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10-31-17 |
Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High 13. UV index 3 or moderate. 800 metres We arrived on launch to see the latest addition to the re-carpet project, thanks to Andrei & Martin N. Martin was in the air and going backwards, and when he went on bar it looked rowdy. So we waited and he was soon heading to Riverside, not liking the air much. We waited and it got stronger and more cross. We finally drove down and left Jacek on top with Andrei and Dimitri. I was out working on the excavator as Brian kited and Jacek did get a flight he called a "dirty sleddie". Good kiting conditions as the air seems more laminar with the trees removed, but spring will be the proof as it gets more thermic. 10-30-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Windy this morning. High 13. 800 metres But at 3 pm it calmed down and Derek, Dylan & Martin went up and flew. Derek got 25 minutes in light thermals and landed next to the Hangar at the Ranch. Dylan drove Martin up to retrieve and they saw Damian fly off later. 10-29-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Fog patches dissipating early this morning. Wind becoming northeast 30 km/h then increasing to 50 gusting to 80 late this morning. High 19. 800 metres At times the wind was over 70 kph from the North, good time to be brushing out Chimp Creek with the excavator. No bull dozer work today as the track is still broken, but hopefully Monday it will be up and finishing the levelling project. Monica came by and bought Colleen's Swift4 today so Colleen is wingless again! LOL! There is a group of Canucks flying in Bir Billing, India right now and some were vol-bivi-flying the past two days before heading back to Bir to stock up. Here is Jimmy Sky's tracklog. Gin has released a new Hike & Fly Harness called the Yeti2 Serbian Sun | Paragliding World Cup from Brett Hazlett on Vimeo. 10-28-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 0% Precip. / 0.00 mm Sunny. High 21C. Winds E at 10 to 15 km/h. 800 metres Four launches for Brian as he closes in on his P-2 rating graduation. Just 4 more flights, and his written exam and he will be ready for winter flying with John & Shaun. He had to do light wind reverses and forwards all day, but he was demo-ing the Leaf Light Small and it is a very easy launcher so no aborts. Lots of pilots out but not a lot of airtime, as it was inverted and calm. Shaun got to try his new single surface Independence Tensing 17 and made it to the Ranch with no problems. We also got a new Independence Draco16 speed wing in to demo but maybe when we have higher launch winds, I will try it! Very beautiful as the leaves are changing to orange on the mountain. Last launches today at 6 pm were no wind to slight tailwind but everyone got off cleanly. The land leveling is almost complete but the bulldozer broke down today, a broken carriage pin which will be fixed Monday and the job should be complete. Just some plowing and roto-tilling before seeding hopefully in time for Wednesday's rains. Note the east fenceline is gone and all the tree debris has been buried and covered. The west side of the training hill is almost completed too making for 360° of launch directions. 10-27-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Sunny. Windy in the morning. High 16. 800 metres Debris from the tall cottonwoods is now buried in the swale. The east fenceline and all the blackberry hedge is also gone. Excess fill from the west runway was being added to the back of the training hill for a SW facing slope. I was too busy to take pictures, but I can do some on Saturday. Meanwhile up on Woodside a team of volunteers headed up by Andrei was installing new carpet on launch. Not sure what Kevin is doing but Norm & Andrei were working hard! Martin was in charge of spiking down the cloth. The final result looks good, sorry I was not up there to help out. After dark I attended the WCSC meeting and presented a seminar on "Should I fly or should I stay on the ground". Preaching to the very experienced pilots group was easy and everyone had a personal story about launching when they should not have! My main topic was preparation, forecasting and having a "Plan B" in case the forecast is wrong (as in too strong). I introduced some alternate LZs to the East and the North, please ask me about these LZs when you see me next. 10-26-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Sunny. High 15C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres Richard launched at 1 pm when we finally got a steady easterly breeze in the LZ. He was practicing "touch-&-go's" to get his required 25 launch & landings for Transport Canada so he was not getting as high as