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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archive" - March/2013
Woodside/Bridal/Pembie
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 22°C A mix of sun and cloud. High 22. Looks like Pembie had similar conditions as some pilots went skiing instead. When we arrived at Colleen's sister's house on the Nicola River, we saw smoke on the hills near Soap Lake Provincial Park and it was growing in volume. We drove down the road towards the fire and it was not near any roads so we called it in. THe fire crews had already been up there and couldn't get near the fire due to snow so they left it and are heading up tomorrow morning with more crews. Odd to have a forest fire this early?
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| 20°C A mix of sun and cloud. High 20. Later we headed up and Colleen took Miguel for a birthday tandem and she had a brilliant launch and got him way above the other gliders, especially above Denis on his new tandem!
Al made the right call and headed up Benny with Andrew & Fred. We heard them heading past Woodside for Hope later. Nicole, Alex & Peter were doing a 50 km Out & Return to Goat Mtn. at up to 2500 metres, but have no computer to upload their flights but I got the SPOT tracking message late last night.
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| 18°C Mainly cloudy. Clearing this afternoon. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate. Alex & I took off around 1 pm, after Al and we worked the South Knoll with Al for a bit and then saw three Eagles climbing out in the North Bowl so we joined them as Miguel & Nicole flew off. Launch conditions were a bit turbulent as we saw gliders rolling and pitching off launch.
Sweet landing conditions with 10-15 kms of east winds and buoyant air made for a super-soft landing for my tender foot. We deemed it unsafe to launch our other student, Karim, so he drove down and we continued kiting lessons til later in the day for Karim. The other pilots taking off were climbing towards cloudbase and some headed west towards Mission and others directly east to start the triangle attempts. Around 5:30 pm, we took Karim up for his first solo after watching Guy & others climb out and having no penetration issues. He had one abort as he failed to commit but after that he had a stellar kiting session getting stabilized on the carpet before lifting off and going straight up all the way to the Ranch. As I handed him off to Colleen, I started driving down and he was still in the air over the Ranch as I arrived. Sweet flight and great landing too!
Check out the great flights from Woodside today here. Check out the great flights from Woodside today against the rest of the World here.
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| 18°C A mix of sun and cloud with 30 percent chance of showers. High 18. UV index 4 or moderate.
Al launched first and after some hard work ended up in Joe's backyard due to an inversion layer keeping Woodside too mellow. Fortunately, Robin was just going up to launch when he heard Al landing. Andy was working some lift to the toe of the north ridge where some eagles were thermalling and it drifted him back towards Chehalis. He had to speed-bar out to the Ranch after he topped out. Al, Delvin & Robin headed up to launch just as Martin N launched and he was working the South Knoll area. I got Shirley ready and we had to wait for a nice cycle but when it came we got "hoovered off" launch and found a gulley thermal to work. I was getting to launch altitude when I saw Martin rocketing up in a nice thermal and I headed to the South Knoll and when we got to the same place there was nothing but sink as the thermal decayed with Martin 100 meters above us now. Tip of the Day: Never leave lift!
As we were packing up Juan and Bill launched and were following Martin around, and Bill was soon "top of the stack" . . . for most of the afternoon. On his old trusty Sky Atis! Despite hard work by Robin, Al, Bill and Martin no one could get above 1280 metres. One lone CU would form over Woodside and then disipate. As the day wore on you could see the inversion area getting hazy all over Woodside and just clearing at the point of the forming CU.
Nice day, just not very productive for XC.
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| 17°C Increasing cloudiness. 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate.
I was ready to fly today as my foot is healing well and I had a tandem booked for noon, but they never arrived so I drove for others today instead of flying. After installing an electric backup fan, I tried the Bus again this time with 6 pilots on board and we got to 3.5 kms and the top rad hose exploded and lost all the water. So I coasted it down to the flats at 2 kms and left it to get parts and it was back down the mountain before dark. A new fan clutch is getting installed Friday and we will try again. It has gobs of power for going up the mountains as long as we can get the cooling fixed.
