| Date
| Site
| Forecast
| Winds Aloft
| Comments
| Results
|
| July 20
| Heading to Golden for the "Willi"
| High 27
| ??
| ??
| Golden was a fantastic time. First week was marred by rain and thunderstorms every second day, but the flying in between was fun (just ask Justin). Colleen and I flew the Willi Muller XC Challenge and Colleen came in 2nd in the Novice category (against the guys)! I only logged 2 flights for fifth place behind Ian Mitchell in first with many more kms. We bailed for the Nationals electing to fly Mara Lake on the way home. On the first day of the PG Nationals Chris Muller flew 245 kms! on a medium Bagheera (ask for a demo flight to see how this glider flies).
|
| July 19
| Bridal
| High 29
| Sunny, 0% P.O.P.
| 270 @ 5 knots at 3000 feet
| Pilot reports are graciously accepted here!
|
| July 18
| Bridal
| High 26
| Sunny, 0% P.O.P.
| 240 @ 5 knots at 3000 feet, 9900 at 6000 feet
| Grouse Report - Justin and Thomas got an hour later in the day. No Bridal Reports, but I suspect it was soarable most everywhere on the 18th.
|
| July 17
| Bridal
| High 30
| Sunny
| 230 @ 5 knots at 3000 feet
| Glen Taylor phoned to say he had a rough flight at Bridal, not as comfortable as Sunday. Alan Dickey was high above the turbulance boating around when Glen left around 7:00 PM.
|
| July 16
| Bridal
| High 26
| Sunny
| Light and Variable (9900)
| We arrived late at about 6:00 to see Allan D, Jacques and other over Cheam. Ivan said he climbed to 2000 meters above Archibald but couldn't go east to Cheam. I launched at 6:30 and climbed almost immediately to the Upper Launch over the rock slide by the decomissioned road. I was flying with the new Brauniger IQ-Sonic audio vario so don't know what altitude I reached. - Jim R.
|
| July 15
| Bridal
| High 26
| Sunny
| 320 @ 6 knots at 3000 feet, this northerly flow indicates Bridal should be soarable all day. Grouse won't be good today unless the forecast is wrong!
| We flew Woodside all day, by 2:00 PM there were 20 PGs and 6 HGs over Woodside. Some new pilots had personal best flights getting over 1.5 hours. Ian Porter went to Seabird Island. We went to eat at the Wildcat Grill in Rosedale and saw several pilots get over an hour before joining us for a beer.
|
| July 14
| Blanchard
| High 21
| Mainly Cloudy. Possibility of Thundershowers.
| 270 @ 10 knots at 3000 feet
| NOAA reports showed soarable conditions all day at Blanchard, no pilot reports in yet.
|
| July 13
| Stay Home
| High 18
| Mainly cloudy. Periods of rain developing this morning. High 18. Maximum UV index 7.0 or high. Probability of precipitation 90 percent.
| 250 @ 13 knots at 3000 feet
| Pilot reports are graciously accepted here!
|
| July 12
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 24
| Sunny with morning cloudy periods. High 23. Maximum UV index 7. 0 or high.
| 210 @ 7 knots at 3000 feet
| Several pilots flew Grouse and had a rock & roll flight at around 4:00 PM, and the last flight at 6:00 PM was a sled ride - Jim R. July 12, Lower Bridal: several PG flights, 1 to 2 hrs., lift moderately strong, last person landed after 7:00pm. Woodside: Norm and some others flew, winds strongish (8-10knots Chilliwack) - Rob Samplonius.
|
| July 11
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 24
| Sunny all afternoon.
| Light and Variable at 3000 feet
| July 11, winds aloft forecast totally incorrect, wind gusting to 14 knots at
Chilliwack, HG flew Woodside for 45 minutes, no PG flights as far as I know - Rob Samplonius
|
| July 10
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 22
| Risk of occasional morning showers.
| 240 degrees @ 8 knots at 3000 feet
| Woodside Report - Bev climbed to 1000 meters over Woodside and got "whacked" a few times, experiencing 30% collapses. She flew out while Norm stayed in the air for a while. Lots of folks out soaring on a Monday, landing at 8:00 pm. Grouse Report - peak launch was in cloud all day.
|
| July 9
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 19
| Risk of late afternoon thunderstorms, occasional showers.
| 270 degrees @ 8 knots at 3000 feet
| We got sled-rides all day, longest flight was a tandem at 26 minutes. It never got too windy to train, but no soaring to brag about. We finished at 8:00 PM (a long day).
