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FlyBC "Site of the Day" - April 2017 Archive Page
Woodside is looking better today according to the RASPs
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| 4-30-17 |
 Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 11. UV index 5 or moderate. 700 metres A group of Canucks went south to Blanchard WA and were rewarded with +2 hour flights. Thermals reproted to be "spicy" at times. 4-29-17
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|  Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 12C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near 6mm. 1200 metres Colleen came up for the first two flights test-flying the new SupAir Leaf Light Small we have here for demo.  She concluded in glide tests with Derek on his MS Swift that the glide was similar and the inflation was smooth and easy. There was little lift and light winds to launch in but we managed to get three rounds in before 2 pm when it started raining as we attempted round four. New student Dale from Rosedale got his first two solo flights after last night's awesome tandem soaring session (and he dressed warmer today).  Micah from Saltspring is doing very well and even completed his first flight today sans radio, but he did everything perfect and almost nailed the circle on landing. He is up to 6 solo flights after two days. 4-28-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Sun and clouds mixed. High 14C. Winds W at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres Martin N was out as usual and was our wind tech for the first flight.  All the student flights were really good with new student Micah getting his first two flights after a solid training hill session today, with his first flight being 30 minutes long with a circle landing! I even got to fly a tandem after 4 pm with Dale, when it calmed down enough to safely launch and it was very soarable. Martin N & Derek had launched an hour before and just got away before it gusted up, and they got high to the North before heading to Harvest Market which is stll in hay.  Unfortunately Dale was not dressed appropriately for the weather and was shaking from the cold but did not want me to end the flight! We also landed at Harvest where we had a nice no wind touchdown. A couple of highlights today: 1. Martin S got his first thermal lesson and he thermalled so well he disappeared into a cloud despite me telling him to pull "big ears", and he kept pulling the stabilo. Tip of the Day: Practice "big ears" before you need to use them. He later did them properly in the the second flight. 2. Apparently there was an un-named pilot that landed in the 3.5 km clearcut when he got stuck in the venturi between Launch & the South Knoll. Of course he was not on radio so Search & Rescue got called out needlessly. Second Tip of the Day: Do not fly into this area on windy days, and wear a radio and use it. 4-27-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 12C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres But Phil got to try out his new Advance Alpha 5 and Cult Harness, following Pete and Martin N who wind-tech'ed today after 4 pm.  Quite strong lift and +20 kph wind in the air. Martin got high to the North probably 1100 metres. Pete got high too and they bailed over to Harvest Market LZ when it started sprinkling. Phil had just launched and did not hear the Harvest Market briefing and lost sight of the others as they headed east so he flew out to the Ranch. We waited for the rain to stop and got several sunny periods but it kept OD-ing and raining harder.  Rob H made this nice video of his visit with us while we were training in Cache Creek, Savona & Woodside. 4-26-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High 12C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 50% 900 metres Good news is that the Delta 3s are now shipping, and some owners are now posting videos of their flights. I don't know how they got their D3 first as we placed several orders on the very first hours of the Order System opening for the D3 ML? 4-25-17
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| Agassiz BC Savona Forecast: Partly cloudy this morning. A few showers developing during the afternoon. High 17C. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 30%. 2500 metres We go up to the Toilet Bowl around 10 am today and the winds were straight in but light, but there were thermals popping off allowing some soaring by Master Gerrit (who soared the old Bolero last night!). Light wind reverse launches for Martin, Cole, Gerrit, Rob H and Brian. They got 4 flights off the Toilet Bowl Ridge before noon, except for Cole who hiked up once and got 5 flights! After the last flight we arrived on top to find the wind had switched 180 degrees and strong. We headed over to the Dump Ridge and the guys started flying there in 15-20 kph NE winds that were soarable.  They were hiking up to keep the cycles going and by the time I stopped them for an afternoon break some had 9 more flights including top-landings for Martin and Cole. The Dump Ridge is truly a meteo-marvel, which has seabreeze thermals being fed by Kamloops Lake, despite the prevailing winds. We could have kept going but the guys were getting tired so we broke camp and headed down to Woodside hoping to fly, but when we arrived it was kind of light. I decided they needed to write their P-2 Exams more than get one more flight today (14 is probably enough to absorb). While they were writing the exams, Bev & Derek dropped in off Woodside where they had to do either forward launches or running reverses to get off while Norm drove. Apparently the mid-day flights at Woodside were good, with strong lift over 1000 metres. 4-24-17
