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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archives" - February/2012
San Marcos, Jalisco Mexico
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Never Ending Road Report - Northern California can be good or really bad this time of year. This time it was really bad! | I woke to heavy rains and cold temps, and started heading north on I-5. Around Redding I stopped for fuel and the lady in the gas station said they were stopping cars and turning them around if they had no chains. Off to NAPA for chains, which I have at home of course. By the time I got to where they were checking they had left. Murphy's Law. The Sisikyou Pass was snowing but not sticking, until near Oregon where traffic slowed down for a bit. Into WA was good until near Seattle and there were two huge blizzards where I was down to 60 kph and no visibility and pondering stopping and into Seattle it cleared up around 10 pm. 12 hours into the drive now and feeling good after a 12 oz Red Bull! I was on the home stretch theough Marysville only an hour away when another blizzard stopped me. The roads were icy and no visibility again so I stopped for the night, why risk it? Tomorrow is another day and it may be flyable! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. View Larger Map
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Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. | Road Trip Report 2/28/2012 - Made it to Stockton CA last night. Snow near Palm Springs and Riverside and only 9C in the passes. Los Angeles was only 12C! View Larger Map
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Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. | Road Trip Report - made it to Casa Grande AZ last night where I was forced to stop due to high winds on the desert (estimated 50 - 70 mph from the south). View Larger Map
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Road Trip Report - I headed over to La Vita Bella and Peter`s house this morning to see if anyone was up for a El Chante flight but they were all still asleep at 11 am. | After one last La Vita Bella desayunos I headed down the road leaving around noon. 1100 kms and 8 federales punta de revisiones (check points) I was in Navojoa, Sonora about 6 hours from Arizona. They even checked my suspension at one checkpoint at 1 am, in a pit dug at the side of the road looking for drogas. None here don`t bother looking! Oddly they didn`t look in any glider bags or suitcases? Hope to be in San Diego on the 27th if traffic is not too bad. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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Tapalpa Report - we were all hoping for Tapalpa flights today as we arrived at La Ceja at noon. The plan was to all fly and have someone top-land to drive the Suzuki towards San Juan Cosala as Camilo had to be back at 3:30 pm to take care of his baby. | Peter launched first and was climbing nicely followed by Camilo, Felix and Jorge. The paln fizzled as I saw Peter, Felix and Camilo head north to the Cross . . . with Jorge heading straight to the LZ not turning even in good lift. WTF! It was already 2 pm, and I was stuck driving. I drove down to get Jorge and we followed the gang north, when we heard Peter leaving the Cross to head east across the flats. Camilo was right behind him and Felix was back a bit from Camilo. Then we heard Peter saying he was landing next to the Cuota. It turns out he was in the exact same place as I was in early January and hit sink in north wind. Camilo radioed that he was landing too but his directions were flawed as we drove up and down the Libramento looking for him. He had landed near Zocoalco but closer to the Cuota as Peter saw him land only about a kilometer away but he climbed the hill up to the Libramento. We finally found him and headed toward the Cuota and Peter's LZ when we heard Felix exclaim that he was at 3400 meters on San Marcos South Ridge and was heading to San Juan Cosala and the Raquet Club. Felix landed at the Horse LZ behind Peter's house and when we reviewed his video later, we saw that he left the San Marcos ridge at 3400 meters, 20 kms out and he made it on straight glide with no thermals and on small S-turn on landing. Based on the topography that was about a 12-1 glide, not bad for a stock Ozone EnZo! Total distance was 74 kms for Felix and it took less than 2.5 hours. Interesting fact: Felix flies with a FlyMaster B-1 Vario but leaves the sound off. He finds the beeps annoying, and just uses the vario for glide calculations. We arrived back at San Juan at 4:30 pm so Camilo was a bit late! Then off to La Tasca Restaurant for my last meal here before I leave tomorrow to drive back to Canada. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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San Marcos Report - we had a super lazy day with breakfast at La Vita Bella, waiting for the tire shop to finish installing new front shocks on the Suzuki (we found the originals were shot when the CV boots were changed last week). Wow, the Suzuki feels like a new truck now with all 4 shocks replaced and new tires, we even made a trip up San Marcos with 6 people and 7 gliders and didn't bottom out once.
| I was eating when I got an email from an un-named pilot, saying "You should look at the FlyBC webcam now!" and it was pretty ugly with 15 cms of new snow and low cloudbase. Thanks for shaking me into reality! After 1 pm, we headed to San Marcos so Dan could do some soaring, as the forecast looked like good SW winds later. When we arrived it was perfect with the odd thermal gust. Dan laid out and had a few practice inflations and when he got in the air it was pretty strong from the South, and rotory close to the ridge so he headed out and found a nice patch of lifty air that lasted for several kilometers, climbing at an estimated + 5 m/s! Smooth lift, but not much forward speed. It was getting stronger as dusties were forming south of the crossroad to the Cuota and blowing towards launch. Wind lines were showing on the water too from the South. I was just about to tell Dan to use "big ears" to get down faster when the lift stopped and he was going down at estimated - 5 m/s now right to the lakebed past the powerlines. He was out of sight when he landed but he claims it was his best landing of the trip, landing soft as a feather! We packed up and headed home for an early night at La Vita Bella, and had one last nice Italian Dinner for Dan. Also another nice sunset, but I forgot my camera at home, so one will have to imagine. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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Mexican Tour Report - Dan & I headed up to ChacLan Restaurant in Monte Coxala Spa this morning for a change and we met Emily & Karina on their way to the spa and they joined us for breakfast. | Peter, Felix and Jorge were either asleep or working so they didn't join us. After breakfast we went to Peter's to pick up the guys who were now hungry, so a quick stop at Tortuga's Tortas and Peter & Felix were ready to fly. Peter suggested El Chante cause he had to be home at 2 pm for the kids, so up we went and I was feeling west wind on the drive up, and at the gate it was west too. But we were here and could now drive to the launch as it dried out this week. At launch it was "straight in" with strongish cycles. Peter was laid out first and had a challenge getting a solid wing, as one can get here at this cliff-like launch. His third inflation looked good and as he turned he got blown off sideways and backwards and was climbing very fast with many wing gyrations. He couldn't penetrate forward and was going backwards pretty fast! He finally found the core and didn't turn just went up-up-up! He finally bailed to the east and was soon at 3000 meters heading home to the Raquet Club. As Peter was climbing the wind on the lake switched to strong SW, so we headed to San Marcos. At San Marcos, Dan laid out first and was off in a nice cycle and did some soaring before heading to the dry lake bed south of launch. Feliz was off next on his EnZo and climbing to the south, he reported in later at 2900 meters to the south before heading over the back towards San Juan Cosala and the Raquet Club. We didn't hear from him again as we took Dan back to launch. Dan took a bit too long with his pre-launch smoke, and as he got ready it started to blow a bit strong for his comfort and it never calmed down so we packed him up and we drove to the Hotel for a siesta before dinner. When we arrived at Peter's, Felix was there and he made the flight here with ease but he said it was "super windy" so he landed at the San Juan Cosala Malecon instead of the horse pasture LZ behind Peter's house. Smart choice, I had also made the same decision thee years ago. More options and more laminar on the lake shore for sure! Felix Flight stats: Max altitude 3400 meters, Lift +9.0 m/s, Max Speed - 85 kph. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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Mexican Tour Report - a very busy day with some flying later. We started with a breakfast at El Chante Spa Hotel, as Gloria's is closed til March 6 for Vacation. The Spa Hotel is a bit pricier for breakfast but has a very nice ambience. | After breakfast we headed to the Ajijic Farmer's Market which operates every Wednesday for 4 hours. Some interesting stuff for sure! And some real characters doing the selling. We then headed to Peter's house to see if they wanted to go flying, as Felix is only here another week. It took some time to gather everyone up and we were on the road to San Marcos around 4 pm. We arrived on launch with Peter, Felix, Jorge, Dan, Emily (a swedish visitor), and me - all hoping to fly but it was pretty light. Dan still had a headache from not enough water yesterday, so he elected to drive for us. A decision he later regretted but we have two more flying days anyway. Peter was trying the Ozone EnZo (Felix's which was featured in many SuperFinal videos), and he launched with the normal missing tips and was soon soaring nicely just above launch. Not the classic San Marcos glassoff but we will take it. Next off was Felix on his Ozone FLX3 acro glider, followed by Jorge. I decided it looked good enough to take Emily tandem (her second as she flew with Peter at Colima on the weekend). We had a good enough cycle to reverse launch and we were soon soaring with Jorge just at Launch height for 35 minutes before heading out for a light to tailwind landing with which she did a super landing run! Dan was soon at the Kordich LZ picking us up as we packed up. We got back to Peter's pretty late and he offered us dinner, and we enjoyed a very nice salmon dinner, showing Peter can still be a chef. Tomorrow Dan is gonna fly lots! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. .
