FlyBC "Site of the Day Archives" - May /2004
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| /1000' (unstable) | 4800 ft. |
Woodside Report - Derek flew in and landed in the Eagle Ranch Parking area while I was mowing the grass. Later, Mark F, Derek and I headed up the mountain at 4:30 pm and we had a 14 minute sledder, all landing simultaneously in the parking lot. Alan stayed home.
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| /1000' (unstable) 4800 ft.
Savona Report - we had a great two days in Savona! Mike C, Lou B and Ian G came out with new pilot, Nathalia P. Everyone flew many flights off the various hills in Savona. A few sprinkles of rain but overall not windy or too thermic for students. I even managed a few ridge soaring flights off the Dump Ridge Sunday before we headed home.
| Woodside Report - we heard reports of a HG that was lying upside down on Woodside Launch Saturday! Who? No news as of Monday! It wasn't me 'cause I haven't been HGing up there (yet).
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| /1000' (unstable) 3200 ft.
Woodside Report - it was a cold and rainy day after 10:30 am.
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| /1000' (unstable) 3200 ft.
Endless Thermal Movie Review - great work from Victoria film-maker Sean White! Excellent new camera angles. Great locations, I want to go to the Dolomites for lunch! Good inflight action on Ozone Vulcans, which Ozone donated for the movie. | One of the things that made an impression on me was the part Herminio has an emotional moment about "sharing the experience of flight" - which is why FlyBC was formed . . . to share the sport of paragliding and flight with as many people as possible. It isn't about making money or selling gear, it is about making new friends through flight - Jim  Woodside Report - Mark F said it was blown out all day, and it got worse later in the evening. Greece Report - Hello Jim and Colleen, I hope all is well with you two, and FlyBC. I wanted to update you both on how things are going here in Alexandroupolis. Ive been able to check out quite a few sites for flying here, and they are quite remarkable. They are all within an hours drive and no less than 500 meters in height. I flew our closest site today (Plaka) which is roughly 520 meters, located in a beautiful valley just 20 minutes away from home, photos to come someday. All Ive got to say is flying is absolutely amazing. One thing I've noticed is the amazing thermals we get here, as well as high wind after 2:30 pm. I flew 3 hours today at this site, and 2.5 in Petrota which is about another 20 minute drive. This site is more of a ridge soaring site with beautiful scenery, absolutely beautiful. Xanthi, which is about an hour and 20 minutes is 740 meters, and is a good XC site. We launch 20 kms away from the city, and it is easy to reach it. I am taking a trip to another city closer to Athens, and am planning to fly, so I will keep you posted. If there will ever be a time where you, or someone you know would like to come here, let me know. I will send all the info for each site in all of Greece. Anyways, the wife just got home with some Gyros, and the belly is yakkin. I hope you all had a great trip in Mara lake, and also hope to hear from you soon - Paul Kramer email: kramers@otenet.gr
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| /1000' (unstable) 3200 ft.
Woodside Report - rain all day.
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| /1000' (unstable) 4700 ft.
Mara SIV Report - we had a great weekend. Flew two SIV days and we all flew XC to Enderby on Day 3! Only one required reserve deployment, with Kirill going from full stall into a cravatte, with a 700 meter reserve ride. Here he is drying out his gear at the Cabins. |  Carl and Derek T also got wet intentionally!  I followed the cloud street to this point and tried to head to Enderby here, should have stayed with the clouds towards Mabel Lake. I was at 2550 meters, with a 50 km groundspeed on a Tetra M (nice wing for rough air!).  As I crossed the powerlines, I hit huge sink and lots of head wind at this point.  A very pretty valley full of fields and powerlines.  Looking toward Enderby from 15 km east.  Colleen heads into land at Enderby School, shot from the Enderby Pub where I met Norm after missing the Gap crossing.
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| /1000' (unstable) 3200 ft.
Woodside Report - I took Jim T up to try his new Tetra at noon. Nice reversible cycles and some sun peaking through the clouds. He was able to soar for some time landing at Eagle Ranch right on the landing spot. It got windy after that and no one else flew.
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| /1000' (unstable) 4600 ft.
