FlyBC's Paragliding Site of the Day April 2012 Archive Page - from the Universe's Largest Paragliding Centre :-)

Date	Site	Forecast	Winds @ 3000'	Lapse Rate °C/1000'	Cloud Base in Meters	Comments
4/30/2012	Woodside still looks very sad today especially in the rain	11°C	Agassiz: 240° at 5 knots	Agassiz: -2.7°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 600 m	Woodside Report - Thank Goodness April 2012 is over! It was a brutal month for accidents. I had a lot of phone calls today from shocked pilots in our community over the weekends sad event. Also, some calls from media, but all calls are being directed to the HPAC Office or Jason Warner for comments. In an odd turn of events, the pilot of the hangglider involved in the accident Saturday has been charged with "obstruction of justice" for possibly with-holding key evidence from RCMP Investigators. Wednesday is the first court appearance to answer these charges. Thomm M and I went up to the memorial site to fix the cross last night and he said he was within a few meters of the site searching earlier Saturday and he could see how Lenami was missed by searchers as her location was in a hidden hollow beside a large stump. Kids: Don't do this at home - from New Zealand
4/29/2012	Woodside looks very sad today, if you want to fly head to Bridal or Blanchard	14°C	Agassiz: 240° at 6 knots	Agassiz: -2.7°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 900 m	Woodside Report - My condolences to everyone involved in yesterday's HG tragedy at Mount Woodside. Colleen & I are extremely upset about this accident and the ramifications it has on everyone. Colleen headed off to get flowers and I made a cedar cross to mark Lenami's final spot, but the group was heading up before she could get back so Deb Theilmann picked some flowers around the Ranch and they headed up to place the cross. Nicole took some pictures of the location for the family Remembering happy times in Mexico, here is a video beto posted from Saturday April 29, he is back in the air after December's crash!
4/28/2012	Woodside looks possibly soarable today	14°C	Agassiz: 240° at 9 knots	Agassiz: -2.7°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 900 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was looking great in the morning, sunny breaks and light west winds. I ran to Mission for some wood for the garden project and arrived back at 11 am to see a group had left to go up the mountain already. At 11:48 am my phone rang and it was Alex reporting "someone had dropped off a hanggliding tandem, most certainly a fatality situation" and advised me to have any pilots stand down and refrain from driving up. I said call 911 and hung up. Within 3 minutes of the first call I received a call from the HG tandem pilot-in-command and he was clearly in shock asking what he should do, and I said "call 911" and wait for help to go look for the passenger. RCMP was at the HG LZ within a few minutes followed by Kent Search & Rescue and a group of paragliders pilot mustered together an initial search party, led by Alex R and Kevin A. Al volunteered to do an aerial search by paraglider and was thermalling over the clearcut that the HG pilot-in-command had described and eventually landed in the same clearcut as the helicopter came in to search. By now we had a dozen paraglider pilots and about 12 Kent SAR volunteers searching the mountain on foot, with the heli overhead doing sweeps. Jason Warner (our HPAC Safety Director) arrived and was fielding media requests and helping SAR Command. After searching up and down the northwest slopes, a decision was made by SAR to get everyone out of the forest at 7 pm. We had mustered a group at the Ranch and we were going over the suspected flight path with eye-witnesses on Google earth and made a waypoint as a suspected search area and everyone put that spot in their GPS's. We asked and got permission from SAR to start a new search pattern with 12 paraglider pilots in a downward sweep from launch. Some critical information was lost during the day, and only a few people knew to look for the tandem pilot-in-command's shoes as he lost them during the flight, but no one knew til later that Kent SAR and the RCMP did not have this information. On the drive up for our last sweep just before 8 pm, I mentioned that we should look for shoes in the trees or forest and Alex said he had found a size 10 1/2 shoe near the 1 KM clearcut but did not know the importance as this information was not relayed to anyone in command. We established communications with Kent SAR Command about the size and colour of the missing shoes as we started our hike down the hill. About 500 meters into the search we got confirmation that the shoe Alex saw was the match for the missing shoes and Kevin, Peter S and Alex sprinted down to that location to meet the SAR folks and concentrate the search there. By the time we made it to the 1 KM road we were advised to STAND DOWN and muster at the bottom. At this time (after 8 pm) the female passenger was located and our job was done. My thanks go out to all the volunteers: Thomm, Alex R, Nicole, Al, Kevin, Simon, Jason, Cynthia, Andrew, Frederic, Peter, Claudia, Tom M, Mark C, Rob S and Colleen & Martina for driving folks around to rendezvous points. If I ever get lost in the woods I want you on my search team! It is often said that bad things happen in three's - and this is the worse possible third incident at Woodside this spring.