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San Marcos Report - Dan and I had a mellow morning and after breakfast Dan was stll sleepy so I took him back to the Hotel for a mini-Siesta while I looked for the elusive training hill for future students. | I finally located a hill that has been in many pictures to the NW of San Marcos. It is a cinder cone shaped hill that recently started showing up more as a tan colored hill, I assume because someone has de-vegitated the slope. One can drive right to the base of this hill easily and there are no gates. Landing field is slightly sloped to the east, and the predominate direction of the actual hill is South & East, perfect for morning practice before San Marcos starts working. After taking some photos I headed back to the hotel, about 35 minutes from the new training hill. I picked up Dan and we headed to San Marcos alone as the locals all bailed, because they thought the morning sky looked lame. Too bad for them as it was very lifty even though we had little sun. Dan had a perfect launch and flew out to join the birds to the SW. He headed south and I lost sight of him as I drove down. He landed near the souh airstrips and was packed up by the time I arrived at the bottom. New shocks and removed sway bars is making driving much easier off-road, ready for big crowds in the summer at Woodside. No more bottoming out and sore butts for the back seat passengers! We drove back up and it was getting stronger around 2 pm, and Dan didn't want to push his luck so we drove down. Ruben was coming up in his Renault truck with driver Valdo and was hoping to fly but we didn't see him in the air later. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. Belated San Marcos Report from 2/19/12 - Miguel reported back that his flight from San Marcos on the 19th was 3 hours long and he landed behind the church in San Marcos to get a ride back to his car at the 4x4 intersection. Dulce!
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San Marcos Report - Camilo, Dan & I headed to a new mountain I found on Google Earth west of Tjulmuco with a south slope that looks launchable. When we got there the old cowboy we asked for directions clearly had never been up there, so we explored and gave up as it is just too far a drive for south winds, as we have El Chante in our backyard. So we headed to San Marcos. | San Marcos is forecasted to have mild west winds and we have sun already despite a cloudy forecast. We oddly have lenticulars too over Cero Viejo, but very high up. We arrived at 12:30 pm to nice cycles with some strong thermals mixed in as Camilo got ready to fly. When he got everything sorted out the cycles dropped a bit so it was an easy launch . . . unfortunately just after launch the sky shaded in for 15 minutes so it was an extended sleddie. Dan's wrist was sore from stumbling on his top-landing yesterday, so he sat this flight out and we drove down to get Camilo near the south airport. Reports from Nevado Colima claim a record 40 cms of new snow up there, rare for this area and the roads up are closed. On the drive down from San Marcos something on the front of the Suzuki started banging prety hard, so I stopped to check and it was the sway bar connections that came loose despite new bushings and retorquing last week. Last year the same thing happened to the Suburban down here twice too as the topes and San Marcos road are very hard on front end parts. I dropped Dan off at the Hotel and Camilo and I went to the Tire Store next door to have the sway bar removed, it is exraneous for off roading here anyway. We then went to the Muffler Shop near the condo to get the new shocks installed that I sourced in San Diego, requiring a special welded mount, which was completed in 2 hours so we could go for dinner. The Suzuki is now very happy! No clunks and no bottoming out on the read end with a load! Ready for one more week of adventure here before heading home. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. Colima Report - when I was leaving the Muffler shop; I bumped into Jorge, Peter, Felix and Emily in the van on the way home from Manzanillo & Colima. They were out at Manzanillo for 4 days to try to kite board, but no winds. They stopped in Colima for a flight and Felix R. flew off on his FLX-3 and did a "base-jump" off his glider over the LZ leaving his glider & harness to fly away un-piloted. Unfortunately it thermalled away into the mountain and they had to retrieve it from the forest. Peter took Emily for her first tandem and she was all smiles wanting to do it again! Elk Report - Stee D and the Elk Gang managed a flight this morning hiking up in lots of snow. Woodside looked pretty snowy on the WebCam too.
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San Marcos Report - after a leisurely breakfast & tour at Ruben's new Jocotopec Hotel/Restaurant we headed to San Marcos as the upper levels looked west. | We had a traffic jam as a herd of "vacas" cluttered up the road to San Marcos heading for new pastures. We arrived to perfect cycles and Dan got ready and flew off after a few flubs. Some small thermals requiring tighter turns than Dan could muster up today, so he was soon in Pedro's LZ. I drove down and picked up Dan & Ruben (a schoolteacher flying amigo) and we were soon back on launch and it was a bit stronger wind but straight up the slope. Ruben launched first and went south and disappeared, landing somewhere south of Pedro's. Dan inflated his Swift and he had a good wing and was flying when he got too close to the tree on the left of launch so I suggested turning right. Noooooooo! He overcontrolled doing a 120 degree turn, and was now heading east downwind behind launch at 60 kph heading for the trees! I yelled "turn left and land"! Which he did and had his first top-landing! Miguel and a few other arrived on launch as we were packing Dan's gear up as he had too much adrenaline for one day. Miguel took off and went straight up off launch as we drove down. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album. Good Morning America Weather Girl goes Paragliding in Valle de Bravo during the SuperFinal - watch for a flash of Nicole.
