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FlyBC "Site of the Day March 2015 Archive Page"
Woodside was be wet & windy this Month
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| 3/31/15 |
 Agassiz BC Rain ending this morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. Windy. High 11.
 FlyBC has finalized plans for this years SIV Course and if all goes well we may run more courses throughout the year. We have moved the venue to Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver after discussions with Herminio, the new owner of Northshore Paragliding for 2015. SIV Advanced Maneuvers Course 2015 info here. Closer to home for lower mainland pilots, no shuttles or boat towing required. We can land at the normal LZ, the High School or at Cleveland Dam Park (where Mark Tulloch did some video shoots a few years ago). 3/30/15
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| Agassiz BC Rain ending this morning then cloudy. High 16. Apparently he had to head home after a few hours but it looked "sweet". Nice CUs and not too much wind in the Valley. Derek called me around 4 pm and arrived at the Ranch a bit later, and we went up to fly. I took my cheater wing, Nova Factor L, and a light SupAir XA13 harness and launched first and tried North . . . nada. Headed south to the SOuth Knoll and worked some light thermals close to the trees. Nice to not have to watch students or drive retrieves for a change! Derek worked the house thermal in front of launch and I flew past him heading to Lenamis Bowl and caught some light lift at 300 metres, pretty low to make it out to the Ranch if it is windy. I worked that thermal through 480 metres where a falcon joined me and easily outclimbed me as the thermal drifted back to the north ridgeline. I was hoping to get high enough to top-land but no more than 480 metres on my vario so I headed out and found nothing but sinky air and I had to work the highway to even make it to the Ranch. Derek had landed just ahead of me and he looked low too but landed in the circle. I came over the Bailout Swamp with some height and noticed the Beavers have really stepped up the dam building as the swamp is half filled now. Maybe even enough to do SIV Courses here now?
Nice landing winds from the SE. I drove Derek up to get his truck and then off the the Squatch for dinner. 3/29/15
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|  Agassiz BC Rain. Amount 10 to 15 mm. High 12. The weekend was also a washout unless you headed to Blanchard WA. Next weekend promises more of the same but some folks are heading to Oceanside OR for the Fly-In there. We have a new (used) Gin Carerra M in Red coming in to our used stock soon. Come for a demo flight and ssee how good an EN-B glider can perform! 3/28/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Windy near noon. High 13. Blanchard WA Report - we considered Whidbey Island today but Colleen did not have her passport, but apparently it looked good down there. Jeff reported in from the top of launch at Blanchard but without his glider. But he got some video of someone launching!
Palomar CA Report - Kevin is in San Diego visiting family and has been flying Torrey Pines and yesterday flew Palomar Mtn. Climbs to 2150 metres in +5 m/s lift. Top landing on a plateau in strong winds with some locals.
3/27/15
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|  Agassiz BC Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. High 19. UV index 4 or moderate. Matt was here on Day Two of his course and had a nice first launch and a great approach into the Ranch. Colleen & I headed back up with 2 tandems and Matt & Jonathon. The forecast winds did not materialize and we had good launch conditions, just not much lift as it was warm & inverted when we flew. The students got one more flight and Jonathon looked doomed to land in the Bailout Swamp at one point and it is very wet as the Beavers are building a much bigger dam this year. But we managed to find some lift for him north of Hwy 7 and he made it over Chimp Creek and into the landing circle! We did not bother going up for another flight as the air was weirdly textured, probably the higher winds aloft were rolling over Woodside area making it a bit rotory. But we flew despite the forecast strong winds! It was Motos's last flying day in Canada and he has achieved his P-2 Rating with a 90% pass mark (excellent theory and practical knowledge). Bye Bye Moto! See you someday in Japan!
3/26/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers in the morning. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud in the afternoon. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. We had east winds all the way to Mission but when we arrived at Heritage Park the wind was straight up the hill but light. Matt was a natural, the Ozone Element II he was flying was working well for him and he was in the air everytime with no aborts and smooth brake inputs!