4/27/2012	Woodside looks possibly soarable today	11°C	Agassiz: 250° at 10 knots	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 900 m	Woodside Report - Woodside looked great when the sun came out, but then it would over-develop into light showers or sometimes hail? Gary P & Martin N were the paragliding desperadoes today, while Shawn was the lone HG desperado doing tandems. I saw one of Shawn's flights while working in the garden and he seemed to be hanging in pretty well just abve launch. The PGers waited as it was quite strong on launch, and I missed Gary & Martin's flights, but apparently they got 60 meters over launch and Gary top-landed to drive his truck down. Click here for more pictures from today's fun in the garden, thanks to Matt Jesson for the tip on Grove Cedar (if you want a fence or garden project like this done call Matt at 604-220-1094).
4/26/2012	Woodside looks wet today	12°C	Agassiz: 240° at 20 knots	Agassiz: -2.0°C (stable)	Agassiz: 500 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was too wet to do anything outdoors today. Good day for sorting & testing gear though for the weekend, which looks better.
4/25/2012	Woodside looks wet today	15°C	Agassiz: 160° at 20 knots	Agassiz: -2.0°C (stable)	Agassiz: 500 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was washed out today, even too wet to work in the garden.
4/24/2012	Woodside looks wet today	14°C	Agassiz: 260° at 12 knots	Agassiz: -2.6°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 700 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was washed out today. I never saw launch once. So it was a good day to work on Colleen's latest gardening project - raised garden beds. Click here for more pictures from today's wet fun in the rain.
4/23/2012	Woodside looks sunnier today	23°C	Agassiz: 260° at 5 knots	Agassiz: -2.6°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1400 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was very productive for students today. Mike logged 6 flights, with 2 being thermalling flights. Wayne logged 4 flights with one being a ridge soaring session. Other pilots were out working hard in the light lift with Tom C getting 51 minutes late in the day. Thomm M was out to pick up his new Ozone Mantra M4 Small and was giddy with the performance! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album.
4/22/2012	Woodside looks cloudy today	22°C	Agassiz: 270° at 5 knots	Agassiz: -2.6°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1600 m	Woodside Report - Woodside looked great in the morning but the haze and outflow winds got the experienced pilots. In fact many of them did not even launch today. XC dreams were squashed by the weather! It was however a great day for tandems, tandem practice (Frederic & Andrew did 3, I think), and for students. Second day student Gabriel got 4 flights and had perfect launches. We went up for a 5 th flight at 6 pm but it was blowing down lightly and we have safety margins to uphold. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album.
4/21/2012	Woodside looks soarable	15°C	Agassiz: 270° at 5 knots	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1600 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was quite busy today as cycles were not very good and we watched Al & Martin H working hard to get up and away with litte luck earlier. We had 2 tandems to complete and Colleen took Stuart & I took Jenni. Colleen went first and had a nice launch and nice thermalling flight. We waited as a bunch of solo pilots went off and had mixed success getting high. Craig took off ahead off us to take some pictures of Jenni in-flight and he climbed out with Fedja, so off we went and started climbing too. There was about 6 gliders in our vicinity and we all climbed at a steady rate and some fanned out to the north cliffs with little hope of getting much above 1100 meters. We flew for 45 minutes before heading out so Jenni could fly the tandem and landed at the ProCircle. Flight Stats: +3.3 m/s lift, -10.0 m/s sink in our spirals. topped out at 1100 meters. We then took new student Gabriel up and we flew him off for his first solo, with a great launch and a supposed dead radio (?) on final. Oddly it was okay on testing after he came out of the cornfield. We went up at 5 pm for his last flight and Gabriel did really well with lame cycles at launch. Epic retrieves for those who ventured east as the lift ran out for them. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album. Bridal Report - the work party went well with the road being cleared of trees, and the cross ditches cleaned out. Some folks stayed and flew but launch conditions were down & cross at times. Kevin A was reporting getting to Upper Launch altitude. Derek K Report - Derek is in Salmon Arm and is feeling much better despite the long drive. He has email and his phone with him.
