| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| Follow @flybc |
FlyBC "Site of the Day" - May 2018 Archive
FlyBC had a great May with lots of flying days
|
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@ 3000' in knots |
Rate °C/1000' Cloud Base in Meters |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5-31-18 |
 Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud with 30 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy near noon. High 18. UV index 7 or high. 800 metres Bev flew with Sam A and Sam top-landed to drive her truck down, perhaps Sam's first top-landing at Woodside. I was helping Clint paramotor and he got one flight in around 9 am, and on the second flight he toppled his quad and broke the prop. Back to the shop for a few hours to reconstruct the unit. By then it was too windy to try again. Meanwhile last weekend in Pemberton. This Is Canada II from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. 5-30-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud with 30 percent chance of showers. Becoming windy near noon. High 18. UV index 7 or high. 800 metres We did get three paramotor flights in for Clint before noon and he is looking solid! Folks started flying around noon and some big triangles happened with Alex completing his own Challenge with a Woodside-Bridal-Elk-Woodside triangle. Later fights at Bridal had pilots over Mt Cheam with ease. 5-29-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High near 20C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 800 metres We worked on the electric starter wiring and battery box installation yesterday afternoon and everything worked perfectly today. We had the normal SE flow in our field and Clint got in the air using the Blackhawk Edge 30 wing after a few false starts. As Clint climbed out it was clear that there was a windy shear layer about 300 feet up and some cloudsuck too as he was climbing under minimal power, so we cut the flight short. His landing was perfect and we packed up and did some more technical tweaking on the unit. The rest of my day was chores, chores, chores and then a well deserved nap! 5-28-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High near 20C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 800 metres 5-27-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 22C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 800 metres Denis took the first load of students up and started hucking them as soon as possible. Dennie arrived just as the first students were launching and was guiding them in to the Eagle Ranch LZ while I attended to equipment orders and irrigation tasks. Landing conditions were "bubbly" as the new grassed areas have not fully grown in and there are some brown spots still heating up. Nothing dangerous, just a bit thermic. Here is Simon coming in on his first high flight, on the new SupAir EONA2 glider.  I took a tour of the Harrison River Campground today and it is fully submerged.  Some of the trailers did not get moved in time, but the majority are now parked in a gypsy camp just south of the dyke all running generators as there are no hookups. When I heard the students flying off the hill I went back to the Ranch to help out with students. The tandem passengers that arrived just as I got to the Ranch went from 2 to 5 interested parties so I enlisted Denis, Brad & Dennie to take them and I managed the students. The first set of tandems went to Harvest Market after "skying out" over the South Knoll. The last set of two small passengers went with Brad & Denis and they landed at the Ranch. By now it was 5 pm and we decided it was not safe for student flights, and sure enough Lee & Britt drove back down as they deemed it too gusty. We did get four student rounds in and some nice thermalling by Simon & Jake. I did get an invite to join the pros at Bridal, but had to decline as I have no wing and no harness . . . cause everything sold this week. Soon there will be a shiny new Ozone Alpina 3 here and I have an Ozone Forza Harness to rig up too, so next week I can ditch off and go flying. 5-26-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 0% Precip. / 0.00 mm Partly Cloudy. High 22C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres Dennie took a group of students and Rob launched first and had some directional issues initially so he lost some ground getting out to the Duncan's farm, and then did not know how to release the speedbar despite many briefings on how to use it. So he landed near Duncan's shitpit. Jake was up next and we decided to send him to Harvest Market as he had been briefed on how to fly there and he had lots of altitude. Unfortunately he decided thermalling was the way to get there and he blew past Harvest at 800 metres and had to land at Neel Nursery about 2 kms downwind of the Harvest LZ. Tip of the Day: When thermalling in strong winds do not 360 in thermals, just "figure-8" and you will go up faster and maintain your position over a landing area. No one else launched and we regrouped in the LZ to kite and practice reverse launches in some pretty gusty conditions. The Hangies assembled a group and they also flew later and we saw some interesting landings in the gusts. Stock in Alcan went up as many downtubes were destroyed I am sure! We sent everyone home at 5 pm and they were beat after all the kiting. At 8 pm I checked the windsock on top and it looked flyable but no pilots were around. The water has stopped rising around Harrison Mills but it is still pretty high as seen in this photo of the Sandpiper Airstrip (called Rowena's by many pilots).  