on Tuesday, but he noticed even getting above the trees the wind layers were turbulent. I was cleaning out the tree debris from the big cottonwoods we fell last week with the tractor while Richard was motoring, and got most of the small limbs moved but the bulldozer is needed to move the trunks. Meanwhile the last of the land leveling on the west part of the field has been completed, so we will be re-seeding soon hoping the seed will grow in this warm weather we are having. We are moving the big tree waste behind the training hill and adding more fill to that side for launches in all directions, it should be finished this week too. While I was working in the LZ, Martin N & Andrei were adding a new layer of carpet on launch, and as they finished a group arrived on launch to fly. Derek, Norm, Bev, Jacek and Martin N all flew down and found the same ratty air that Richard had felt earlier . . . but they flew! 10-25-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 60% Precip. / 3.18 mm Rain. High 13C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres 10-24-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 14C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres The day before we had zero wind and Richard could not get his Ozone Buzz Z4 over head enough to launch the motor, so we switched him to the AirDesign EAZY M today and he did brilliantly. So did the EAZY on the motor, easy to inflate and very stable in the air even mid-day. Richard got four motor flights and 2+ hours of airtime, enough to apply for his Ultralight Permit and write the ULTRA exam soon. Meanwhile the bulldozer was prepping the new runway on the west property line. The east fence line is being flattened and levelled next to remove the tree debris. While Richard was motoring I removed some more trees from the NE approach so that the fence line can be removed on Wednesday. The reshaped LZ is gonna be great for winter flying and for next year's busy season. We only have another month here and then off to Mexico December 1 for Mexico Tours! Check the new link to Tours in the page header above. December in Manzanillo for Pacific Flying and coastal soaring, then on to the Interior for some serious XC flying. 10-23-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 14C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres Richard was trying his paramotor but the winds did not agree for him. We all went up the hill at 11 am and Brian & Richard got their first flight in today in light up cycles. Brian is pictured here flying through the wispy clouds on the first flight. We went back up at noon and Marwan joined us late and he and Brian got a flight. An un-named pilot ended up in some small trees and ripped his glider so he was out for the day. Andrei called about another tree incident but I have no details on that one? We went up at 4 pm and it was starting to blow down as the clouds rolled in. But that did not deter Brian, Marwan, Jacek or Dennie as they all flew off. Three more flights for Brian as is around 17 flights in 4 days! Not bad progress and 4 different sites too. 10-22-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Showers. Windy. High 13. 600 metres 10-21-17
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| Agassiz BC Savona Forecast: A few showers ending early this evening then cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Snow level 1200 metres rising to 1800 metres after midnight. Wind east 20 km/h increasing to 40 gusting to 60 early this evening then diminishing to 20 gusting to 40 late this evening. Low plus 5. 1200 metres 10-20-17
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| Agassiz BC Savona Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers late in the afternoon. Snow level 1400 metres. Wind becoming west 20 km/h near noon. High 12. 1200 metres We started flying on the Toilet Bowl Ridge where Brian got three flights with forward and reverse launches. Simon did a few tandems there too with Ho as the passenger. We then headed up to the Upper Launch (Oscar's) and everyone flew off with all making the Crash Pad LZ with light lift along the way. And then it started blowing easterly so down to the Dump Ridge for more flights. Brian got five flights today! We drove back on Hwy 5 and had snow at the summits. 10-19-17