We put the Element away and got out the tandem gear as it looked too strong for a solo flight, but it turned out there was light lift and no wind in the air. Derek, Al, Martin N, Nikolai, Igor all flew before us and it was tough to stay up. Derek got to the top of the stack near the SOuth Knoll being very patient, and Al headed out to the Ranch low and caught the "best climb of the day" over the corn field west of the Ranch. After climbing almost back to launch height Al dove back into the Woodside Bowl and started to sink out again? All the while we waited for a cycle as it was blowing down, cross but never up. Parawaiting lessons. We finally got a cycle and we headed out to where the clouds were forming and "nada". We searched around looking for lift to the north and fund little, but it was a good opportunity for Matt to practice flying the glider and practicing the FlyBC approach pattern. We had a nice landing in the circle on our feet and packed up. We headed back up in the Van to try for a solo for Matt, and Jeff & Derek flew off first to test the air for Matt. It was now soarable and easy to stay up.
3/25/15
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| Agassiz BC Showers. High 11. 3/24/15
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| Agassiz BC Showers. High 11. I was heading in to Vancouver for an appointment when the phone started ringing: Martin N, Al, Derek all wanted to know what was happening but I was already through Mission. Derek arrived on launch to see Denis top-landing and you can see how strong it was.
Blanchard WA Report - Claudia and I hiked up Blanchard and had some nice flying. Light winds, 3 or 4 pilots went east. The flats were also working, flew way out west and got to base right over the ocean at one point. Eagles all over and warm down next to a glass smooth mud bay.
3/23/15
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| Agassiz BC Periods of rain ending early this morning then mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 13. I drove the new all-elctric Vantage Van up to launch and it actually made it despite having slick road tires and it was heavy rain later. 3/22/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers early this morning. Showers this afternoon. High 11. Woodside was in fog almost to the ground, but everywhere else around us was in the clear and the outflow was not that strong, so we bailed on the roadtrip and waited for the fog to clear as we were fitting harnesses on the students. Around 10 am the clouds lifted and we headed up to launch: with Dale & Katherine from Kamloops, Mike M & Jonathon (who spent the day on the training hill yesterday getting tuned up. We had to wait for a few cycles and Dale flew off first (he is a signed off pilot) and he had a nice buoyant flight. Next off was Jonathon on his first solo on his new FreeX Joker (circa 2002), followed by Mike M on our demo Buzz Z4.
I drove down to retrieve the boys after very nice approaches and landings, as Del & Katherine went to lunch. Back on launch with another group of pilots, Mike M launched first this time but the cycles and the older Joker made it tough for Jonathon and he got denied after three aborts because it started to sprinkle. By the time we arroved back at the Ranch it was a full on monsoon. This was definitely better than a 5 hour drive and very productive for the newbies! 3/21/15
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| Agassiz BC Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. High 13C. Winds ESE at 15 to 25 km/h. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near 6mm. We worked in the Barn Classroom from 9 am to 2 pm, and then as the radar showed a band of clearing we headed to Mission for some training hill fun. When we arrived the cycles were a bit strong but straight in. The grass was pretty slippery as it had rained hard for several days out here.
Jonathan was up first and he had never kited or clipped in before but with a bit of coaching he was off on his first forward launch and floating to the middle of the flats below, very nice brake control and very smooth. Mike clipped in next and he had already had some practice on Burnaby Mountain a few days ago, and desite the Freex being a bit slower to come up (2002 technology), he too had a very nice flight down the hill. We continued for about 1.5 hours and then it started to sprinkle again, so we headed back to the Ranch to dry everything out in the Barn (nice woodfire going to dry out the air). More groundschool and then as the skies opened up we headed up to launch to check it out. The forecast said 31 knots from the SW at launch, but the telescope showed maybe 15 kph on the sock. Up on launch it was a different story. Huge thermals in front of launch were rising moist air at estimated 5 m/s. And this in totally cloudy skies with 0% sun. A rainbow behind the South Knoll showed it was raining there. More rain over Sasquatch Mtn.
