Cliffside 12-30-2014

It's nice to end the year with John D , Solo R and Travis P with an absolutely terrific flights, given the iffy weather condition at Cliffside. The wind direction was blowing straight up (approx 8 mph) at launch from east (between 9:00 to 10:30am) with almost zero wind at the LZ. It became lighter than it was earlier when we launched around 11:30am. I was waiting for a stronger launch cycle when the wind started to drop down to less than 5 mph, to which I told John that we'll probably end up having a sledder,.......... but I was wrong, the day turned out much better than expected. We both launched in a good thermal cycle and was able to bench up and climb above launch quickly. I flew for 30 mins and later hooked up with more good thermals that took me up to 1400 ft over the hang launch. John also did really well and got 600 to 800ft over. After about an hour of air time, the thermic conditions had shut off and winds switched more to the opposite direction (west). A couple of PG pilots didn't fly because the wind suddenly switched over the back or too west. So, the 4 of us (2 hangs & 2 bags) got to soared and ended up with great flights today at Cliffside,...pretty awesome for an unpredictable forecast!
Date: 12-30-2014

Dog Mtn 12-28-14

Hang Gliding landing in a heavy rain at Dog Mtn on Dec 28th 2014
I flew for an hour on the second flight until the snow arrived that forced me to land.

Bingen, WA 12-26-14

Had another great flight (not Epic) today at Bingen! It was just the 3 of us: Enrique, Nick (Paraglider) and I that flew. We arrived west launch at noon and see some favorable moments for launching (10-15 mph west). When I was ready to launched at 1:00 pm , it felt like the wind drop down below 8 mph. The whole flight had light ridge lifts mixed with a lot of light thermals. Smooth air during the whole flight again. I got 500 over launch after 30 mins later and flew for more than an hour. I had to land early, as I needed to give Nick and Enrique a ride up to retrieve their cars. Such a sweet flying site, I wish that more pilots could've joined. Even Enrique, at 68 yrs old hiked his hang glider /harness (80lbs) all the ways up to the west launch with me today,...which I think is pretty awesome.

Xmas 2014 Hang gliding flights at Dog Mtn (Glenoma,WA)

I had two flights (total of 2 hrs air times) at Dog today.

Overcast day at Oceanside 12-21-14

Another great flight today at Oceanside, Oregon! Thanks to PG friend Stan, who gave me a ride up to launch. I text and post to inform all PDX buddies this morning before I head out. Most of them are busy doing Christmas shopping so it end up I'm the only one flew Oceanside today. It was pouring rain this morning while heading to OS, but lightened when I arrived at 11am. High tide was around 11am so I headed up to launch once seeing that there was enough beach for landing. The wind at launch was blowing straight west about 8-13 and no more rain so I decided to setup. I launch myself in a light wind and flew for 1.5 hrs in very smooth air and easily climbed 600ft above launch.

Overcast day at Oceanside (Part 2 of 2)

Overcast day at Oceanside (Part 1 of 2)

Overcast day at Oceanside (Part 2 of 2)

Hang Gliding clouds surfing at Chehalem 12-19-14

Ray, John (from Virginia), Enrique and I all did some nice soaring today at Newberg. The launch was foggy with zero visibility when we arrived around at 11:00AM, but the winds were favorable and it began to clear off about an hour later. I took off first at 12:30 and flew for 1.5 plus hrs until scattered rain came through. With the cloud ceiling being low, misty clouds were surfing during the whole flight.

Flying sites in Pacific Northwest (Oregon Hang gliding flying sites)

 Oregon & Washington Hang Gliding / Paragliding flying sites

I live in Portland,Oregon and do fly regularly along with a few others living in Portland that flies on weekdays too. We fly during winter too. There are few sites here in Pacific Northwest is flyable year around. When it rains, it usually rain for a few hours then clears up. If you don't mind traveling the extra miles, there's a lot of options here in Pacific Northwest between Oregon and Washington. The Google maps below shows some of the flying sites I go during the weekend on short trips. There's also quite a few longer distance sites, such as: Black Mtn, Lakeview, Chelan, Woodrat........ etc. A couple inland sites; Chehelam (Newberg,OR) and Peterson Butte (Lebenon,OR) are also good places to go whenever you see the South wind components in the forecast.

I usually post on the CBCC and ohgalist list about my flying plans. You can also do the same.  Feel free to email me directly any time (No Facebook please). Looking forward to flying with you soon!

Btw, Join this groups too. 

