were up for almost two hours on their 15th flights. Amazing thermal conditions for early September. The last flight of the day had Derek, Norm and Bev getting high and heading to Harvest Market. Cheam Report - I put an ad out on the Chilliwack Hiking Club FB page for a ride up Cheam on Sunday. No one responded but an unnamed adventure guide allowed me to build a nest on the roof of his full van to ride up. With conflicting wind models between the Rasp and mountain weather, particularly a predicted build up of north flow as the day progressed, I beetled up in one hour seventeen minutes arriving to nice cycles with a bit of west. I hooked in and inflated my wing in a lull and was hoovered from a kiting stance into air that was inconsistent. I hit pockets of lift but nothing sustainable so I followed the ridge in lift and sink hoping to hit convergence with the now obvious NW flow. I crossed to the Fraser Valley side and hit smooth stable air and apart from a few bumps, I glided to Brad Henry's place to await Judy. Always special to enjoy the beautiful grunt of Cheam and reap the reward of flying 2100 meters back to the valley thus avoiding the knee crushing hike and the back breaking bounce of the logging road.  9-2-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunny. Hazy this afternoon. High 30. Humidex 33. UV index 7 or high. 1000 metres We had 5 students flying and somehow got 9 tandems done before susnet. The students got four flights and the last flight was a sunset flight landing in the dusk. 9-1-17
|
| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Sunny. High 83F. Winds light and variable. 800 metres Denis worked with students til noon, and they were ready to fly but Kelly felt a tandem was in order so Denis took him tandem. They got high and the conditions looked good so off we flew Stef on his first solo flight. He also got high and it was a good thing as there was a strong wind layer at 300 metres and he just made the LZ, but had a great landing. It got windy so we went for lunch and at 6 pm we headed up for an evening flight for Stef. Colleen and Norm were "dukin' it out" on their SupAir Taskas and got high over the clearcuts. Stef flew and had a perfect reverse launch and perfect flight! Kelly stood down but feels ready to try again in the morning. 2016 in Review - we had our busiest season every in 20 years! Thanks to all of you that supported us in 2016! We started out in January with our biggest Mexican Tour with many guests improving their skills at El Toro, Pelican Bay Soaring Site, Colima and Tapalpa. February brought us more Tour guests with me returning to Canada on March 1 to start lessons. March brought on some great spring conditions with some excellent XC flights in the Faser Valley. April brought out many new student pilots and we had up to 7 per day requiring some additional manpower to help out with Degas in Mission with newbies while I was sending students off Woodside. April enjoyed the first tree-landing of the season as an un-named P-2 pilot 360ed himself into a 200' tree just before dark. May brought out many pilots doing XC flights from Benny to Woodside. This site was improved in 2016 with WCSC & BCHPA funds so we are going to take advancing students there in 2017. We also ran our Annual FlyBC Instructor Course and had many new candidates working with our students. We had to go to Coyote & Mara many times to avoid the weather. June was an awesome month and we had many signed off P-2 students by now. Thanks to all who helped us get them through their courses! July was a productive month but also brought some sad news as a local Bellingham Pilot who had flown Blanchard hundreds of times had a fatal crash while paragliding on a mellow day. TJ had been flying since 2000 and had created a Weather Page that was very useful in predicting the conditions. August took us to Mara Lake for our Annual SIV Course and we had 25 participants over 10 days with only a few wet wings. Either we are getting better at guiding, or the gliders are getting safer, or the pilots are doing more studying prior to the Course . . . or all three but it is a pleasure to put pilots through the maneuvers and see them cain confidence in their gear. September was flyable most days but we did do the odd road trip to Merritt and Coyote. I think we are up to 200 flyable days now. We also had one weekend closed to students and pilots at Eagle Ranch while we married off Aaron & Christy! October turned out to be a complete bust as it rained everyday, as did November. Odd as this is usually our busiest training time. It was okay because we had planned a trip to Australia anyway, but I felt bad for the students that did not get finished in 2016. December was also bad weather-wise with record snow falls, so I went to Mexico to get our winter condo ready for the winter season, and Derek & Norm & I had some nice flights. Thanks again to the 40+ students we signed off in 2016. Thanks also to the pilots that bought a record number of gliders from Gin, Ozone & SupAir from us in 2016. Stay safe in 2017, and we will be here to support you in your flying endeavours. |
FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports click to select the month and year you wish to review.
|
1253 Kilby Road, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0 Cell: 604-618-5467 E-Mail: FlyBC E-Mail |