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San Marcos Report - Dan & I headed to the Joco Malecon after breakfast to kite in smooth laminar lake breezes. Lots of CU on the ridges at 10:30 am from Joco to Chapala. The upper clouds were coming from San Marcos but the lower CUs were glued to the Chapala ridge. | Lots of people out this morning as it is sunny and drying out nicely. Reports from Nevado Colima had many people sliding on cardboard, skiis, whatever would slide on the new snow brought in with the last front at the higher elevations. After an hout of inflations, Dan was ready for San Marcos and stronger conditions so we headed straight there. We arrived on top at noon, Dan set up fast and was soon in the air thermalling to the SW. The thermals were further from the hill today perhaps triggering off the road, as the lake bed is wet as it the hillside and everything is green from the rains. Dan was doing really well but headed out to land after 35 minutes as his back was hurting from his harness adjustment. We readjusted it at Pedro's and went back up to try another flight. We arrived up top at 1:30 pm, just behind one HG rig and just before David from GravitySports. Dan again was setup fast as the hanggliders did their assembly routines and was off with another brilliant launch and thermaling merrily above launch out to the SW again, oddly no lift on the normal spots along the ridge. When Dan fell out of the lift he was in huge sink, and a north headwind? On the ground it was SW but the sinky layer was taking him down all the way to Pedro's but the north wind was denying him a Pedro landing so he landed further out on the lakebed but where it was dry. It got quite strong on launch around 2:00 pm, but the Hangies all got off and were soaring when I picked up Dan and we headed to Zocoalco for lunch with 3 berry pickers in the car that were hitch-hiking on the San Marcos road. After lunch Dan decided to take a break and pass on flight #3 to ensure his back is okay for tomorrow. We went to the El Chante Malecon to hang his harness on a playset to recheck the settings while the kids were playing and some soccer games were being played. A busy Mexican scene for sure. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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San Marcos Report - we had a lazy morning with Waffle House breakfast in Ajijic and blue skies. We made it to San Marcos around noon and Claudia met us at Pedro's LZ to be our driver today. | We headed up the mountain behind David's HGer Safari and he had trouble getting thru the mud hole until his group got out (they have been here for a week and this was their first flyable day). We got by them after the mud hole and raced up to find perfect launch cycles for Dan. Dan got ready and had a shaky launch but he controlled his Swift well and flew off with little drama, and got a few passes but one needed to be close to the ridge for lift. We were going to drive David's truck down for him but the HG group was not nearly ready so we drove down to get Dan and hoepfully be back up fast. We decided to go for lunch first before driving up, and we went to Acatlan to Guerra's for tacos. We saw a few gliders in the air when we returned, but not getting really high, suggesting it was just ridge lift. We stopped at Pedro's and picked up David to get his truck and when we got to launch it was "spicy". Strong gusts from the SW up to 40 kph like forecasted, so we drove down and headed to Jocotopec. Dan was complaining about his ass sliding around in his new ChairBag harness, so we went to the Carpenteria across the street from the hotel and had them trim 3/4" off each side of the seat board for comfort sake. We will see how that works tomorrow. After that a nice Italian dinner at La Vita Bella where the waves on Lake Chapala were still showing SW winds so a good thing we didn't wait on launch. The sunset is back after days of rain and cloud. Muy Bueno! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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Mexican Adventure Report - We were planning for Tapalpa & San Marcos flights today. As we headed down the Cuota towards Tapalpa I noticed west winds in the clouds so we ditched off to Pedro's LZ to look at the binoculars and call El Huevo at Tapalpa for an update. | At Pedro's the wind was definitely west on the LZ and on the windsocks up top, so after calling El Huevo to check he confirmed SW winds on Tapalpa so no flying there today. Dan & I headed up to San Marcos Launch as Pedro flew off on his trike with a student, and we had a challenging ride thru the first mudhole, almost getting stuck (Friday is drying out with some sun so hopefully the mud will evaporate soon). All the way to launch is slippery and 4x4 is required right to launch. We arrived to launch to find strong tailwinds??? We waited for 20 minutes and finally gave up. I recalled El Heuvo and he confirmed SW winds again so there was some weather pattern causing the air to be sucked into the valley. We headed to El Chante Launch for a try there as it faced SE. The road in to El Chante is also very wet and we got stuck near the back top landing field and had to re-route to the higher ground, past the red gate but not down the hill. We hiked in with Dan's gear and even walking was a challenge as mud built up on the boots but we made it to launch and nice cycles from the Lake. Dan has not flown for 5 months and wanted a tune-up before flying so he kited on El Chante for 20 minutes before flying off for a sleddie into a field near the Tortas (where a farmer told him not to land there again). Grow op possibly?? We had lunch at the Tortas, and then headed back to San Marcos, as surely the winds have switched by now. Another harrowing ride thru the mud and we were back on San Marcos Launch and had nice SW cycles up the ramp. Dan was soon laid out and kited a few times before heading off. He got a few passes at launch height but one needed to be close in to stay aloft, he headed out to Pedro's for flight #2 today and had a nice landing in the green triangle. The Lake is nearly full at Pedro's and the south LZ is flooded too. Not typical at all for Jalisco to be so wet this time of year but the sun is coming out and it should get very dynamic. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the February Album.
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Colima Report - our Quebecois amigo Alex flew two flights today in Colima with one flight lasting 45 minutes in cloudy ridge lift. | I couldn't get anyone here interested in flying and San Marcos was the only choice with SW winds here and the road will be very mucky so maybe manana? I picked up Dan at the airport at 10 pm, under a monsoon rain that flooded some of the local roads.
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San Marcos Road Report - I drove the XL-7 up San Marcos today to see how bad the road would be after a week of hard rain. And it was pretty bad!
| The worst part was near the gate in a low spot where there is no drainage and it was a soupy mess, but I made it through . . . just! The rest of the road is mucky and slippery, like ice in some off camber spots but some sun the next few days should make it right again. No washouts despite no water bars or cross-ditches as we feared. The San Marcos Dry Lake is no longer dry, in fact it has flooded all the LZs except for Kordich Airsports. My Yukon visitor bailed and headed home after the rain and a damaged wing off Tapalpa a week before, but I am still expecting 2 more guys today for at least 10 days before I head home. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album.
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San Marcos Report - the skies looked much better today with west winds from the start, and I had an appointment to get the CV boots replaced at the local tire store as they were separating from 300,000 kms of abuse. | I had talked to Jorge earlier and he, Peter Brinkeby and Felix Rodriguez were planning to go flying too after some chores. The plan was to pick me up here at the tire shop if the car was not ready, but they never showed up so I guess they did not like the day for XC. As I waited the sky darkened and OD'ed and the west wind picked up so it was definitely soarable. I am a bit concerned about the San Marcos road after all this rain though, it may need some drying days to get rid of the mud in some sections. At around 5 pm, hail formed and was falling on the roof of the tire shop for a brief time so it was definitely lifty and convective despite little sun. By the time I pulled out at 6:45 pm, it started to rain hard, a typical rain pattern here I am told. Tomorrow we get a new guest here from the Yukon, and Dan arrives from Barry ON on Wednesday night for 10 days of touring. Our third guest is coming later this week too, so it should be a fun week provided the rain stays away. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Woodside Gloat Report #1 - ok, so at launch today the �other Martin� challenged me on Saturday/Sunday flights.....................Yup! 55 & 50 minutes respectfully and another 1 �1/2 to 2 hours today... Top landed and re-launched, flew in the white room in sometimes punchy thermals, but froze again and yet another Woody delivery!! I hate this sport!! - Thomm Woodside Gloat Report #2 - Mother Woodside welcomed Martin, Alan D, Thom M, Derek, and Biff today with up to 2 hours of airtime, top landings and elevation gains for one unnamed pilot of up to 1559 meters. The winds aloft were lee side which made for some spicy moments and later even the ranch challenged pilots with a south sheer layer to land in. The local eagles were out to play chicken with my M4 (one of them kept yelling, "film this, Asshole!") and it was generally just a whole lot of fun. The north wind made it tempting to venture south towards Elk but there was also mostly high cloud over the valley so I went across the river at 55 km/hr (no bar) and crept back to the mountain with a little bar to top land and drive Derek's truck down - Biff R (KVA) Kevin
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San Marcos Report - it looked good in the morning on El Chante, with low cloudbases. I headed to San Marcos for flights today at 1:00 pm, after returning back to sunny Mexico. By the time I arrived at Pedro's it had overdeveloped and started to spit rain. | By the time I arrived back home, it was a torrential downpour so I stayed inside. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album.