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| 13°C Increasing cloudiness this morning. High 13. We did a test run up the mountain and had to turn around at 3 kms, as the fan clutch is not working and it got too hot. I installed an electric backup fan last night but we will need a new clutch for the fan soon. There was a grouse on launch defending her territory and would not move as we walked up, and we could hear her chicks in the bush near the sign.
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| 14°C Clearing. High 14. UV index 4 or moderate.
Martin N headed east with the first gaggle but was able to come back to Woodside from Agassiz Mtn. He was flying with Derek later as Derek came out after work and they had really nice soaring to 1500 meters late in the day. I later picked Martin N up at Harvest and got Kevin from Riverside at the end of the day.  Woodside Report #2 -Jim, thanks for letting me take the Delta 2 "around the block" today.
The mid-day thermals were popping and within minutes I was several hundred meters over launch with the wing feeling solid and agile. After flying the Swift 2 for three months, I could tell the D2 brakes had more pressure but the travel was long enough. Thermalling was easy as the D2 can turn very flat or steeply banked with no feeling of spinning when slowed right down. I left the mountain with a couple of other wings and arrived at the next thermal higher so I'm sure the glide was impressive. I used half bar on some long crossings and the D2 seemed very similar to my M4, perhaps a little more solid. I had one "blowout" while crossing a valley into wind and flying into a rotor area. I lost 50% of the wing while on half bar but the wing turned less than 90 degrees and opened within two big pumps. The final glide was longer than I expected and the wing came down with lots of energy retained so the flare I would usually do with the Swift had me ascend about three metres and touch down softly. This was a very satisfying flight on a very satisfying wing and I would say that Ozone has produced another winner. I'm sure you are going to move many Delta 2s this season! Nice work, Team Ozone - Kevin A. Notes: Kevin headed east after the others had flown and were reporting "getting flushed by strongish N winds in the Harrison Gap" so he wisely headed to Green Hill (my favourite trigger point) and got some climbs off the antennas that drifted him towards the Bridal ridge where he was travelling across the Fraser River at 48 kph. Check out Kevin's great flight from Woodside here. A thermalling shootout between Delta 2 ML & UP Trango XC2 where the Delta 2 definitely wins!
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| 10°C Clearing. High 14. UV index 4 or moderate. The weather started out a bit cloudy but Colleen had a great tandem with Krysteel as they were lightly loaded on the Magnum 41 and they found some nice thermals over the Construction Zone. The others started launching after Colleen and some got pretty high in the one thermal over the South Knoll, but it looked tightly packed as more launched. Some of the others launching were destined to be in the the Riverside LZ rather quickly. We headed back up with Shelagh for tandem #2 and the lift was not as abundant as the clouds filled in, but the first gaggle was gone towards Agassiz. Those that stayed around Woodside had 2-3 hour flights but didn't get very high. Brett H was practicing low saves by flying out as far as he dared on his EnZo and diving back into the clearcuts low. He got high enough to head east too, coming back the unconventional route on the north side of Agassiz Mtn & Woodside.
Our Delta 2 Demo is here for testing and it is the popular ML size (85-105 kgs).
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| 10°C A mix of sun and cloud. High 10. UV index 3 or moderate. Colleen took Karim for his first tandem after she saw Martin H climb out on his Delta to cloudbase.
I spent the time out kiting with Karim & Richard (a signed off student from 2011 who finally came back after a year`s hiatus). Kiting was good at the Ranch with a steady west wind?? We almost never get west here?
Check out the great flights from Woodside today here. Check out the great flights from Woodside today against the rest of the World here.
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| 9°C Partly cloudy. 40 percent chance of rain showers or flurries this evening. Low minus 2.
I heard on the radio that he had launched, so I drove down to Lower Launch to get a picture of him soaring at cloudbase, but when I got there I could not see him? I called on the radio and he said he was already in Riverside. Apparently -5 m/s sink all the way from launch to the ground!