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ohgalist/info

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CBCC/info

Rick

ricklai@yahoo.com

Let me know if you can't view the images below:

Hang gliding at Saddle Mountain (Beverly, WA) 12-15-14

Saddle Mtn winds were good today (Dec 14th 2014) , but very foggy and cold with poor visibility at launch. 11 Hangs were waiting at launch for a long time and it ended up with only 3 hangs (Eric, Ron and myself) and 1PG that flew. I was fortunate to be able to climb up a few hundred ft above launch before the wind die down and got the chance to soar over to the east side of Saddle Ridge. Although the air was smooth enough to perform landing on the top, but no one made the attempt as the cloud ceiling was too low with heavy fog. I just boated from the front ridge on the edge of the clouds until the wind die down and headed to the parking log.

Enjoyable hang gliding flight at Newberg Dec 6th 2014

I'm so glad that I came to Newberg today (Dec 6th 2014) to fly with paraglider friends: David B, Nick B, Mark S, Mike... etc. I had such an enjoyable 1.5 hrs flight. I launched at 2:00pm with not too windy condition (approx 8-13 mph) and it was pretty easy to climbed up between 300- 600 ft above Chehalem ridge. I landed after an hour & half of air time because of the rain drizzle approaching. Thanks to Mark Sanzone for shuttling me up to launch.

Cliffside hang gliding flight report 11-30-2014

On Nov 30 2014. Three hang gliders (Jonathan , Enrique and myself) and approx 15 PGs all had a great time today at Cliffside. The condition was similar like the last time I flew (Nov 10 2014) except much cooler. My flight lasted for 2.5 hrs until my pinky fingers got numbed. I topped at 2500 ft above launch.

You can go to the link below to view more of today's flight report:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/cpcl/7bzdqhtmp_M

A scenic hang gliding flight at Dog Mtn.(Glenoma, WA)

Such a beautiful day flying over snow covered Dog mountain! I soared above the north ridge for almost two hours enjoying the stunning view.
Photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108202852508886012643/AScenicFlightAtDogNov292014

Bingen flight on Thanksgiving 2014 (Full Version)

Shorter Version: http://youtu.be/7JvBmOccb2w

Great flight with my PG friend Dave Blizzard this morning at Bingen. We punched off at 11am from the west launch (2000ft AGL/ another 15mins hiked from south launch). A lot of gloomy grey clouds were building up by the time we arrived to west launch (approx 10:30AM). Wind condition were still favorable .It was another awesome butter smooth extended sledder. Winds were coming straight up from west about 0-3 mph at launch and same at the LZ too. Rain never made it here. The west launch is an absolute first class luxury launch. Thanks Dave for coming out to fly with me and the help with walking my glider to the west launch. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Hang gliding flight at Bingen Washington (short version)

I had planned on flying Newberg today (Nov 24, 2014) but no one wanted to go so I decided to join Dave and Nick (PG pilots) to try out this awesome site. Thanks for driving my car down Dave & Nick. I'd been looking forward to flying this site for years now and finally accomplished that today. The hike wasn't too bad at all and you can actually launch right by the road if you not wanting to hike up to the higher PG launch area.

Anyways, Bingen is across from Hood River, OR on the WA side. The LZ is by the river -it kind of reminded me of the soccer field at Chalen's LZ.

Hang gliding flight at Bingen Washington (shorter version)

Hang gliding flight at Bingen Washington (Longer version)

Hang glider crossing Columbia River on top of John Day Dam

It was absolutely epic at Cliffside today. I launched at 10:15am and flew for almost 4hrs. I got above those windmills with mostly smooth and stable thermals , cross the river and went passed the aluminum plant few times. Topped 3000ft above launch. Thanks for PG pilot Jim and his wife Paris give me a ride and Steve Forslund help me at launch.

Hang Gliding 1st flight at Bremer Ridge

Date Oct 19th 2014
Site: Bremer (near Morton, Washington)
AGL: 2300ft

We left Morton,WA airport around 11:00 headed up to Bremer. Larry and I launched in a approx 15mph SSE gusty cross winds around 2:30pm and I be able to climbed straight up to 300 ft over launch while Larry got 700ft over. The wind speed was producing turbulent conditions along Bremer ridge which made us feel uncomfortable so we both flew for about 30mins before heading to land. Once we were away from the launch (ridge), the air became butter smooth allowing us to make an easy no wind landing.

