FlyBC's Paragliding Site of the Day September 2019 Archive Page - from the Universe's Largest Paragliding Centre :-)

Date	Site	Forecast	Winds @ 3000' in kilometers	Lapse Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters	Comments
9-30-19	FlyBC was open at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun & Cloud. High 22. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - we had new students so Tony was working with them and I took Mark & Nora up the mountain. Leeside conditions, so I had Andrei & Oleksander fly off first to check the air. Andrei had a good takeoff and was soon beamed up to 1200 metres. Oleksander took longer to launch as the cycles dwindled. He also got beamed up out by Harrison Highlands. Nora went next but was intimidated by the conditions and a new wing she was trying out. She eventually got off and now it was just me and Mark. Mark needed to work on his reverse launches as he is at 16 flights and only a few reverse launches. We kited on top and he got off cleanly with a forward finally as there was little wind. He had an awesome flight getting well over 1000 metres! Tony took Mark and Nora up for a second flight as the new students went for lunch and they had better conditions this time, no waiting. I took Mark up for a third flight at 530 pm, and it was howling on top. An un-named tandem pilot took many tries and aborts to get off with his son, so Mark was a bit scared but we had some nice lulls and he took one and had a great reverse launch and he was climbing well. I started driving down and saw Mark thermalling above Woodside. I got down to Eagle Ranch well before Mark and he had a nice approach despite the strong winds.
9-29-19	FlyBC is closed Sunday due to wind	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.	040° @ 35 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside No Fly Report - Woodside is had more strong outflow and even Savona was blown out. Reports from Lumby had pilots getting cloudsucked and blown downwind at the Accuracy Comp. Yikes! Kilimanjaro Report - Our good friends Cheryl & Justin summitted Kilimanjaro this morning. They were doing this fund-raiser for African Schools as Justin had done in 2013 and 2016 and he had not been able to fly due to conditions and circumstances. As we heard from Cheryl this morning in a cryptic Facebook post, Justin had a failed paragliding launch and crashed and died on the mountain. This is not an easy place to fly. 19,000 feet and little oxygen and even smaller molecules of air to get your glider flying. Justin had been one of our first students in 1998 and he became a tandem pilot and flew many hours in many sites . . . he was not a rookie. Paragliding is as safe as we want to make it. If you fly morning sleddies off Woodside you will have a long safe flying career. If you choose to fly in stronger and more challenging conditions you up the odds of having an accident. Terrain and conditions can combine to make paragliding even more dangerous. Colleen & I are so sorry that this trip did not go well and feel so badly for Cheryl, Melissa, Jessica and Julia . . . we watched these kids grow up and I took them tandem as early as when they were 5 years old. Watch this video of what Wings of Kilimanjaro are trying to do in Africa. You can donate to the cause in Justin & Cheryl's name.
9-28-19	FlyBC is open Saturday for ground school but the wind may stop any activity with wings	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.	040° @ 35 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside had strong outflow so we took the students to Mission where the forecast said calmer but it was gusty there too so not very productive. But the morning ground school sessions went well and were needed for most.
9-27-19	FlyBC is closed Thursday due to wind	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.	200° @ 35 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside No Fly Report - Woodside is looking wet & windy for at least two days. Hopefully the weekend is not outflow but we will see? Yep, we were blown out today and the day before.
9-26-19	FlyBC is closed Thursday due to wind	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 16. UV index 3 or moderate.	200° @ 35 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside No Fly Report - Woodside is looking wet & windy for at least two days. Hopefully the weekend is not outflow but we will see?