Meanwhile at Mara Lake Skyline Launch near Sicamous a group of pilots went XC and Peter S landed in Enderby and Richard B flew all the way to Revelstoke. Mara is on! 5-25-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 0% Precip. / 0.00 mm Partly Cloudy. High 22C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres We did get three runs in for Jake in the morning and he is mastering the reverse launches with skill. At noon we assembled a group to do a tandem for Diana & Tabea. Kevin & Jim were the tandem pilots and Martin & Jake were flying solo on their Swift 4s. On the way up Kevin did a forecast and found out Abby was blowing 35 kph, Hope was 45 kph and Agassis was 10 kph so we had a window. Jake launched first and missed the South Knoll soaring and flew straight out to the Ranch. Kevin said he was not "feeling the love" and also headed out to the Ranch with some thermalling over Harrison Highlands. Diana was enjoying the flight with Kevin as they came out over Eagle Ranch. Jake is setting up his approach below. Note the new grass is greening up near the edges of the field. We need more rain!  Meanwhile as I was launching with Tabea winds were getting stronger and we had a few aborts without anyone ballasting us, but once we got Tabea synchronised we were off and following Martin N. Martin had been at the South Knoll for 15 minutes but as we launched he headed east towards Harvest. Once we got to the South Knoll the thermals there were nasty! Big pulses of lift that pushed us back and then dropping us in the sink. After 10 minutes of this torture I headed east also enjoying a nice smooth downwind run to Harvest LZ. We did some thermalling in front of Cemetary Hill but Martin advised that the winds were 35 kph on the ground and the approach was choppy and bumpy, so I did a few spirals to get down to the deck faster. We landed next to Martin so he could grab Tabea in case we got gusted back but we had a nice landing cycle and we were down with a nice touchdown and no dragging. Tabea had to lay down for a rest and after some water she appeared to be okay as she was feeling dizzy. Meanwhile, Kevin & Diana also had a nice touchdown at the Ranch and she looked very happy.  After we packed up and went for lunch it just got windier and windier. Some hangies were flying Woodside after we got back to the Ranch and had some nice altitude but they were landing after an hour so maybe it was too industrial for them. Even at sunset the winds were still very strong as I was doing some irrigation on the new grass. 5-24-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Cloudy. Clearing this afternoon. Becoming windy near noon. High 22. UV index 8 or very high. 1200 metres We kept flying til 3 pm and the students were making it out to the Ranch at 400 metres but by 3 pm the landing were getting "choppy". There were nice CUs forming to show the thermals and Clark & Jake were getting up to cloudbase without turning as the clouds "vacuumed" them up.  Jake was flying a new Ozone Swift 4 and Clark was on a Geo 2 we have in stock. Clark and his pal Neumann have chosen the Ozone Ultralite 4 for their hike & fly kits. Clark came late and logged two more flights while Jake got 4 flights in today. Jake is up to 8 high flights in only two days and should be finished his P-2 in 3-4 more days! Derek & Martin N came out for the 6 pm glass-off flight and they flew to Harvest where they stashed Derek's truck earlier. They got a 15 minute soarfest on Cemetary Hill. The Fraser & Harrison Rivers have crested hopefully. I have been monitoring the floodgates at the east side of Woodside and it seems to have stabilized. But the Harrison River Campground and the Van Dyk campgrounds on the north side of Harrison Mills are underwater. It looks like most of the trailers were moved out in time but there are still a few that look flooded.  