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|  11°C Showers. A few wet flurries near Hope early this morning. Windy this morning. High 7.
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| 11°C Rain. Amount 15 to 25 mm. Wind southeast 20 km/h becoming southwest 50 gusting to 70 near noon. High 7.
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| 11°C Increasing cloudiness this morning. High 11.
Sumas might have worked today, but it might be hard to get up with all the snow there too.
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| 8°C Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers in the morning. Periods of rain near Hope early in the morning. Becoming windy in the morning. High 8. Kevin's Birthday Flight - Kevin got to fly three flights at Keana Ridge in Hawaii getting to 1100 metres, for his Birthday. Gudonya!
The flying on Oahu is some of the most spectacular I have ever done and the pilots are warm and welcoming. The launch sites tend to be very challenging: small, steep, and often not clean. For example, today I tried to launch at Manic, one of three launches at Makapu, the most south eastern point on Oahu. The wind was about 25-30 km/hr on a slope that was cleared for one wing with broken glass from bottles thrown from passersby on the highway above the launch. Immediately below the pilot was a volcanic boulder field which continued down the slope to the ocean. After being lifted up and dropped down in a seated position my wing draped over the highway and I stood down. Later, I was advised to try "Crazy", a launch much lower by a highway culvert but at least above a sandy beach a mere 30 meters below. Fortunately the wind was mellower here but if you turned left you would be on the beach in seconds. If you turned right you would fly level further and further away from the safe sand over huge rocks plunging down to the sea. If you panicked and turned back you would probably make it back to the beach but definitely sink out. If you committed to the over the sea route, each second would take you further from safety but closer to the Venturi by "Manick" where you were guaranteed to hit the lift band. I was happy to give this a try as the wind was so much mellower. Sure enough, I had a clean getaway and flew level above the pounding surf until, voila, I hit the lift band and began a steady ascent to the south towards Makapu Lighthouse and then north to the big ridge in the pictures. Within ten minutes, I had ridge soared to 780 metres above the turquoise Pacific Ocean with the plumes of whales and the reef clearly visible. It was effortless soaring and an absolutely stunning one hour flight. To have great conditions on Oahu takes some luck. It is often blown out here, but the Windlines group are very savvy and have a chat box online ( which is where I got the idea for the current WCSC chat line). Pilots who arrive at the many launches are great at updating the conditions they find and everyone else coordinates their car pools to converge on wherever it is good. To have flown two out of two days at two incredible sites has me feeling like I've won a lottery here so I will be quite content if the rest of our holiday involves hiking and snorkelling, but who knows? Maybe he luck will continue. It is, after all my birth week! - Kevin
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| 8°C Cloudy with 70 percent chance of showers. High 8. It was a good call today calling off flying as students are itching to get in the air, but we didn't waste the day.
Blanchard WA Report - TJ, Jiri & Jeff (HG) flew Blanchard today with mixed results. TJ posted something about kite surfing in the LZ so I guess it was wet & windy on landing. Cloud Forest from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. Point of the Mountain Petition - Click here to see and sign the petition to stop gravel mining at the Point of the Mountain. The Point of the Mountain flying site used to be south of Salt Lake City but urban growth has now placed it right in the middle of the city. The Utah Flying Association managed to persuade the state of Utah to create a park there but that hasn't stopped the gravel mining as Geneva Rock Co. has purchased all the surrounding land and is mining it now.
Point of the Mountain: Red area is to be mined out by 2016, green areas are safe for now, purple is future mining all owned by Geneva Rock. Colleen and I were faced with a similar situation in 2000 when Woodside was effectively closed due to Hoof & Mouth Disease in 1999. It was either train pilots in the US or other sites not affected in BC. It was costing us so much in gas and hotels that we decided to buy Eagle Ranch. We knew we needed a secure location that we could train without worrying about LZ access and government shutdowns. Chris Santacroce made a post suggesting that the local Utah flying community should have bought the surrounding land when they made their flight park there a few years ago. Now it may be too late. Oddly, I found a UPI report that says they are moving the Cusco Airport to Chinchero north of Cusco, right near the two flying sites we visited here, so they willl be affected by urban expansion here in Peru too. Progress does not like free flight.