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| Agassiz BC Savona Forecast: Showers in the morning, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High 16C. Winds NW at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 40%. 2500 metres We managed some nice kiting for new student Martin in the school ground in Savona and he mastered the reverse launch techniques within an hour. We kept going up to the Toilet Bowl and watched some Kamloops speed fliers "hucking off" and getting short flights.  We drove to Ashcroft and the winds were exactly 180 degrees opposite there but just as strong so back to Savona for the afternoon. We called the day and had a late dinner, and just before sunset the wind dropped so we went up to the Toilet Bowl and the students got to soar and Gerrit had at least 30 passes at launch height on the Bolero.  Keener Brianne hiked up and got two flights before dark.  And newbie Martin got his first flight in too landing at Sunset. Then back to the lake side campground for late night drinks.  Meanwhile back at Woodside the big guns were going XC to Ruby Creek, Bridal and Vedder under a bg developing sky with some rain & hail mixed in for fun. 4-23-17
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| Agassiz BC Savona Forecast: Partly cloudy skies. High 16C. Winds light and variable. 2500 metres I arrioved at 930 and unloaded the travel trailer and met the students for first flights at 10 am. Mitch, Tom, Brianne and Ryan were all flying well today as was newcomer pilot Dean who is working towards paramotor lessons. Dean got his first 5 high flights in on his paramotor wing (free flying). He was pumped! Tom & Mitch were working hard and got 15 & 14 flights respectively from the Dump Ridge. Here is Tom soaring and almost top-landing!  I was at the bottom and got one of Mitch's flights too.  Ryan got 11 flights and he is now over 28 flights. Brianne arrived later today and still managed to get 5 flights in and some excellent high wind kiting! We were finished by 430 pm, and headed for a beer at the Savona Pub. Meanwhile back at Woodside folks were flying, but it looked ominous.  Here is Martin's launch captured by FlyingOrange.  I saw Martin N's tracklog on XCFind and I saw his run to Harvest Market to avoid the rains. Apparently Derek was right on his tail.  I saw someone coming into the Ranch on the FlyBC WebCam and it looked "rock & roll". 4-22-17
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|  Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High near 15C. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 70%. 1500 metres 4-21-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 19C. Winds light and variable. 1500 metres We went up for the first try at 11 am, and we had light inflow cycles but the prevailing wind was showing NE in the cloud drift and smoke in the valley. First student off was Ryan M and he had a great launch and a bit of lift on the way out. Harry S launched next on his Ozone Swift 4 and was climbing by the South Knoll in some leeside thermals, as Rob H came in below him but bailed when he did not think he was getting anything.  All of the students (6) got off clean and were doing non-standard approaches into the Ranch, while their landing coach Dennie was happily thermalling over the flats (actually they are all at 15-20 high flights so should not need coaching). I had to run a banking errand in Chilliwack so I handed the reins over to Dennie and he took the students up for another flight, while I watched from our webcam during an oil change. Again a non-standard approach as the NW winds picked up in the Eagle Ranch LZ, but it was still good launching conditions. They went up for a third round but only three students got off and the last student in Brian (a nely minted USHPA P-2) was parked over the Maple Tree causing Dennie to shut down operations until it got lighter. It never got lighter and many pilots on launch had to drive down, while Dennie had the students liting in the perfectly laminar NW wind in the LZ. It was very pretty seeing all the wings in the LZ as I drove past on Hwy 7! We did a debrief on the day and the folks headed to the Sasquatch Inn for dinner and drinks and the plan for tomorrow is a trip to Pembie for the hot springs and then to meet in Savona for Sunday. 4-20-17