5-23-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Sunny. High near 25C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres Denis, Dennie & Lee were the Instructors today while I was running errands. By noon the new students were ready to fly, and had been briefed on the landing approach and they went up the mountain to fly. I got back in time to see the landings and Oleksander was coming in on his SkyCOuntry Discovery5 and the landing looked smooth. The guys went up for a second flight but only Jake & Oleksander flew that flight as it was getting windy. Derek, Samuel and Paul all got nice soaring in on that round but it was a "push" getting out to the Ranch. 5-22-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 26C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres Denis, Dennie & Lee were coaching and guiding students while I ran errands and shipments. Marwan broke the 25 flight level today and he is looking good on his new Nova Ion5. Bronwyn & Cam spend Monday kiting and getting ready for their first high flights today and they both flew two flights including Bronwyn thermalling the new Ozone Atom 3 small glider. Cam got three flights in and some thermalling too! Marwan went up the last time around 6 pm and finished his fourth flight before heading off for a beer. Denis flew and top-landed mid-day, while Dennie flew the last flight with Linda and they got about an hour of thermalling.  Some folks were flying the new Lower Benny Launch this weekend, located at 4 kms up the Benny Road so it is far more accessible than the Upper Launch. Wider for at least three gliders to setup. Nasty looking snag behind launch so don't get blown back.  We will take more advanced students there for test flights soon, so get your flights in and join us. 5-21-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 21C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres Quite a few people out and the conditions did not disappoint! Hangies were out in droves and got an average of an hour to 2 hours of soaring in the "fishbowl". Big thanks to Colleen who gave up a holiday Monday to help train and then guide some newbies! One hapless student decided to thermal too low and ended up landing in the Harrison Highlands. 5-20-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Showers ending near noon then cloudy. High 19. UV index 4 or moderate. 800 metres Both new wings were very impressive in terms of ease of launch & glide ratios. The Atom 3 has a 50-90 kg weight range so it can fit almost anybody safely. We had three high flights today ending at 6 pm, so Colleen and I could go for dinner and a movie. Thanks to Denis for guiding the students off launch today and congrats to Jim Owen, our newest P-2 student! 5-19-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mainly cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate. 1600 metres Alex and Greg were here despite the crappy forecast and they were ground handling like pros on the training hill in perfect conditions and were both ready to fly by 1 pm after a landing briefing. Denis launched them for the first flights and I landed them, and we repeated this 2 more times and as it was inverted the conditions stayed perfect for student flights til 6 pm. We received our new SupAir EONA2 today but I did not want the guys to test fly it if it was going to rain so we used the EONA L and the Nova Ion3 today for student flights. Both are available for purchase. 5-18-18
|
|  Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this afternoon with risk of a thunderstorm. High 21. UV index 5 or moderate. 700 metres Delvin and Guy arrived after 1 pm to throw their reserves and have them repacked. Both worked despite Guy's reserve had not been repacked for 8 years! After they were repacked, they headed up the mountain for a flight at Woodside. A nice boaty flight for Guy to try out his new Ozone Swift 4. We also went up around 6 pm so Colleen and Derek could have a flight. Derek was also trying out a new Swift 4. Too bad I called off the day with rain and Thunderstorms in the forecast because it was nice all day. The Fraser River is rising and threatening lands outside the dykes, as seen in this photo. The last time I was flying here the windlines on the river were very visible as the river is more like a lake and slow moving.   Paramotor Infraction News - Niagara Parks police have charged a Quebec man after receiving a report of a powered paraglider being operated near Chippawa Thursday afternoon. At around 4 p.m. on May 17, police were called to the area of Portage Road South. Officers found the man landing his aircraft at the Rapidsview parking lot between Portage Road South and the Niagara Parkway. The man was identified as a Quebec resident and was issued a Provincial Offences Notice for unlawfully landing an aircraft. The airspace where the man was operating his aircraft is also identified as restricted airspace by Transport Canada, and they have been notified of the incident. Editor's Note: This is CYR518 clearly identified on sectional charts and in the CFS. Here is a view of the Niagara Area and overflying is prohibited up to 3500 feet.  5-17-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 20% Precip. / 