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San Diego Report - the one day it is blowing nicely from the west, Colleen is heading to Vancouver & I am heading back to sunny Mexico. So no side trip to Torrey today! | I did snap a few pictures of Torrey as the jet took off at 2 pm, but they are too grainy to see any gliders but after a month of spotty flying I am sure they would be trying there. After an easy 2.5 hour flight above the clouds to Guadalajara, we did a low minimum approach through thick clouds and rain and popped out right on the button. Jack would have approved! Unfortunately, Volaris uses buses to get you to the terminal to save money so it was a bit wet getting down the stairs into the bus and then off the bus to the terminal but a good reminder of the weather I am avoiding in Vancouver. People here in Mexico do not know how to drive in rain so it can be extremely slow going especially in the dark, so beware. It took an hour to get to El Chante vs a sunny 30 minutes normally. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC California Adventures today in the new February Album. Woodside Report - Thomm McE says Woodside was on today with an hour of sweet soaring at 775 meters!
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Torrey Report - we got up late and went shopping hoping for Torrey flights later today. But as we left the Hotel we saw west wind in the palm trees and raced to Torrey to find folks soaring. | By the time we got Colleen signed in and hooked in the wind started to drop and several folks wee on the beach, not very motivating for Colleen so we waited and waited and waited and finally gave up and went shopping. At least 6 pilots got some airtime! Torrey sent all the tandem passengers home for the day. These are the days I really apreciate Mother Woodside where we can at least get passengers a 10 minute sled ride vs no flight at all. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC California Adventures today in the new February Album.
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Soboda Report - we drove out to the Soboda Flying Site today as the Ozone boys were doing some speed wing testing with the Zero prototype (a 16 meter mini-glider/hybrid). | This is a low site with a 900 foot launch being the highest launch. The road up is Quad/ATV-able only with two quads with trailers doing the shuttle duties. Matt & Steve were going up despite the north-leeside winds as well as some other locals. We saw one guy launch a Swing Arcus and stay up for 30 minutes, not getting high but staying aloft on the north side. Many others flew down on speed wings. We enjoyed the sun and the action as some gliders were getting rotored and bounced around. Some of the speed-fliers were doing some terrain surfing in the gulleys. Pretty dusty here, not as nice a place to fly as Marshall but good for speed wings. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC California Adventures today in the new February Album. Eric's Colombia Report - OK, I'm not a great pilot, but I am getting my ass handed to me by a twenty year old girl flying an Element 2! And apparently you can launch under rapidly building dark cumulus near the equator, and it's not even turbulent. (I watched, wondering what the fuck everyone was doing, then watched them all fly around in smooth lift for an hour with no apparent threat of cloudsuck or being blown back, while it was too strong to launch) (wasn't a wasted hour, I kited a bullet xt16 the whole time). Then another afternoon of ground handle, fly, top land, ground handle, fly, top land... Pretty sweet place, record high is 31, record low 12 - ever! Rarely does anyone fly very high, but lots of airtime Eric G.
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Torrey Report - we finished the Ozone Dealeer meeting around noon and headed to Torrey for lunch. Nice NW winds but barely soarble as Robin (the Torrey Pines Owner) flew his XL Peak 3 for a few passes before downwind-top-landing. Others ventured out on tandems solo, and some others on M4 regular sizes and soared but most ended up on the nude beach below. | I flew an Ozone Alpina for a bit, nice wing to kite, even with the extralight risers. Easy to launch and soar but it was a bit light so I didn`t fly long so I didn`t have to hike down. The Alpina is the light version of the Delta, with a weight saving of 1100 grams over a Delta. Good travel wing. Colleen arrived at midnight to start a 3 day long weekend with me here. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC California Adventures today in the new February Album.
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| SuperFinal at Valley of the Brave from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. Torrey Report - we met at the Hotel for the Dealer Meeting to discuss new products, 2011 sales results (FlyBC was Ozone's #2 Dealer in North America thanks to our supporters), and to talk about how to keep the Ozone Momentum going. We then headed to Torrey Pines GliderPort for lunch and to watch the whitecaps in the SE wind (gusting to 22 mph). Dust storms blew across the parking lot, no flying today for sure as the rain started falling too. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC California Adventures today in the new February Album.
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San Diego Report - I hopped on a Volaris flight at 7 am direct to San Diego this morning to attend the Ozone Dealer Meeting. Quite a bit faster than driving here, but I needed to be here and back in Jocotopec in a few days. | I did a few errands here before heading to Torrey Pines to meet up with the guys, and watch matt & Mike fly their speed wings down to a beach landing in no wind, cause they were bored with no wind here. It was sunny but cold compared to Guadalajara weather. We finally gave up and headed to dinner at a La Jolla Brew Pub. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Sumas Report - Derek said they could not work on Sumas today, strong north winds by the main gate. Looks like more wind this week and rain at the end of the week. Colombia Report - Yeah, Colombia is cool, been a bit cloudy so real light in the mornings. 240m vert at 6:1 glide to LZ, so NO scratching. There is 1-4 hours of ridge lift here every afternoon, nice big top landing site. One flight this morning, 2 to top landing and 1 to LZ this afternoon. Launch is much like Coopers, except wider and completely covered in nicely mowed grass. It gets real strong from 12-1 to 3-4 midday, so everyone breaks, except the tandems, who launch with assistants. Pretty sweet schedule. Launch is 100m from my bedroom. Room rate ($30CAD for private room) includes breakfast and retrieves. Flying Niviuk Hook 1 (DHV 1-2) with a harness that is nice once in it, but does have the punching midget for a minute or two every flight - Eric G.
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Mexican Adventures - I dropped Sean off for his noon flight to Toronto and continued into Guadalajara for errands as it looked a bit lame. | I went to the Outlet Mall on the south road home and got the Suzuki washed and rubbing compounded and waxed for 200 pesos while I shopped and removed all the scratches for San Marcos & El Chante. It OD'ed later and rained as I watched no one takeoff at San Marcos, I guess they were waiting for better cycles. My first non-working day since Dec 3rd. What a great run this winter! Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. Elk Report - Steve, Larry, Ivan, Eddy and a few others flew Elk early, while Kevin waited til later and he & Judy had a mini-XC to his HS field. Nice!!
