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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archive" - September/2013
Woodside was good for most of September 2013
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 Agassiz Cloudy. Showers at times heavy beginning this morning. Risk of a thunderstorm. Amount 20 to 30 mm. Windy. High 12.  FlyBC is an authorized distributor for Ozone, Gradient, SupAir, Gin, Nova, Icaro (new in 2013), Paratoys Paramotors, APCO, Wills Wing. Some of our clients are unaware that we can source any & all paragliding gear here at FlyBC, call us for obscure brands as we have business arrangements with all manufacturers. Current Demo Gear: Ozone Buzz Z4 (ML & L), Ozone Element II (M), Ozone Delta I (S), Ozone Delta 2 (L & ML & MS), Ozone Mantra M4 S, SupAir Delight Pod Harnesses, Ozone Oxygen II harnesses (S & M). Why Ozone over other brands? - Click here The Ozone Buzz Z4 from Ozone Paragliders on Vimeo.
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|  Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches in low lying areas early this morning. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate. 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.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches in low lying areas early this morning. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate. Paul is on his second day of training and he managed to get 2 flights and about an hour of thermalling on flight #4 enjoying a nice thermal out at the Construction Zone on the Ozone Buzz Z4 ML. His second launch was most beautiful . . . a forward launch in 20 kph cycles with perfect control and poise. Rob has been flying paramotors up country and was feeling a bit fearful lately and he came down for a free flight refresher course today and he had 3 flights and also an hour of thermalling out front. The skies were crowded today as many came out to enjoy the last dry days and most excellent lapse rate served up at Mother Woodside.
Later Frederic arrived with his Dad for a tandem flight and they launched at 6 pm and had a nice flight out to the Ranch, and it was still soarable. Big thanks to Alan D & Martin N for helping dig some big post holes last night before the rain, I even managed to get the concrete poured before 11 pm.
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| Agassiz Mainly sunny. Fog patches in low lying areas early this morning. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate. We met at the Ranch at noon and Denis had already driven up with Joe C in the Honda. Miquel & Blanca were out for solo lessons for him and a tandem for her as she is only here a few more days before returning to Spain. We waited until we saw Denis launch and then drove up. He and Joe were thermalling to the south of launch and it looked smooth for a leeside day. Denis got up high and Joe made his way into Riverside, and as we were getting the tandem ready Denis top-landed complaining that it was rough up high as the NE winds were coming over the top of Woodside. I launched Miquel and he was doing okay but was not completing his turns and was falling out of the small thermals despite my insistent coaching. He ended up at the Ranch for a nice "in the circle" landing. By now Ihor, Martin N & Martina had arrived on launch with Joe C in tow as I launched with Blanca on tandem (with spanish commands). We climbed out nicely and were "duking it out" with Vladimir & Martin N in front of launch and we all got up to 1100 meters with ease, tracking back past the towers and now the NE winds had subsided (as NOAA predicted). All smooth on the tandem but after 35 minutes above launch I started to head out as Blanca was very quiet now. No acro so we had a slow descent rate into the Ranch and we had an awesome landing right in the circle in south winds, and she ran it out strongly. She was looking a bit pale as she sprinted off to the bathroom, apparently she got a bit sick during the flight but kept it all in. We packed up and headed back up to see Andrei top-land to drive his truck down. Right after that Martin N top-landed to drive Ihor's truck down. I launched Miquel again this time on the Buzz Z4 and he remembered the thermalling lessons well and kept his turns tight and was outclimbing some of the big guns.
Kevin A had been thermalling around as everyone else sunk out and it was finally Joe C, Miquel and Kevin left alone and they got up all over the mountain as 6 pm closed in. Joe C headed out to land at the Ranch and as Miquel caught another great climb above launch I suggested a mini-XC to Harvest Market and Kevin followed him out to get a retrieve back to his truck on launch as it got kind of spicy to topland with +25 kph gusts rolled through. A great day of tandems and training befoer Friday's impending rain storms.
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| Agassiz Cloudy. Showers beginning this morning. High 14. Student John W also showed up to write his P2 exam, and was almost done when I suggested he come flying with us. We packed the gear in the Suburban and headed up the hill and we passed Denis, Elena & Vladimir in the Honda. So there were now 6 desperados on the way to launch. I got the tandem ready first and we had decent launch cycles (but not soarable cycles), and I inflated the wing to check the lines and it looked good so we ran off. It felt sinky off launch but when I started turning over the big clearcut we weren't that far below launch. I wasn't expecting much as Nick was over 200 lbs and the day looked lame but we were going to make the best of the day.
John & Kirk were on the way to the Ranch and Elena & Vladimir had just launched and we were above launch and it seemed quicker to top-land to warm up than to fly out and freeze on the way down. One approach and we were on the carpet in a light wind/cross wind final. After warming up I was packing up when Denis top-landed to fix a tangle.