0.00 mm Mostly Cloudy. High near 20C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 700 metres Errand day in Chilliwack and I went back around 4 pm, to find Derek & Martin N organizing a trip up Woodside. I arrived and loaded up the truck with my Swift 4 (now sold to Guy S from WA). We picked up a lone hiker Bob T on the road and gave him a lift to the top. Martin launched first on his Ozone Swift 4 and I was a close second after him and we were soaring above launch. Derek was off third and also soared. Bob T launched and was handicapped by his small BGD wing I guess cause he really never got above launch, despite being in the same airmass as us. I flew to the South Knoll twice hoping for better lift as we could not get above 800 metres on the north face. The second time over to the South Knoll I got just in line with launch and tried a top-landing pass (winds were 25 kph). First pass I was too high so I cranked a few figure-8s near launch and the second pass was the charm . . . 10 feet over the center of launch and I stalled the Swift 4 in to a soft landing. No retrieve drive needed. I packed up and warmed up and watched Martin & Derek soar for another 15 minutes before they headed to Harvest LZ.  All the eastern fields have been hayed now and the field near Mark F's house is now seeded in corn so that is off-limits. You know you are not having a good day when . . . a photographer gets this shot of you hanging off the face of the Squamish Chief! Reports say a freak gust of wind caused it!  5-16-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mostly Cloudy. High 21C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 800 metres By the time he got back it was blown out but he got to kite his new Ozone Rush 3 that we just took on trade this morning. I was planning to meet the pros at Bridal but half way there I turned around because it looked too windy. A glider was seen over Bridal Launch later so it might have been okay but I had chores to finish anyway. 5-15-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 0% Precip. / 0.00 mm Mostly Sunny. High 28C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres Cam must have sensed that it was going to get stronger because they had great smooth flights and about 20 minutes after they left it got very windy. After a quick lunch at the Sasquatch Inn, Bev & I drove to Chilliwack Airport and flew up to Williams Lake to retrieve Colleen from her project. We made a straight GPS flight to CYWL over Harrison Lake, past Lilooett, and into Williams Lake for a flight time of 1:20.  Not as fast as the last trip due to some crosswinds/headwinds but still pretty fast. Some nice lift along the Fraser River near Green Lake with +1000ft/min lift for extended periods.  Colleen was waiting on the tarmac and we loaded her stuff in as I filled the tanks. Tip of the Day: Always fly with full fuel over the mountains as long as you don't exceed your gross weight. We flew back to CYWC at 11500 feet and were just under the clouds where the cloud suck helped us get home in 1:20 as well.  Quite windy still when we landed at Chilliwack at 6 pm, and no one flew Bridal cause it looked too strong. A group went up Woodside at 6:30 pm and flew and Derek got a 14 minute sleddie. He landed at Riverside to check out the new mowing job and he says it looks better than ever with a wide long runway.  5-14-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High near 30C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres Dan is closing in on his P-2 rating and he wrote his exam last night and aced it with an 89% pass mark! Lara is finished now and just has to write her P-2 exam and she will be free to fly soon. Jim O from WA state is only 2 flights away from earning his P-2 and he got a few mentored flights in with Jess W at Blanchard last week too. The first two flights were rather lame conditions as indicated by the RASP but great for students. Dennie took over the launch duties while I managed the haying and watering chores and guided the students in. One un-named student decided that he should thermal his way down into a clearcut below launch and had a long walk out, teachable moments! We only got 4 flights in today and it never got windy, and the last flight yielded about an hour of airtime. 5-13-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Sunny. High 31C. Winds N at 15 to 30 km/h. 1000 metres But we had 8 students and only one Van so we stayed and kited and it switched to inflow around 1 pm. Denny took the students up and I managed the landing duties while mowing and doing maintenance tasks. Highlight of the day: Chase & Jaime both flying SupAir gliders were up at 2000 metres for hours trying to get down cause they were dressed in t-shirts and shorts! Second Highlight of the Day: Sheila figured out ridge soaring on her fourth high flight and was up for an hour too on the XS Rush trainer. Daughter Nadya landed short in Duncan's feedlot and was a bit panicked when the cows came to say hi, a lot of cows. LOL! So eight students, three runs and lots of airtime. Here is Dan coming in on his first flight, notice the awesome wind direction and strength for landings.  