Woodside Report - Norm and Barry flew Woodside with Norm logging 1 hour on a Vulcan M before heading to work.
| Later Woodside Report - Derek flew Woodside after 6:00 pm and had a sweet flight getting to cloudbase in a few turns. Forum Update - off forum - XC vs being blown over the back at Woodside? Guest (or coward) says that going over the back is being blown over the back. Hmmm, climb to 1000+ meters AGL, head south to the knoll climb until you hit the top of the thermal and then head towards Agassiz via Hopyard Hill, near the Rosedale Bridge. Get your facts straight and fly Woodside once in a while to get the site briefing regarding the safe flight path to Agassiz. My experience level - 1000+ hours single/multi, 700+ hours solo PG, 400+ tandem PG, and I still drive down when it is too windy! - Jim.
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| /1000' (unstable) 4600 ft.
Bridal Report - I watched Barry and Luke get blown downwind while soaring, and they made the Swamp LZ barely. So I headed to Eagle Ranch to work. Later Derek had a great flight as the winds died down. Woodside was also way too strong and I met Andy on the way down from launch. Maybe tomorrow will look better?
| TJ Update - I stopped in to see TJ (Thomas John) Olney in the St Francis Rehab Centre in Bellingham on 5/18. I had also planned to fly Blanchard but it looked windy and after visiting a fellow pilot who is in the hospital because of a wind related accident it is sobering and makes one pause before deciding to fly. TJ crash-landed in rotor in severely strong wind, at Big Johnson (no relation to Ian) in WA east of Bellingham. This site has not been flown very much and they were caught by NE winds the mountain hid until TJ flew out to land. TJ was trying to get down in a thermic field and kept getting lifted up and drifted behind a high row of trees and before he knew it, he was heading downwind very rapidly. Despite landing on his legs first (the left one broke at the knee), he then landed hard on his butt crushing two vertabrae (which are now being fused by modern medicine and stainless steel). TJ can get up on his own to get to the bathroom, he is in good spirits and looks forward to getting back into paragliding as soon as he heals and gets the doctor's OK. He is scheduled to be back home by 5/30. His gear is back in Canada for repair to some lines the paramedics cut to get him out of the harness and we are selling it to get him some cash flow until next year when he returns to fly. Please think how it would look on an accident report . . . before you launch. Check the conditions and if there is any question that the flight may not go well, wait to fly another day - Jim
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| /1000' (stable) 4600 ft.
Woodside Report - some new pilots are "naturals", some take longer to "get it"! Yesterday we flew at Woodside and new students Steffi and Nicol from Germany flew at 10:00 am (5th solo flights), and again at 11:30 am (6th solo flight). As these ladies are both fixed wing and glider pilots, the learning curve was good, but on the last flight for Steffi, something clicked. | She had an excellent launch, and she immediately found a nice thermal near launch and slowed down to S-turn in the lift with excellent weight shifting and started climbing. She was soon over launch but staying out front, and I suggested flying out further and she found the core and started circling and was soon 400 meters above us and climbing under perfect control. No matter where she flew she was going up on the Fiesta Light she was flying. Norm asked how I was going to get her down but she just thermalled for a while and as she headed out she came over Eagle Ranch with enough height to do 360's, wingovers and landed right on the spot to the west (non-typical wind direction). Nicol followed her with a nice boaty flight with less lift and a perfect approach as well. They are heading to the Island to do whale-watching before coming back to finish their Novice Certification. I went tandem with Martin Polach piloting after the girls flew and we also had a nice soaring flight, with Norm and Jack going XC after we flew. Bev drove to avoid going tandem with Martin. Thanks, Bev! We headed to Bridal after 1:30 pm, to try our luck there as it was getting windy. I pointed out Mt Cheam on the drive to get Norm and Jack, and before we got to Bridal a "full-on" thunderstorm developed and we heard thunder over Bridal. Alan was on Bridal launch and Derek drove up to retrieve him before he got zapped. Andy reported horizontal lightning going from Agassiz to Sumas Mtn! After the thunderstorm passed we headed back up to Woodside launch and had an evening sled ride to send the girls on to the Island - Jim
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| /1000' (stable) 7000 ft.
Woodside Report - we had a great group of new students out for a Beginner Course this weekend. Four were booked in to join us for the Instructor Recert Course to be test subjects and at the last minute Friday afternoon, Nicol and Steffi from Germany joined us too (they are sailplane pilots on a holiday here).
These 6 students went through basic Ground School Friday night, Ground Handling and tandems Saturday and were flying solo all day Sunday with the reward of a soaring flight late Sunday afternoon (after 2 regular sled rides during the day)!