There were multiple launch spots and all doable for hangs. I think one of the launch was facing west. Others were faced South or SW if I'm correct. I hope we get to fly Bremer more before the road gets covered up by snow. Thanks again to Larry, Tina , Dave and Diana show me such a great thermal site !

1 flight 2 hrs/ Get high at Peterson Butte 10-13-14

Peterson was great today (Oct13th 2014) with the sweet pre-frontal conditions Kory, Gabe, Zac Majors and I can easily got up to 1500 to 2000ft above east side upper launch . Zac Majors jumped to the back side and flew 20 plus miles all the way to near Salem, OR.

1 flight 1 hour / Landing sequence at Rampart on Oct 10th 2014

This video is the last few minutes of my landing sequence at Rampart on Oct 10th 2014.
A total of 10 hang pilots flew. (no paragliders) It was absolutely another epic day at Rampart. The launch condition was not too strong (8-12mph straight up) which allowed everyone to self launch. The thermals were mixed with ridge lifts, it was fairly smooth while popping off all the way through the end of the Rampart ridge. We were all able to climb easily to the cloud base without a problem and made it to the the end of the Rampart cliff wall. My instrument indicated topping over 4000ft above launch (approx 8000 ft above see level) and it was freezing cold. The landing was a bit rowdy but we all managed to land safely.

1 flight / An awesome 3 hrs flight at Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass, WA) Oct 5

There was a total of 11 hangs that flew Rampart yesterday. Never was there a dull moment with the gorgeous view and so grateful to be flying once again in such wonderful conditions.

PS. A special thanks to Alfredo for coming out to shuttle for us. Hope you'll get to fly Rampart soon.

3 flights 1.5 hrs 1st flight at Mt.Baldy Fly-In 2014

David Norwood memorial Fly-In 2014
Baldy Butte, located between Ellensburg and Yakima, Washington. I had three flights at Baldy on Fri and Sat (Sept 26-27-2014). A few photos captured from my cam here to sharing and I'll post videos later when I have time. Just another fantastic flying weekend again!

Day 1 (09-26-14 Friday)
I arrived Baldy LZ at 2pm and took a ride up to launch with Peter, Daniel (the hang pilot from Israel) and Dave (PG pilot) around 3pm and found SW wind coming from the back about 0-3 mph. PG pilot Dave launched in the south side and he was able to made it around to the north side and landed at the campsite LZ. While I was setting up, the wind shifted to NW so I launched at the north side lower ridge with light breeze cycles. I expected a sled ride down to the LZ however I flew in to few bumps that let me to soared the ridge a little bit to extended my sledder. Peter flew his paraglide after me, while Daniel decided to drive down, so I ended up being the only hang in the air for the day.

Day 2 (09-27-14 Saturday)
Woke up to beautiful blue sky and sunshine. Light north breeze about 0-3mph at the LZ campsite. Travis and I, along with a few groups of paragliders headed up to launch (around 10am) in hopes to take an early sledder. When we arrived at launch, the winds were blowing 15-20mph straight up. By the time we were ready to launch (11am) the wind calm down a bit (15mph). We managed to launch ourselves without wire assistance and easily climbed straight up a few hundred ft above launch. The conditions allowed us to boat from the front to the back of the entire ridge. We also caught some thermals and rode up to 1200' ft above launch enjoying the scenery. An hour later Peter (tandem) and Jim S join us in the air. It was supposedly a sledder but turned out being a 2 hr long flight for both Travis and I. Just a great start to the day!

I saw Tim C loading up with 2 other hangs right after I landed. Later in the day, most paragliders decided to not fly, as the wind's velocity at launch seemed to be increasing. Travis and I took a lunch break and headed up again around 3:30pm. Conditions still remained strong at launch and I didn't see anyone flying in the sky. A lot of paragliders were still waiting at the lower launch. Travis and I punched off at 5pm in similar strong wind condition as earlier. After 45 mins boating around the ridge, things mellowed out and many paragliders started to join us. I flew for one hour plus than headed to the LZ to avoid air traffic. The conditions began to die down by 6:30pm with some sinking out while others PGs struggled to stay up.

Day 3 (09-28-14 Sunday) Rampart
http://youtu.be/-ZDkjwMZuSI

1 flights 1hr Rampart on Sept 28th 2014

I went to Mt Baldy (15 miles south of Ellensburg Washington) on Sept 26-27,2014 for the annual Fly-In. I had three flights at Baldy on Fri and Sat and one great flight at Rampart on Sunday. This is a day 3 video at Rampart.