4/20/2012	Woodside looks soarable	14°C	Agassiz: 270° at 11 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1600 m	Woodside Report - Woodside was my goal today but I was stuck in town til 7 pm as my Suburban is still in the tranny shop. Colleen and I drove out late and I managed one tandem with new student Gabriel. We had a nice almost soaring flight with a super landing at the ProCircle at the end of the day. Al and a bunch were flying Woodside in the mid-afternoon in very strong SW winds requiring bar to stay forward. Ihor and others flew Bridal and had some soaring too until it shaded over. Derek was released from the hospital and was at home last night for few hours and he is heading to Salmon Arm to hang out with his daughter and grandkids while recuperating. He was getting around pretty good on a cane!
4/19/2012	Woodside rained out so we are going to stay in Vancouver	13°C	Agassiz: 180° at 14 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (stable)	Agassiz: 1000 m	Derek K Report - I dropped off the Suburban at Blackwell's in Surrey to replace the tranny and took the SkyTrain to RCH to visit Derek. He is recuperating from back surgery to stabilize a fractured L1 and is on the mend but pretty tired and sore. He wants to thank all of you that helped and have been calling and visiting but he will do that when he gets home in a few days. He was up walking around and getting to the bathroom by himself and the nurses are taking good care of him. He may be released on April 20th.
4/18/2012	Savona is looking good today and for many more days as the coast gets wet	15°C	Savona: 150° at 6 knots	Savona: -2.8°C (stable)	Savona: 2400 m	Savona Report - I was up in Savona training students Rob & Mike and they had a good day. We started at 830 am at the Dump Ridge where it was so strong from the east that Rob flew the Prima 22! Then on to Coyote Ridge for some almost ridge soaring for three more flights before the SW kicked in around 3:00 pm. Then they headed home and I headed to the repair shop to weld back on a shock mount that tore off! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Savona Album. Reports from Vancouver of large hail stones falling from the sky!
4/17/2012	Savona is looking good today and for many more days as the coast gets wet	15°C	Savona: 150° at 6 knots	Savona: -2.8°C (stable)	Savona: 2400 m	Savona Report - we had a great Savona with Rob & Mike, our latest students. We started out in the simulator in the school field with harness settings and then headed up the Dump Ridge where the guys got 3 flights with awesome launches and landings. They were hating the cactus so we headed to Coyote Ridge that has been locked up solid, and I couldn't find the Ranch Manager to seek out a key. On to Elephant Hill facing Ashcroft for some really high flights. Both guys did really well landing across the highway in a hay field. We then headed back to the Dump Ridge for some high wind kiting before calling it a day. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Savona Album.
4/16/2012	Savona is looking windy today so we are back at the Ranch doing chores in the Agassiz rain	11°C	Agassiz: 270° at 3 knots	Agassiz: -2.0°C (stable)	Agassiz: 400 m	Woodside Report - I was staying at the Ranch doing chores on this rainy Monday, and found that it may not be cost effective to replace the Suburban tranny. Anyone out there with a used 460LE automatic with T-case sitting around? Derek called and he will be in RCH for a few more days awaiting surgery to stabilize his cracked L1. Same doctor as James last week, and they may think we are all crazy flying paragliders! Please fly safe out there!
4/15/2012	Savona is looking good for 4 days for the FlyBC Beginner Course	13°C	Savona: 270° at 6 knots	Savona: -3.0°C (unstable)	Savona: 2000 m	Savona Report - we regrouped with the students at 930 am on top of the Crash Pad and started on the small slope to see if they remembered yesterday's lessons and they all did really well, so off to the Toilet Bowl and nice west winds. Rob took off first and had a bit of jerkiness on the controls but had a nice landing, and one by one everyine got their first flight with no aborts. On flight #2 all went well until Jarrett failed to watch where he was heading and hit the only live tree right next to launch (right into the middle of it and the glider flew over the top of the tree). After some climbing and help from everyone, Jarret was reset and into the air again! We repeated this 4-5 times and everyone was doing super. I even took the tandem for a solo flight to dry it out and got above the ridge for some time, landing at the bottom with Shay on her Prima 22. We had lunch and then headed up to the Upper Deadman's Launch but it was deemed too thermic for the students and Andrew took Frederic tandem and they made it to the Crash Pad LZ with some intense thermalling required as it was sinky in places. It was now 5:30 pm, so we called it a day. Lots of tired but happy pilots today! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Savona Album. More Woodside reports today with pilots going XC cross the valley, and landing in god-forsaken areas apparently. See who has been flying around lately here in Canada. .