Fortunately the expected high winds never materialized and we only shut down for the students for 1.5 hours for thermic activity. | Bridal was a bad call as lots of pilots were trucking over to fly Woodside, and they weren't disappointed. Bev flew to Agassiz, Norm logged 3+ hours at cloudbase (I only flew with him for 45 minutes 'cause I had to teach later), Brad, Kevin, Ian J, Rob P and a bunch of others all flew and stayed up for hours. Eagle Ranch had the fullest parking lot we have seen for some time, fortunately we expanded the area with the new west entrance. Grouse Report - Nicole posted a 45 minute flight at Grouse, low cloudbase at times but nice overall (and no long drive)!
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| /1000' (standard) 7000 ft.
Bridal Report - strong winds at Bridal too, but because it is tucked into the hill, pilots were flying. Bob reported 2+ hours with some penetration issues, but no one was blown downwind.
| Woodside Report - good training conditions until 1:30 pm, when it started blowing hard. We went kiting in Aggasiz Rec Center until 6:30 pm and it was even stronger later.
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| /1000' (unstable) 7000 ft.
Woodside Report - too windy for Norm and Bev around 1:30 pm, so they drove down. We flew tandems later in the day with good lift. We spent most of the day training new students on the ground in excellent conditions.
| Bridal Report - many great flights with multiple top landings at Upper Launch. Nicole and Alan made it to Elk Mtn.
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| /1000' (unstable) 7000 ft.
Bridal Report - an interesting display of maneuvers to get out of cloud-suck was demonstrated by many pilots at Bridal. Good call on getting out of the air as there was thunder heard later. Flights were cut short at the 35 minute mark but by then everyone had hit 2300 meters!
| Woodside Report - Bev and Norm flew with Andy. Bev complained that she had a huge collapse on the Fiesta L she borrowed. Sky was full of sharp edged CU, go figure! She whimpered into FlyBC's new landing zone at Harvest Market. Later we had 1 hour flights at 6:00 pm after the CU disappeared.
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| /1000' (unstable) 7000 ft.
Woodside Report - a very excited Bev called to say Norm and Andy "were way up high" heading to Harrison. Her wing was in the shop so she was designated driver. She will be in the air soon. Norm reported +5.0 m/s lift and was above the towers in 5 minutes! Andy and Norm had huge grins when they landed, Andy landing at the Agassiz Community Centre near his new house, and Norm near the Harrison Esso at the Crossroads.
| Bridal Report - Colleen and I headed out to Bridal to meet Derek at 2:45 pm and Alan, Nikolai and Ihor were already up on the ridge. A truck load of us arrived to strong cycles that were more vertical than horizontal making the launches interesting (especially Fred's!). I launched aand climbed straight up and back at Lower Launch. I didn't move forward more than a few metres but gained 500 meters of altitude before I could circle. Very hard thermalling with so much wind from the southwest, more "figure-8-ing" than turning until I got to the Saddle. Then it was just ridge soaring. Ihor reported an exciting landing approach at the swamp with lots of gusts and lift. After about 45 minutes of getting pummelled, I was at 1500 meters and decided to try to fly to Agassiz cross valley to land at the High School where Norm works after 3:00. It is a tough crossing as it is cross wind, over the Fraser River and generally no lift over the flats. But today was special! Good thermals along the way, I was making 30-35 kms ground speed and at times and sink rate less than 1 m/s. I arrived at Agassiz at 500 meters over the town and it was windy on the ground and expected a similar landing experience to Ihor's at Bridal. But I remained upwind of the school, lost altitude slowly and I had a few bumps but nothing scary and hooked a 360 into the soccer field and landed vertically in the centre of the field. I was wonderring how I would find Norm in the school, but as I walked toward the school there was Norm. He saw my shadow as he was working and came out to watch me land. He thought I had come from Woodside and was surprised to hear I flew from Bridal. It was not a long XC but it was very pretty, reminding me of the days we flew from Cheam and landed at Highland Helicopters in Agassiz in '95-96. As Rob S mentioned to me when I was flying, if I would have headed downwind after crossing the River, I could have put on some serious kms, but then I couldn't harass Norm at work! - Jim ps: Ihor came and picked me up in Agassiz and I drove for the rest of the pilots who launched later and had fabulous flights after it got less windy. Landing at 8:00 pm.  .For those unfamiliar with the area, look at this picture. Agassiz is just behind the two humps in the middle right of the picture. Bridal is out of view to the top right. You can just make out the town thru the haze in this older picture from 2001.