Elena & Vladimir were still up and Vladimir also top-landed and was going to drive Denis' car down, but Denis caught a ride with Kirk as they went back up to try again. Martin N caught a ride up this trip and they had a nice flight except John forgot his glide ratio calculator and ended up in Lemani's clearcut on a logging road which he had to hike out of. A nice landing but he had Martin worried until he saw the wing being packed up. Not a bad day after all.
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|  15°C Agassiz: Rain ending near noon then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Windy early this morning. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate.
Brett H is in Brazil at the Araxa Open Championships and came in 5th place overall after 4 tasks with over 130 pilots flying.
1. Frank Brown 2. Marcelo Prieto 3. Alfio Vegni Junior 4. Rafael De Moraes Barros 5. Brett Hazlett What is new at Ozone?
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| 14°C Agassiz: Rain. Amount 10 to 15 mm. High 14. 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 Bridal Elena & Vladimir Wedding Report - Bridal was fun. Got to launch and watched the wedding ceremony. It was definitely west but quiet on launch and trickling over the back for the most part. When it came up for a few minutes several of us launched within a minute. The wedding couple flew tandem. I flew for about 30 minutes. Being in the air with three Russians in mild conditions was interesting to say the least. Everyone landed. George and I stayed and talked with most people there. The food was delicious and lots to drink for those who drank. Time to hunker down and wait out the rains - Martin N
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| 20°C Agassiz: Showers. High 17. Gerry & Thomm went up to launch while I was in Harrison Hot Springs at the hot pool with the kids. They waited and waited for it to calm down but finally give up and drove down.
Reports of sled rides at Blanchard WA where pilots flew all afternoon. 
SUP’AIR PRESS RELEASE As a participant in the free flight adventure sincethe beginning, Sup’Air is one of the companies which make up paragliding’s DNA. Over 30 years and in more than 60 countries, our products have built a reputation for quality, constant innovation and reliability. They are a benchmark for retailers and users alike today. Sup’Air is currently working on developing a range of gliders inspired by the same philosophy. This is a long-term project which shares our core values of respect for the product, the end-user and our partners. Our team, strengthened by new additions, is highly motivated to make a success of this exciting challenge. We will give you more details on the project at the Coupe Icare, don’t miss a visit to our stand. Stay connected to our website and our social networks for more information in the coming weeks. Blue skies ! Team Sup’Air
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| 20°C Agassiz: A mix of sun and cloud. High 20. UV index 5 or moderate. I was running errands with the grandkids, when Jeff S texted that he had the day off so I suggested 3 pm might be good for a trip up the mountain. Joe C was also waiting here for a lift up so we headed up to find David from Gravity launching some HG students into blustery winds.
It turns out Jeff is as big a "fire bug" as Remy as they stoked our campfire last night.
Bridal Elena & Vladimir Wedding Report - Bridal was fun. Got to launch and watched the wedding ceremony. It was definitely west but quiet on launch and trickling over the back for the most part. When it came up for a few minutes several of us launched within a minute. The wedding couple flew tandem. I flew for about 30 minutes. Being in the air with three Russians in mild conditions was interesting to say the least. Everyone landed. George and I stayed and talked with most people there. The food was delicious and lots to drink for those who drank. Time to hunker down and wait out the rains - Martin N
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| 16°C Agassiz: A mix of sun and cloud. High 20. UV index 5 or moderate. Flight #1 required me to push her off the hill but Flight #2 went way better! We actually got to thermal back up to launch coring up with Vladimir (Elena's fiance & soon-to-be-hubby). We had two interesting landings at the ProCircle (both on our feet but in opposing directions). In between the two tandems, Peter Q flew off on his new Paratoys Paramotor & new Ozone Element II and was last seen over Woodside Launch. Joe C saw him land out and I found him in the School Road tree farm after he accidently hit the kill switch while cruising around for over an hour. He had a good landing but had to hike his gear out from behind a locked gate.
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| 16°C Agassiz: A few showers ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 17. Penticton: A few showers ending this morning then a mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm late this afternoon. High 20. UV index 4 or moderate.
After 20 minutes of considering the folly of launching into a tree, we headed back down. The hike is about 40 minutes and we went up one way, quite steep on the east trail. On the way back down we encountered a deer fence and followed it down to the creek crossing. Much easier on the way down. After considering the lack of bailouts, flying over a subdivision full of powerlines and the fact that Campbell Mtn. is in YYF airspace it may be better to head south to OK Falls where Pete has 5-6 nicer sites that you can hike or drive up.
I checked our webcam out several times today and it looked flyable at Woodside despite the bad forecasts.