4/14/2012	Savona is looking good for 4 days for the FlyBC Beginner Course	13°C	Savona: 270° at 6 knots	Savona: -3.0°C (unstable)	Savona: 2000 m	Savona Report - we were heading to Savona for a 4 day Beginner Course when the tranny in the Suburban packed it in on Lake of the Woods Hill near Hope. Back to the Ranch for the Suzuki. We were last seen trying to cram 6 wings, harnesses and 2 tandems into the XL-7, pretty tight! We got to Spences Bridge and it started raining hard. It never rains up there? WTF! We kept driving and arrived in Savona where the odd blue spot showed through the rain and we met up with Andrew & Frederic (apprentice instructors) and Shay, Noah, Jarrett, Rob and Mike in the restaurant. after breakfast we headed to the Savona Senior's Centre for a ground school session. Great facility for $10 and hour if you need one. We then headed to the Savona Elementary School field for simulator training and kiting practice. Nice west winds for reverse practice. After 2 hours we headed to the Crash Pad training hill and some slope training. Everything was going good until the forecasted +20 kph winds became more like +30 kph and gusty. We headed back to the school as it is more protected and finished the day off kiting and learning how to pack gliders. Reports of people flying Woodside despite the bad forecasts. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Savona Album.
4/13/2012	Woodside is looking possible between 1 & 3 pm. . . if it doesn't shower	13°C	Agassiz: 270° at 9 knots	Agassiz: -3.0°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1000 m	Woodside Report - I was doing chores in the barn & the garden while a group of pilots went up around 1 pm, and they kept coming right til 4 pm, almost all doing some XC. Reports were coming in about being over Butterfly, Green Hill, Seabird Island, Elk, Bridal Upper and the best flights of the day may be Hammer & Biff flying late going from Woodside-Bear-Ludwig-Elk and landing on Broc's sandbar just off Riverside. See who has been flying around lately here in Canada. .
4/12/2012	Woodside is looking possible between 1 & 3 pm. . . if it doesn't shower, but cloudbase will be low	13°C	Agassiz: 270° at 1 knot	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 800 m	Woodside Report - I was getting gear ready and loaded for Savona this weekend when Ihor & Martin N arrived at the Ranch. After some discussions we headed up to Woodside Launch in Ihor's rig, to find variable wind with nice cycles up the front at times. Martin launched first and got some good climbs over the South Knoll and then some ratty stuff too! He headed out after 15 minutes cause he thought the sky was threatening to unload as there were storms over Cultus, Sumas, Sasquatch, and Hemlock. I was already laid out and was testing the new TI wrist watch vario so I chose to fly too. Nice climbs over launch and to the north cliffs, not too windy just pure thermals. It was very hard to hear the watch vario as my gloves kept covering it, I guess it should be over the gloves? After 15 minutes of thermalling, I too headed out as there was a cell near Harrison Knob. I did a normal approach over the Maple Tree and tried to make it to the ProCircle but the south winds were pretty strong on the ground and I touched down behind the training hill. I was just putting my helmet in the bag after packing up and it started to rain - talk about cutting it close. On the way home reports of lightning touching down all over Maple Ridge, Langley and other parts tell how powerful the air was today with a -3C lapse rate. One family survives a direct hit on their home. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album.
4/11/2012	Woodside is looking possible this afternoon . . . if it doesn't rain		Agassiz: 270° at 12 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1100 m	Woodside Report - I was driving through showers all the way to Agassiz, but arrived to cloudy skies and no rain. It was flyable til 4 pm when it started to spit. Only one new student arrived to discuss training plans, and was not able to fly today so I did chores all day.
4/10/2012	Woodside is looking possible this afternoon		Agassiz: 180° at 12 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1500 m	Woodside Report - Derek took Julian for a tandem today, celebrating his HAGAR test results today! He, Al, Martin & Monica were flying at Woodside today after 2 pm. Flights were 30 minutes maximum working hard in an inversion that was quite rough despite the milky conditions. For those with sore backs after moving the old hot-tub out, I took it to the Dump today and it weighed in at 490 kilos! Glad to see it gone!