|
| July 8
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 22
| Risk of late afternoon thunderstorms
| 240 degrees @ 7 knots at 3000 feet
| We flew until the wind was gusting at Chilliwack Airport 6 - 19 knots! We went to the Agriplex to ground handle for 2 hours, then headed home for dinner (it was still gusty at 9:00 pm).
|
| July 7
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 23
| Cloudbase calculated at 6300 feet, moderate thermal index.
| 250 degrees @ 6 knots at 3000 feet
| Glen Taylor had a good ride at Bridal reporting 7+ m/s lift before heading out to land, Woodside reports indicated light bouyant air, no one stayed up for very long. Saturday could be better!
|
| July 6
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 22
| Cloudbase calculated at 5500 feet, good thermal index.
| 250 degrees @ 7 knots at 3000 feet
| Woodside was only flown by Jeff Remple on his Shark (HG), PGers showed up at 1:00 PM and were blown out all day, high winds at launch and at the LZ. Grouse Report - cross at launch, trashy thermals getting torn up by strong west winds in the air, it seemed leeside on every ridge face, Capilano Lake was looking windy and it was bumpy over the LZ. Brett, Mark, Peter and Justin had close to 1 hr flights.
|
| July 5
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 19
| Cloudbase calculated at 3600 feet, good thermal index if the sun comes through. Possible thunderstorms developing
| light and variable at 3000 feet
| Send in your flight reports, please.
|
| July 4
| Grouse
| High 20
| Showers early in the day, cloudbase calculated at 4300 feet when high is achieved.
| 270 degrees @ 10 knots at 3000 feet
| Grouse never became visible thru the clouds on July 4th, no one flew - Jim. Rules of engagement for Grouse Guests are located at GMFT RULES written authorization must be obtained before flying Grouse as a guest.
|
| July 3
| Woodside (Sorry we didn't update Monday's Site of the Day. I left the laptop at home. )
| High 20, Locally Windy
| Possible thunderstorm easterly sections all day
| 270 degrees @ 10 knots at 3000 feet
| We went to Woodside at 10:00 am and landed at 7:15 pm. At one point there were about 10 PGs and 4 HGs in the air over launch at one time in tight formation. Bev had a personal best heading out to the LZ, and catching a thermal over the bailout field which took her above launch on her new Fiesta (nice flying!).
|
| July 2
| Stay Home!
| High 20, heavy rain, Locally Windy
| Possible thunderstorm easterly sections all day
| 250 degrees @ 9 knots at 3000 feet
| We lucked out and arrived at Woodside at 2:00 PM, Sunday. The skies opened up for 3 great soaring flights in smooth lift, we quit flying at 8:00 PM.
|
| July 1
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 22
| Possible thunderstorm easterly sections late in the day
| 250 degrees @ 11 knots at 3000 feet
| We got a few flights off Woodside before it started gusting in the LZ, the HGers looked parked at times as we left.
|
| June 30
| Grouse
| High 20
| Possible showers early in the day, 40% POP
| 260 degrees @ 10 knots at 3000 feet
| Rules of engagement for Grouse Guests are located at GMFT RULES written authorization must be obtained before flying Grouse as a guest. Grouse Report - Russ, Colleen, Thomm, Jim and some US Guests went up to work on repairing the carpet gluing down the loose edges. It never got flyable, we were in the clouds all day.
|
| June 29
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 22, cooler
| Possible showers late in the day
| 260 degrees @ 8 knots at 3000 feet
| Woodside Report - We flew two flights that were smooth and bouyant and at 3:00 pm I launched because it was too windy for students and I flew straight out to Harrison Knob, slowly penetrating but climbing all the way, arriving on the south side of the Fraser River next to Harrison Knob at 3500 feet, it took another 30 minutes to descend to land. I had no communications with the driver, or I would have continued along the ridge to Big Nick. Super lift everywhere (where was everyone else??) - Jim Reich
|
| June 28
| Woodside/Bridal
| High 28
| Possible early morning thunderstorm easterly sections, then sunny
| 270 degrees @ 10 knots at 3000 feet
| Grouse Report - Brett and Mark D had the best airtime at 2 hours, launch conditions were the best this year - Roman.