9-25-19	FlyBC is closed today as the RASP looked kind of strong for students	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this morning then cloudy. High 17. UV index 2 or low.	200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 900 metres	Road Trip Report - I picked up my airplane in High River and took off for Chilliwack around 11 am. Nice climb out to the Rockies and the forecast said "NW winds gusting 50 - 70 kph this morning". But it was calm and just a bit of headwind til Kootenay Lake. Beautiful skies over Nelson but it was cloudy all around north and west with cloudbase at 9000 feet. As I approached Penticton I noticed one fuel gauge was reading very low, which was odd as I filled it a few days ago and only did one short test flight. I selected the left aux tank and ran on that til just outside of Penticton and the tank ran dry so I switched back to the main tanks. I rechecked the gauges and the left side was still reading low, so it was decision time . . do I continue and believe the tanks should be fuller or believe the gauge and land to refuel? I checked the map for Princeton fuel service and it said "No Fuel". I elected for stopping in Penticton which is now just behind me and radio in to announce my landing with a "possible fuel management problem". I had to lose lots of altitude so I flew south of Skaha Lake for a long final to Runway 34. I did a high steep approach in case an engine stopped and just as I crossed the threshold the front engine sputtered and died. I taxied in on one engine and the gas guy started on the right tanks - they were full with 106 litres used. The left tanks, which were now dry took 300 litres. Identical fuel flows during the flight, so either I had a leak somewhere or someone had siphoned 200 litres of my fuel the night before. I doubt there was any leaks or I would have smelled it and seen some staining. It was a good decision to stop in Penticton as there are no gas stations in the air! The flight back to Chilliwack was good until Hope, which was reporting "Clear above 12000 feet". I arrived over Hope at 8000 feet and had to spiral down to 4000 feet to get below the solid cloud layer between Hope and Chilliwack. Nice landing at Chilliwack and Martin N was there to pick me up and take me to the Ranch. I took him up Woodside and Andrei also needed a lift as he flew earlier and said it was rough near the ground (pre-frontal). Martin grabbed about an hour of airtime and landed at the HG LZ. Road Trip Report - Woodside is looking wet for at least two days.
9-24-19	FlyBC is closed Tuesday due to rain	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy early this afternoon. High 17. UV index 2 or low.	200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was looking wet and I did not get any flight reports.
9-23-19	FlyBC is closed Monday due to rain	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy early this afternoon. High 17. UV index 2 or low.	200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Road Trip Report - Woodside is looking wet for at least two days, so I headed to Calgary to retrieve my airplane from the mechanics. Nice thing about paragliders and paramotors is that they do not require a costly annual inspection like certified aircraft. And twin engine certified aircraft are twice as complicated to inspect.
9-22-19	FlyBC is closed Sunday and Monday due to rain	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Rain ending this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy early this afternoon. High 17. UV index 2 or low.	200° @ 25 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Elton John Report - Woodside was looking wet for at least two days, so we went to the Elton John show in Vancouver. So this is what normal people do on a Sunday! Great show and Elton played non-stop for thre plus hours!
9-21-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of drizzle this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was looking good and we were shuttling students today. We had a mix of newbie students on Day 1 & 2 Level and several veteran students with 23 flights hoping to get their sign-off flights today. We were not disappointed with the conditions as it was perfect for first flights early on, then we had a few hours of cloud suck (perfect for my two tandem flights!). It got too strong for the newbies mid-day but Ricardo & Liam both logged their graduation flights and managed to stay out of cloud. We went up one last flight at 5:45 pm and then newbies got a last flight in with perfect smooth air for their flights. The two Martin's both got almost 2 hours of soaring today. Peter and Claudia flew Lil Nic and Peter almost made it to Woodside landing short at the Harrison Bay west beach. It was quite busy at launch with schools, pro-pilots and our students. Quote of the Day - Why didn't anyone tell us there was a Fly-In?
9-20-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers this morning. Clearing near noon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 19. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside forecasts were good but the students drove through rain in Mission, Dewdney & Deroche and almost turned around to go home but when they hit the Harrison Bridge they saw sunshine. We went up to launch at 11 am and it was quite cloudy with clear breaks and we waited. Ricardo launched first on our NOVA Ion 5 Light and had no problems maintaining visibility. Greg launched next on his Ozone Atom 3 and had to pull "big ears" but it was good practice. Finally Nora launched on the Rise 3 and they were all in the air at the same time. On our second flight we had some guest fliers on launch. We went up for a third flight around 2 pm and the air was still good for students but the RASP suggested +20 kph of SW winds to come by 3 pm so we wrote P-2 exams to be safe. Tony was working with two new students and they headed to Mission to fly on the training hills. While Greg & Ricardo wrote their exams, Jacek & Degas went flying and they got high and went to the airstrip after 1:30 of soaring above launch in +15 kph of wind so it turned out okay to fly all day.