4/9/2012	Woodside is looking possible this afternoon		Agassiz: 180° at 10 knots	Agassiz: -2.6°C (stable)	Agassiz: 1500 m	Woodside Report - a gang went up Woodside today after 1 pm and had nice flying, initially not too strong with everyone over launch, and then they started heading to the north cliffs and the south knoll to get higher. Derek & Tom C flew over to Agassiz Mountain but didn't find enough to get back landing on the Dykes. Others just flew around Woodside for hours until landing at the Ranch. Elk-aholics Anonymous Meeting April 9, 2012 from Kevin Ault on Vimeo.
4/8/2012	Woodside is looking blown out by NE winds		Agassiz: 090° at 20 knots	Agassiz: -1.5°C (stable)	Agassiz: 2000 m	Woodside Report - no flying at Woodside today due to extreme north winds! Lots of glider repairs done in the loft, with new line set for Nicole's ship, line stretching for Tom C's Mantra, inspections of other gliders that came in for testing. Colleen and I worked on gardening and leveling the training hill low spots, while Derek mowed. A chore day in the strong winds. Martin N came back from the Easter Meet in Savona where he had a great flight, observing a mountain bike accident rescue on the same day as James crashing here at Woodside. Update on James is that he has a compression fracture of L2 vertebrae and after a minor (?) surgery he should be released by Tuesday.
4/7/2012	Woodside is looking flyable after 1 pm but it will be leeside		Agassiz: 090° at 6 knots	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1500 m	Elk Report - Eight parahikers ascended Elk on Saturday to enjoy the incredible scenery and experience what is the deepest snow level ever experienced at this time of year. This photo shows the top two inches of a 10 ft long wind-surfer mast sticking up near the launch. The wind was unusually strong from the east for the first half hour but mellowed out at about 10 am. I launched first and although there were some bubbles, there was also a lot of sink so I flew out towards Eddy's where one thermal took me back up at least two hundred meters. Eddy's LZ is now in Spring/Summer mode which means anyone landing after 10:30 am on a sunny day can expect challenging conditions. Larry, David and I landed just before things got spicy and everyone else received some good ass-kicking, even the tandem flown by Eddy and his son, Max. Steve took a 40% deflation and dealt with it like a pro. Only one un-named pilot landed in classic face-plant style and transformed his GPS into a chia-pet. Understandable considering that when he landed the wind was gusting to 20 km/hr and switching 360 degrees! Rule of thumb for Eddy's LZ from now until September: hike early, land early or don't land until after 6:00 pm - Kevin Woodside Report - Mother Woodside delivered again despite the morning outflow winds. Lots of kiting in the Eagle Ranch LZ in strong NW winds, good to get the rust out! There was a 1.5 hour launching window with cycles up the front to launch into, but definitely leeside conditions as some got to 2000 meters before heading east. Some headed west from high, and got flushed into Squakum Park beach. Some headed east and ended up soaring the north side of Cemetery Hill and Hopyard Hill for an hour. We had a big tandem day planned but the conditions conspired against us as we only got Denis & Colleen off launch and the group had to be back to Chilliwack by 4:30 pm. Kevin & I waited on launch for an hour and got nothing but SE or NE winds. After we packed up Nicolai got off solo but I think he was the last glider to fly. Denis & Sean over Woodside today! Chelan WA Report - Mia and I are down opening up the Mansfield Shack. Saturday looked pretty promising so we headed over the Chelan to have a look with the PG’s. Road is still snowed in near the top of the Butte (a couple pilots did do the 40 minute hike up). Jeff and I checked his McNeil Canyon Rim launch, epic looking day but not quite the right place/direction to start from. We both got over, I was on my Delta but flying very conservatively, so it was a 1/2 hour scratch down to the Soccer field. Later Mia and I scratched some airtime on the airport ridge. Thinking about checking out Saddle today - Martin H Some other pliots reported easy thermalling and top-landings at Saddle on Saturday - Jim