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| /1000' (unstable) 2600 ft.
Bridal Report - Colleen and I broke free and headed to Bridal around 2:45 pm, but missed a ride up the mountain with Derek. We watched Alan, Ihor and Fred launch and fight some fairly strong east wind. Rob S launched and also fought the east wind but it started to turn more northerly and everyone started to get high. Ihor got trashed a bit near the ridge so he headed out to land and spent 30 minutes over the golf course playing. | We all headed up in the Suburban after Derek drove down and the cycles were more normal so Derek launched, I tried several times and gave up (I forgot my normal kit, and only had the Keara and a few borrowed items to fly with), Colleen launched after waiting for the sun as Derek was already away and I was trying to talk Ihor into relaunching but he insisted I go again. I was at the top and brought the Keara up, I started to run and the wing yawed 90 degrees left as I left the ground, I had been running sideways trying to get it to turn right and it spun 180 degrees dropping me back onto the slope on my back (thank goodness for airbags). No damage to me other than a grass stain. Ihor launched and I went to the bottom and launched finally and started to climb with the others. Good lift everywhere and no drivers so I stayed close to the lower launch in case it lightened up so I could top-land. Eventually I top-landed around 7:00 pm in strong lift, hard to get down. Alan followed me in with similar problems (14 passes he claims). He was proud to announce he hit 2400 meters during the flight. Fred claimed 7500 feet (it sounds higher, Fred says). Colleen and Derek were duking it out to see who could get highest and both were way above Upper Launch. ps: what is the outlanding fee for landing in the field near the dike west of Klaus W's house? Inquiring minds want to know? Bridal Report - we overheard Nicole flying at Grouse as we flew Bridal. Apparrently a bit leeside there too, but Alex and Nicole both flew and stayed in the air for a while.
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| /1000' (unstable) 2600 ft.
Woodside Report - no flying, lots of rain and wind. But the new parking entrance is finished and the fence is in. Please note new entrance is 100 feet to the west of the old entrance and is on Kilby Road marked by a "Pilot Parking" sign.
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| /1000' (unstable) 3800 ft.
Savona Report - we headed down to the valley because the winds were forecast to be 25-40 kms from the west.
| Woodside Report - We made it up the mountain at 4:30 and Colleen launched first and was climbing, birds were out soaring in several places. I launched next with Norm and Jim M following us and we all soared for 30 minutes before landing at Eagle Ranch. Honduras Report - Hi, Jim, Colleen. Just thought I'd let you know that there really is flying in Honduras! My first of hopefully many was today. Yesterday I travelled south of Tegucigalpa looking for a suitable site without luck but had a great adventure with the locals none the less. Met some new amigos who were out hunting for lizards (rocca) about 2.5 ft. long with machine guns. During the week they are policemen, on weekends they take their guns home with them. They had better success than I, they look like small monitor lizards and are supposed to make man strong! Today I went North-west of the city 80kms to explore the slopes overlooking a broad valley. Drove up high through coffee plantations, stopped to ask for suggestions and ended up with four very friendly and enthusiastic guides to help me find a launch. We ended up after hiking up a very steep slope at the summit of the mountain and to my delight there was a small clearing just large enough to set up and nice cycles coming up the slope. It was late in the day, about 4:30 (dark at 6) and watching the vultures the air seemed quite mellow. Cleared a few branches then set up and launched. The air was smooth warm and lifty without abrupt edges to the thermals. I decide to fly conservatively and landed in a school soccer field after 20 mins. I hadn't done enough scouting from the ground in regards to powerlines etc. so I flew a planned route. All in all though it was a great start to flying here and I will be out again next weekend. My reception on the ground was amazing. Ollancha province is known for drug running etc. and I have been warned that it can be dangerous but I believe that attitude shapes your surroundings and experiences and I've decided that I want to meet the local people as much as I can. While I was in the air I could here people shouting and cheering as I made my approach to land. By the time I landed the entire village not just the children but everyone including old people came out to meet me. After I packed my wing the entire village escorted me to the edge of town and realizing that I had no ride back to my truck arrange a ride for me. Very beautiful warm people so far. Adios, Miss you all and regards to everyone, Jeffrey ps: this is why we teach and fly. Great people enjoying new experiences thru learning to paraglide - Jim & Colleen
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| /1000' (unstable) 5860 ft.