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| 16°C Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Risk of thunderstorms late this afternoon. High 7.
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| 16°C Mostly cloudy with rain, then a chance of rain in the afternoon. High of 16C. Winds from the East at 5 to 15 km/h shifting to the NNW in the afternoon. Chance of rain 80%. Initially, we were worried about getting out of Cusco with low celings and rain the past few days but the flight left there on time, arriving at Lima in the afternoon to a smoggy calm sky, so we stayed in the airport opting for a spa afternoon at the Airport Ramada rather taking the afternoon to head to Miraflores Flying Site, which only works with SW winds. Our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 11:50 pm, and it too was delayed an hour in the end. A few hours of sleep and we were in Houston and because Customs took too long, we missed our connection to Denver by a few minutes. But they got us on another flight that got us into Denver in time to make the final Vancouver flight home. Guess what . . . it was raining in Vancouver when we landed! All the gear was loaded into the Suburban at home and we headed to the Ranch to unpack after a long two weeks. Peru was a great experience but neither the coastal soaring or the interior flying was that great this time of year, I think October is probably a better time to visit to fly. But the historical aspects of Machu Picchu and other sites is worth the trip.
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| 18°C Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the afternoon. High of 18C. Winds from the NE at 10 to 15 km/h shifting to the North in the afternoon. Chance of rain 40%. We left the hotel at 6 am to catch the Peru Rail bus to the train station near Machu Picchu as the rains here have closed the tracks with many landslides.
This llama followed me down the mountain and at once point passed me on some steeps stairs completely oblivious to my presence.
Paragliding at Elk Mountain. 7 March 2013 from Steve Duncan on Vimeo. Steve Duncan at Elk Mountain last weekend doing some cloud surfing, sweet video! New Ozone Delta 2 test flight from Japan
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| 18°C Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the afternoon. High of 18C. Winds from the NE at 10 to 15 km/h shifting to the North in the afternoon. Chance of rain 40%. Colleen went out looking for meds and crutches for me and took the car back to Hertz as we won't need it in Machu Picchu tomorrow.
Woodside Report - only Biff and Martin N out today at Woodside grabbing one last flight before the rain fall comes for the next week. Differing reports of 40 minutes and 1:30 flights and getting to 800 metres with Martin doing the retrieve in his Yaris! The FlyBC Shuttle should soon be running on my return.
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| 20°C Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the afternoon. High of 20C. Winds from the ENE at 5 to 15 km/h shifting to the North in the afternoon. Chance of rain 60%. As we hiked down to the launch proper, we found light cycles from the north. Perfect! I went back and got Colleen's gear and set it up for me and took off into the void.
I chose a corn field right next to the highway but when I got closer I lost my headwind, in fact it may have changed to tailwind momentarily as I did one turn to final and came zooming in way too fast and plunked right into a row of dirt and stopped without a chance to PLF or run. The cornfields hSere are different than Tapalpa, Mexico. The rows are raised quite high and the dirt is hard due to the rains. Also in this field the rows were north-south and the wind was from the west. When I picked myself up after landing, I could tell I had done something to my left foot but I could walk and pack up the wing, and was waiting for Colleen on the road when she drove down. Always check out the LZs at a new site! Especially flying an XS wing overloaded at 3400 metres ASL. I walked around town all afternoon and after dinner but the foot is still pretty sore but I finally had a real flight in Peru! Still wish I had brought the R-09 but I thought we we going to stay at coastal Lima rather than heading to Cusco.
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| 19°C Mostly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the afternoon. High of 20C. Winds from the NNE at 5 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 50% Twenty pilots were out soaring over Woodside at 1200 metres before attempting XC flights west and east.