9-19-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Becoming cloudy this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 19. UV index 6 or high.	200° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was flyable just after 11 am and Tony had Ricardo, Greg and Nora flying today. Here is Nora trying out our AirDesign Rise 3 demo. Thanks for the pic Dennie! As forecasted, it got soarable mid-afternoon and even some pros came out: Dennie, Kevin & Martin N. Kevin got really high and headed out to Kilby Park for a visit but landed back at the Ranch in turbulent conditions (odd because it was cloudy and not so windy on the ground).
9-18-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers ending this morning then a mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers. Risk of thunderstorms late this afternoon. High 19. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 900 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was looking good after noon. Tony took Greg up and he got two more flights to add to the fourteen flights he did in Savona in May. Bev, Norm, Grant and even Denis showed up to fly today and they soared around for an hour landing at 5 pm.
9-17-19	FlyBC is closed today due to rain showers and Savona is not looking good either	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Rain beginning this morning. High 16. UV index 1 or low.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 500 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was rained out again today and Savona did not look good either, but a good chore day. French Tour Report - I hope all is going well. I just wanted to let you know that Noah and I just got back from our trip to France. We had a fantastic time paragliding at so many different places. We found there were paragliding sites everywhere and tons of pilots. St. Hilaire and the funicular was definitely a highlight. Thanks so much for all the training and getting me all certified before leaving (not that anyone in France seemed to care!). I hope we'll be able to come out for some flights this month (if it ever stops raining!). All the best, Tanyss P.S. My pretty pink NOVA wing was a hit over there!
9-16-19	FlyBC is open at 10 am, if the clouds are too low we may do some towing	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: 50% Precip. / 1.48 mm Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. Thunder possible. High 18C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside was good for Greg's kiting practice but by the time the clouds lifted, he was too tired from running all over the Eagle Ranch LZ. We had the occassional spit of rain but overall the day was good for flying, just no lift despite the CUs. Linda and Josh came out around 5 pm for a HG flight but it was pretty short but with perfect launch and landing conditions at Eagle Ranch. The PWC has finished in Brasil and we were represented by Brett Hazlett flying his Gin Boom 11. PWC Task 4 video is excellent! - Thanks Phillipe!
9-15-19	FlyBC is closed due to rain	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Showers at times heavy with risk of thunderstorms. High 16. UV index 2 or low.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 400 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside had heavy rain in the AM, and low clouds in the PM.
9-14-19	FlyBC is woring in Savona this weekend	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Fog patches early this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Savona Report - I joined Tony in Savona where he had Martin, Mark and Nora but we added in Derek & Dylan who just started today. It was a light wind day on the Dump Ridge so Tony went to the Elementary School to kite with everyone where it is less snaggy. When I arrived at 11 am, the newbies were launching like pros! I took Mark and Martin up to the Dump Ridge and they got a few flights before the winds turned. Martin was trying out the Nova Prion4 to compare it to his Ozone MojoPWR.
9-13-19	FlyBC is open today in Savona BC	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Fog patches early this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Savona Report - Woodside has a rainy forecast so Tony took the students to Savona for a few days. Martin, Paul, Nora all headed up there and had a great day! Martin got 12 flights off the Dump Ridge, Paul got 10 flights and Nora decided to wait for a better day? Martin & Paul now have more than 25 flights but need to write the P-2 Exam. They stayed overnight in the Steelhead Campground which was ful this weekend, campers are still enjoying the fall weather and maybe fishing in the Thompson River.