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| Agassiz BC Cache Creek Forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming east 20 km/h gusting to 40 late in the morning. High 15. 1200 metres The forecast was a bit off with SW winds instead of strongish NE winds which works for Coyote Ridge. We got to see the fire damage up close on launch. Most of the sage and all the grass is gone. Also you can see where the fires burnt over Elephant Hill. It was not flyable so off to Savona and we arrived to strong soarable conditions. Mah took off and soared his Pi 2 for some time top-landing. Then Simon did his first real tandem launch and found out how big the Magnum 2 41 is in wind! His passenger was Ho from Hong Kong for these flights today. Kit also went soaring on his Sigma 9. Then it calmed enough for Brian to get his first Savona flights and on his 4th flight he soared and top-landed! We flew til 5 pm and then off to Cache Creek for the evening. 10-18-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Rain at times heavy beginning this morning. Amount 20 to 30 mm. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 12. 700 metres 10-17-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 90% Precip. / 6.52 mm Rain. High 11C. Winds light and variable. 700 metres Good thing we were not flying as the Construction Firm is now leveling the LZ starting at the Corn Field line, the ProCircle will still be available for landings. Despite the heavy rains they were able to clear 60' x 700' today as a rough cut and it is nice and level running across it on my Quad. Kit, Mah and Alex are here from Hong Kong joining Simon for the Instructor Course I am running this week. We had a tandem ground school session and then an hour of Simulator Time trying different setups up in the loft while the rain was pouring down. And then around 1 pm the sun came out and we moved to the LZ for some real kiting practice in some changeable winds. Meanwhile Scott's Tree Care was here dropping 4 trees on the east property line. I got to monitor the kiting exercise while brushing out around the big trees for Scott, I am "digging my new excavator". Big changes at Eagle Ranch despite rumours that I am not that interested in Paragliding! 10-16-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 90% Precip. / 6.52 mm Rain. High 11C. Winds light and variable. 700 metres 10-15-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 17C. Winds light and variable. 800 metres We had Zayden set up on the training hill when it went west for some time, due to the outflow and I said "give it a try" and he launched with a +10 kph tailwind and got the EAZY M over his head and ran down the slope perfectly! The NW outflow continued for about an hour so the guys were doing forward launches towards Sasquatch Mtn. and were keeping their gliders up for 2-3 minutes with ease. They were deemed ready to fly and we did a landing briefing and answered any last minute questions. Zayden did take a tandem about a month ago so he knew the approach, but it is good to do a refresher when pilots have been away for sometime. We headed up to launch today after noon. We arrived to a huge crowd on top with light cycles. One by one intermediate pilots were launching and some stayed up and others sunk out but it was smooth and it was time to fly so Zayden went first and despite having a lazy launch run, the AirDesign EAZY flew him off the hill and he had about a 15 minute flight landing near the circle. Brian got ready next and he was flying a SupAir EONA M and he had a super committed launch and he was off and flying well. Lots of airtime to practice weight shift turns and S turns over Duncan's farm. We took another load up and relaunched Zayden & Brian again and they did well, especially for their first day of solo flying. The FlyBC system works well to get pilots airborne faster. Zayden had to head off to home by 4 pm, so it was just Brian for the balance of the day and Brian got one more flight. This time the launch winds had picked up to +20 kph and Brian had a perfect launch and was 2 metres over my head and still on the carpeted area. He got to soar some on this flight and had his third perfect landing and was able to kite the wing for sometime after landing. Good day all around for advance and beginner pilots. Martin N top-landed after a low save from 240 metres and drove someones truck down. Good teamwork. Others got 2-3 hours of soaring, with Derek topping out at 1100 metres to the north cliffs where he said he was going backwards. None of these conditions were represented on CanadaRASP, rather it looked like a lame day but good for students. Probably pre-frontal conditions that the RASP never predicted. 10-14-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: AM Showers. High near 10C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres John W was out kiting his new Ozone Spyder PPG Wing and we headed up around 4 pm to retrieve Logan's car and get John a flight on his new ship and it was very soarable then. Note it was snowing on Sasquatch in the background while everyone was flying. 