We waited until 7 pm and then drove down as it was not safe for even experienced pilots, let alone newbies! We can always fly another day! 3/19/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. Periods of rain beginning this afternoon. High 13. Good day for errands and paying bills. Don't try this at home on an especially on an Ozone EnZo2 (standard disclaimer for such videos). Note speed bar activation to allow shallow glide angles. 3/18/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Low 6. But the development looked awesome! All along the Dewdney & Deroche area the lift looked amazing with nice black-bottomed CUs all along the way. When I arrived, I finished a few chores, rearranging the parking a bit more. Please park to the north of the small barn where the telescope resides. The area west of the big barn has "No Parking" signs as the septic system is under that location. We are moving the Classroom and Office into the travel trailer for this season as the Big Barn is being used for a workshop area. When Al & Richard arrived we drove up in Al's truck. We saw one wing over Woodside and heard chatter on the radio . . . mostly Russian as Igor, Vladimir & Nikolai were out today. Al launched first to check the air as we heard Igor say it was "choppy" in the air earlier. Al climbed out immediately and it looked smooth under the big CU behind launch.
Al disappeared over the back of Woodside and we lost radio contact with him as I drove his truck back to the Ranch. I overhead Alex R on channel and he was at BJ in WA State flying with Claudia, and his radio was as clear s if he was here at Woodside. Alex's flight in WA State is recorded here I picked up Richard and switched to our Van and we drove to find Al, who had made it to 1400 metres before heading to Green Hill and then almost back to Harvest Market. I wanted Richard to see Harvest Market LZ options as the normal field is in seed right now so we are landing on the west side of Cameron Road right across from the normal LZ.
Al launched first and then Richard had a good inflation but stared at his wing and let it overshoot and then jumped in the harness resulting in a skid and drag (ie failed launch). No need to check the wing after a reverse launch, it was already inflated and ready to go . . . just accelerate and launch. Richard's second launch was good and I suggested following Al as he was finding climbs all over the place, South Knoll and north of the bailout swamp too.
Another pilot, Tom arrived on launch just as I drove down and he later said he got to 1100 metres on his first flight soaring for an hour. Reports back from Igor had him landing at the Bridal Compressor Station and Nikolai was somewhere near Green Hill, so it is turning on for XC. Some speedwing action from a Dutchy in Switzerland. 3/17/15
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| Agassiz BC Mainly sunny. Increasing cloudiness near noon. Windy near Hope early this morning. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate. I kept myself busy reworking the Parking Area for Pilots, closing the main area south of the Barn for now. All parking is now north of the Barn.
Kevin waited around and he and Denis got to fly around 4:00 pm and the inflow finally kicked in and they got above launch and had tremendous flights! As Kevin says "Those who take a chance . . . get to dance!"
3/16/15
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| Agassiz BC Clearing this morning. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate. 3/15/15
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| Agassiz BC A mix of sun and cloud. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. The drive home was even uglier with blowing snow, ice and many crashes. We waited one hour at the Toll Booth area for an accident to get cleared and there is new snow on Woodside. 3/14/15
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| Agassiz BC A mix of sun and cloud. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. We also looked at a vineyard as a possible new base for FlyBC. Interesting possiblities with flying sites on either side of the Oyama townsite.
3/13/15
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| Agassiz BC A mix of sun and cloud. High 19. UV index 3 or moderate. Later I took a load of 6 pilots up including Richard S, but the clouds obscured any hope of lift and the winds went tail on us. Guy & Martin managed to get off but it didn't look safe for Richard so we drove down. 3/12/15
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| Agassiz BC A mix of sun & cloud. Windy. High 17. I went up at 1 pm with two tandem passengers and we waited, and even when the sun was obscured it was still gusty. The eagles were soaring on half their wings! Martin N hiked up Bridal and reported strong South winds and decided to hike down as we drove down after an hour of waiting. 3/11/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning this morning. Amount 5 to 10 mm. High 13. No flight reports back from Bridal or Elk. 3/10/15
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. Increasing cloudiness this afternoon. Fog patches over western sections early this morning. High 18. UV index 3 or moderate. I drove to Agassiz to renew my insurance and get a car wash and was nearly blown off the road at the Harrison Gap! Around 4 pm the winds subsided and Derek, Martin & wayne arrived to go flying. Lee had already started hiking up Woodside for exercise??? We arrived on launch at 5:00 pm and Martin launched first in a no wind forward launch.
