FlyBC's Paragliding Site of the Day August 2018 Archive Page - from the Universe's Largest Paragliding Centre :-)

Date	Site	Forecast	Winds @ 3000' in knots	Lapse Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters	Comments
8-27-18 to 8-31-18	FlyBC is closed til the end of August and I went to Calgary to get my plane back from the Mechanic	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mainly sunny. High 23. Humidex 27. UV index 6 or high.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Cessna 337 Report - I drove my rental car back to High River to pick up the plane when I was assured they would have it finished by Tuesday. I went to the hangar at 830 am and found that they were missing some parts, exhaust gaskets and magneto springs (just some small items). The couriers came and went all day Tuesday and no parts. Wednesday I went to the courier to retrieve some parts and there were exhaust gaskets finally. But they could not do the back engine gaskets because the mags were not finished yet and the mags neeed to clear the exhaust pipes for installation as Murphy's Law is kicking in. Thursday now and I am wearing out my welcome at my mom's house, so demanding I am. The springs for the mags finally arrive and they start installing them on the remaining three mags. The mags are installed and we are timing the engines but don't quite get finished and it is already 6:45 pm. Back in the morning to finish timing the mags and install the exhaust pipes and do a run up with the cowlings off. Oil leaks in the front engine from a busted hydraulic line, probably due to all the maneuvering of the mags on that side as the mag had to be installed many times to get the correct timing. New hydraulic line fabricated and installed. Front engine is now okay. Oil leaks in the back engine from a bunch of sources so I washed the entire engine compartment with varsol and retightened some valve covers. Restarted and ran the rear engine for 10 minutes and now no oil leaks! It is now noon and I am installing the cowlings on the front engine when the mechanic notices a leak in the rear engine compartment. This leak is fuel and it just started leaking from a hose that was rubbing on a control rod for many years. This line is a stainless steel braided line but it was incorrectly routed and the rod finally wore a small hole in the hose. We fabricated another line and installed it. Fuel leaks are not a good thing in any vehicle, but especially an airplance as you can't pull over to the side of the road like your car. It is now 2 pm and we button up the last cowl and I go for a test flight. The run up is good, and I line up for the runway and take off. At about 200 feet the front engine looses power, so I hit the boost pump and it restarts and works well to circuit altitude. I turned off the boost pump and all is well, probably an air bubble from having the fuel turned off for the line replacement. Back to the hangar for fuel and log books and I am off for the coast at 3 pm on the dot. Flight planning says 2:30 to Chilliwack at 10500 feet. Quite a strong SW wind at altitude as a front rolls into BC. Got to 10500 before the rocks with a shallow climbout for speed and cooling, and I was soon over Fairmont Airport in about 35 minutes. But it is getting bumpy as it is mid-day and thermic with cloudbase at 11000 feet. Onward to Arrow Lakes and it smooths out a bit. I came over Penticton at 4:00 PDT and it was smooth sailing now. The forecast and METAR was saying 8000 overcast at Hope and Abbotsford with towering CU, but as I got near Hope I had to descend to 4500 to get under the clouds down the valleys and into Hope. I came out over the Coquihalla Hwy very near where the Cessna 182 crashed this spring killing two people, easy to get trapped in cloud here. Fun proximity flying at 165 mph through the valleys. I was soon on final for Chilliwack Airport and I was only getting 115 mph in the Fraser Valley so the winds were over 35 mph. Nice touchdown despite the gustiness and I was soon tying down the bird with Colleen's help. Now back to reality as classes restart tomorrow. There were a few flyable days in August but most of it was a write-off due to smoke and wind, so it was a good month to close the school.
8-25-18 to 8-26-18	FlyBC is closed til the end of August and it is raining today finally, good to put out some of the fires	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Rain. High 20C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Monsoon Report - FlyBC was closed the past two days and it rained hard, not so good for the Grouse Fly-In but good for the crops and the forests.