9-12-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Fog patches early this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside had clouds in the AM, but cleared by noon. Tony was wrangling the students and they got some nice flights in and the winds were calm all day.
9-11-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Fog patches early this morning. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate.	200° @ 10 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside looksed like clouds in the AM, but clearing by noon so we hoped get in a few flights. Cloudbase lifted by noon, and Tony was already up there with students and managed to get three student rounds in. Students included Martin Z, Nora, and Josh.
9-10-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. High 19. UV index 4 or moderate.	200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Clouds were low in the morning so more flight school and simulator work. It finally looked like it was clearing and so we drove up without Josh who of course was not there for 1st round. We arrived on launch at 12:15 to find it still in cloud but we waited it out and started launching around 1 pm. Martin and Paul took a couple attempts to launch and Nora had particular trouble needing 6 shots at it. I think it was nerves as the conditions were good for launching but the low clouds were ominous. All three used big ears and speed-bar all day to escape cloud-suck. Nora got hoovered up on 2 of her flights and had to immediately use big-big ears. The other Martin N and Jeremy also came by for a ride up. Most of the landings were in or close to the circle, although again. Nora struggled to stick to the plan. On one approach she came in on downwind high, did a 360 over the corn-field and then flew back east to the maple tree then circled north and landed north of the goal post trees downwind. Josh came up for the second and third run which had better (and safer) conditions. He's done his 25 flights!! They all had a great time. Nora, Paul and Martin will be back tomorrow at 10am - Tony
9-9-19	FlyBC is open today after 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. High 19. UV index 4 or moderate.	200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - So it was Martin, Nora and Josh that showed up today. Josh of course was fashionably late and Nora was the last to arrive around 11. Paul texted me and said he was going to come around 3 and I told him not to bother. We headed up to launch shortly after 11 and found the winds favorable. But the cloud base was still at launch level. Actually the clouds were pretty cool as they were forming and dissipating super fast. Great weather discussion up there. Martin practiced reverse kiting while we waited for some good visibility and then he forward launched perfectly when the window opened. He had a good short flight and landed close to the circle. Shortly thereafter launch was socked in and it started to rain on us so Josh and Nora packed up and drove down with me. Nora decided to take off and do some work. Martin stayed and did some more kiting practice while Josh and I went for lunch. After lunch Martin and I worked on a bunch of ground school topics while Josh wrote his P2 test. He passed but I was surprised he didn't do better as a commercial pilot . . . anyway we reviewed and educated him - Tony
9-8-19	FlyBC is open today after noon	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers early this morning. A few showers beginning early this morning. Risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate.	200° @ 15 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside looked like rain in the AM, but clearing after 1 pm so we hoped get in a few flights. It was Day One for Noah & Gabe so the rain did not interrupt their ground school and simulator sessions. After noon, Tony took the students out kiting and the wind was nice and the grass dried up quickly as the hay was just taken down. By 5 pm, launch had cleared and Tony & Colleen took two students up to fly. Colleen launched first and had to stay out front to cloud surf. Colleen flew for 45 minutes waiting for Martin to launch. I was busy brush-mowing blackberries on the east side of our LZ and got to see Martin fly off and I was in the LZ to guide him in. It was very bouyant over the flats with multiple sheer layers but his Ozone Mojo5 was very stable and brought him in for a soft touchdown. Colleen followed him in and had to do multiple turns over the corn to get down.
9-5-19	FlyBC is open all weekend	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 29. Humidex 32. UV index 7 or high.	180° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside looked lame today but we had many students. Tony was doing launch chores and Jacek was the landing coach and we had 3 good runs today. Colleen & I took a nice couple tandem and we climbed high above Woodside. My passenger got a bit sick and unloaded over Harrison Highlands, the HG LZ and over Harrison River on the way to the Golf Course for beers to re-hydrate. There is an interesting line along Hwy 7 that can float you all the wayto the bridge as we were only at 400 metres over the Ranch but we actually climbed on the way to the Bridge. The bridge is where the river is the narrowest and there are bailout fields close to the bridge iof one gets nervous about the crossing. We had good height on the downwind leg staying away from the airstrip until the final leg. Lots of golfers so we landed on a path behind the swimming pool to stay off the green. Nice landing winds and Nicole laid there for some time as I packed up. Colleen and Richard came to join us for a beer to celebrate the flights.