Day 3 (09-28-14 Sunday)
Travis and l met up the hangs group at Rampart around 11:00am. We arrived launch approx 12:30pm and found the conditions not so nice, mostly dead or light breeze blowing from the back. Therefore, most of us decided to launch from the higher spot which is the paraglider launch instead. There have a lot of PGs at the higher launch sharing the setup area with us, all workout fine. Launching from the new spot it seems like flying a new site to me. I found a nice thermal on the right side of the launch that took me straight up to 1000 ft above launch. It since like there have a lot of small lifts and sinks in between so I didn’t go too far north this time. I flew for almost an hour and began to sink out. The air in the LZ mostly smooth and clam this time so we all landed without incident or whack.


The below link is Mt baldy Fly-in video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpz60dwaCJM

2 flight 6 hrs at Cliffside & Dog 9-20 and 21, 2014

Five of us (Ray, Kory, Jeff H, Neil) had a great flight at Cliffside on Saturday (9/20/14). I managed to stay up for over 3 hours and it was fun cruising above the windmills. The higher altitude topped out at about 4800ft AGL.

On Sunday (9/21/14), I went back to Dog and flew with about a dozen pilot. Everyone had no problem getting above launch and staying up as long as desired. I landed 3 hrs later right on the target to end this awesome weekend.

1 flight 3 hrs at Dog Mountain 09-21-14

On Sunday (9/21/14), I went back to Dog and flew with about a dozen pilot. Everyone had no problem getting above launch and staying up as long as desired. I landed 3 hrs later right on the target to end this awesome weekend.

1 flight 2 hrs/ 1st flight at Rampart Ridge 09-07-14

Over the weekend(Sept 7,2014), I visited an incredible site known as Rampart Ridge which is near the city of Snoqualmie Pass, WA (1.5 hours drive east of Seattle). I joined a group of hang gliding friends and there I was able to experience yet another memorable flight. In my 2+hrs of soaring, I had the privilege of being surrounded by the magnificent scenery and cascades above the summits at 8,000 ft (2,500 meter) sea level. This place has got the most stunning view in Washington States. Getting an epic view and flight makes it all the worthwhile of the extra hrs of driving.
I ended it with a good landing, but it was not the case for a few pilots who had a bad whack due to the rotor turbulence from Mount Hyak on the west side of the landing field.

Escape from disaster (Landing accident)

Hang gliding landing accident (almost crash):

Some scary moment at Dog Mountain (Aug 24,2014 report) :
So sorry for causing everyone to worry about me yesterday (Aug 24th 2014) at Dog Mtn (Glenoma, Washington). To keep the story short, I got up high (approx 4500FT AGL) at Dog Mt. and went across the lake over to Elk Mtn tried to stay away from the storm and got even higher when I reached Elk. At some point I experienced a sudden wind switch due to an oncoming storm with a strong east that I wasn't able to penetrate even at full speed, while trying to return back to the Dogpatch landing field. So, I decided to pick a very unfriendly BAILOUT spot to land rather than end up in the trees or water. Luckily, I had a soft landing without getting wrack, injured and wet.

A BIG thanks to Travis again in taking quick action retrieving a boat that came to my rescue at this remote location.

The 1 of 2 video http://youtu.be/8ACT6IXXwoQ is another video from the same flight (Aug 24th 2014) before wind switch 180" from east. It was smooth air during the whole flight and one thermal took me, Lenny and Marty straight up to cloud base. I should have followed Tina and Larry landing before the gust front rolled in from east.

Some people have asked if this was my best option, or if I should've gone tailwind and fly further out east? Well, when I was still around 4000ft AGL I did realize that flying in strong headwind will possibly lead to not making it back to Dog LZ . At that time, I did consider going downwind too, but didn't feel conformable heading inside the gust front clouds with zero visibility. Also, I didn't have a cell phone or radio on me and it was getting late (around 6:30pm at that time). If I had gone further down, it's possible that I might end up in some unreachable area setting me in deeper trouble. I also tried heading north flying in cross winds to the other side, but it was a long way crossing the lake from where I was.

So, I pretty much made up my mind that my best option would be to land at the shoreline. At least people at Dog patch would be able to see me and increase my chance of rescue. It did cross my mind whether anyone took notice to where I land. If I wasn't noticed, I had the plans of looking for the road on top of the shoreline during my descension period and taking that old road to walk back to Dog if I made a successful landing. That was my plan if I didn't get rescued, to be able to walk back to Dog and retrieve the glider the next day.

