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FlyBC "Site of the Day August 2016 Archive"
Woodside was excellent for students and experts all of August
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Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters |
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| 8-31-16 |
 Agassiz BC Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to cloudy skies and rain during the afternoon. High near 20C. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. 600 metres A reminder that Eagle Ranch will be closed on September 2-4 for a special event, Aaron & Christie's wedding, please land at Riverside during that period as the parking ot is reserved for wedding guests. 8-30-16
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|  Agassiz BC Sun and clouds mixed. High 26C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres Flight #1 was boaty with good launch cycles. Flight #2 was lifty and sinky at times with some scraping their butts into the Eagle Ranch LZ. Maude got her first high flight on the EONA S and it took about an hour to get her back on the ground as it was lifty everywhere. Flight #3 was perfect launch conditions but on the stronger side and all the students pulled off flawless reserve starts! I had Maude and Angelica sit this one out as they are lightly loaded and it turned out to be a good thing. After I launched all the guys I clipped in tandem with Noel and flew off to chase Sam out of all the bad places he kept chosing to fly into: the gulley, Lenami's Bowl, etc. We flew for about an hour before I headed out to the Ranch. In retrospect I should have taken everyone to Harvest Market as Bev was driving and could chase us. I arrived over the Ranch wth lots of height but the gusts through the LZ were obvious in the corn and the treetops. I told Noel to keep his feet up and land on his aibag, and as we went on final we got plucked and dropped but had a soft landing although somewhat sideways. Gregory cleared the fence and landed next to it on our side, and Dawson flying the Gin Sprint3 came over the LZ too high and kept flying upwind into the rotor, despite my directions. He had to do 2 - 360s to get back in the clean air and it still was not that clean but he had a soft landing too. Meanwhile Sam landed with the cows again! Martin N came in about 15 minutes later and also had a rodeo ride! The students went kiting in the gusts, while I went back up for a tandem with Rebecca at 5 pm. We did not need a ballast person but it was strong, as we launched we went straight up and backwards for some time. Then we thermalled to 1000 metres and went back and forth to the South Knoll as Rebecca's dad and uncle drove down to Harvest Market.  After 20 minutes of flight I noticed the winds were still as strong but the thermals had shut off and we started sinking. The exact same thing happened at Bridal at the same time as I communicated with Alex R who had just top-landed, as everyone else sunk out. I was getting 60 kph on the GPS downwind to Harvest Market and we had a few passes on Cemetary Hill where it too shut off? Nice landing next to the road and we saw the Van pull in just as we landed. It stayed too strong to fly for the rest of the day as the front rolls in. Claudia over Bridal, top-of-the-stack!   A reminder that Eagle Ranch will be closed on September 2-4 for a special event, Aaron & Christie's wedding, please land at Riverside during that period as the parking ot is reserved for wedding guests. 8-29-16
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| Agassiz BC A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High 22C. Winds light and variable. 1000 metres We had a full house with 8 students including one new fellow from Montreal area, Sam, who was a natural kiter from the moment Colleen took him to the training hill. Sam came up on the second round and got his first flight with some drama as he thought "hands up" meant "hands down", thankfully the EONA is unstallable without a wrap. After that he figured out his hand position for another flight later. The last flight around 6 pm was okay for heavily loaded wings, but we did send some folks over to Harvest Market as it might have taken til dusk to get them down! 8-28-16
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| Agassiz BC A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High 22C. Winds light and variable. 1000 metres Angelica was lightly loaded and managed to outclimb the boys every flight! We were having a great time until about 4 pm when it started to drizzle and a gust front slowed Angelica & Cocoa's progress despite coming out at 400 metres, so Burt got more money. We shut down early as the rain was here to stay. 8-27-16
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| Agassiz BC Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. Clearing this afternoon. Windy near Hope late this morning and this afternoon. High 23. UV index 6 or high. 1300 metres New students Angelica & Greg were doing well for their first day and Greg flew off the training hill dozens of times in gusty cross winds, getting some nice hops. Some fun in the wilds behind Grouse Mtn. Lost in the Garden from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. 8-26-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 31C. Winds light and variable. 1300 metres Derek and I did a set of tandems with some nice thermals keeping us aloft with really nice landing conditions. Martin N scored big time with a 1:30 flight and a top-landing to drive Derek's rig down. At 3 pm we went back up hopeful for the students to get a second flight but it was was too gusty, so I pulled out my new Zeno ML. Crappy launch conditions with gusty NW winds, made for a fun kiting session before I got off cleanly with not even a tip tuck, and started climbing. Winds were strong +25 kph and gusty in the air but not even a ripple in the sail. My previous tandem an hour before had a few frontals in the same area. Climb rate certainly seemed good and I was loaded up at 110 kgs. I got to 1000 metres in a few turns. Nice spiral machine for getting down fast through crappy air.  