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El Chante/San Marcos Report - we had breakfast in Joco Centro, as I was getting my stereo mount repaired as it broke from too much offroading. The stereo shop didn't have a replacement mount so a combination of Crazy Glue & baking soda was used to repair it. After 30 minutes of repair I was back on the road for 50 pesos. Mexican Ingenuity triumphs again. | We headed to Tapalpa at 10 am, even paying the Cuota on the Cuota Highway and when we passed San Marcos it was already west winds. I called Granger who was at Tapalpa and he said he was heading to San Marcos at 11 am. We exited the Highway at KM14 and drove to Pedro's LZ at San Marcos to check the winds. It looked tail to south on launch so we headed to El Chante Launch to fly and kill time. Granger followed us up to El Chante grumbling about geting stuck but he made it to Launch. Nice cycles and Camilo & Sean flew off with Camilo landing at the condo to get his car, and Sean landing at his favourite football field. Grangers two most experienced guys flew down to land with Sean. Not much lift, even the birds were just maintaining above the Cross. But solid launches and landings. Then off to San Marcos after lunch at Ruben's Restaurant, where we picked up Eduardo (Ruben's son) & Edith (Ruben's waitress) as they wanted to go flying too.Camilo was now back to fly again. I launched with Edith between gusts to find little usable lift even in the sunny spots to the North, bit we had an enjoyable 15-20 minutes of flight. Sean launched after me and got above launch but was uncomfortable as he was going up at 4 m/s, and down at -4 m/s all at the same time near launch. Very punchy so he headed out to Pedro's as Camilo drove down. Edith was very happy and excited about her flight! Granger showed up and launched his three guys and they were getting nice cloud suck to the south of launch, getting to approximately 500 meters over launch. As Camilo showed up they were still soaring so it looked promising for us again. But as we got to launch, local pilot Rueben was launching and going up . . . in the rain. He was soon B-stalling and Big-Ear'ing to the south airstrips as we waited for the small rain cell to pass. I clipped in Eduardo (a solid 100 kgs), and waited through some gusts again to launch. We had a good wing overhead and instead of running forward, Eduardo tripped and dove off the launch ramp sideways to the north taking me with him. We swooped through the bushes and trees as I got the glider flying fast to swoop over the trees to the north, very exciting for the folks on launch! We found no lift and strong North winds aloft as a cell to the south must have been sucking all the surrounding air. We had many passes below launch looking for lift and finally bailed out to the LZ for an equally exciting landing as Eduardo bailed again instead of running, another swan dive made the landing less than graceful. He was very scared but didn't mention it. He was happy he flew though. Sean launched after me and again got above launch, to get parked in the North wind. At one time we saw him going backwards and the further north he got, the more turbulence he got. after some prolonged wobbling he flew south and got too far away from the LZ causing him to crab all the way out but he never got upwind so he had to land in the new hangar area to the south as it got stronger on the ground. Safe landing for his last flight of his Tour week. A few other local Paragliders launched and headed straight to the south airstrip. It was quite clouded over from big over-development so no lift for the last pilots. Again we didn't get home til 6:30 pm but it is still light here til 7:00 pm now, and we headed to La Vita Bella for one last meal there for Sean meeting up with Jorge after dinner for a hotel tour. All my tour guests are now gone til Feb 12th, so I have booked some rest days with Colleen in San Diego before coming back to finish the Mexican Tours. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . The last Task was run with a 76 km run to goal at the Lake and Nicole made goal. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog. Woodside BC Report - reports came in live from Derek about 12 minutes of airtime at Woodside with Lee, Martin N, Martina in leeside conditions. Some Americans flew Cheam too via Helicopter according to Facebook.
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FlyBC Mexican Adventure Report - after another great Gloria's Breakfast we headed out for El Chante flights early on arriving about 1130 am. Nice southerly cycles despite west wind forecasts around noon for the area. | Sean was joined by Eric A & Don who were still tired from last night's night flight adventure til 1 am. They stayed in Joco town as they are heading to Valle tomorrow. Peter B is back from Sweden and he & Jorge brought up Ivan for a tandem, Peter's first flight here in 18 months. Unfortunately it was an extended sledder landing at our condo, with a few scratchy thermals due to the inversion. Jorge did a flight into the El Chante Malecon ignoring the lift as he claimed a hangover had taken over this morning. It was Sean's turn to tackle the mountain after yesterday's 50% collapse and he was nervous, but he had a nice launch and a few turns out front with the bird before heading out to the Football Field in El Chante. It was Eric's turn and he had "taken the bait" to try a top landing as he heard about Wouter's 35 attempts one day in December before getting in. He made about 5 passes and nailed it on launch, and then proceeded to fly again and slalom thru the trees behind launch for fun. Don was too tired to fly and we drove down together to retrieve everyone. And then on to San Marcos leaving Eric's car at Casa de Marina Hotel. San Marcos was just turning on when we arrived at 3 pm. Some tailwinds as we got there but it started cycling up strong in a few minutes. Some locals arrived with Valdo driving them, and David and the Canuck HG team arrived too dragging along Pedro K & Mille, so pretty busy for a Friday. Don & Eric launched and were soon at 'base at 3500 meters under the CUs. The locals launched and did a few turns on their parapentes, but were soon in Pedro's LZ. Sean chose to wait til 4:30 pm, and he launched after David on the HG and Mille also on HG. He was maintaining but not getting high and I left after 30 minutes to retrieve him as he was sinking, when he called to say he was 550 meters over launch and he was going to fly over the back. Reports from Don & Eric were that they were over El Chante launch at 3500 meters heading east. The adventure begins again. I found Sean right away in a field near the Pond, where a cowboy on a donkey stopped to talk to him about where he launched from . . . and the cowboy knew San Marcos launch. Eric flew back to the Joco Malecon to be near his car, and Don landed at the Chapalpa Ultralight Strip and walked 4 blocks to the bus stop but apparently the Red Buses were slow tonight as it took him 2 hours to get home with a dead cell phone so we couldn't reach him. It was now 8 pm and they have to drive to Valle tonight so it will be 2 am before they arrive there for sure. We had dinner at La Vita Bella one more time and met some Vancouverites who have retired to Ajijic who were sitting next to us, small world. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task was run. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Mexican Adventure Report - we had breakfast at Gloria's today with Gary for the last time on this trip, as he is headed to New Zealand for 4 weeks. We decided on El Chante flights early on as I saw vultures circling over launch there from the condo. | We arrived on launch to nice SE cycles and an inversion layer, but the birds were thermalling in the gulleys and out front. Sean launched after sometime around 1145 am, and headed west to the cross gulley but got rotored and didn't manage a surge and he had a 50% collapse and fell into it and disappeared behind the ridge as I yelled "opposite brake and opposite weight shift". He heard me and did just that and the glider recovered nicely. He had enough of that thermal and headed straight out to the Lake and the new football field LZ pioneered by Gary earlier this week. By the time I drove down to get him he was 50 meters from the Hotel, where I picked him up. We drove to San Marcos and Pedro's LZ and met up with David and the HG gang from Ontario and told them about El Chante. The winds looked South on launch and we waited for a bit, before deciding to drive up and check conditions for the others so they didn't waste a trip in to launch. We arrived at 4 pm to perfect cycles and beautiful CUs all the way from Tapalpa to San Marcos, a perfect XC day. Sean launched and was soon "beamed up" to 3000 meters between two nice CUs. It was a bit lumpy for his no brake style of thermalling, so some coaching got him to min sink and smoother flight. as he topped out, I saw Don arrive from Tapalpa low just at launch height, but he soon climbed out too. Sean had enough thermalling by 45 minutes and was headng out to land as the HGers arrived, followed by Eric in his Honda chasing Don. I drove down to get Sean as Erc got ready to launch. Sean was packed up when I arrived and we headed back up for one more flight and some refreshments on the way. As we arrived I saw 2 HGs in the air, and the student Falcon was lying crumpled below the ramp. David was trying to extricate the wreck so I went down to help. The student was okay, just a few cuts but the glider sustained fatal damages: broken leading edge, keel, ripped sail, battens bent or broked. After removing the battens and folding the glider up, we dragged it back up to the flats, through all the trees and deadfall, not an easy task. Sean launched after the drama of removing the wreck and climbed out again to the north point, before heading over the back to land at 6 pm near the highway. Don and Eric were still in the air determined to have a night flight as the moon is pretty full reporting 4100 meter cloudbase. No idea how they were going to get their car afterwards as we were leaving for dinner. We headed east thru Jocotopec town, and on the east side we hit hard rain as the clouds OD'ed by the Lake. No thunderstorms but pretty close to the kind of instability that can cause one. We bumped into Peter as he arrived from Sweden last night and he is glad to be back where it is warm and sunny. Big family dinner for them, as it was just Sean & I for dinner. After dinner, as I got home I got a text from Don at 10:30 pm that they had just landed at Pedro's! I guess it didn't rain on them near the San Marcos Laguna. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures for January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task was run, rough air with 2 more reserve tosses. Nicole texted me that she was in a remote LZ partway to goal after hard flying. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Tapalpa Report - Sean and I arrived at Tapalpa Launch at 1130 am and heard that the Granger Group had already had a sled ride. | Sean was not interested in a sled ride, but when he saw Don launch and start climbing he was launching right after him, and they didn't come down for a long time. The Granger Group came and flew but only one guy stayed up as they all descended into the Piano LZ or scattered around that area. Sean was flying very well and was often "top of the stack" as the gaggle moved west over Launch to about 2700 meters. Eric A tried flying north but only found sink, but managed a low save 5 gulleys south to get him back to launch and the first top landing. Sean was 1:35 into his flight when he top landed at the back field and we headed towards San Marcos for the evening flight. On the way we saw virga near the Cross, but nice CU over San Marcos. We arrived on San Marcos Launch to tailwinds again despite the NOAA forecast of 15 kph west. David from Gravity was there with Terry from TO and a student but they were denied a flight too. We drove down to Jocotopec to unload the gear and headed to dinner at La Vita Bella for Gary's last night here before a 4 week flying trip to New Zealand. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today in the new February Album. Click here for pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures during January 2012. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . Task 8 was called off as there was no lift. valle Task 7 cancelled from broers philippe on Vimeo. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog.
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Tapalpa Report (plus some other sites) - we drove to Tapalpa after a Gloria's Breakfast in El Chante. | This time Granger beat us up to launch and his guys had a sledder and we only saw one wing in the air. When we picked up Sean in the LZ we saw some kiting action but no one launching, so we bailed and headed to Mazamitla. Mazamitla has yet to yield a flight this Tour as it has been North, too Strong South, and again North today. But it is a beautiful drive thru Pine Forests and a picturesque town, but we are here to fly so we headded to San Marcos. On the way out of town we hit a tropical rainstorm for a few kms, good thing we are leaving. We dropped off Gary at the hotel as he apparently ate too much at La Vita Bella last night and needed a nap, and headed to San Marcos. Light tailwind at launch, but it started to come in so Sean laid out his wing and got clipped in but before he could launch it started to spit. There was 0% POP in the forecast but Mother Nature had other ideas. We bunched Sean's gear into the Suzuki and headed down the mountain, glad he wasn't packing his wing in a rainstorm. The rain actually packed the San Marcos road nicely, as we were worried it might start running down the road as there are no cross ditches. We took Sean's gear to the condo to pack it properly under the Palapa roof, and as we were doing that, a large thunderstorm started with lightning and thunder. Hopefully this is the last of the rain we see on this trip. Click here for more pictures from the FlyBC Mexican Adventures today. SuperFinal Report from Valle de Bravo - The official results are in and posted here . It rained hard last night in Valle too, and a task was run and despite epic clouds and some OD'ing there was not much lift and no one made goal. valle task 6 the flight from broers philippe on Vimeo. Click here for more pictures from Nicole's Picasa Album. More details at Nicole's Blog. More details at Brett's Blog. Click here to find out who kicked butt in Mexico today!
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FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports
December 2011 Site of the Day archives - the Mexican Tours have been amazing with many hours and many more kilometers of XC flying with Wouter, Derek & other friends.
November 2011 Site of the Day archives - we had amazing thermal days at Woodside this month getting to cloudbase at 1400 meters many times.
October 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 100 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team! Road trips to Pemby, Hedley, Savona, Cache Creek to round out our students skills when the coast got rainy.
September 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 150 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
August 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 200 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team! Almost done the Groupons!
July 2011 Site of the Day archives - another 120 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
June 2011 Site of the Day archives - over 100 tandems done this month by the Awesome Tandem Team!
May 2011 Site of the Day archives - another rainy month with more road trips.
April 2011 Site of the Day archives - many long XCs in the Fraser valley by many pilots, and we roadtripped to the Ashcroft area many times to get flights between rain storms and snow storms.
March 2011 Site of the Day archives - got home from 2 glorious months in Mexico & New Zealand to try to fly in the Valley, but due to rain & snow we roadtripped to the Ashcroft area many times to get flights.
February 2011 Site of the Day archives - last days of the Mexico Tour went very well and then I headed to New Zealand to meet Colleen in Auckland and we had a great time flying there for 2 weeks.
January 2011 Site of the Day archives - Mexico Tour went very well with 8 attendees getting great airtime and safe guidance from us at FlyBC.
December 2010 Site of the Day archives - weather was so bad in BC, that Colleen and I had to book 5 days in LA to get a flight.
November 2010 Site of the Day archives - we had some sweet soaring flights at Woodside, and a really cold cold snap that limited flying for a week or more.
October 2010 Site of the Day archives - we had some sweet soaring flights in October at Woodside, and Robin flew to Hope in less than an hour!.
September 2010 Site of the Day archives - the wettest September in history had us running up to Savona and points east to fly, but we "got-er-done".
August 2010 Site of the Day archives - unstable conditions made for some great days at Benny and Woodside. Al & I had a Delta Day with me stealing Colleen's Small Delta and he on a Large one and we went over the back to Seabird on a strong day.
July 2010 Site of the Day archives - fantastic road trip to Revelstoke for 11 days of SIV Training and super weather.
June 2010 Site of the Day archives - wettest June on record so road trips to Savona a few times. Deltas are rolling in now!
May 2010 Site of the Day archives - nice flying in the Valley.
April 2010 Site of the Day archives - worst April in years weatherwise but we managed to do some awesome tandem groups and some nice flights with Justin, Nicole and Norm flying to Mission late in the month.
March 2010 Site of the Day archives - Crappy weather in the US on my return trip from Mexico. But when I arrived back at the Ranch there were some great days soaring Woodside.
February 2010 Site of the Day archives - super flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs. The locals were already flying at Mother Woodside back in BC due to the warm weather!
January 2010 Site of the Day archives - nice flying in Mexico for the FlyBC Mexican Tours. Good XCs.
December 2009 Site of the Day archives - our first time in Mexico for a full December and we flew everyday. 40-50 km XCs from Tapalpa.
November 2009 Site of the Day archives - very few flights as we had record rains and high winds.