Savona Report - when we arrived at Ashcroft Manor it was raining and Kim Jenner
said that the road up to Cornwall was snowed in, so on to Savona.
| We flew off Deadman's Upper Launch, me being the wind dummy, and I had some nice climbs until I hit -6.1 m/s sink! Yikes! I radioed back that it was windy and sinky but too late. Bev and Norm were in the air. I stayed tight to the ridge for 25 minutes getting parked at times, then 15 km into the wind but always climbing a bit and managed to land at the Crash Pad to take a picture of Bev and Norm flying together. 
Norm almost made the Crash Pad but decided to land in the Toilet Bowl to be safe. Bev executed a skillful sidehill landing on the mountain as she was sinking rapidly. Kirril flew after Bev and Norm and landed in the student LZ at the bottom of the valley. We went to the Dump Ridge to kite and soar until the SE winds abated. I got a few little soaring flights, ground skimming. We traded wings and kited other stuff for comparison sake. As it started to die down we headed up the mountain for another flight. We arrived at launch yet again, and this time we had strong cycles. Glass Off! It was 6:00 pm and I wasted little time getting in the air. I started climbing immediately between the HG and PG launches and was soon 300 meters over launch . . . but going backwards the higher I got. I warned the others but apparently it got very gusty at launch at the same time. It wasn't ridge lift, rather thermic lift as the glass off continued to release energy. I got on the speed bar as I was light on the large glider I was flying and was penetrating forward when the wing frontalled and I dove into a right turn with the wing below me, quick application of left brake and weight shift and I was back on course, without speed bar this time. I headed down the ridge toward the comm towers and climbed all the way, coming over the Dump Ridge at 1000 meters AGL. I was getting 9-10 km forward speed to the south, and elected to land in Savona to get to the PUB sooner. I came over the bridge at 1000 meters and hit sink on the south side of the bridge which forced me to look for new landing options (I was headed for the Elementary School Field). I picked a nice patch of beach near the Pub and landed after only 35 minutes of rough air. No one else flew after seeing my display of accelerated asymmetrics - Jim 
View from the beach towards Kamloops 
View from the beach towards Launch Grouse Report - Grouse was excellent on Saturday. I launched about 2:30 pm and landed about 3 hours later after having cruised the whole mountain with a few trips back to Crown, across the Capilano river to the Lions. Unfortunately, there was a strong headwind that prevented me from reaching the Lions. The only other person to fly Grouse on Saturday was Darren, and he also logged about 2 hours despite having flown very little for the past 2 years - Peter G.
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| /1000' (unstable) 5860 ft.
Woodside Report -
no pilots out at Woodside despite many flyable periods.
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| /1000' (unstable) 5860 ft.
Grouse Report - Roman, Peter and I met at Grouse to go over logistics for 2004. We now have to hike up to the launch as the Peak Chair has been decommissioned indefinitely. The launch area is huge now and you could lay 10 gliders easily! There is still some snow on top and on the hike up but it should be gone in a week or so.