10-13-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 11C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres Derek and I arrived at the same time to see Bev heading out after getting "cloud suck" into the white room where she froze her fingers. Martin hung in for about 40 minutes waiting for Norm to launch as it was leeside. When Derek & I arrived on launch it had shaded in and Norm & Martin were in the approach into the Ranch. We drove down so I could do some brushing on the north property line. 10-12-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Rain beginning this morning and ending this afternoon then 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 11. 1400 metres The Barn is now locked off to Public Entry due to a recent theft of a reserve from a new harness, so it will only be open for ground school sessions. The parking area is being moved to behind the small barn as well, with a new fence being installed as soon as we can get the materials. 10-11-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Rain beginning this morning and ending this afternoon then 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 11. 1400 metres 10-10-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Cloudy. Rain beginning this morning and ending this afternoon then 30 percent chance of showers late this afternoon. High 11. 1400 metres 10-9-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Partly Cloudy. High 14C. Winds light and variable. 900 metres I counted 15 gliders in the air and most pilots got 2 hours. Vlad and Gary P top-landed to drive rigs down. I had only Marwan here training today, while Monika wrote her P-2 exam before getting her 30th flight late in the day. I got Marwan 3 flights today, he could have done a few more had he nailed his first launch attempts. He was flying the AirDesign EAZY medium wing today and it worked well for his launches after he committed and held his Bird Position! Colleen had a pod problem and had to fly out on the first flight but got it sorted out for the last flight here. Note the winds on the ground were strong outflow while Woodside was still pumping in straight and strong SW, love this launch site! Jacek was doing video duties for everyone and had to do a "no wind reverse launch" at 6 pm tonight as it went catabatic and then calm. 10-8-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mix of sun and cloud. High 12C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 1100 metres We did not go up the mountain until 3 pm, when we saw other gliders climbing out. I launched after Derek on the new AirDesign Rise 3 Medium. Nice launching glider and climbed out with Derek marking the thermals. We flew north and south and all over the place and got up to 1000 metres easily. I tracked to the north and saw Norm & Martin "duking it out" over the North cliffs. Later Norm got low over there and fortunately had the help of 4 eagles to get him back to cloudbase. Everyone flew so my Van was still on launch and it was getting lighter lift so I headed in for a top-landing pass, came in too high and then was below launch for some time until a nice thermal took me over 800 metres. The next pass I faded back over the parking lot and was still high but slowed the Rise 3 down enough to land right in the middle of the carpet. Climb rate was good but not as good as Derek's Alpina2, but that is probably skillful piloting vs glider designs. AirDesign Rise 3 Review by Ziad Bassel I flew both the Rise 1 and 2. Here’s the Rise 3 from Air design. A high -end B with 5.95 AR and lots of design technologies from a Lightweight construction, to the Stabilo Winglets which are an interesting funny looking new feature, a Shark-Nose and Vortex Holes on the extremities , Mini-Ribs, Race unsheathed lines but it looks not that skinny, and tough enough, Thin performance Risers with a C-Control System ! Everything is there to show that AD are aiming for performance at first…Lets see… Launching the Rise 3 is very easy without any hang back or surge. The light material has its benefits in the launch characteristic. I flew the glider from 85 to 92 all up, to discover that flying it near the top weight is really efficient.