Pretty busy day and I am glad we stayed local because the Kamloops forecast did not materialize and we would have spent 5 hours driving instead of ground handling practice, which everyone needed. Reports of 2400 metres at Bridal, while one of our un-named students claimed to be at 2300 metres east of Woodside today (no wonder we lost sight of him). 5-12-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 22C. Winds light and variable. 1000 metres I planned a cruise altitude of 11500' today and it worked out well as I was getting 215 mph on the GPS passing Lilooett.  I landed at Chilliwack Airport at 9:00 am for a total flight time of 1:00. Definitely North wind aloft all the way to Woodside and then nothing over Woodside! I was back at the Ranch by 10 am to meet up with students already kiting with Dennie in the LZ. We had a very mixed bag of students with 4 that had never seen a paraglider, to 4 more with between 8-20 flights but everyone kited their gear to get tuned up. Jaime had a new SupAir Leaf Light to try out and he had some great flights today. Nadia & Sheila are here for a Mother's Day Adventure and by 3 pm they were ready to fly. Dennie managed the top launch duties while I provided landing support and we were busy with 5 rounds of flights today. I was also guiding Jackson while he was doing each of his four paramotor flights today, getting off with style and grace! His Kangook SkyEngines 110 is running beautifully! Scotty West was staying at the campground by the River and he flew over on his new Ozone Freeride 16 also on a Kangook SkyEngines unit. Jim also flew in from Chilliwack on his Blackhawk 125 unit and he hung out while we were coaching off Woodside and he flew off after 7 pm to head home. Lots of action at Eagle Ranch today! We were packing up from the last flight at 7:30 pm. A very long productive day at FlyBC's Eagle Ranch. 5-11-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 22C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres That worked out well for my plan as Colleen & Kelsey were meeting me at the Chilliwack Airport to load up the Skymaster T337 to fly to Williams Lake. They arrived with about 300 lbs of gear for their research project and somehow we got it all stowed and still had room for three people.  We flew up Harrison Lake at 6500 feet, past Pemberton Airport and over the Duffey Lake Pass to Lilooett and then North to Williams Lake. Very scenic with some nice 1000 ft/min thermals to boost our speed. We arrived in Williams Lake in 1:25 as flight planned with a direct route so it did not cost us anytime to do the scenic route.  A nice little airport with a long runway for a casual approach with some gusty crosswinds tonight. 5-10-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 20% Precip. / 0.00 mm Mostly Cloudy. High 13C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1000 metres Only Martin showed up around noon and I had to go to Chilliwack Airport after 2 pm to get my plane out of the shop, so we went on a reconn tour of Chehalis Band Lands to scope out the LZs. There is an easy to spot area to land in when soaring the North Cliffs of Woodside . . . the ball fields. And there is a flag to give you wind direction too. Behind the ball fields is a bare, unfenced field by the roadway too with no obstacles or powerlines.  Closer to the mountain and river is the Chehalis Boat Launch (not public) that has a long gravel parking lot and few trees that is about 200 metres from where Martin had to land a few days back.  This photo is looking down the river from the boat landing to where the arrow point to Martin's Cove LZ.  It was quite windy at the Harrison Bridge and Chehalis Band Offices, and also at the HG LZ but apparently Denis flew a tandem and had a nice flight with his first tandem top-landing! Martin came with me to test fly the Cessna Skymaster taking off from Chilliwack Airport at 3 pm and heading straight over Bridal Launch (no Alan to be seen), and it was lifty with 500 ft/min thermals to help us climb. We scooted over to Harrison and then past Woodside at 3000 feet, where it smoothed out. It was bumpy below 3000 feet as the air was unstable and there were Cumies everywhere with the odd rain patch. Nice landing conditions with +20 km/hr on the runway straight in. 5-9-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Rain. High 19C. Winds strong. 1200 metres 5-8-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 19C. Winds light and variable. 