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
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