(90-92) on the S size. At 90 all up, the Rise 3 S has a short, precise brake travel and could be described as fairly agile. The pressure on the brakes are moderate for the 10-15 cm of brake travel that actually are needed to steer the glider in all thermals. After 15 cm the pressure are slightly on the heavy side. While flying through mild turbulent air, there’s some wobbles and small yaw movements coming from the glider. I flew in the same air the Chili 4 XS size at 94 all up, to conclude finally that the Chili 4 XS move as a block compared to the Rise 3 S. After some flying hours, alternating the two gliders, the overall comfort is similar with a slight ‘shock absorbent’ feel to the rise 3 S that Air design i famous for. The chilli 4 XS has slightly more sharper reaction to strong thermal punches. After some hours, i got used to those tiny wobbles that doesn’t amplify their energy when conditions got stronger. They are just here. The overall piloting level is above the Rise 2 and is similar to the Chili 4 XS or the Mentor 5 XS. Flying next to my reference B glider, the Chili 4 XS, i found out that the Rise 3 have an impressive climb rate ! After many attempts on the Rise 3 S (72-92) @ 90 with the Chili 4 XS (75-95) @ 93, i was convinced that this Rise S size climb has a slight edge ! I was really surprised about that, knowing that the Chili 4 XS is one of the most efficient climber on the B category. At 90 all up, the Rise 3 S doesn’t have some annoying pitch behaviors, but rather an efficient nose to surf those thermals and climb, like any good high-B glider. I noticed that every thermal is quickly converted into climb very efficiently. And the brake authority helps a lot by putting the Rise 3 S inside narrow cores, without any reluctant behavior of the leading edge to dig in. Sometimes i need to insist slightly to turn it inside the thermals, as it flattens out sometimes. It shows also the ability for a flat efficient turning behavior. I must say that the Rise 3 S is a nice floater in the high B category ! Racing facing the Valley breeze is as efficient as on the Chili 4 XS ! At those weight load above, my friend and i made a few glide comparisons on an exceptional August day with high cloud bases! Trim speed is similar and the glide at trim seems also identical ! At 5 km/h over trim, both glider are also inseparable in glide ! Pushing the full bar on the Rise 3 S at 90 all up, gave me a +14 km/h taken at 1300 ASL ! which is around 2-3 km/h over the Chili 4 XS. Big ears are stable without using the speed bar, they slightly shake using the speed bar. Conclusion: The overall piloting level is not far from the mid aspect ratio B gliders, despite it’s 5.95 AR and i could say it’s an accessible high end B glider with a fairly good handling. I think the lines used on the Rise 3 S, will not move that easy…They all are unsheathed, and slightly thicker than the contenders . The Rise 3 in size S has those small wobbling movements, but they are very easy to get used to, and could be an advantage for the pilots who don’t like the ‘block feel’ above their heads. Finally i can say that the Rise 3 has joined the circle of the top contenders in the high B category for it’s overall efficiency in climb and glide, and it’s certain that any pilot flying the Rise 3 won’t miss any performance whatsoever racing against the new 2017 Mentors and Chili’s ! It seems that Air design has worked very hard on the Rise 3! And it surely paid off ! - Ziad 10-7-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 60% Precip. / 7.34 mm PM Rain. High 12C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 700 metres 10-6-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: 100% Precip. / 7.34 mm PM Rain. High 12C. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 km/h. 700 metres I had to do some deliveries in Chilliwack and it was raining hard there! Good timing as the last hay crop was cut and baled yesterday as pilots were landing amongst the machines. The bales should be removed by next week but in the meantime don't fixate on them as they are over 1000 lbs and won't move if you hit one! 10-5-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 21C. Winds SW at 10 to 15 km/h. 900 metres I took Roger for his third tandem today and we caught a few bubbles of lift but it was small tight thermals and we were pretty heavily loaded on the Swift Max tandem. Awesome launch & landing conditions. Jacek picked up his new Swift 4 and had a nice intro flight on it exploring the mountain. 10-4-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 21C. Winds N at 10 to 15 km/h. 900 metres 10-3-17
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| Agassiz BC Woodside Forecast: Mostly Sunny. High 21C. Winds N at 10 to 15 km/h. 900 metres We started out with good east winds on the training hill for forward practice. Odd as Agassiz was reporting +35 kph gusts from the North? Then it switched to strong NW winds so we did lots of reverse kiting practice. After lunch we headed up the hill and Bev & Norm did wind tech duties so Shannon could get his first solo done. Shannon is a sky-diver with 250 jumps so landings should not be an issue, and he had a great first launch and got good altitude all the way to the Ranch with about a 20 minute flight. Roger was not feeling confident so he watched the others. We repeated this pattern and on Shannon's second flight I got him into a nice thermal and he out-climbed Rod F and had another 30 minutes of airtime. Martin N and Norm also had a nice 1.5 hr flight on this round. Back down to get Shannon and we got him off for his third flight just as the winds went catabatic. 10-2-17