1200 metres Greg H was here finishing up his Instructor Recert and did a fantastic job managing the students while I was watching them land. I had one tandem at 1 pm that was short because it was not lifty anywhere. But it was good for student rounds. After 3 pm we went up and this time Colleen launched the students while Greg was in the LZ guiding and I did another tandem. Justin K was here taking Cheryl K for a tandem too and they launched first and were grovelling for some time before getting above launch. It did take a few tries to get a solid wing for me though as the cycles looed strong in front but the wing would not pressurize so I was patient and the cycle I picked rewarded us with a short run and immediate lift off launch. I watched Martin N & Wouter take the north route and the both "beamed up" and away, so I followed that route and we also climbed out fast on the Swift Max tandem. I got us to 1350 metres pretty fast and was flyng with Wolf at times on Wouter's Alpina 2, cause I sold his Rush 3 from under him to Mike.  Other times I was all alone but we never got below launch and it was interesting checking out the wind layers. From 800 to 1000 metres was rough from the north wind but super smooth above 1000 metres away from the rotor. We flew for about an hour and Colleen was launching Noah & Mike and Mike got a nice climb too under Colleen's skillful guidance so we flew around him for a while. I flew out to the Ranch and past almost to Kilby and on the way back to launch we arrived just below launch and then climbed again to 1100 metres with ease. My passenger was enjoying the flight and did not even once feel dizzy despite looking down a lot! We had a nice smooth approach into the Ranch with no wind and a nice butt landing into the circle. Meanwhile Martin N had gone XC to Sasquatch and had landed on the other side of the river, and Wouter top-landed and drove our Van down. Thanks to Bev & Norm for driving for everyone today! What a team. After packing up we started working on the training hill raking project. Rain was forecast tonight at 9 pm, and we had about two hours to finish what Wouter & Martin N had started earlier. I had done some heavy smoothing with a beam behind the quad earlier, but the rakes were needed to pick rocks and smooth out some holes. We had a good crew with Daniela & Wolfie picking rocks with me and there were some big ones.  We had Colleen seeding and Wouter raking it in too.  Just around 8 pm, we were just finishing as the storm arrived with 30 k winds and sprinkles of rain. What a great day, happy students left with new gear! We had great flying and managed to get the seeding and levelling done just in time. A few more days of rain are forecast so it is perfect timing to get this work done and it will make Eagle Ranch even more productive! 5-7-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 19C. Winds light and variable. 1200 metres We had a few drop-ins so the student ranks rose to 6 by mid-day with Clark & Neumann joining us. Lara got to thermal on her three flights today and as usual it got windy by 3 pm so we had a kiting session. Marwan got to try out his new Nova Ion5 and got a high flight after 5 pm, when I flew off with a tandem to check the air and we got to soar above launch before flying out to check the for the students. It looks like one more good day until it rains on Wednesday. 5-6-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 19C. Winds light and variable. 1200 metres I felt is still looked too windy but Jacek went up with Tom C and and his student and Jacek flew as the wind tech but advised that it was not student friendly. We had a student and instructor debriefing session and most Instructors were free to leave by 6 pm. 5-5-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 19C. Winds light and variable. 1200 metres Colleen led the group discussions on Adult Learning - focusing on key strengths and how to improve on Educational Techniques.  We moved to the towing field and introduced the Instructors to the new FlyBC winch and students and instructors got a chance to be tow operators and tow pilots.  We had 5 students for the instructors to work with with varied experience levels, and it worked out well by the end of the day with many launch & landing coaches for the students. We did 4 rounds of student flights before 6 pm. 5-4-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. 60% POP. High 19C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres We started flying at 10 am with Jerry getting his first of five high flights today. Bob & Regent arrived late but still managed to get 3 Woodside flights after a three week hiatus. Colleen joined us for the last flight at 6 pm and she managed to find some soarable lift on her SupAir Taska.  This is Jerry's last flight and he was very high when he headed straight out.  Apparently landing conditions were perfect but the students came in too low or too high with one in Duncan's freshly hayed field and the last two landing downwind? I guess 25 acres is not quite enough space for a suitable LZ for some pilots! 