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| Agassiz BC Kamloops Forecast: Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 13C. Winds NW at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 40%. 2000 metres It paid off as we managed to get 6 flights off the ridge in light NW winds, at times it was almost soarable but the students were geting ready by themselves, doing the proper safety checks and launching unassisted and landing well too.  We had the winds switch around noon to unuasable and everyone needed a break so we headed down to Woodside, in hopes that it would be soarable there. I got a text from Martin N that it was OD-ing at 1 pm and raining hard in Chilliwack but we were already heading that way. The Ranch is a total mudhole with all the rain, so park at the Kettle or ?? Everyone straggled in at different times and we assembled a shuttle load at 4:00 pm and headed up the mountain. Norm, Bev, Martin N and Derek also arrived and were our official wind-techs. Of course as we arrived on launch a huge cell unloaded just west of Harrison Knob and we got rained on. It looked like it was all clear behind that cell on the Radar, so we waited and it opened up while we waited like true "Desperados" on launch.  Martin N launched first and headed to the South Knoll. Last time we saw him he was grovelling into Riverside, as there was no lift on the South Knoll. Bev and Derek launched and they were soaring nicely to the North.  One by one the students launched, with Gerrit being the last one off. They had been properly briefed at how to land at Woodside/Eagle Ranch before we headed up and with 15 flights under their belts I thought it would be easy for them after the complicated approaches at Savona avoiding cactus and sagebrush. They all landed fine even though some were downwinders, but the winds were light to calm. A very successful day with 7 flights and good launch skills from all of the six students. 4-19-17
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| Agassiz BC Kamloops Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers this afternoon. Wind becoming east 20 km/h this morning. High 16. UV index 5 or moderate. 2000 metres We started at 7:30 am, picking up the students at the campground and we headed up to the Dump Ridge. We found Luke, Paul, Austin and their dogs camped on top. We had nice 10-15 kph NE winds straight up the slope and everyone was kiting and I told them they did not have to fly, rather spend time kiting but they all eventually flew. It got stronger and we were able to get Tom & Cole top-landing as they learned how to stay in lift. It got stronger and stronger to the point that by 1030 am, it was hard to move forward and Luke & the other signed off pilots were way above launch soaring on the ridge. Here Austin was kiting his LOL at the back of launch, note how easy it is too keep the wing overhead in the laminar winds.  We headed to Coyote Hill after collecting new student Brianne. Chase arrived after we had one flight too. The students are doing very well! Tom & his brother Mitch arrived just a day ago and they are reversing with precision and style and getting themselves ready with little need for me already. Ryan M is up to 19 flights now after just 5 days and is ready for signoff soon. Ryan G is here on a P-2 refresher course and is up to 29 flights and is very independent too. Savona & Coyote are good for rapid independent training with the varied slopes and launch directions which keeps us flying many hours in the day. As we saw today, Savona got blown out yet Ashcroft was still good despite being only 32 kms apart. Coyote had light NE winds but the students were all reversing off with ease. No one is needing landing coaching now either, which is what a good instructor wants to see in his students: independence with focus. Ryan G was trying out our Advance Alpha 5 demo wing and looked good on it, finally a nice Advance colour scheme!  On the second round of flights Rob H joined us and he found a thermal out over the LZ and was working it with Ryan G and Chase. It got rather crowded over the LZ but they all followed ridge rules and there were no issues.  We had completed 2 flights here before it blew strong from the SW. The students are now at 6 flights today and it is only 2 pm. We headed back to Savona hoping for calmer winds and arrived on top to launchable conditions. Ryan G took off on the Alpha 5 and was soon 30 metres above us in strong SE winds and parked as he found a lifty bubble in one pass. He top-landed next to us but the conditions suggested it might get strong again and I almost got dragged packing up Brianne's wing. Chase had taken off before Ryan and had a sled ride down to the LZ. He landed fine and was bunching up his wing when he rolled his ankle on a rock and needed our assistance. Good thing we had Rob, Ryan and others along that know first aid. We got him on top in the back of his truck and splinted his ankle and he refused to let us drive him to Kamloops Hospital. He said this has happened a few times this month just walking around his shop. He got checked out in Kamloops and it was just a dislocation. Tip of the day: Wear good ankle supporting footwear when outdoors. After we fixed up Chase, we went for a late lunch and after lunch the apparent cause of the gusty winds revealed itself as a rain cell burst off and caused a big windstorm. After the rain stopped we did another trip to Ashcroft to get Brianne some kiting but it was far too strong so we quit by 6 pm. A good day for the students! Six flights or more off two different slopes and some great kiting practice. 4-18-17