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| 16°C Agassiz: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 16. Nice conditions after 9 am, cloudbase stayed around 700 metres. You could see CU forming, so there were some thermals popping off. Some soarable cycles on the windsocks. I headed in to King George Airpark to pick up a paramotor for Peter, a nice Paratoys Travel Cage with MZ100 engine - slightly used by Leon but in great shape and Peter got a great deal! It will complement his new Ozone Element II glider, a great safe combination to get some airtime on! Brett H is in Brazil at the Araxa Open Championships and is in 12th place with over 130 pilots flying.
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| 19°C Agassiz: Showers. A few thunderstorms early this morning. High 19. Penticton roadtrip may be delayed as Campbell Mountain is now gated unless we can find an alternate route up.
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| 24°C Agassiz: A mix of sun and cloud. Showers beginning this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm late this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 24. UV index 5 or moderate. When the clouds appeared to be lifting and we could see the north cliffs at noon we drove up with the students and tandems. It was beautiful and "VFR on Top" at launch but the clouds extended down to 300 metres so definitely no legal to fly through them!
We went to lunch, and after about an hour it opened up on launch and it was not even enough wind to kite in when we went out to ground handle in the LZ. Back up to launch and it was clear and light winds awaited the students as Peter & Paul went off and had nice extended sledders with perfect landing conditions. Joe C was out flying his Buzz Z3 too.
We sent the tandems home and went back up to launch to get some more student flights and when we arrived on top, cloudbase had dropped down and the winds were again howling and cold. This time we waited just a few minutes and drove down.
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|  29°C Agassiz: Mainly cloudy. Clearing late this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 29. UV index 5 or moderate. Blake, Peter, Jim F, Paul & Ali (new students) were out flying solo flights and we were able to get them 2-3 flights each. Conditions were difficult but the students powered off their gliders with ease. The tandems were more difficult as we had some physically challenged passengers, but we were bale to get all 10 done by 6 pm, but unfortunately we had 5 more to do that will have to come back on a windier day. Al (the Hammer) was out today as was Andrew & Evelyn but otherwise a quiet day on launch. Very hazy and inverted just like a mid-July day, only it is mid-September. Reports from Mt Cheam as Andrei, Karin & Mia flew off as two groups headed up there. Lucky to get off as it was very socked in at Woodside til noon, but it looked drier on the Cheam side of the valley.
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| 27°C Agassiz: Mainly sunny. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 27. UV index 5 or moderate. Everyone had great flights with Jim F getting five flights, Mike P had two flights but had to leave to catch a ferry early, Jan had 1 flight arriving late and practicing on the training hill after a long hiatus. Peter also arrived late but bagged one last flight at 6 pm. I also took Ola tandem and we managed to find a thermal to climb above launch in, but it was tight and rough due to the inversion, thanks to Jan for forgoing a solo flight to drive down. July Mountain Report - Had a bushwack and fly from the shoulder of July Mountain today. This is one of the high peaks on the Coquihalla. Stunning views SW into the Anderson river range. Went off into stable air just after noon after a 2.5hr hike up. Broke a few small upper brake lines on takeoff. Glider did turn a little slow to the right, but quite workable.
Lovely spot, hiking up from Drum Lake and over the top to the south side would probably be the best way to go next time. July Creek FSR has quite a few landings and is also quite drivable for a 4x4. But the hike up from there is a bit of a bushwhack. At least from what I found so far. High Mountain flying for the late summer days. Worth another look hopefully with nicer winds and not so inverted - Alex Raymont
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| 31°C Agassiz: Sunny. High 31. UV index 6 or high.
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| 34°C Agassiz: Sunny. Windy over eastern sections this morning. High 34. UV index 6 or high. All the way to Mission we had strong North winds on all the flags and trees. Perfect! But when we arrived at the North Training Hill there was barely a puff up the hill. Not to be discouraged, Jim F laid out his Element II and did about 5 great forward launches and then it started blowing from the south? I suggested a trip to the store for water and on the way there there was south wind now on all the flags. Interesting as Sumas was still reporting NE winds at up to 15 mph. We dropped in at the Heritage Park Hill and sure enough, we had reversible south winds on that hill so Jim laid out and had 5 great flights getting high in the air with perfect "torpedo launches", & perfect landings everytime. We stopped for lunch before heading back to Woodside to celebrate Jim's launch posture feeling pretty satisfied that we hadn't driven 5 hours to achieve the same results. We got back to Woodside to do some ground school, when I checked the telescope to see inflow cycles on launch. We skipped ground school and headed straight up. No logging trucks this week so we can get up quite fast.
Much better than 5+ hours of driving!
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| 28°C Agassiz: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating late this morning. High 28. UV index 6 or high. We also had a tandem booked but the client arrived late and by then the winds had switched to catabatic so we were denied Jim's fourth solo flight and our tandem flight. But an awesomely productive day for Jim!
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| 25°C Agassiz: Clearing this morning. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 25. UV index 6 or high.