| The clouds indicated some NE flow aloft but we had good cycles and I launched first and was climbing at the cliffs as Roman scooted by for a straight flight out to the LZ, Peter hugged the ridge to the right and started his climb to Crown Mtn. It was not smooth at the cliffs and a few times I went weightless as I fell out of thermals. I was getting above launch when I tired to head to the ridge Peter climbed out on and I hit -3 m/s down all the way and by the time I got bac to the cliffs I was too low to recover so I headed to the Cut and worked a thermal back up there to get back to launch height (no helis out today so I was okay to be here). I stayed in the air for 45 minutes and was getting worked over pretty good in the lee at times so I headed out to sample some fun in the LZ. The world famous Grouse LZ was interesting as usual, the trees are even taller, the backstop has been extended even further and the fences are all up until June 30. As I was doing my approach I thought I was parachutal, I pushed the speedbar a few times and rocked the wing with the brakes 'cause I was sinking at -3.5 m/s at all times? It was a short approach over the lower field and when I went over the road I got lift so I had to circle and then sink again as I landed on the side hill behind the backstop to avoid hitting the railing behind the backstop retaining wall. As I packed up, Peter was still above Crown. Later Miguel called me and said Peter landed about 2.5 hours later - Jim We are planning a few Grouse Fly Ins this season to orient more guest members, stay tuned on the West Coast Soaring Forum for details and dates. Woodside Report - Norm and I went out to Woodside today, Don Smith wanted to go up so the three of us went up in the van. We encountered a logging truck that wasn't moving for nothing and Don quickly pulled over to the side sort of a small ditch and just made enough room for the truck. Since one of us was to drive Norm chose to drive and I flew. It was lifty in area's and I had a good time, I was hoping to go over to Harvest but remembered the car was at the ranch and I had to meet Norm at the hg lz when he drove Don's van down. Anyway I got a good thermal over the bail out and played with it before coming in to land. Norm and I was sitting at the picnic table having a pop before we had to leave for work when Norm noticed Don had attempted to launch, he didn't make it off the ground, he aborted but fell into his down tube? Anyway broke his downpipe so we rushed up to get him. Don was ok, we were late about 10 min for work but it was no big deal. I don't like leaving someone stranded on top of the mountain - Bev
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| /1000' (unstable) 3800 ft.
Edmonton Report - snowing all day! Not much flying there. But I picked up a new Garmon Foretrex 201 at MapTown, and it is a cool gadget for the gadget freaks! |  The Foretrex 201 is a wristwatch sized GPS with programmable displays including Vertical Speed (as in M/S). I turned on the Foretrex in the jet from Calgary and left it on during the flight to Abbotsford. I loaded in Abbotsford's coordinates and from the time we took off all the way to Abbotsford it maintained signal and reported accuracy within 9 meters. There was a strong headwind and the GPS reported 550 km/hr vs the possible cruise speed of 749 km/hr on a 737 (200 knots right on the nose). Altitude reporting was also bang-on at 35000 feet as reported by the pilot. As we descending to Abbotsford we overflew Harrison Lake north of Bear Mountain and the speed increased to 609 km/hr. As we crossed north of Woodside, I could see no gliders but we were still at 9000 feet cruising at 609 km/hr. Can you imagine the "bug splat" a paraglider or hangglider would make at that speed? The Foretrex reported perfect accuracy right in to landing on the main runway at YXX. The Foretrex 201 comes with a rechargable lithium battery good for 15 hours, charging adapter and PC interface cable for $225 CDN. No software but it is compatible with GPS Utility and other software packages for downloading waypoints and tracklogs. Woodside Report - after I landed I called Alan, but only got back garble. Later Jack told me he, Derek, Alan and Martina were at Woodside and launched the second flight just after I flew past today. Early flight was good lift with climbs to 1000 feet over launch but no XCs. Second flight was a boaty sledder into Eagle Ranch. We are heading to Ashcroft for Saturday morning to fly Cornwall, planning to get up to launch before 11:00 am before it gets too windy.
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| /1000' (unstable) 3800 ft.
Valley Report - heavy showers later in the afternoon.
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| /1000' (unstable) 3800 ft.
Woodside Report - rain most of the day, even later it was drizzling and the grass was too wet.
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| /1000' (unstable!!!!!) 6000 ft.
Woodside Report - Flight #1 - Student Sam and I were all alone at 9:30 am, the conditions looked good so we headed up the hill. Beautiful launching conditions and lifty air all the way out to Eagle Ranch. Sam had an extended sled ride and landed at the Ranch and I drove down to get him.