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| Agassiz BC Kamloops Forecast: Partly cloudy. High 16C. Winds S at 10 to 15 km/h. 1800 metres I arrived in Savona at 9 am to meet the eager students and we headed up the Dump Ridge early to find nice NE winds. We had two new guys, brothers Tom & Mitch from Trail here, and Tom was so keen he flew off on his first forward inflation and had a perfect approach. Good thing he had a radio and a briefing! Everyone but Mitch got in a flight before the winds went cross and down. Good kiting session up there for a few hours before the winds switched. Luke & gang from Squamish was here too with some speed wings and assorted gear also avoiding the rains on the coast. I checked the Cache Creek weather and it was still NE there so we headed to Coyote Hill, and we got three launches in and on the last flight Ryan G had launched and was in big sink, odd because everyone else went up? And then a big gust from the back ensued for several seconds? And then it went quite strong from the front and Tom's wing went up in a dusty (fortunately he was not clipped in yet!). I sorted out the wing and when I tried kiting it another dusty grabbed it out of my hands! Okay we are done here for now.  We headed in to Ashcroft to kite in the town park in gusty SW winds and the guys spent 2 hours plus, perfecting their skills. By the end of the session they were all doing quite well!  We headed back to the Toilet Bowl as the winds calmed down here in Ashcroft. To arrive to find the gusts had not abated here as Luke was trying to tame his Eiko 20 in the strong winds. It was quite cross too so we went to the first bump near the International LZ and it was way too strong for normal wings but Austin flew off on a Fazer 14. It was now after 6 pm so we headed to the Pub in Savona for a debrief. Hoping for lighter NE winds tomorrow for a good Dump Ridge session. We did get a Woodside Report from Martin: he was heading up the mountain as it looked good, but he arrived to gusty NW winds and then it started thunderstorming and he was walking down in rain/hail as Derek rescued him. 4-17-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High 13C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. 800 metres But then . . . it cleared up arond 10 am as they were writing exams and we headed up to fly! It was cross from the NW but the students nailed some excellent forward launches. We managed to get 4 student rounds in by 5 pm when we were joined by Bev, Norm and Derek for the last flight of the day.  Unfortunately we are going to have to head inland Tuesday as a week of rain is forecast. 4-16-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Partly cloudy. High 18C. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres The students wrote their P-1 exams and "aced" them! Then some brave students wrote their P-2 Exams and also "aced" them, somebody has been studying their manuals. By 5 pm it had calmed down enough to do some kiting in the NW winds and Ian, Om & Steve did quite well with varying techniques. I kept checking the windsock on top and it was down and cross, but somehow George G got off and was parked heading out to the Ranch in NW winds, but it looked smooth. 4-15-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Rain showers this morning with some sunshine during the afternoon hours. High 13C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. 1200 metres First flights were in the haze but the students stayed VFR during that flight.  The students included Ksenia, Brandon, Chase, Steve, Ian and Ryan and they all flew 5 flights by 6 pm. And good quality flights with some soaring, some thermalling, some spirals and one flight with a tangle that Ksenia handled well. Ksenia even did her first reverse launch today.  The pro-pilots were out today and got some climbs to 1200 metres over the South Knoll, and Alex R did a top-landing and "touch & go". Our last flight had some switchy winds on launch and some waiting but we pulled it off and there was even a late team of pilots that went up at 7 pm and bagged a flight in calm conditions but the students were done by then . . . too much adrenaline was spent! Reports from Savona had more hail, strong wind but some Hangies flew to Cache Creek in the strong SW flow. 4-14-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Overcast with rain showers at times. High near 10C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 50%. 1200 metres We arrived at Savona at 1130 am, to see Nicole and Andrew in the air. And then it started raining lightly, and they flew back towards launch where it was sunnier. When the rain stopped we got the students ready on the rim of the Toilet Bowl and Brad and I went down to the bottom to install wind ribbons. We launched Ksenia, Brandon and Chase and then it started hailing quite hard, so back to the van. Ksenia seen here on her first high flight and she got to soar for some time in the 20 kph SW winds.  