Lee was up last and it started to blow down, we waited and waited and when it calmed down he got away with a "trimmers open reverse launch" on his paramotor wing. I drove down as I had to drive to the city later and the retrieve would take some time. 3/9/15
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate. Samuel landed at the Ranch and said it was turbulent. Others said Riverside was rough too. All of the pilots went to Bridal as Kevin arrived to repack his tandem reserve as it had failed to come out of the lunch bag style D-bag after evven three tosses. We repacked it into a normal Diaper Bag style D-bag and it fit quite small for a 22 gore tandem chute. Lee & Wayne arrived and Wayne wrote his P-2 exam as we headed up the mountain. I took a Gin Atlas to see how it would feel in turbulence and Kevin was flying his M-6. I launched first and it was gusty at launch and I headed north. It turned out that was not the right was to go as it was due South in the air, meaning the north ridge was in the lee. Thoughts of Tonya's escapades last year came to mind as I flew out of the lee and out to the Lower Launch Point where I finally picked up some lift. From there I headed to the South Knoll to top up the lost altitude. I could get to the top of the South Knoll but no higher and it was all thermals here. Kevin launched next and stayed in front of launch and ridge soared up to 1100 metres.
I was able to maintain about 15-20 kph groundspeed so the wind seemed to be around 20-25 kph in the air, no that bad but it was gusty. After 30 minutes of not getting very high, I headed out towards the Construction Zone and that was not working as I got parked and even was heading backwards at times??? I headed more westerly and got some nice beeps all the way out to the HG LZ, where I headed south to the Ranch. I was now down to 5 kph groundspeeds. But I was still climbing and at 500 metres so no problems making the Ranch. And then I was almost to the goal post trees when I started going backwards. It was windier down low in the venturi caused by the ridgelines and the south winds. Duncans had sprayed their fields with something brown a week ago and while it was dry by now I didn't feel like packing up in the brown stuff so I headed cross wind to Bill Best's Field. I was low going across but the thermals off the highway took me to the field with no problems and I was then parked and sometimes going backwards over Bill Best's Field but I just hovered down to a nice safe touchdown (although it was still turbulent on final).
He left at 1100 metres over Woodside and was at 800 metres over Cemetary Hill and not going down. He spiralled down and had a nice landing in south winds there too, but a lot less 10-15 kph at most.
Lil Nic Report - John W & Richard T flew Lil Nic yesterday and had 1.5 hours of nice soaring landing at sunset. John has installed some carpeting on Lil Nic Launch and it looks really good for launching now, should keep the weeds down too.
3/8/15
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this afternoon. Fog patches dissipating this morning. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate. Derek reported getting 2+ hours on Rod's new Swift 4, others about the same not getting that high but they stayed in the air. Some rough patches in the air until later in the day.
3/7/15
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| Agassiz BC Mainly sunny. High 17. UV index 3 or moderate. Then magically the lift turned on around 2 pm. Derek apparently got 2 hours, Colleen and Annette flew for 45 minute or more and Alan reported getting 3 hours at Bridal! Spring is here! 3/6/15
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| Agassiz BC A mix of sun and cloud. High 15. UV index 3 or moderate. I am going to be at the Vancouver Convention Centre East Hall all weekend promoting our sport, if you want free tickets call me and I can arrange to have them at the show office for you. Richard arrived after 2 pm as did Annette. Thomm was out after a long hiatus and bagged a flight on his M4 as we arrived on launch.
Annette got one flight late in the day too. Rod was flying with Tonya when we arrived but we always managed to miss each other, but we did get his van driven down at the end of the day. Robin managed to tear himself away from Lego and bagged a few nice flights despite the inversion layer right at launch altitude, maybe the forecast rains for Tuesday will clear out the smog.
3/5/15
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| Agassiz BC Cloudy. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. High 14. UV index 3 or moderate. Mo was having some launching issues yesterday on the Gin Atlas, failing to feel the brakes or stopping the wing overhead in time, so we switched him to an Icaro WildCat which is somewhat slower to come up and problems were solved. We spent an hour on our Eagle Ranch training hill and he perfected the forward launch sequence and then we went up at 11 am. Mo had his first flight at 11:30 am and it was already soarable.
Nelson was down in Mexico for a week learning with us and he remembered most everything (except for not grabbing the risers after getting airborne). He has a great reverse launch! During the mid-day Alex R, Claudia, Martin, Kevin, Guy and a few others flew and got soarable conditions as long as they stayed above launch. Below launch was crappy inverted lift close to the hill. You can see the inversion in this photo of Alex.
