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.