After that it got really windy so we went to lunch. When we came back to the Toilet Bowl we saw Dylan hiking up his 14 metre speedwing, and watched an un-named instructor getting dragged backwards on a student rig so we decided it was too windy to try for students. After waiting some time we gave up and headed to Cache Creek where it was lighter, but when we got there it was just as gusty. On to Spences Bridge where we found some lighter winds in the Community Centre fields and the students got to practice reverse kiting. We packed up and headed to Woodside where it was sunny and the winds were the right direction but very strong, so we headed back to the Ranch. Not so productive a day but we tried! There were 17 hanggliders setup on launch but we only saw one fly all day, so we were not the only ones affected by the weather. 4-13-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Cloudy with occasional showers this afternoon. Thunder possible. High 12C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. 1200 metres Conditions were a bit cross on the top from the NW but nice strength for first flights. Ryan, Ian, Chase and Brandon all flew and had really nice conditions in the air despite the rain we saw at Cultus and behind us in Agassiz. On the second flight Ryan went almost to cloudbase without a turn to over 1200 metres. He was above launch out at the Ranch doing his figure 8's.  We took a lunch break and as we packed up to head up the mountain I saw some light mist forming between the Ranch and Woodside so I asked the students to tell me what was happening "meteorologically". They all responded with "RAIN" even though we were in the sun at the Ranch. So maybe intuition, the smell of the air, or good sense it seemed everyone agreed to wait a bit before heading up to launch. And then we heard thunder and saw lightning over by Chilliwack through the trees to the south. And then the hail and rain hit all at once, it would not have been a good time to be in the air. And it happened fast, from direct sunlight to hail in a few moments (just like the forecast warned).  When it cleared up the winds in the LZ turned to North, and the wind on top looked strogn so we waited and then as true desperadoes we went up at 7 pm to find strong gusts, thermals popping off that looked like 8-10 m/s (with whispy clouds getting sucked to base) and sometimes a light drizzle. So we drove down for a debrief of the day. 4-12-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Steady light rain this morning. Showers continuing this afternoon. High 13C. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 70%. 700 metres  Paul is available if anyone needs any reno work done, call him at 604-703-8010.  4-12-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Suuny. High 13C. Winds NNE at 10 - 15 km/h. 700 metres Degas ran a ground school theory session for a few hours while I prepped the gear. After a blackboard session, we headed up to the loft to test harnesses and body position in the simulators.  The outflow wind was not letting up and it was on the strong side so Degas took the students to Mission at noon. They all did very well with many doing their first reverse launches on Cherry Hill. The class returned to the Ranch at 7 pm, a very full day of lessons and practical skill development. I wish some of our Intermediate students could have been here to perfect their skills too, as it is not always about high flights and airtime . . . the finesse on launch is more important for safety. 4-10-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: Steady light rain this morning. Showers continuing this afternoon. Thunder possible. High 52F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. 600 metres West Mountain near Provo was chosen as it has launches to the East and West and the forecast said SE til 2 pm. The Point was out as it was very gusty there, only speed wings were out there. We arrived on top at 10 am to no wind! But we have to do our tandem testing so forward launches it is. Never forget how to forward launch. I was taking Kit tandem for my maneuvers and he is a big boy, over 100 kgs so it will be crisp handling on the Ozone SwiftMax Tandem but we are going to have to run very far on this flat launch to get off through the sagebrush.  