8-17-18 to 08-24-18	FlyBC is closed til the end of August and we are still smoked out at Woodside	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. Widespread smoke. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside has been smoked out most days from Aug 17 - Aug 24th but we did sneak in a good flight on August 17th. Derek assembled a group and we drove up in Bev's rig. I was asked to be the wind dummy as it looked kind of strong, so I launched on my Alpina 3 and flew for 15 minutes and noticed everyone was setup to fly so I came in and top-landed to drive so we would not have to do a retrieve later in the dark. When I got down I heard about very turbulent conditions over the Duncan's field. Since that night it has not been safe to fly. I did see some students flying with very poor visibility, not a good role model for when they are signed off later! This was what the sky looked like on August 19th, good time to be on vacation!
8-15-18 to 08-16-18	Vacationing in Calgary area	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Calgary Report - we got into High River just in time. We picked up a rental car and went to visit the family farm and went to do some shopping and as we shopped the visibility dropped to leass that 1 km. This smoke lasted for several days and the C337 is due for an annual this month so I left it at the shop in High River and drove the rental car home to the Ranch while Colleen cashed in a WestJet credit and flew home to Abby. All the way through the mountains was very smoky but I arrived before midnight on the 15th with 10 hours of driving.
8-14-18	Flying back to Canada through Lethbridge today	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Flight Report - today we fly back to Canada from Minot ND to Lethbridge to clear customs and then on to High River to see the family. Electrical system still on standby but working well with either front or rear alternator. Flight time was just short of three hours with a pretty good headwind at between 4500 & 6500 feet depending on the bumps. Arrival into Lethbridge had a few planes in the circuit and we landed on Runway 30 and taxied to the ramp to clear customs. Only here they just clear you on the phone with an agent in Montreal who tried to say we were an hour early, which we were not. After refueling and customs we were in High River in 30 minutes. The Cessna T337B is a great Cross Country machine, but better up high like 10000 feet or more. Down low on the flats it is a gas hog! But still any 1967 car. truck or plane was designed around $0.25 a gallon fuel prices.
8-13-18	Marquette MI to Minot ND today	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Flight Report - We left our fancy hotel for the airport and arrived to pay for parking and fuel, and fuel has gone up a lot since last year by about a buck a gallon. We were on flight following with Wisconsin Centre when I noticed the radio getting silent. Despite scanning the panel I did not notice the voltage had dropped to under 20 volts and slowly the electronics started to die. There are two alternators, two regulators and all were dead or not producing any current? I did some troubleshooting and got the standby circuit working which bypasses the regulators so one must balance the loads to not overcharge the battery. By now Wisconsin Centre was worried as we dropped of the radar with no voltage. I assured them we were fine but everytime we got handed off to a new controller they asked us about the electircal system. I decided to land at Bemindji ND as the last time I was there they had a big Cessna repair depot, who I thought could troubleshoot my problem but they toll me they only work on Large Twins and don't even have the service manual for a C337. We fueled up and headed to Minot ND for the night and fought more smoke. As we loaded up the bags in the hotel shuttle it started to rain so I put the covers on the plane. We could have flown all the way to Lethbridge but we are trying to stay out of the air mid-day as the flats get pretty bumpy, even for a 4600 lb airplane.
8-11-18 to 8-12-18	Leaving Kenora for Lake Superior	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Cross Border Flight Report - we left Kenora in semi-decent visibilities for Fort Francis to clear customs. The only problem was that there was no one at customs so we had to wait while the FBO called them out. No big deal with customs despite they did not get my pre-arrival notice even though I go the confirmation on my phone. We left Fort Francis for Marquette MI where we stayed two nights in the gorgeous Landmark Inn. Marquette is an old mining town on Lake Superior that caters to vacationers like us.
8-9-18 to 08-10-18	Enjoying the Lakes in Ontario	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Ontario Report - as soon as we landed in Kenora the smoke rolled in and we had 1 mile visibility, but we were just chilling on the Lake. Annette & John come down here every summer to relive their youth as Annette's two sisters live here in the summer. I did take the guys for a flight to do some aerial photos but we had to stay down low to see the cabin.