Nicole was the only one to cross the Fraser and connect with Bridal where Alan was the sole pilot on that side of the Fraser, both landing at the Bridal LZ. More info is here at: Nicole's Blog One un-named or un-identified pilot was attempting a top-landing on Woodside Launch and it became a tree-landing instead. No injuries but it took a long time to retrieve the glider. Cusco Report - we decided to rent a car today to explore the sites as we can't locate the local school operator. We have two days to fly before taking a train to Machu Pichu and the highest ruins in Peru.
The top-landing area is large with no obstacles and it is about 200 metres away and 20 metres lower, so if you launch and start sinking you can swing left and land immediately.
Leonardo has several long flights from this launch, the longest being a 126 km OLC flight south in 2011 over a lot of tiger country with a max altitude of 6000 metres. We stayed for a few pictures and then headed to Chinchero for a snack and some stops for photos of some more ruins. These ruins are everywhere and if you do a Wikipedia Search for Inca Ruins you will find a great history behind these sites. It is hard to imagine the sheer engineering skills and manpower it took to create these monuments, which could not be duplicated with current engineering and machinery.
Once back in Cusco we had to navigate some very narrow streets with some "loco" drivers but found our hotel and even a secure parking spot for the evening before heading for dinner. The high-altitude headaches are gone but at Cerro Sacro I found even kiting to be a challenge with the thin air making any effort seem hard. Official Video from Cusco Open 2007 - at Valle de Sagrado in Peru
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| 19°C Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain in the afternoon. High of 19C. Breezy. Winds from the ENE at 10 to 20 km/h shifting to the North in the afternoon. Chance of rain 60%. From FSX: Located in the heart of Cuzco city, the airport is at an altitude of approximately 10,800 feet above MSL. It is one of the highest commercial airports in the world, where the air is a lot thinner and on top of that, there are mountains flanking the airport on the North and South sides that reach above 2000 feet. Aerosoft have produced some great airports for the simming world but, I think Cuzco X must rank among the most difficult to takeoff and land at. With the air being a lot thinner at this altitude, takeoffs and landings have to be undertaken at greater speeds, which effectively makes the runway shorter than it appears. The runway is built on an uneven and sloping terrain with one end situated more than 150 feet higher than the other end. This makes choosing which end to land or takeoff from a foregone conclusion. Uphill for landing (runway 28). Downhill for taking off (runway 10). No matter what the wind speeds are! There is no ILS available at Cuzco and pilots have to fly a demanding circle approach. The airport closes if visibility prevents a visual approach. That said we had a nice smooth approach and the A320 looked like it was going 200 knots on final due to the thin air, but the landing was smooth and our bags were dispatched quickly. A cab took us to our hotel: Terra Andina which we found on Travelocity as a deal with the flight. It is an older hotel, maybe over 100 years old, but nice and clean with a street view that is reminiscent of Tapalpa, Mexico. We unpacked, and went downtown to see the sights and sounds and meet the locals. Oddly, most street vendors speak excellent English (but reading later on Wikipedia I saw Tourism is very big in Cusco). After ordering a vegetarian meal, the waiter kept bringing me Llama Steaks, and twice. That meat smells like Llama too! I finally got my Tacu Tacu meal and it was excellent. We are both experiencing some headaches from being at 3400 metres but that is normal for sea level folks used to thinner air. Tomorrow we try to fly Valle Sagrado as the winds are NE, but not much sun here.
Woodside Report - several Facebook reports from Denis, Guy and Mark C suggest it was an awesome day at Woodside. 1200 metre cloudbase, 2 hour flights and top-landings all around to save the retrieves.
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|  30°C Overcast with a chance of rain in the morning, then partly cloudy. High of 30C. Winds from the WSW at 5 to 15 km/h. Chance of rain 30%. I walked and then took a chicken bus with the locals to the site and waited for a bit before bailing at 4:30 to head home to go to dinner. After dinner near Kennedy Park we saw a local cat lady serving up food for the stray cats around here, and saw Bob's Peruvian cousin. Tapalpa Competition Report - La Ceja hosted the March 2-3 Mexican Nationals and Stefan L took 10th place on his Ozone Delta!