Our first launch went well, getting off quite far down. I entered the maneuver box, and Marko said to do the Double 360s with a stable on-axis exit in less than 20 seconds - 3,2,1 Go. Open trimmers 5 cms. Hard weight shift into entry, crank it around watching the horizon. One 360, nose is down, second 360 and exit towards the lake. Done in 19 Seconds! Try it sometimes on your solo glider and watch your GoPro footage to evaluate your time. Second maneuver is reversing 360s with on-axis exit in 25 seconds. Entry is good, not so nose down to facilitate the reversal, and we nail the reversal and the glider dives hard left and the exit is off axis - must redo it next flight. Time is good though. Enter the landing field and we must land in a 30 metre circle, sound easy except we are going fast in 5000 foot density altitude and the winds are switchy. I nailed the circle but Kit fell on his nose. Another do over. Back on takeoff, we have still no wind or crosswind. Another forward launch. Glider comes up good, we are running but Kit trips on a sagebrush or something and he is going down. I hit the brakes hard and we are off but he scraped his ankle when he tripped. He is okay so we enter the box for the reserving 360s and nail that maneuver is 22 seconds! Coming into the landing we are dodging Jonathon on his approach and he goes long as he hits a bubble. I am right behind him and we get no bubble and we land short by 2 metres. Apparently there is no latitude for conditions in this testing. Hard Asses! It is now my turn to be Kit's passenger and we move to another launch folks have cleared out. Another forward launch. We get off fast and clean as this slope is steeper. Kit does his turns too slow and off-axis, so he must do them over. These turns need some very fast inputs and no colapse are allowed . . . not even a wingtip! We do the approach and we are getting bubbled up everywhere, and of course on final a big pop, followed by a surge and we miss the circle. These conditions are not taken into account for the evaluation. At the end of the day only 2 pilots land in the circle twice, Babu & Okada, both really good pilots. And lucky as the two approaches I saw were perfect and they got no bubbles or wind switch on final. It is just luck that they hit the target, although the approaches were very smooth too.  Some talk was heard about letting people through if they were close but I had to run to the airport to fly home so I will get an evaluation later in the mail. 4-9-17
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| Agassiz BC Agassiz Forecast: A mix of clouds and sun. High near 55F. Winds light and variable. 1400 metres She had Kim, Dawson & Tom training today and they bagged three flights while the pro-pilots were going XC towards Mission and back. Leonardo Track Logs today. Alex & Kevin took our demo Ultralite 4s out today, the 19 & 21 metre versions and had a good time flying to Agassiz Mtn and back to Woodside. Thanks to Brad for the Video! Spring Eagles from Wetcoast Views on Vimeo. A great pilot's view of what the day was like from Claudia, looks like an Ozone Commercial.4-8-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Rain and thunderstorms. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High 58F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2000 metres I woke up to rain and wind, but when you are in a classroom anyway it doesn't matter. But it was not enjoyable trying to get to lunch through hail and rain. After class, Kit & Ma & Ho asked me to join them to study for the presntation test tomorrow so we worked in the hotel til 9 pm. Then as we were leaving we opened the door to a blizzard, a full on snow storm in mid-April. Wlecome to Utah!  4-7-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Cloudy with gusty winds. High around 65F. Winds S at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. 2000 metres As there was no flying we worked on Polar Curves and Performance Flying Theories in the APPI Course. We also did some refined glider measurements and retrimmed some older gliders Instructor brought to the course. I will run a seminar on this for rainy days if anyone is interested. It didn't look very good in BC either with collapsing buildings, cancelled ferry sailings and power outages as the "super low" hit the coast. Colleen arrived to the Ranch to find the power on and little debris so we were spared by the winds. 4-6-17
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|  Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Sun and clouds mixed. High 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. 2800 metres 4-5-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Partly cloudy. High 59F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. 2800 metres After 8 hours in class we were headed to the hill for some flying. All day the wind was SSE 16-26 mph, too strong for even the levels of pilots at this course. Some of the attendees include Babu from Nepal . . . famous for his Everest to Indian Ocean flight. He also flew off Kilimanjaro in Africa at a charity event in vicious winds that defied physics by launching leeside according to reports. That said he is a super humble guy! At 6 pm, I arrived at the South Side of Point of the Mountain where Chris Santacroce was teaching newbies. Chris G from Santa Barbara took off on a Rush 4 and was soaring in light to nil wind.  Chris used to teach for Chris S before moving to Santa Barbara to buy the paragliding school there so knows this hill well. Chris G soared and top-landed while everyone else sunk out. When he top-landed after his final flight, I went over to check out the Rush 4 (yep, it was an XL and he weighs 70 kgs!). Cheater wing soaring! Some of the APPI attendees flew tandem and some flew solo but everyone else ended up on the bottom, but they flew. 4-4-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 49F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. 