Landing conditions were quite rotory and thermic with the same 25-30 kph gusts in my LZ but the Zeno was solid. But there were moments! We went back up at 7 pm for a last tandem and student flights but after seeing Gary P & Jason getting hoovered and parked we drove down. Lennies were forming over Sasquatch as we waited.  8-25-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 31C. Winds N at 10 to 15 km/h. 1300 metres We did a trip to Mission Heritage Park at noon with Jamie & Tanya to hone their launch skills and got kicked out of the Park by a District of Mission manager. The District of Mission recently took over managing Heritage Park from the Society that previously ran the Park for 50 years. 8-24-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 31C. Winds N at 10 to 15 km/h. 1300 metres The Zeno kites very nicely, so nice that Jaime took it for a few sessions and handled it with ease and he only has 12 flights. At 6 pm, we headed up again to find light to no wind, not what Derek & I wanted for tandems. But Pierre, Jaime & Jose got flights in no wind. Lumby Report - Norm reported nice triangle flights with a Swiss pilot at Lumby despite the north wind forecast. 8-23-16
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| Agassiz BC Mainly cloudy. Clearing late this afternoon. High 22. UV index 5 or moderate. 1300 metres Bianca & Jose were here from Bowen and got three flights in. Jaime is back from a long hiatus in Spain and logged three hours yesterday flying the EONA & the new SupAir LEAF. Colleen took a nice tandem at 1 pm with a Saudi visitor that could only fly with a female instructor. Oleg headed home after 4 days of training with a new BlackHawk Edge glider to practice kiting back in Edmonton. The last flight at 6 pm (our fourth round) was a nice thermic one with Colleen staying up until everyone had landed (all 7 students). Derek reported back that he and Martin N had a nice flight at Bridal getting to 1600 metres around 5 pm. Miller Ridge Pemby Report - A truckload of us went up Miller ridge in Pemberton.  Drive to ~1600m and then a 1 hour hike to the alpine launch meadow at 1800m. Cloudbase was around 3000m; I criss-crossed the main valley 5 times today! Not-so-nice north winds so most us stayed local, although Igor flew to D'Arcy - Nicole 8-22-16
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| Agassiz BC Mainly cloudy. Clearing late this afternoon. High 22. UV index 5 or moderate. 1300 metres 8-21-16
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| Agassiz BC Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to occasional showers during the afternoon. High around 25C. Winds SW at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 50%. 1300 metres Can Am Report from Black Mtn WA - Beautiful conditions at Black Mountain in WA state on Saturday, lots of lift to 2000+ m. Derek reported a nice 3+ hour glass-off flight with a trip to the Canadian Border and back.  ~40 pilots signed up, but only 3 Canadians. Awesome camping at Silver Lake, a fantastic rib and chicken BBQ last night, and a pancake breakfast the next morning. Sunday was blown out so it was a leisurely swim in the lake - Nicole 8-20-16
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| Agassiz BC Plentiful sunshine. High 32C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1300 metres Annette is "on fire" as she out-thermalled us on tandem on her new Ozone Buzz Z5! 8-19-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 31C. Winds NE at 10 to 15 km/h. 900 metres We had a break around 4 pm, when it was just too hot for anything and we resumed flying at 700 pm, when it glassed off and Colleen, Annette, John, Derek, Lee and the students all had nice long lifty flights. Meanwhile I was working with Oleg on trying to get his wing over his head in perfect cycles and we finally gave up after 40 minutes as he just was not feeling the glider at all. I got the new SupAir Leaf demo ready and launched into shitty NW winds after eveyone else had landed, and barely made the Ranch because it was so sinky. 8-18-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 31C. Winds NE at 10 to 15 km/h. 900 metres 8-17-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 28. Humidex 33. UV index 7 or high. 900 metres Martin N & Logan S were happily flying their Swift4s around though. It calmed down around 6 pm so we too the students up for a few first solos and everyone did very well! 8-16-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 29C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres We did two more flights off Woodside but now it was already windy around noon, and they were hitting some turbulence. The EONA gliders are amazingly stable and have good "into wind performance". I took Bernadette on a tandem flight after the students all landed and we got above launch a few times but it was quite inverted and punchy.  Martin managed 1:45 scratching around the South Knoll. We headed to Bridal for a 4 pm session but only Logan (signed off pilot) and Carl flew as Dean & Eric only have 12 flights each so they stood down. We headed back to Woodside for an evening session and everyone flew to the Ranch just making it in as it was still windy. Later flights by Derek, Martin N, Norm also proved windy and hard to get down as it was very lifty as it "glassed-off". 8-15-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 29C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres We lost power at the house due to a logging truck crash that unfortunately killed a driver in a pickup heading east up Woodside, as the westbound logging truck rolled at the Duncan's driveway. The students were in the air above as the truck rolled but they didn't have GoPros, but the saw the carnage.  I headed over thru Duncan's road to see what was going on and got to the pickup pretty fast and two bystanders were checking the driver's vitals and got no pulse. The logging truck driver was uninjured and looked like he was in shock. The powerlines were down but twisted together which shorted out the breakers downstream, so it was safe to work in the area but protocol kept the fire, ambulance and police out of the scene until Hydro arrived an hour later. Our day was done, as the Van was stuck on the mountain and it was already getting windy, so I sent the students home. Denny arrived back with new student George at around 4 pm, and they went kiting for the rest of the afternoon on the training hill. 8-14-16