8-8-18	Regina to Kenora today	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Flight Report - we had a nice dinner and stay in Regina and took off at 10 am for Kenora ON to visit Annette & John at Kevin & Merriam's cabin for a few days. We fought more smoke having to climb to 9500 feet to get over the top all the way past Winnipeg. Our SPOT acted up midflight but I suspect it was operator error. Smoke cleared past Winnipeg for our short 2.5 hour flight out to the Lake of the Woods district. Nice to have a twin over all this water!
8-7-18	FlyBC is closed til the end of August so we are flying to Kenora	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Flight Report - Colleen & I loaded up the Skymaster and headed east through the Rockies to Regina. We had good visibilty until Castlegar where we had to climb to 12500 to avoid IFR smoke. We could see fine coming out to the flats near Pincher Creek. We landed at Medicine Hat AB for fuel and a snack and then on to Regina for the night to visit Kathy.
8-6-18	Woodside is looking like a good day for students, come and get signed off	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - a great training day with big progress from Thierry, Sean & new student Tim. Three big flights with a long glassoff flight at 700 pm, with at least 30 minutes of airtime for the students and 1:30 airtime for Colleen & Derek who got to 1100 metres. Bev flew to Harvest on our demo Swift 4. We are leaving for a few weeks of XC flying in our Cessna 337, so contact Bev or Derek for shuttles.
8-5-18	Woodside is looking like a good day for students, come and get signed off	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - I had three students and it felt like 10 as they did everything wrong despite days on the training hill (where they were perfect). NOT RUNNING, JUMPING INTO THE SEAT, BRAKES BURIED, FLYING OFF COURSE! I need a vacation! No one crashed but it was close, thaks to Ozone for making such safe Atom 3 trainers! I took them all back to the training hill last night for an hour and of course they were perfect. I did get a break when I took Fay tandem, and we had very nice conditions up to 1200 metres on the SwiftMax tandem, what a ship. Derek took a load up at the end of the day and they had a little glassoff flight.
8-4-18	Woodside is looking like a good day for students, come and get signed off	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - we started flying students around 11 am, and it was very nice. Lifeguard Mike took off on his old beater Icaro and got a 2 hour flight starting around noon. I took some pictures of the soaring action as there were 5-6 gliders all around 1100 metres defying the CanadaRASP forecast. Unfortunately my Android Phone took the pictures out of focus so they are not very good at showing how high everyone got. We flew til 8 pm.
8-3-18	Woodside is looking like a good chance of rain and low clouds	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers late this morning and this afternoon. High 21. UV index 7 or high.	240° @ 10	-3.0°C (unstable) 700 metres	Woodside Report - we were closed due to the weather but after it rained a bit, Derek called after 3 pm to arrange a flight. We got up the mountain around 430 pm, to find nice cycles and some sunny breaks. I launched and headed north, too far north as it was sinky back there. When I got back to launch I was low in the clearcut and worked for about 10 minutes not getting up, just maintaining. It was sunnier out front so I ventured further out as Derek launched and wisely stayed near launch. I worked every clearcut and after many turns it just was not getting me any higher. I headed further out again to the Beaver Pond and there was a good thermal there I worked for another 10 minutes before heading out to the Ranch. I thought about top landing on the training hill but got a big boost over it so I landed next to the Barn. Derek came in after I packed up and also landed at the Barn. His remark was "that is the last time I land here!". Colleen arrived from the city and a group of pilots went up for another flight and to retrieve Derek's truck and it looked promising, but they had extended sledders as it clouded in.
8-2-18	Woodside is looking like low clouds in the AM and windy in the PM	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Cloudy. High 25C. Winds SW 15-20 kph.	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - low clouds and windy for the afternoon as forecasted.
8-1-18	Woodside is looking windy today	Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Sunny. High 32C. Winds SW 15-20 kph	240° @ 5	-3.0°C (unstable) 1000 metres	Woodside Report - Woodside blown out by noon.