October 2009 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly-In in Chelan WA with the Barbie Theme, took first place honours again! More good soaring flights of 2 hours plus on special days.
September 2009 Site of the Day archives - more decent flying weather with a few road trips to escape wind by heading to Savona.
August 2009 Site of the Day archives - best flying conditions in years with little rain. My first hike up Cheam with pals went well.
July 2009 Site of the Day archives - the FlyBC SIV in Revelstoke was a blast, 280 SIV flights and only one wet pilot intentionally that is. Jeremy wished he had landed in the water.
June 2009 Site of the Day archives - dry all month locally so lots of flying, Al has been test flying the new ShotGun launch near Stave Lake having great flights out to Woodside.
May 2009 Site of the Day archives - local flying is getting great with nice XC's! Bridal was working well. The new bathroom was installed in the Barn at Eagle Ranch enriching the FlyBC experience.
April 2009 Site of the Day archives - we escaped the local weather by flying in New Zealand for 3 weeks. We will be heading back soon!
March 2009 Site of the Day archives - we were flying locally in snow, relying on Derek's sleds and chains on the 'Mog to get up Woodside.
February 2009 Site of the Day archives - the Worlds PG Championships in Mexico was hard work for the Canucks, the tasks and speeds were unreal.
January 2009 Site of the Day archives - Manzanillo, Mexico was a BLAST, many new sites flown and we have a new tour Destination for 2010.
December 2008 Site of the Day archives - the annual FlyBC Christmas Party was a cold success with Head over Heels entertaining us all night. And we left early for Manzanillo, Mexico on Dec 28th.
November 2008 Site of the Day archives - some soaring between rain storms, and it was pretty dry in Agassiz.
October 2008 Site of the Day archives - we went ot the Women's Fly In on Chelan for the annual Halloween Costume Fly-In, great conditions there to offset the wet month on the West Coast. Steve Fosset's crash site was found in Nevada after a year of searching.
September 2008 Site of the Day archives - great student conditions at Woodside and Bridal all month, with 10 students getting signed off this month, a record.
August 2008 Site of the Day archives - our second SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke (except for a few water landings and minor injuries). Wet all month at Woodside except the weekends.
July 2008 Site of the Day archives - our first SIV Course of the 2008 season went well at Sale Mountain near Revelstoke.
June 2008 Site of the Day archives - a few good soaring days at Bridal, lots of new students this month.
May 2008 Site of the Day archives - the cost of gas is keeping pilots at home and the weather isn't helping either. One good XC in May for me, leaving Woodside with Norm and Martin H and ending up at Elk at 1600 meters before landing by Hopyard Hill. 3 hours and 85 kms later by the GPS.
April 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years but we flew every day we could.
March 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow and still hiking to launch at Woodside! But some major airtime for the locals committed to coming out to fly.
February 2008 Site of the Day archives - more snow in BC than I can remember in 25 years of living here. We are still hiking to launch at Woodside!
January 2008 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico and logged many hours of airtime, while it snowed heavily in BC.
December 2007 Site of the Day archives - worst weather in years so we went to Mexico on Dec 29th for three weeks.
November 2007 Site of the Day archives - Colleen and I went to California to fly the new Falcon A-16 Advanced Ultralight prototype and it flew very well. Some good soaring days at Woodside, some folks were still trying to fly Bridal but that is a waste of time this late in the season.
October 2007 Site of the Day archives - mid-air at Woodside caused Martin H some paraglider damage, some great soarable days. The Women's Fly In was a success with the Canuck Team taking top spot for the theme of "Celebrities in Rehab".
September 2007 Site of the Day archives - we re-discovered and flew 'Horsefly' Launch for the first time, some mayhem at Woodside due to tree-suck, lots of good soaring in afternoon glassoffs, a great Indian Summer until late in the month when the rains came early. Derek, Martina, Robin and Diane went to Europe. Kirill went to Australia for a paramotor Fly-In.
August 2007 Site of the Day archives - fun two weeks at Mara Lake, followed by steady flying at Woodside and Bridal, making up for the dismal spring and summer.
July 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights at Bridal, some mayhem at Woodside from visiting pilots.
June 2007 Site of the Day archives - more crappy weather on the weekends. Some awesome flights between showers as Norm and Thomm flew to Mission on the last day of the month.
May 2007 Site of the Day archives - flyable every weekday, but the Fraser Valley XC Comp got crappy weather on the weekends, although it was student flyable.
April 2007 Site of the Day archives - good flights are starting. Some complete triangles from Woodside to Bridal and back, some "musical triangles" from others.
March 2007 Site of the Day archives - fifth month of crappy weather on the Coast. We went to Santa Barbara for some flights, and to dry out. Some good days were also recorded locally.
Febuary 2007 Site of the Day archives - fourth month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we stayed in Mexico.
January 2007 Site of the Day archives - third month of crappy weather on the Coast. So we went to Mexico to fly Colima, Tapalpa, and San Marcos, while Brad and gang headed to Tenacingo, Mexico.
December 2006 Site of the Day archives - more ugly weather on the Coast. Severe winds damaged trees and property so not much flying happened. Some good flight reports from local PGers travelling world-wide.
November 2006 Site of the Day archives - the wettest November on record. We flew a few good flights but mostly we were rained out.
October 2006 Site of the Day archives - lots of good days with 3-4 hours airtime. The Women's Fly-In was on again in Chelan with about 18 Canucks, and a good day Saturday with 85 registered pilots.
September 2006 Site of the Day archives - still soarable in the Fraser Valley, little or no rain. Colleen is back flying! Some mayhem in the valley.
August 2006 Site of the Day archives - a great flying month everywhere, we had a super successful SIV clinic at Mara Lake with everyone SAT-ing and heli-ing.
July 2006 Site of the Day archives - road trip to Lumby, then on the 8th Colleen spun in below Gloria cancelling her summer plans (but she is recuperating well).
June 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Valley dried out, and we flew most days and every weekend.
May 2006 Site of the Day archives - more rain that ever imagined in the Fraser Valley. Very few soaring flights and even less XC.
April 2006 Site of the Day archives - the Easter Bunny was "run over" on Kilby Road, plus the train wreck on April 1.
March 2006 Site of the Day archives - a new pilot was born, Chloe. We also flew a few days between showers, some long flights up to 4 hours. A few Out & Return Flights to Deroche and Bear.
February 2006 Site of the Day archives - another wet month with some soarable days (2).
January 2006 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South for great Mexican or Chilean flying.
December 2005 Site of the Day archives - some flying on Elk and Woodside, smart pilots headed South.
November 2005 Site of the Day archives - rain, snow and not much flying.
October 2005 Site of the Day archives - Women's Fly In in Chelan yielded two soarable days before the snows hit.
September 2005 Site of the Day archives - dry most of the month. Some great 4 hour flights at Woodside getting to cloudbase most days. Three crash-landings in the same clearcut by pilots scratching too low, but no injuries.
August 2005 Site of the Day archives - road trips to the Interior gave us an opportunity to rag out some gliders at FlyBC SIV 2005 (Part II). Also a great road trip to Savona.
July 2005 Site of the Day archives - good flying all month, no rain but some windy days shut us down. The Willi started in Golden with a few good days, but one tragedy as Charles Warren perished in a crash near Harrogate.
June 2005 Site of the Day archives - too much rain, but good days to fly between showers.