9-6-19	FlyBC is open at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 29. Humidex 32. UV index 7 or high.	180° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 600 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside worked well and Tony did 5 runs with students and they had great launches and landings.
9-5-19	FlyBC is closed today as it looks so lame, but we are back on Friday at 10 am	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 29. Humidex 32. UV index 7 or high.	180° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 600 metres	Woodside - Woodside looked lame today so no lessons, but restarting lessons at 10 am on Friday.
9-4-19	FlyBC is open after 9 am for training	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 27. Humidex 29. UV index 6 or high.	220° @ 6 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - what a great day. Tony started training students at 9 am and it paid off for Buzz as he got his last 5 flights in today and some great soaring and alternate LZs too. New student Paul got 3 flights in today for a total of 4 flights in a 2 day span. I took Sherry for a tandem for an hour and we had a great time soaring with Norm, Frejya, Greg and a few others. Lots of CUs popping off to show us the way. We had intended to fly for ice cream but I never felt we had enough height to make it comfortably and stay out of the CYR. But we had a great flight and a great landing in Eagle Ranch despite the thermic conditions down low. Some others had fun flights at Bridal as the days get shorter and the sun sets lower.
9-3-19	FlyBC is open after 10 am for training but it looks windy later today	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Risk of a thunderstorm late this afternoon. Fog patches early this morning. Gusty winds. High 27. Humidex 29. UV index 6 or high.	220° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside looks good early on with gusty SW winds later, so we are started lessons at 10 am. Tony took one round of students up and they had nioce flights. I went up with the group to take Kyle tandem and it was already gusty by 1 pm. We had a good takeoff and climbed high but over the Harrison Highlands we were parked and going backwards at times. This with a heavily loaded EN-C tandem! We came over the Ranch and were high behind the goal post trees and it looked ugly in our LZ with strong gusts through the corn and every wind sock pointing differenct directions. Time to head to the HG LZ, where it was still gusty but farther away from rotor-producing trees. We did a few turns and came in soft as a feather allowing Kyle to turn right and run towards the wing to avoid getting dragged.
9-2-19	FlyBC is open after 10 am for training	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Becoming sunny this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 27. Humidex 30. UV index 6 or high.	220° @ 20 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - We had 5 students with mixed experience and it was very busy at launch with other pilots having many difficulties launching. Folks . . . go do some kiting before coming to fly! Tony got only one round of flights because it got too strong for a second flight even at 5 pm. I took Dina tandem at 3 pm and Jacek radioed to me that it was "spicy" near the South Knoll. We had a good takeoff and climbed out immediately in front of launch and joined Jacek at the South Knoll before heading east as planned to the Farmhouse Cheese Factory for ice cream! We had +5 m/s thermals and we climbed with Jacel to 1100 metres before flying east. Jacek commented afterwards that he thought we were on open trims because we "walked away" from his Alpina 3. We were in fact on neutral trims for thermalling and had a slight bit of brake on and we were much faster and Dina is light. We found a nice field just north of the Farmhouse Cheese Factory and just east of the CYR so it was legal. This is my first landing here. Thanks for the footage, Jacek!
9-1-19	FlyBC is open after noon due to outflow winds	Woodside Forecast Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud with 40% chance of rain. High 30. Humidex 32. UV index 7 or high.	200° @ 5 kph	-3.0°C (unstable) 1100 metres	Woodside Report - it was quite windy in the morning with over-developing clouds. A few showers near 4 pm. Then at 6 pm the winds calmed down and the sun came out so we headed up to Woodside. Derek, Kirk, Colleen and Andrei flew and it was mostly an extended sled-ride, so I drove down.