3/4/15
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. High 12. It lookes like someone crashed a paraglider into one of the tall trees and left it there? I wonder who could have been up there besides FlyBC?
Morad had a few duffs, too much brake or not running, but he got off fine and headed out to the Ranch where he had a great landing. We all headed back up with Colleen wanting to fly and I drove down to receive Morad in the LZ. After many duffs it was decided it was time to take Morad back to the training hill for safety sake, and Colleen flew down and she got the nicest flight of the day soaring for 25 minutes before she headed out to land and warm up. The earlier flights at noon were very choppy according to Martin N and Denis. Gary P had a spring failure on Woodside and needed a tow home, never complain about the $10 shuttle fees here or at Bridal.
Elk Report - Kevin & Sam soared Elk til sunset today.
3/3/15
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| Agassiz BC Sunny. Windy early this morning. High 11. Mo showed up at 1030 am, for his first day of lessons and we started with a 2 hours indoor ground school session, one hour Ground Handling Video by Ozone, and then some kiting practice for a few hours. He knows how to reverse launch and forward launch nicely already. Then around 3 pm the winds switched from outflow to normal SE in our LZ (always a good sign of inflow coming to Woodside), and Al arrived so we headed up for a tandem flight with Mo. We met Martin N at the bottom and we had a few wind techs to show us the lift as we got ready. Al flew off first, followed by Martin N. Al was getting to 900 metres over the SOuth Knoll and then he came in and top-landed. Something about a pod not closing and he was getting cold. We got ready and had a few duffs as Mo stopped running. We finally got in the air despite Mo sitting on the final launch run, but I pushed him off! We caught a nice climb right off launch, and a collapse too, that re-opened before the camera could even capture it and we were off and climbing. We were climbing in a nice leeside thermal in front of launch when Martin N joined us and photobombed a nice picture!
Sweet conditions for my first day back and my feet are almost defrosted after a few hours of walking around. Nice to get out with the local "homies" who could not come to Mexico with us. I drove Al & Derek up to retrieve their rigs, and was greeted by an awesome sunset on the way down.
3/2/15
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| Guadalajara Mexico Plentiful sunshine. High 28C. Winds SE at 15 km/h. The flights were mostly on time and I arrived back at YVR around midnight, much easier than the 5 days driving it normally takes. Too cold for shorts in PHX or YVR though. 3/1/15
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| Guadalajara Mexico Plentiful sunshine. High 28C. Winds SE at 15 km/h. Reports back from Bob at Tapalpa suggested it was rough as he suffered an 80% collapse on his tandem, regaining control 50 metres over the top landing field! El Doc (Medico) flew to Zacoalco from Tapalpa getting flushed there on his way to San Marcos. 2/28/15
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| Guadalajara Mexico Plentiful sunshine. High 28C. Winds S at 15 km/h.
The Colima Nevado erupted again, and was showing the upper level winds quite well.
He launched first and had a dodgy launch with some touchdowns and side-to-side rolling before taking off and sinking down to the fingers. I clipped Terry in and tried launching the `Rainbi` several times and was getting frontals, collapses and was cursing the wing, but when I finally launched it was clear that we had strong South (or over the back conditions at times). I hit a strong headwind and rotory air until I got out to the fingers too. We climbed out with Camilo and even above at times and we both got above launch and I contemplated top-landing but was not liking the turbulence near launch so I kept my distance. I lost sight of Camilo as we thermalled further out and Colleen reported that he had top-landed okay. I thermalled my way out to the sunny areas on the flats and we crusied around in much smoother air, but it was still 20+ kph in the air making for slow upwind speeds. We thermalled our way north to the big HG field near the crossroad and had a sweet landing in the cut alfalfa. Terry was very happy! I reported back that the air near launch was "crappy" but Matt had already launched and was getting bounced around the spines and he finally got high enough to top-land. The problem was that Colleen had already driven down, as had Camilo & Andres so we had to go back up to retrieve him as it started blowing over the back at launch. We went back up for lunch and fed the birds and saw Atuk top-landing in strong SW winds before we headed off to San Marcos.
It might even be passable by Norm's Vocho soon! Colleen is leaving tomorrow for Vancouver and I follow a day later once the house is shutdown. |
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