4/6/2012	Woodside is looking flyable after noon		Agassiz: 240° at 4 knots	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1500 m	Woodside Report - Mother Woodside welcomed many pilots today and everyone had great flights and a great day. I even got to fly around for an hour at 1250 meters and 'base, before top-landing to drive down. It was going well with about 20 pilots in the air until the end of the day when an unfortunate pilot had his reserve fall out of his harness after flying around for over 2 hours?? He was east of Riverside about 500 meters when the reserve deployed and he crashed through some 10 meter trees hard on his back and had to be resued by Kent Search & Rescue. Broc landed on a sand bar and hiked in to find the downed pilot, but unfortunately they had non-functioning radios and cell phones. We got several eye-witness reports from "sight-see-ers" and pilots that the pilot got up and was walking around after crashing so no search party was mustered. It wasn't until we saw the MediVac chopper and the firetrucks that we knew it was more serious. The downed pilot had lower back pain and Broc had to hike in and out of the brush 4 times to direct S&R and paramedics to the crash scene for which we are very grateful. The MediVac chopper could not land on the sand bar due to blowing sand, so they had to land on Hwy 7 and the ambulance had to drive down to Riverside to extract the pilot up to the chopper. Lessons Learned: 1. Check your reserve pins before launching. 2. Have a functioning radio before flying and check it is working. 3. Don't assume someone is okay just because of a few reports - go and check personally. Broc had to hike all the gear out and apparently the reserve is trashed and the glider has multiple holes through many cells. On the plus side - Frederick & Andrew did their first two tandems today and survived. Many other very nice flights including an XC over to Bridal and almost back from Elk today by Alex R. Epic retrieves by Ihor finding Rob S and Nicole. Oh, and the crew of pilot that helped drop the new tob tub into the Deck are awesome! No toes damaged too, thankfully! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album. See who has been flying around lately here in Canada. .
4/5/2012	Woodside is looking flyable this afternoon		Agassiz: 240° at 3 knots	Agassiz: -2.9°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1100 m	Woodside Report - when flying Mother Woodside one must read between the lines ffor the Agassiz forecast. Today was to be "mostly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm", yet we flew all day from 1 pm til 6 pm. There were snow cells all around Woodside; over Deroche, over Sasquatch, Hemlock, Bridal, Hope - but we remained clear and flyable all day. A number of folks out trying new wings today kept me occupied on launch, so I didn't fly but I got plenty cold just standing there. I can imagine it was very cold at 1500 meters and cloudbase. Later in the day it got stronger as you got higher with groundspeeds on one R10.3 compglider at 15 kph without bar. Pretty lumpy over the Ranch as it had the most sun as folks were coming in to land, with some climbing back up over the goal post trees in cloudsuck! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album.
4/4/2012	Woodside is looking positive if the sun comes out		Agassiz: 290° at 6 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 1100 m	Woodside Report - Mother Woodside delivered interesting conditions Wednesday, for Denis & Jim O who flew around 1 pm. They looked parked at times despite being on EN C wings, and Denis finally top-landed when Derek, Ihor & Martin N drove up to launch several hours later. As Denis drove down, the rest waited for 45 minutes and drove down as it was quite gusty on launch, and in the LZ where I was kiting with a fellow looking at wings. Snow cells all around may have been influencing the air movements, with snow on Sasquatch and Hemlock. I finished the Paratoys Quad to nearly ready to fly, just a few last minute adjustments and tinkering to do when I get back to it. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Paratoys Quad Album.
4/3/2012	Woodside is rained out and windy		Agassiz: 220° at 15 knots	Agassiz: -2.8°C (unstable)	Agassiz: 900 m	Woodside Report - spent the day building paramotors and shipping gear, and it got clear around 5 pm but it was too cold to even think about a flight. It was 3°C driving to Mission at 4 pm on Hwy 7 and the snowline was very low on the North Mountains. But Wednesday looks good so far for Woodside. . Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Paratoys Quad Album.