| Flight #2 - we arrived back at launch at 11:30 am, to see Carl Rinker (14) and Mike E from Seattle cranking a few turns over Riverside in nice smooth lift. Didn't look too strong and launch conditions were same as before, so Sam launched and flew toward Eagle Ranch. At the bailout field, he hit a fairly strong thermal so I had him start a right hand turn to gain some altitude and within 4 turns he was 300 meters above launch! He did a great job in the turns and I sent him out toward the Ranch as he was climbing rapidly wherever he went. All the way out he was still climbing, so I had him do "big ears", and he was still maintaining his altitude with "ears". When he reached the field we did some 360's with "ears and he started to descend and had a nice smooth landing. Flight #3 - Sam and I headed back to launch to avoid the FVXC comp pilots who were assembling at Woodside for Day 4. Alan and Alex came up with us and it was getting quite strong at launch (20 kms+ and starting to gust). We waited a bit and there were launchable lulls. We laid out the tandem and clipped in and when we got our lull we launched and started climbing +3 m/s pretty well everywhere, but the thermals were drifting us back pretty far. We ventured back to the towers but not much lift there? so we headed to the south knoll and climbed to 1100 meters there with some bald eagles. The task committee decided that it was too windy for the comp, so they were heading to Bridal. Kirril was going to drive the Suburban down and retrieve us so we elected to fly east to Agassiz to meet Kirril on the ay to Bridal. We flew straight over the Fraser River towards Bridal in a cross-wind and climbed Hopyard Hill (the longer of the two hills west of Agassiz) and were getting 60+ kms ground speed at the time we hit the top of the hill, but it shaded over as we hit the top. It was too windy for the plowed fields to yield much lift to get us into the school grounds so we landed in the field just outside of town and walked in to the Super Valu to get lunch (landing conditions were quite benign <10 kms). 45 minutes. +6.5 m/s up, with -4.8 m/s sink. Bridal Report - when we arrived at Bridal, it was strong over there. Wind in the trees looked 25 kms+. A load of pilots went up and eventually drove down to kite in Rosedale. We decided to head back to Woodside to kite and wait out the wind. Some interesting flights in the Eagle Ranch LZ by Norm - cruising along the field just a few feet up in a thermal as he was kiting. We overhead some pilots getting in the air at Bridal as we also decided it was time to fly Woodside. Day 4 was on at Bridal and Robin S won the day with a fantastic time, moving him up the ranks. For the first time in recorded history the Fraser Valley XC series had four valid days in a row! Good job on organizing the weather and the tasks, Nicole! Woodside Glass-Off Report - as we arrived at launch at 4:30 pm it was pretty light. I laid out the Joker and went for a test flight and managed to climbout quite fast to 800 meters, but never got past that height even at the towers. Norm launched after me and stayed at the same height for much of the flight. Jim M also launched and had a great flight, too bad about only having a T shirt on :-) as he had to land cuase he was frozen! Norm and I eventually climbed to 1000 meter on the south knoll and Norm turned towards Agassiz on glide, trying to calculate how much height he needs to fly to work. We only made the Harvest Market as it was too late and too sinky over the back. Flight time was 1:14.
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| /1000' (unstable) 7170 ft.
Woodside Report - we remained at Woodside all day to fly. Lots of good flights until 3:30 pm when it got very strong. Evelyn, Andrew and Yevgeni were PGing with Mark T on his single surface HG and they all soared for a while before Evelyn and Andrew headed over to Agassiz. We retrieved them as there was going to be no more launches this day. Full on gale force winds until dark! New student Sam had his first two flights and was thermalling on the second flight to get him enough height to hit Eagle Ranch.
| Bridal Comp Report - Initially looked good, then the high cirrus came in and shut things down. Short task to Gloria and back was set; in the end lots of pilots made turnpoint and goal as the sun broke through again (tough day to call!). It got windy later on; lots of pilots parked over the soaring knob and in the end most pilots still on launch opted to drive down rather than brave the winds. Results should be up on the WCSC comps page soon! Tomorrow is Day 4 (last day) - Nicole
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| /1000' (unstable) 7170 ft.
Bridal Report - Today was XC day for Bridal. Several of us did Ludwig and back; Mark Fraser continued on to the Skagit Valley and Ross Lake. A headwind set up on the way back making to a slow return (I was stuck at the Butterfly for a while trying to get high enough to make the jump back to the Lakes and Cheam since I didn't want to land out), then strong on launch so headed to Gloria and back (total 35.9 km). Finally it died down enough to top-land and a bunch of us did so in the last cycle of the day, 4 of us coming in one after the other within a minute.
| PS: tomorrow is Fraser Valley PG XC weekend #2 - Nicole Woodside Report - we arrived after 4:00 pm, so decided to fly Woodside as we saw Mike W, Norm, Jim M and Andy high over launch. Colleen flew solo and I took Sam (a new student) for his second tandem, we flew for an hour getting up to 1200 meters in rough air, before heading out as Harrison Bay was frothing into whitecaps! Uneventful landing in the end, but we had some penetration problems at times. |
April 2004 Site of the Day archives good flying in the Valley. The Fraser Valley Cross Country PG Series was successful.
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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