Anyways, I'm not sure if it was my best option, but certainly one that I felt most comfortable with and probably will do the same thing again should this event be repeated in my "DREAM". I hope no one would need to go through what I did yesterday. The outcome could've been much worse. I'm sure a guardian angel was looking after me.

This is 1 of 2 video from yesterday (Aug 24th 2014) before wind switch 180" from east. You can go to 2 of 2 video link http://youtu.be/-nHRgfR-SiU to watch how I escape from disaster

So sorry for causing everyone to worry about me yesterday (Aug 24th 2014) at Dog Mtn (Glenoma, Washington). To keep the story short, I got up high (approx 4500FT AGL) at Dog Mt. and went across the lake over to Elk Mtn tried to stay away from the storm and got even higher when I reached Elk. At some point I experienced a sudden wind switch due to an oncoming storm with a strong east that I wasn't able to penetrate even at full speed, while trying to return back to the Dogpatch landing field. So, I decided to pick a very unfriendly BAILOUT spot to land rather than end up in the trees or water. Luckily, I had a soft landing without getting wrack, injured and wet.

A BIG thanks to Travis again in taking quick action retrieving a boat that came to my rescue at this remote location.

It was smooth air during the whole flight and one thermal took me, Lenny and Marty straight up to cloud base. I should have followed Tina and Larry landing before the gust front rolled in from east.

Some people have asked if this was my best option, or if I should've gone tailwind and fly further out east? Well, when I was still around 4000ft AGL I did realize that flying in strong headwind will possibly lead to not making it back to Dog LZ . At that time, I did consider going downwind too, but didn't feel conformable heading inside the gust front clouds with zero visibility. Also, I didn't have a cell phone or radio on me and it was getting late (around 6:30pm at that time). If I had gone further down, it's possible that I might end up in some unreachable area setting me in deeper trouble. I also tried heading north flying in cross winds to the other side, but it was a long way crossing the lake from where I was.

So, I pretty much made up my mind that my best option would be to land at the shoreline. At least people at Dog patch would be able to see me and increase my chance of rescue. It did cross my mind whether anyone took notice to where I land. If I wasn't noticed, I had the plans of looking for the road on top of the shoreline during my descension period and taking that old road to walk back to Dog if I made a successful landing. That was my plan if I didn't get rescued, to be able to walk back to Dog and retrieve the glider the next day.

Anyways, I'm not sure if it was my best option, but certainly one that I felt most comfortable with and probably will do the same thing again should this event be repeated in my "DREAM". I hope no one would need to go through what I did yesterday. The outcome could've been much worse. I'm sure a guardian angel was looking after me.

2 flights 3 hrs Chelan Hang gliding flight Jun 30 to July 1, 2014

It turns out that my first flight at Chelan was one of those unforgettable flights. Aside from the 2.5 hrs of XC epic air time conditions, I witnessed a paraglider deploying his reserves right below me. We were both in the same strong thermal, but his wing started to spiral and it got out of control.... few second later, his reserves were deployed and he landed not too far from launch escaping injuries. Hopefully my GoPro captured that intense moment, which I'll post to share later. The highest altitude I had gotten was aprox 8500ft . Thanks to Jim Steel who provided an LZ intro and a ride up to launch. Also, for granting me the site information, thanks to: Lenny, Aaron Rinn, Ken and many others.

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I witnessed a paraglider deploying his reserves right below me. We were both in the same strong thermal, but his wing started to spiral and it got out of control.... few second later, his reserves were deployed and he landed not too far from launch escaping injuries.

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July 1st 2014 was another exciting day at Chelan. A lot of hang waiting and some packed up since conditions were iffy. After a few hrs of hang waiting, conditions had calmed and I decided to get a sledder. I did a no wind launch and aimed for the LZ. Unfortunately, I came across a lot of sinky air which caused losing altitude fast,so instead of landing at the soccer LZ, I landed one mile south of the empty field (right next to the railroad-See the Google map below)

Cape Lookout south side 1/26/18 updated

I was told by the Paragliders that the south side of CLO still doable for hangs.  We just need to hike the glider (or push it with the kayak cart) to the clear cut cliff launch which approx half or 3/4 miles from the trailhead parking lot.  If we land too close to the cape down below,  it's going to be a long walk back to the Sand Lake Recreation Area parking lot. please correct me if I'm wrong.