5-3-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 19C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres We had great East Winds for towing but somehow the students had trouble staying on the tow line? After many duffs and a few near crashes, Jerry got a great last tow landing straight ahead! The great thing with the new tow rig is that I can instantaneously drop tension and the winch will freewheel with just a few pounds of force eliminating lockout. The tow rig is invaluable for new paramotor pilots, as the tow force is identical to the push force of a paramotor. We had nice straight-in cycles at launch after 2 pm, and Jerry flew off twice with one confused approach and then a perfect one. After 5 pm we did a landing debrief while Derek, Martin and RObert P went up for a glass-off flight and were rewarded with a 2 hour flight up to 1300 metres, with perfect landing conditions. 5-2-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High near 20C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1200 metres We kited until noon, and I sent him for lunch while I took Jonnie for a Birthday Tandem. We got up right away and it must have been luck (or a logging truck thermal) as we climbed though 1000 metres right off launch, while Dennie had to work to climb above launch initially. He did outclimb us after a while and had no problem getting lift all over the mountain as did Nicole.  We had some pretty strong and disorganized thermals and no wind to drift us back but it just felt weird. We flew on the front side of Woodside for 30 minutes and the weirdness made me think the Ranch might not be so good as the farmer was seeding our new runway and it might get thermic with all the tractor activity. The end result in the perimeters of our Eagle Ranch LZ will be very nice when the grass seed takes over. You can see the difference the packing and seeding makes, from the initial plowing done last week.  Jonnie & I flew east towards Harvest Market and had some nice soaring on that side of Woodside for another 20 minutes and despite seeing smoke with a SW drift there was no wind and 3 feet of hay in the Harvest LZ so our landing was spectacular! Dennie & Blake joined us in the Harvest Thermals and we all landed together and we were packed up as Bev drove in to retrieve us. Thanks Bev! Meanwhile we heard Alex & Greg heading in to the Ranch as they had a nice XC from Lil Nic. They took different lines from Deroche but achieved the same result and the gyrations I saw in their wings on approach into the Ranch confirmed that I made the right decision to land at Harvest.  A crew went over to Bridal for a 4 pm start time and later reports said the air over there was weird too. 5-1-18
|
| Woodside Forecast Harrison Mills Forecast: 0% Precip. / 0.00 mm Partly Cloudy. High 17C. Winds light and variable. 700 metres Folks got very nice long flights today and some ended up east near Agassiz. I headed up for Sergio's last flight and took up a wing and was having a nice flight, and was doing some formation flying with Martin N with both of us on Swift 4s. Bev was driving and I decided to head out after getting to cloudbase (1200 metres) several times, hoping for a sixth flight for Sergio but after taking 30 minutes to come down over the Ranch I decided it was too windy for a last flight. As I was setting up for a bouncy landing at the Ranch I overheard the calls regarding Martin N who had got too far back and was now in the rotor zone behind the north ridge and plummeting. He ended up in some trees near the south shore of the Harrison River after being unable to escape the rotors. We were formulating a rescue plan when we heard he was now at the boat ramp on the north side of the Harrison Bridge after getting picked up by some fishermen. They did not rescue his wing though. Martin was now back at the Ranch and we had to drag my boat out of storage and repair an oil leak and steal a battery from Norm's car to get the boat mobile. After and hour of repairs and getting tools together we were headed up the river in 3 foot swells as the winds picked up even stronger. About an hour later we were back in the boat with an undamaged Swift 4 and undamaged pilot Martin and we pulled the boat out before dark. Boat ran perfectly despite sitting over the winter. Last used at our annual SIV course in Revy in August, where it sprang an oil sump leak which was just some plastic lines that needed replacing as they got brittle. I found some lines off the old parts Bronco to get us going. Wing was hung on the drying rack for the evening and we will kite it tomorrow to check for hidden damage. Always an Adventure! |
FlyBC Paragliding Past Site of the Day Reports click to select the month and year you wish to review.
|
1253 Kilby Road, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0 Cell: 604-618-5467 E-Mail: FlyBC E-Mail |