2800 metres Kit & I took each other tandem on the SwiftMax 41 and we got to soar on both flights, weaving our way through the masses of students and other tandems.  I also got to see the new Ozone Delta 3 in action and it is a floater machine, much like the Zeno. It only came down with some maneuvers even as the winds died down. 4-3-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High around 50F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. 2800 metres There was a lot of NE winds occuring but the students (Kim, Tom & Marwan) went kiting with Dennie early on perfecting their launches and then they got to fly later in the day when it turned on. Kim & Tom got 3 really nice flights, and then Dennie took Marwan tandem for his first flight. Meanwhile the local hotshots went XC. Mike M, Claudia, James & Martin N were the Ozone Swift 4 group that did the Raymont Challenge Triangle to Bridal and back to Woodside! Here Claudia caught a nice shot of James heading to Mt Cheam, where they surfed up the snowy slopes.  Here is a tracklog from Mike & James' Spot Trackers on XCFind, a local service that tracks pilots.  Some of our other past graduates made it to Hope and back to Woodside on this classic XC day, good for those who could play hookey. Meanwhile, I was in class learning how to be an APPI Instructor til 7 pm, and Point of the Mountain was not flyable by then as it was too late . . . oh the sacrifices! 4-2-17
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| Salt Lake UT SLC Forecast: Cloudy with periods of rain. High 53F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. 800 metres In this day of the 10 day APPI Seminar, we covered reserve certification, reserve testing and repacking before moving on to aerodynamics & flight mechanics. At the end of the day the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and a group headed to Point of the Mountain North Side to fly. The earlier launchers benched up and got high, while late arrivals got some soaring down lower.  I assessed the conditions as I watched a wheelchair pilot launch, giving hope to Sean G's return to flight soon (still recuperating from a bad launch at Benny last year where he injured his heel). I suspected it was shutting down so I drove down to the highway to return to my hotel to deal with orders and emails and as I got to the highway I noticed most of the gliders had sunk out in 5 minutes. It was close to sunset now. By now I hope everyone discovered that I was joking as in April Fools Joke about moving to Utah and buying Cloud9. It is too cold here to survive in my mind! Happy April Fools! Blanchard Report - the smart money was on Blanchard today as a group of Canadian Pilots descended on Bellingham to fly and they were not disappointed.  Claudia took this nice shot of Peter on his Ozone Alpina 2 over Blanchard. Canadian pilots should remember that they need USHPA Insurance as our HPAC Insurance no longer covers the USA sites. Another group went to Pemby and got snowed out. Woodside was way too windy and rainy with low base. 4-1-17
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| Agassiz BC Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 52F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. 800 metres APPI Course Report - we started the first classroom sessions of the APPI Instructor Seminar today. It was tough sitting in a classroom all day as it was finally clear here after many days of rain, but the winds were gusting to 45 mph, so it made it easier to concentrate on the course content: Glider & Line Aging & Trimming a Glider.  Here we were measuring the trim of a newer BGD Glider and found it to have out of trim risers, which one can compensate by shorting some lines. Or send it back to the factory which is the only way to stay in certification legally in Europe. After 6 pm, I headed to Point of the Mountain to check out the conditions and saw a few gliders soaring the North Side on the way. I got the Ozone Alpina 2 I brought along out of the trunk and got ready quick as sunset was approaching fast as some of the Cloud9 tandems were soaring out front.  I got some airtime, and despite having only a hoody on it was not too cold in the air. As mentioned yesterday, the north winds are quite cross making the fingers a bit turbulent but not too bad. What was bad was the low light of the sun was glaring in my eyes on the downwind passes making it hard to see the approaching gliders, unless you stayed above them (which I did). The Alpina 2 I brought is an MS and I am overloading it by 15 kgs so it had snappy handling and was fast! I top-landed as it got lighter, to avoid the hike back up to the Parking Area. Some of the tandems snuck in too as it got really light. Brett had a good day in Pemby last weekend, while we were having fun hucking students at Woodside. ANTICIPATION | SLR Magic 8mm f/4 | BMMCC from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. 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. |
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