|
| June 27
| Woodside
| High 31
| Sunny
| Light and Variable thru 12000 feet! Not a great lapse rate or thermal index, but it should be soarable
| Grouse Report - we flew at 4:30, Brett had the best airtime with 1:45, I got 1:15 heading out cause I was dizzy turning so tight for so long. Small Grouse thermals got us above launch several times then we got flushed to do it all over again. I flew the Fiesta with a hiking harness and it was a challenging fun flight. Woodside Report Norm and I flew today, Norm flew one and sunk out, I flew 2 flights I got lift and stayed above launch for a little bit. So that was awesome. Anyway I had a superb 2 flights and I sure am staying up high beautiful wing! I got higher than Norm did today heehee which is the plan heehee Bev
|
| June 26
| Woodside
| High 28
| Sunny
| Light and Variable thru 6000 feet. Not a great lapse rate or thermal index, but it should be soarable by 3:00 PM
| No pilot reports, but I was wrong about no tree-landings this weekend - it appears that a pilot named Ian (not a red Firebird Ignition) went in at Bridal Upper Launch turning too close to the hill, no injuries and haven't heard how the glider is doing.
|
| June 25
| Woodside
| High 27
| Sunny all day
| Light and Variable at 3000 feet; then switching to NNW at 7 knots after 2:00 PM - which could make Bridal the place for evening flights
| Woodside was great again Sunday, one Brit named Tim on an Omega 3 launched at 11:00 AM, and was still in the air 3 hours later while everyone else launched sunk and landed three times! I managed an un-elegant top-landing to save the retrieve drive (got pulled on my butt by a full stall landing to get down). No tree landings this weekend, so it was a good time. Bridal yielded mostly sled rides, except Alan D and Rob S flew to Elk for three hours in the air!
|
| June 24
| Woodside
| High 24
| Possible light rain in the AM, Sunny in the PM
| Light and Variable at 3000 feet; other levels indicate northerly flow aloft may make Bridal the alternative for high flyers
| Everyone had great flights yesterday, Ludovich got 1:42, Kelly got 1:32, I managed to get 4 tandems in soaring on three of them.
|
| June 23
| Bridal
| High 23
| Sunny
| 260 at 10 knots; other levels indicate northerly flow aloft making Bridal the best place to be
| Keep sending pilot reports, love to hear how you did!
|
| June 22
| Bridal/Woodside
| High 23
| Sunny
| 260 at 7 knots
| Lower Bridal: launched 7:45, landed 9:00pm, 2.1m/s, 1350m ASL, thermal & ridge, tricky launch conditions, valley wind did not drop (to 8 knots) until 7:30pm. Ivan Tomecek flew earlier: rough air, poor penetration - Rob S. ; Woodside - Norm launched at 1:00 PM, nasty rough air and penetration problems. Only flew once. - Bev L. ; Grouse - four pilots flew, west winds at launch. Ian Mitchell got 1:45, everyone else about 45 minutes. - Jim R.
|
| June 21
| Bridal
| High 23
| Morning Clouds then Sunny
| 270 at 10 knots
| Grouse Report - I had a really good flight with Eric, getting above launch height in some turbulent air. It was kind of gusting from the west up at
higher elevation. Flew for 1 hour while watching movie filming from the air, they were setting off explosions at the restaurant! I avoided the area as I figured there would
be little bullet thermals coming off the explosions! I hit 3 m/s at one point but it was drifting back very quickly, arrived above the LZ at 760 meteres and just enjoyed the
view. What an amazing sport! - Justin Kyllo |
| June 20
| Woodside
| High 20
| Sunny
| 250 at 7 knots
| Flights ranging from sled rides to 2+hours at lower Bridal between
4:30 & 7:00 pm. Overcast conditions, mostly ridge lift, lapse rate high?, 2m/s
strength (or more?), max alt. 1000mASL. CHWK ATIS calling 5 Knots - Rob Samplonius (pirep)
|
| June 19
| Bridal
| High 23
| Sunny
| 270 at 10 knots
| Slight northerly flow at upper levels may make Bridal the ideal site. Thermal index indicates 700 feet/minute with a 74 degree trigger point (quite easy to achieve with today's high temp). |
| June 18
| Pemberton, Mackenzie
| High 20
| Sunny, with afternoon clouds
| ??
| Morning dawned to rain showers, then it got very windy from the east. Highly unstable. The valley winds kept us from flying Mackenzie (east is bad!). |
| June 17
| Pemberton, Mackenzie
| High 20
| Sunny, with afternoon clouds
| ??
| Student flights in the morning until about 2:30 PM, when it started howling. Jim O, Reto, Andrea G flew and started big-ears after about 15 minutes because it was too strong! Leon stayed up and went to Hurley and back, Norm and I launched and climbed out to 2100 meters to play with the sailplanes for 2 hours landing at 8:00 pm.