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| Agassiz BC Partly cloudy skies. High 28C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres Dean & Eric are doing well as is Fish all now around 10 flights in three days of lessons. New student Mark logged one solo flight with Colleen guiding him in on the Geo 4 demo. Later he had a duff on launch as he is not fully understanding pitch control so it was back to the training hill in the afternoon. We sent the students home at 3 pm when it got strong, and it was not expected to slow down later. Derek, Denny, Bev and a few others went up Woodside at 7 pm and had nice glassoff conditions with lift to 900 metres everywhere, but slow groundspeeds and bumpy approaches into the Ranch (affirming the forecasts). Alex had some fun on Saturday and just posted this outlanding after he hit sink on Saturday afternoon. Nice landing in a tight spot! 8-13-16
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| Agassiz BC Sun and clouds mixed. High 31C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres We flew two student rounds today, and could have gotten more but there was launch congestion as some pilots seem to want to sort lines on the launch proper rather than back behind launch so more people can launch simultaneously. Dean, Eric, Fish and James all flew two flights with perfect approaches. Not much lift as it was very hot and inverted in the Valley. Colleen & I took a couple tandem at 230 pm, and despite windy and gusty launch conditions, there was weird lift that was hard to connect to but nice flights and landings for the anniversary couple.  I took the students to Mission to reverse kite as it was no good for training hill flights and they were doing well right til 6:30 pm. When we arrived back at the Ranch we watched Alex W hit some major sink off Woodside as he landed on the bottom logging road on his Skin Plume, no damage and he was icked up by James who drove a round for the signed off pilots. 8-12-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 31C. Winds light and variable. 1100 metres  By the end of the day we had 4 student flights and even Colleen got to soar at 6:00 pm, when I dragged her out of the house. Canadian PG Nationals Report - another rained out day for the competition in Quebec, tonight is the awards ceremony. 8-11-16
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| Agassiz BC Plentiful sunshine. High 28C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres  We lost Steen as he had to head back to Kamloops after only one flight but he is coming back soon to add an Ozone Zero 10 to his wing collection. Frejya had the best flight of the day as she climbed above Woodside to 1300 metres sans vario on her new Niviuk Hook 4 we sourced for her (yes we sell Niviuk here too).  We headed to Bridal for the 4:00 pm shuttle in Derek's truck, and Dawson & Andrew got to thermal around for an hour with me. I was flying the new Gin Sprint 3 demo in M size and it was a nice ride. The thermals were typically good all over the place with some spikes to 4 m/s usually just as I was trying a top-landing approach. Gary P & I were swapping attempts for about 24 times when Gary got a good aproach and top-landed as his truck was at launch. Then Martin N came in and got in first try, weaving his way through the trees skillfuly and with commitment. After I saw that Derek's truck was taken care of I flew out over the valley to try some spirals and SATs on the Sprint 3 and it was very controllable. Landing conditions were quite thermic but Dawson did a great job landing right near the cone! Not bad for his 11th flight! I need to hire a driver so I can fly with the chimps more! Canadian PG Nationals Report - Another task was set and flown in Quebec and it was another lame day with devalued points. Task 3 Results here . 8-10-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals. High near 25C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres Steen had a really nice long flight without turning as there was some nice cloud suck. He had inadvertently unlocked the radio and changed channels during one abort, so he was off channel for part of the flight but we regained contact at the Construction Zone and he had a great approach. Past student Shawn from 100 Mile joined us mid-day and got two flights, while Steen logged two more flights to end the day around 6 pm. All the flights were soarble despite the cloudy conditions. Nice reversible launch conditions for most of the day too. Canadian PG Nationals Report - Another task was set and flown in Quebec. Overall Results here . 8-9-16
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| Agassiz BC Considerable cloudiness. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 21C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres More SIV2016 videos are surfacing! Canadian PG Nationals Report - after three days of wind and rain, they finally got a task in. Hammer, Andrew and a few other Wet Coasters are representing us so cheer them on. Results here . 8-8-16