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| 28°C Overcast in the morning, then partly cloudy. High of 28C. Winds from the SW at 10 to 15 km/hr I got sidetracked at a few places along the route including the Fuerza de Aeria Museo where I saw a beautiful Boeing Stearman biplane tucked away behind a steel gate off Arequipa Street.
When I finally arrived at Miraflores Launch I saw an old hangglider setup, but this one had a motor? On closer inspection it had a Solo 210 motor attached to a floating frame attached to the keel, and it had wheels similar to tandem aerotow rigs. The owner Roger is a German who has lived here for 40 years. The hangglider turned out to be an APCO Nimbus circa 1987 and other than a few rips in the leading edge it was pretty fresh looking.
I waited til the Magic Hour around 4:30 pm, but no wind today. I finally figured out why I was feeling like I was going the wrong way walking in town, as the sun is in the north in the Southern Hemisphere but it is not as obvious as being in Australia as at the 12th latitude here the sun is more overhead. Colleen and I went for dinner at Huaca Pucllana, a restaurant in the middle of Miraflores district where there are preserved ruins from 200 AD. Pretty amazing history from that era before the Spanish invaded in the 1500s.
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| 29°C I started walking from the hotel trying a different route but halfway there the 30 degree temps got a bit much so I stopped for a RedBull and a sandwich and then took a cab the rest of the way. Cabs are pretty cheap and an adventure in themselves . . . traffic in Lima is insane. Full sized bumper cars all jockeying for the same space on the roads! And lots of horn honking to warn that they are coming through. I arrived at the Parapuerto to find fog rolling in over launch but if the winds picked up one could fly. Oddly the winds have been very light, and I wish I had brought the R-09 instead of the SCirroco.
After Mario came back and top-landed, another local wanted to try the A2 and he was a bit heavier maybe 60 kilos, and he almost sunk out as it got lighter. I certainly was not going to go now loaded up to 90 kilos on the A2. One pilot on a MacPara wing had a few flights and decided to go one last time and ended up on the Playa, so I made the right call. At least I got some locals to try the Addict 2 and it may be sold here, as Colleen's new Mantra M4 is at the Ranch now. Another day in Peruvian Paradise!
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| 27°C Very hot today sunning on the cliffs waiting for the winds . . . but someone knew it would turn on as there were 10 pilots waiting too. One pilot brought out his F-Gravity Acro Wing and started soaring and top-landing easily.
Paragliding and Touring in Peru from Guy Leblanc on Vimeo. Thanks to Robin S for the video link!
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| 29°C Google Maps said the walk would be 5.3 kms and 1 hour and 3 minutes by foot, we took a bit longer as we stopped to see the sights & sounds of Lima (which pretty much looks like Vancouver's West End). We came upon a bike/longboard event near Kennedy Park and saw this little girl learning how to longboard with her dad.
Back in BC/WA apparently the winds were too strong on Whidbey Island & Dallas Road in Victoria, but Denis reported flying all day at Woodside in "ripping strong" winds. Mother Woodside delivers again! Woodside Report - Great early spring day out at Woodie! Dennis may have found it crazy windy, but it was very manageable, about 10 - 15kph SW or so. Just enough dynamic lift on the mountain, and enough instability for some nice, fat thermals out front and over the subdivision bump. About a dozen pilots out, and everyone had a great flight, around 2 hours (landing before we got too cold!) Cloudbase was at about 1,100 metres, and it was easy to get there - Robin S Blanchard WA Report - Al T, Biff R, Harry. S met the Bellingham boys at Blanchard on Sunday at 1 pm. The winds were gusty and very north. Lots of other pilots were waiting. Jim W flew and it didn't inspire so several of us went to the longhorn for soup and returned at 4 pm to an empty launch and much better winds. Al and I flew, got up and soared the NW facing ridge almost to the Camel Dome for one hour. Doug, Delvin, and Jim also flew with Jim top-landing. Patience rewarded - Biff
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