|
| June 16
| Bridal
| High 25
| Sunny
| 300 at 8 knots
| FlyBC is heading to Pemberton today, local pilots should have good luck at Bridal or maybe even Woodside. |
| June 15
| Woodside or Bridal
| High 20
| Sunny
| 290 at 12 knots
| About 12 PG and 5 HG pilots flew Woodside for 1-2.5 hour flights. Never getting above 3600 feet, so no one went XC. The PGers moved to Bridal and launched at 5:30 PM for another 1.5 hours. At 8:00 PM it started to shut down, so I was able to top-land next to the Suburban eliminating a retrieve. |
| June 14
| Stay Home!
| High 15
| Periods of rain. High 15. Maximum UV index 7. 6 or high. Probability of precipitation 80 percent.
| 270 at 17 knots
| Work until Thursday when it is hopefully going to get sunny! |
| June 13
| Woodside
| High 18
| Mostly Cloudy
| 190 at 9 knots
| Forecast was all wrong again! Heavy rain in Vancouver, light rain in Abbotsford after 12:00 noon through the evening. |
| June 12
| Stay Home!
| High 15
| Rain easing to showers in the afternoon. High 15. Maximum UV index 6. 9 or moderate.Probability of precipitation 90 percent.
| 240 at 17 knots
| It was quite windy in Vancouver until dark, no pilot reports rec'd at this time. |
| June 11
| Sumas
| High 17
| Cloudy with possible sunny periods in the PM
| 140 at 20 knots
| Fifteen pilots flew Sumas at 12:00 noon, some getting above launch and hanging out for 45 minutes in nice lift. The strong east wind never happended, so we headed to Woodside for late afternoon and had more awesome flights with Lars, Leon and Colleen all getting above launch on their Allegra's. Lars did a few stunts earlier in the day to thrill us (and Arlana!). |
| June 10
| Woodside late afternoon when the rain passes
| High 16
| Cloudy with possible thundershowers
| 190 at 8 knots
| No pilot reports |
| June 9
| Sumas
| High 16
| Cloudy w/increasing showers in PM
| 160 at 14 knots, could be soarable at Sumas
|
I took the FlyBC day page prediction and headed out to
Sumas Friday afternoon. Almost No wind in the LZ and nice light cycles coming
in at launch made for three great flights. Fred Carter. We flew a couple flights at Woodside in beautiful still air with odd thermals breaking off. No rain! Jim. |
| June 8
| Woodside
| High 18
| Cloudy with afternoon sunny breaks
| 270 at 15 knots, could be soarable at Woodside
| Dan Keen says: "Flying at Blanchard yesterday, 7 HG, 1 rigid wing ATOS, 2 PG (1 Tandem PG) enjoyed some much needed airtime and a reprieve from the rain. We ridge soared the west face of Mt. Blanchard and then when the sun came out, a few of us cored and drifted the thermals back to the higher peaks. Scott Duncan and I flew for about 2 1/2 hrs, but pilots could of stayed up all day. The lift band was huge and consistent and soaking up the warm sun and gorgeous views of the San Juan Islands made it a very relaxing flight." |
| June 7
| Grouse Mountain
| High 18, 40% P.O.P.
| Cloudy with Sunny periods
| 270 at 6 knots
| Grouse didn't clear off until 6:00 pm, too late to fly. Weather should clear for Thursday PM. |
| June 6
| Savona (or stay home)
| High 23, 10% P.O.P.
| Sunny with Cloudy periods
| 190 at 5 knots
| Stay tuned, real die-hards will want to try Interior sites this week, it looks like rain thru Saturday |
| June 5
| Blanchard (or stay home and work)
| High 18, 90% P.O.P.
| Windy at times from SW
| 230 at 24 knots!
| Stay tuned, real die-hards may want to try Whidbey or Blanchard |
| June 2-4
| Savona
| High 23
| Light and Variable, slight SW flow
| Sunny with cloudy periods
| We flew all three days, flying off the East Ridge, Lower Launch and Upper PG Launches. 2 new PG students ready to brave Woodside skies. |
| June 1
| Woodside
| High 16
| 110 @ 6 at 3000 feet (leeside conditions)
| Possible showers forecast
| Leeside today, launched 3:15; Alan Dickie 2 hrs; Ian Johnston 56 min; 600 m over |
| May 31
| Blanchard/Whidbey
| High 14
| 220 @ 9 at 3000 feet
| Possible thunderstorms forecast in the PM, near the mountains. Go to the coast!
| NOAA weather showed Bellingham flyable all afternoon, while it rained in Vancouver. No pilot reports. |