May 2005 Site of the Day archives - our Instructor/Tandem seminar yielded some good flying. Our May 2005 SIV Clinic had a good turnout, with many wet wings/pilots! Many nice flights at Woodside and Bridal, with some long "out & returns" at Bridal.
April 2005 Site of the Day archives - some great soaring at Woodside and Bridal. Sad news from the US Hanggliding Nationals as Chris Muller crashes at goal.
March 2005 Site of the Day archives - we had to head out of town to Savona a few weekends due to wet weather on the Coast. Wetter than normal according to Environment Canada.
February 2005 Site of the Day archives - some good soaring despite early time of year. Flights as long as 3 hours at Woodside, some good flights at Whidbey Island for first timers, too!
January 2005 Site of the Day archives road trips to Mexico, not much flying locally due to strong north winds and rain. Record rain kept Eagle Ranch quite wet for kiting.
December 2004 Site of the Day archives a dry month with some good soaring including a fantastic day on Dec. 11 where we thermalled for 2+ hours!
November 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain. We installed a fireplace in the barn to keep pilots warm between winter flights.
October 2004 Site of the Day archives more record rain, but sweet soaring between showers. Many new students signed up and making quick progress. We missed the Women's Fly In for the first time in 9 years, and there was some interesting flying on the Sunday!
September 2004 Site of the Day archives rainiest September on record for the first 3 weeks, made flying difficult. But Alan and others logged some pretty nice flights later in the month. Lots of student tandems for both Colleen and Jim.
August 2004 Site of the Day archives Great Maneuver/SIV/ACRO course at Mara. Jack got wet! Some great soaring at Woodside. Norm made it 68 km from Mara to King Eddie, Derek made it from Lumby to Enderby the opposite direction for 67 kms. We also did our BC roadtrip from Ashcroft to New Denver, and flew everyday.
July 2004 Site of the Day archives the Willi was on at Golden. We missed the mayhem due to work and school commitments but Norm did a great job representing the West Coast.
June 2004 Site of the Day archives Canadian Nationals came off with many great rounds. Pemberton-Whistler Championships were blown out most days so we headed to Cornwall.
May 2004 Site of the Day archives great flying at Woodside and Bridal. We held a very successful SIV Course at Mara Lake, and hope to run another one in August if they keep the forests open.
April 2004 Site of the Day archives good flying in the Valley. The Fraser Valley Cross Country PG Series was successssful.
March 2004 Site of the Day archives Nicole won in Brazil, otherwise the month sucked for flying time.
February 2004 Site of the Day archives some local flights extended to an hour with vigourous scratching above the trees. Good paramotor month.
January 2004 Site of the Day archives Mexican road trip yielded 20 hours of flight and a wet Canadian January kept most local pilots on the ground.
December 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew a few times but it got really cold at the end of the month as we prepared for a gala New Year's Party for 40 of our close personal friends and neighbours.
November 2003 Site of the Day archives windy and wet with the odd good soaring day, not many pilots out these days.
October 2003 Site of the Day archives Women's Fly In was great fun, some good soaring days mid-month, most of the students are signed off.
September 2003 Site of the Day archives good conditions until the last days of the month when it got stable. Most days were flyable at Woodside or Bridal.
August 2003 Site of the Day archives Forest closures made the end of the month a non-flying period unless you headed to Blanchard. FlyBC SIV 2003 was a great success with 9 stunt pilots and no deployments or crashes.
July 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most days early at Woodside until it got windy, then over to Bridal. Good Golden flying reports from the "Willi".
June 2003 Site of the Day archives we flew most weekdays at Bridal, Woodside worked most weekends. Bridal Air Races had one great day with only two tree landings!
May 2003 Site of the Day archives not a great weather month on the coast, especially on the weekends but a few pilots managed to get some great airtime at Bridal. The Nationals were held in Lumby and it didn't rain!
April 2003 Site of the Day archives rain for 28 of 30 April days, but we managed to get a few flights in between showers. Even the golfers were complaining!
March 2003 Site of the Day archives some high spring flights in early March, but not a great weather month. Still no HPAC Insurance!
February 2003 Site of the Day archives some nice long spring flights in late February. HPAC Insurance expired on Feb 14, so many pilots stayed home instead of getting USHGA coverage.
January 2003 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month in BC so we bailed and headed to Tapalpa Mexico for three weeks. Norm and Lucille had a great XC flight the first day we arrived.
December 2002 Site of the Day archives lots of rain all month.
November 2002 Site of the Day archives not a great flying month, lots of rain in the beginning and then super stable and inverted for the balance of the month. Even the Savona Road Trip wasn't that great. Looking forward to Mexico!
October 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable some days, great fun at the Women's Fly In 2002 in Chelan. Allan logged 15 hours and only flew a few days. Most of the students are ready for signoff soon to get ready for Mexico trips!
September 2002 Site of the Day archives Still soarable most everyday! Some scary incidents at Woodside. Fun flying at Ashcroft.
August 2002 Site of the Day archives More spring-like days with super lapse rates, great fun up-country at Revelstoke and Mara, with some good XCs for all.
July 2002 Site of the Day archives Some spring-like days with super lapse rates, but still rather wet at times.
June 2002 Site of the Day archives another rainy and windy month with great lapse rates, some great flights at Bridal with some getting above Cheam Peak. The Club Cup was nearly rained out but they got one valid task in on Sunday June 30.
May 2002 Site of the Day archives an extremely rainy month with the more spring mayhem, another reserve deployment at Lil Nick and a pilot crashed at the top of Deroche Mountain, uninjured but with a ripped glider and long hike down the mountain. Colleen placed 5th place at the Canadian PG Nationals in rainy Lumby!
April 2002 Site of the Day archives a rainy month with the usual spring mayhem, one reserve deployment at Woodside and a pilot hit a parked car at Bridal LZ, fracturing his leg.
March 2002 Site of the Day archives a few great days days with lots of snow and rain mixed in.
February 2002 Site of the Day archives two epic days already (4.5 hours and 2.5 hours!).
January 2002 Site of the Day archives Mexico vacation shots, some local flying but it was wet on the coast.
December 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, wettest December on record, some good days sprinkled thru the month.
November 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, had some good days at Woodside +2 hours, lots of rain later in the month.
October 2001 Site of the Day archives pretty stable locally, but great flying at Chelan at the Women's Fly In.
September 2001 Site of the Day archives starting to get pretty stable, more sled rides forecast for October.
Aug 2001 Site of the Day archives Mara, Bridal, till some great flights locally
July 2001 Site of the Day archives Road Trip Month, Golden, Mara, points east!
June 2001 Site of the Day archives Great Month, 3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower! Some getting up to 6 hours in a single flight!
May 2001 Site of the Day archives Unstable Month, 2-3 hours of airtime for some pilots every time they flew Bridal Lower!
April 2001 Site of the Day archives Rainy Month, not as much airtime for some pilots
March 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring has Sprung!
February 2001 Site of the Day archives Spring is in the Air!
January 2001 Site of the Day archives - Mexico Flying Trip
December 2000 Site of the Day archives
November 2000 Site of the Day archives (great month for airtime!)
October 2000 Site of the Day archives
September 2000 Site of the Day archives
July - August 2000 Site of the Day archives
June 2000 Site of the Day archives
March - May 2000 Site of the Day archives
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