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| Rio de Janeiro, BR Niteroi Forecast: 40% Precip. / 0.00 in AM Showers. High 92F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. 500 metres There are two local sites here, and the winds were favourable for the main site that faces North. The launch is a concrete ramp near some antennas and when we arrived at the bottom at 930 am, there were 20 paragliders already soaring the ridge. The drive is up to a National Park, Parque de Cidades, and the road is paved to the top. The launch queue was quite civilized as pilots were sorting lines off to the back of launch. I got into the launch slot and cycles were perfect and I launched and soared to the west and got some nice thermals on the way, getting high above launch. As I got to the west end of the ridge pilots were heading back towards launch as the lift was getting lighter. I hung out a bit too long and when I got back below launch I was low, but still a safe glide to the Beach LZ. I noted there were two trees in the middle of a burnt out area, that I navigated around and just then a hawk buzzed right over my head, through my risers and zoomed past me. It then came back around again past the right wingtip. I headed west to the lift band and then it slammed into the top of my wing, shaking the entire wing. I headed out doing some wingovers to scare it away and it left me alone after that. I had now lost the lift and I headed out to land. What a nice site, and nice organized pilots too. 2016 in Review - we had our busiest season every in 20 years! Thanks to all of you that supported us in 2016! We started out in January with our biggest Mexican Tour with many guests improving their skills at El Toro, Pelican Bay Soaring Site, Colima and Tapalpa. February brought us more Tour guests with me returning to Canada on March 1 to start lessons. March brought on some great spring conditions with some excellent XC flights in the Faser Valley. April brought out many new student pilots and we had up to 7 per day requiring some additional manpower to help out with Degas in Mission with newbies while I was sending students off Woodside. April enjoyed the first tree-landing of the season as an un-named P-2 pilot 360ed himself into a 200' tree just before dark. May brought out many pilots doing XC flights from Benny to Woodside. This site was improved in 2016 with WCSC & BCHPA funds so we are going to take advancing students there in 2017. We also ran our Annual FlyBC Instructor Course and had many new candidates working with our students. We had to go to Coyote & Mara many times to avoid the weather. June was an awesome month and we had many signed off P-2 students by now. Thanks to all who helped us get them through their courses! July was a productive month but also brought some sad news as a local Bellingham Pilot who had flown Blanchard hundreds of times had a fatal crash while paragliding on a mellow day. TJ had been flying since 2000 and had created a Weather Page that was very useful in predicting the conditions. August took us to Mara Lake for our Annual SIV Course and we had 25 participants over 10 days with only a few wet wings. Either we are getting better at guiding, or the gliders are getting safer, or the pilots are doing more studying prior to the Course . . . or all three but it is a pleasure to put pilots through the maneuvers and see them cain confidence in their gear. September was flyable most days but we did do the odd road trip to Merritt and Coyote. I think we are up to 200 flyable days now. We also had one weekend closed to students and pilots at Eagle Ranch while we married off Aaron & Christy! October turned out to be a complete bust as it rained everyday, as did November. Odd as this is usually our busiest training time. It was okay because we had planned a trip to Australia anyway, but I felt bad for the students that did not get finished in 2016. December was also bad weather-wise with record snow falls, so I went to Mexico to get our winter condo ready for the winter season, and Derek & Norm & I had some nice flights. Thanks again to the 40+ students we signed off in 2016. Thanks also to the pilots that bought a record number of gliders from Gin, Ozone & SupAir from us in 2016. Stay safe in 2017, and we will be here to support you in your flying endeavours. |
1253 Kilby Road, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0 Cell: 604-618-5467 E-Mail: FlyBC E-Mail |