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| Agassiz BC Plentiful sunshine. High near 30C. Winds light and variable.Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 26C. Winds light and variable. 2000 metres Our SIV2016 went off with so many good flights and maneuvers. Some days had 12 SIV Students throwing it down and we flew all 7 days with just one day cut short by Thunderstorms. Mara Lake was an awesome site this year especially after Carlos & Matt Francis & the others mowed the launch site. The Mara Lake Provincial Park was a perfect LZ with the alternate spit at the opposite side of the lake for newbies. Thanks to Sean Gibson & Josh Green for driving the last few days when it was really busy and also to Bill Goglin & Eric Gesinger who drove their rigs up a bunch of times to ease the load on the FlyBC Bus. We had a few wet wings as people missed the LZ or just forgot to come out of maneuvers (Matt Francis Chris Popielarz Cheryl) but no major foul ups. Everyone came away with new respect for their gliders and their ability to re-fly after major events like spins and stalls. Looking forward to SIVCAMP2017 for all of August 2017 next year! 8-6-16
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| Agassiz BC Plentiful sunshine. High near 30C. Winds light and variable. 3000 metres We got two SIV flights in with great altitude, and then it started drizzling and threatening to thunderstrom so we went to lunch for a few hours. When we got back to the Provincial Park it was blowing +30 kph on the water as Colleen and I tried to enjoy a wet boat ride. The others that had headed up to launch turned around when they saw the trees swaying. Jason had some fun with spins but it all worked out.  8-6-16
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| Agassiz BC Plentiful sunshine. High near 30C. Winds light and variable. 3000 metres We had a great day with four SIV Flights and no wet pilots and excellent conditions with light winds in the air and 15-20 kph North winds in the LZs for precision landings. There were 12 pilots doing maneuvers so about 50 guided flights and little drama. John had some fun with stalls and B-Stalls but it all worked out. 8-5-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High around 30C. Winds light and variable. 3000 metres Carlos, Dylan, Luke, Chris only got to fly one flight each and the others had to drive down when the thunder hit behind launch. We spent the afternoon repacking a few wet reserves from today and previous water landings. Our boat was repaired, the mechanic said the control switch had failed (a fancy name for the coil pack) - $450 for the part and $500 for labour, boats ain't cheap. With the backup boat rental at $1400 and the repair cost I am sure I am in the hole for this SIV already but it provides an invaluable service to pilots who want to fly big air and feel secure in knowing what their wings can handle and how fast they recover in turbulence. 8-4-16
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High around 30C. Winds light and variable. 3000 metres Another perfect day with 3 runs and no one in the water but Denny who wanted to see if his reserve would work around 6 pm. Some forecasts said 30% POP but it was mostly sunny and nice north winds for landing. We landed some of the newer students at the South Spit when the beach was busy, but by the end of day everyone landed at the Provincial Park entertaining the beachgoers. My boat is still in the shop so Moe's is getting rich at $300 a day, but it is a nice boat for rescues with a motor that is easy on fuel. 8-3-16
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| Agassiz BC Partly cloudy. High 28C. Winds light and variable. 2100 metres One truck load went up early and did some launch prep work, thanks to Carlos and the rest of the FlyBC crew including Bill G whose birthday was today!
Eric was first to do maneuvers and he kept his Gradient Freestyle flying well. Next down was Matt F who was flying his Gin Carerra and he somehow full stalled all the way into the water despite me saying he should "throw", apparently he had no idea how low he was? He was okay but a bit dazed as I fished him into the boat. We got three SIV runs in before 6 pm and we were lucky to avoid the rain as I heard on the FM Rock Station from Salmon Arm that there were lost dogs that had bolted during a thunderstorm mid-afternoon. 8-2-16
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| Agassiz BC Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness this morning then 60 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms late this afternoon. Risk of a severe thunderstorm late this afternoon. High 24. Humidex 26. UV index 4 or moderate. 1900 metres We had one small delay this morning as I had to rent a boat when ours konked out yesterday and could not get more than 2000 rpms. We had only one good run today as it overdeveloped and started to thunderstorm around 1 pm. But we got 8 SIVers in a flight and there were no reserves today. Yesterday's excitement by Ryan on an uncertified Mini-wing doing a full stall looked like this. 8-1-16
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| Agassiz BC Mostly Sunny. Highs to 30C. 2200 metres Thanks to Nicole & Bev for driving shuttles, as we had 10 participants and we did three runs with perfect conditions at the lake. Light winds and sunny skies. We did the normal progression of maneuvers with the last flight getting some pilots to incipient spins and full stalls. One full stall went bad as a hybrid glider went into a cravatted spiral that the pilot failed to control into line twists and a reserve toss. Good place to find out how your glider behaves! We moved our original LZ from the Provincial Park as the crowds kept invading the beach on the last day of the long weekend and the pilots were getting nervous about trees and people. The spit on the opposite side of the lake is perfect with grass to packup on and a short shuttle ride back to the boat ramp. 7-31-16
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| Agassiz BC A mix of clouds and sun. High 23C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres |
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