4/2/2012	Local SF Sites		San Francisco: 290° at 6 knots	San Francisco: -2.0°C (stable)	San Francisco: 2200 m	Pacifica Report - I stayed an extra day as Aeroplan points wouldn't get me there and back the same time as Colleen, oh well. I headed out to the Dumps around 11 am, to find light west sea breezes, oddly the forecast was for NE and it was NE everywhere else. I stopped for lunch where I could see flags and it was picking up, so after luch I headed to the Dumps Parking Lot to see the local desperadoes hiking up to the higher launches. After some time I saw two gliders kiting on the top launch and they commited to sled rides to the beach (with the surf quite high). They were back to the middle launch soon and kiting some more, testing the power. Another pilot was kiting on the lower launch too and it was kiteable but not soarable. I kept driving back to the Macdonalds for wifi coverage to check the local conditions and it was still NE all over the city. But the Dumps was getting SW sea breeze, cool! No HGers at Fort Funston in the distance, they need much more wind to soar. Then around 3 pm, the first Niviuk pilot flew off and soared . . . sort of. He was getting low and had to sidehill land between lower and mid-launch and kite up to the mid-launch area. His buddy tried too and was soon on the beach. This went on for 15 minutes, trying to soar but I had to leave for the airport. and sure enough, as I approached the airport all the flags were starching out from the SW. You have to have lots of time on your hands to fly these ridge sites, like Torrey and Whidbey Island. Sea breezes are fickle and hard to predict . . . you just have to be there at the right time. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album.
4/1/2012	Heading to Pacifica		San Francisco: 290° at 14 knots	San Francisco: -2.0° (stable)	San Francisco: 2200 m	Pacifica Report - we had a lazy morning and checked out of the hotel at 11 am, to arrive at Pacifica to see huge surf, high tides and very strong winds (up to 25 knots). We first went to Rockaway Beach to get a crab sandwich at Nick's Restaurant for lunch, then on to the Dumps to see if anyone was waiting, and then on to Fort Funston as surely the Hgers were brave enough to fly? Nope, no one there at Fort Funston, so we hiked down to the beach and had a 2 mile hike north to the other end of the cliffs. It was howling and we were getting pelted by sand and seafoam. We headed south to Half Moon Bay for a drive and got caught in some touristy traffic jams as we made our way back to SFO airport for Colleen's 6 pm flight. A nice leisurely tourist day, almost as good as flying. Woodside Report - Only one other desperado (Gary P) and myself. Fresh snow AGAIN! covering launch at around 1pm. Too windy to fly, so drove down and used my time usefully to power walk the dyke. Gary convinced me to “parawait” and we drove up again later as the winds appeared to abate. The snow on launch had mostly melted by then, so the sun was doing its job. Couple of hangies were also waiting and we thought we would watch them launch in the strong conditions before (or if) we threw ourselves off. Some “wing waving” and bobbing up and down like a cork by the first one to launch over by the south knob, indicated the air was really ratty and thought ,nope not for me! It did however look much smoother to the north as they climbed out. Every now and then it lulled and had me walking towards the bag many times but then it would gust quite strongly and kill that thought. Huge development over at Sasquatch was also stirring up the valley with gusts and precipitation of many sorts (snow/hail/rain etc.) Just about when we were about to call it a day . . . it settled down enough to launch. Steady climbs to just under 900 meters but froze my a off. Landed around 6:45 at your place (I was surprised by how light it was still) way too cold to think about top landing but turns out Gary did and drove his Xterra down. Surprised the usual suspects weren’t out for a flight - Thomm Peter in his own form of "white room" skiing instead of flying today - pic by Claudia Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC April Album thanks to Klaus for the Bridal pics. Blanchard WA Report - someone decided to fly into the powerlines on his paraglider to liven up April Fools Day and survived story here . Click here for news about the Ozone EnZo coming in first at the Brazilian PWC last week! OZONE PILOTS ON TOP AT PWC BRAZIL** Ozone EnZo pilots at the first PWC of the 2012 season in Castelo, Brazil, have dominated every task of the event and taken first place overall. French Team pilot Yann Martail took top honors.
3/31/2012	Staying inside today		San Francisco: 240° at 25 knots	San Francisco: -2.0° (stable)	San Francisco: 200 m	San Fran Report - we woke up in San Francisco to see horizontal rain and howling winds outside the hotel, so Colleen went off to her conference and I watched a movie til noon. After noon I headed out for a cable car ride to Fisherman's Wharf and a visit to the Cable Car Museum. Just outside the Museum two mechanics arrived and the drivers announced that they had to do a "grip change", perhaps because the grip was slipping? Or perhaps this is a standard routine to show the tourists how the system works? Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC March Album showing the grip change process, all hand labour like the old days. Tomorrow looks soarable at the Dumps!