We headed back up with solo gear and I brought out the nearly new & fresh Nova Factor I L and my Skypper harness and we had a very nice flight. Ihor, Ian J, Gary P, Denis, Joe C were all out flying in fairly strong thermals getting up to 1100 metres at times. I tried many top landing approaches from south & north and they all ended up in huge lift, so I kept flying and eventually went out to land at the Ranch amidst mowing tractors and departing aircraft.
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| 24°C Agassiz: A mix of sun and cloud. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 24. UV index 6 or high. Meanwhile Sean had a few flights and then some ground handling lessons to get a better feel of the inflations with Mannie on the training hill. Kevin had his first flight on his new Magnum 2 tandem today and marvelled at how it would stay inflated even as his passenger fell over twice and then refused to run! Denis, Colleen & I were busy doing 10 tandems and everyone was great soaring flight to cloudbase at around 1100 metres. Nice smooth cloudsuck, although a few un-named pilots got lost in the clouds and had to fly out to Harvest Market.
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| 22°C Agassiz: Rain ending this morning then cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. High 22. UV index 3 or moderate. But we went up after seeing Wiley do a sled ride into the Ranch and Colleen, Annette & John flew down at 530 pm. Colleen managed to get above launch for an hour flying her Ozone Mantra M4.
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| 20°C Agassiz: Periods of rain. Risk of thunderstorms. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 20.
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| 22°C Agassiz: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning. Showers beginning near noon. Risk of a thunderstorm. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 22. UV index 4 or moderate. By late afternoon, there was a full-on thunderstorm overhead of the Ranch and we lost power a few times. Not good weather for flying at that time! Click here for the Ozone Paragliders Facebook Page . Ozone Pilots take the US Open Distance Nationals 2013 . Looks like the Delta 2 can keep up with the comp ships and better!
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| 23°C Agassiz: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers and risk of a thunderstorm. High 23. UV index 4 or moderate. Martin N came out to and "wind dummied" for us and he caught a few thermals but it was very inverted. Rob followed him out on flight #1.
I headed in to Vancouver to show a glider to Duffy from Australia and it has been 2 years since she kited but she was doing well on the Karma at Vanier Park.
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| 22°C Agassiz: A few showers ending late this afternoon then cloudy. Risk of a thunderstorm this morning and early this afternoon. High 22.
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| 26°C Agassiz: A mix of sun and cloud. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. High 25. UV index 6 or high. Miquel got his first thermalling flight and was thermalling around with Mia, Martin H, Denis and doing really well and he got at least a 45 minute flight. Rob W got his first solo flight after 6 days on the training hill and a tandem with Colleen a few weeks ago. He was on his new Nova Ion paraglider we sold him recently and he had an awesome launch and landing and he says he is glad he had the SupAir Airbag Harness to bounce off! While the guys were flying, Colleen was in her garden and a bear casually walked thru the garden . . . stopping to eat some hazelnuts, apples and finally some pears.
Ozone Pilot Kevin Ault recently visited the Italian Dolomites for a hiking trip but managed to get one flight in on his Ozone Swift II. Delicious Dolomite Flight - from Kevin Ault on Vimeo.
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| 26°C Agassiz: Mainly sunny. High 26. UV index 6 or high. Fortunately, Andrei was here at Woodside taking his daughter tandem and he offered to help out with some tandems as did Colleen who was also doing a superb job of guiding the students into the Ranch between gardening chores. A stable day but during my first tandem with Braeden (a 70 lb kid), we were thermalling nicely in front of and above launch when an immature bald eagle flew in way below us and withing a minute was over 1000 metres. Nice lift! We had expected the winds to pick up around 230 pm but the winds held off until around 6 pm, when I was doing the last tandem with Emelia and we had good ridge soaring winds but I had to open the trims to make it to the Ranch. Enough height for a strong spiral dive and we had 15 kph east winds to "land soft as a feather in the circle". Love these days!
Buzz-ing Cheam - Mia was my driver and ground crew. My first Cheam flight on a PG, The hike was a slog but I figured if Jim could do it in his underwear I could handle it. Hung on to light ridge in the bowl for 45 min (got up over the peak) then the hour long flight out to the Bridal LZ. Cheers, Comrade Martin
Belated Cheam Report from August 31 - It was awesome at Cheam yesterday. Nic once again drove for us.
Got to 2300 right over the peak at one point with Paddy. Flew back to Lady Peak, saw mountain goats and got up in the slightly cross lee conditions there. We all came back. I top landed twice. Just a lovely late fall day in the high alpine. Not blowing out and getting as strong as it would in July or Aug. The swim in Cultus later was a great finish to a perfect day - Alex R. I took our Mexican Hotel Manager for a tandem at San Marcos just before coming back to Canada and her bro-in-law Mario made this trailer! Come to Mexico this winter! |
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