1 flight 2 hrs / Dog Mt (Glenoma, Wa) landing at the school field 05-30-15

I think there were a 20 plus pilots at Dog on Saturday.  Blue skies with some strong wind at the landing.  Everyone can stayed up as long as they wanted.  Landing were a little rowdy during mid day at the north field. Travis and I landed at the school field to avoid mosquito bites.


Here's a photos and video from yesterday at Dog Mt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFlbM1QhB9U

or

https://vimeo.com/129390937

Dog patch still under water.

 Travis climbing in front of me. 

 School field LZ

Dog patch still under water

6 flights 7 hrs Annual Memorial Day Fly-In May 22-25, 2015.

https://youtu.be/3qpmde7fVvs

Finally, I found some extra time to re-write "The 2015 Woodrat Memorial weekend Fly-In" report:

Firstly, I like to thank the hospitality of Mr. Dave Palmer for offering us to camp at his house, and providing access to the wifi as well.  The weather has been cooperative since the first day of my arrival (May 22/ Friday afternoon) and got even better each day. For me, it was a non-stop long weekend of flying and memorable fun time. I had 6 great flights (only 1 flight landed at Hunter) and approx 7 hours of air time.  The highest altitude I got on Monday was between 7 to 8K MSL.  The flying condition on Memorial Day (May 25/ Monday) was absolutely extraordinary which made me want to fly Woodrat even more.  I had a blast and can't wait to do it again next year!  I'm sure a lot of pilots are still smiling from this weekend.

Anyway, RVHPA Mr Rick Ray already posted a report about how good it was and here's his report from yesterday (May 25th, 2015) :

This was an enjoyable  and safe weekend for the non-event. Lots of favorable interaction between the hgs and pgs with basically no issues and plenty of mutual respect.

Today saw a couple of hgs getting to 8500. Benny,  Brian,and Scott made GP Peak. Brian landed at aRogue River, Benny at Donato's and Scott in Ashland. There were a couple of hgs made GP also but I am unsure of their names. Sorry.

Lots of pilots to 7500-8k.

Only one glider  into the trees. Yet again demonstrating the folly of flying leeside below ridgetop. Pilot was safe . Wing not as happy.

Thanks for making it fun and safe.

Rick
Safety director 2016

This is my report:

Day 1/ Friday
40 mins/ 500 ft above launch.

I arrived Woodrat around 3pm and met up with most of the pilots at Dave Palmer property. Then went up to launch with Larry, Tina and Justin and had a great flight on the first day.

Day 2/ Saturday
1st flight:1:00-3:00 pm 2000ft above launch (4k AGL) 

2nd flight:5:30-6:30 pm 1000ft above launch (3k AGL)

I woke up around 6:00 am and had an hour skateboarding session at Jacksonville skatepark before breakfast. Since Eric already dropped my glider at launch earlier, I rode up with CPC Paraglider Carols to launch around 12:00pm. The wind was really light, however a few paragliders showed us it was soarable, so I launched off at 1:00pm and flew for 2hrs.  After done packing up at Longsword LZ, I went back up to launch again with Greg Krutzikowsky to get in another hour air time.

Day 3 / Sunday
1st flight. Morning sledder with Paige
2nd flight 1:00-3:00 pm

After the enjoyable morning sledder with Paige, I went up with Travis, Eric and Paige after lunch. I punched off at the north launch for the first time at 1:00 pm and found very good thermal at the lower launch and climb out in front along the spine.

Day 4 / Monday
As usual, the best flying condition always happens on the last day of the event.  The flying condition was absolutely extraordinary and the highest altitude I got was between 7 to 8K MSL.  Most of us got really high and go XC on day 4. I'm sure many people went home with big smile. 

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from David Le

Photo from Dan Wells

4 flights 1.5hrs May 17 & 18 , 2015 at Kilchis , Sollie and Cape Lookout flights

May 17th 2015 (Sunday)

1st flight Sollie / 20 mins
2nd flight Kilchis / one hour 15 mins
3rd flight Cape Lookout/ Sledder

Mark R and I took a sledder with few paragliders (John K, John S, Vince, Colin, David L....etc) early which around 10:30am with overcast and 0 wind condition at Sollie launch.  I found few small bumps at Sugar to extended my flight to 20 mins.  Enrique was waiting for the condition to improve more by himself at Sollie launch.  All paragliders left to Cape Lookout or Kiwanda in the afternoon. When I done packing up,  I got a ride up to Kilchis launch with  Larry, Kory and Tina  (Thanks for Michi driving for us).  Mark R also went back up to Sollie with his driver (Justin) to meet up with Enrique.   At launch , the light cycles were coming straight up and it soarable condition was turn on around 2:30pm.   I launched first and than fellow by Tina , Kory and Larry . The air were quit rowdy but easy to found good thermals near the launch.  I soared for more than one hours with Larry over Sugar and out max altitude gained to 1700 AGL.  We went to Cape Lookout later and it never turn on.  I took a sledder with Mark, Tina, and Larry with few bags.  Gabe and many paragilders went to Kiwanda and reported good wind at the beach.

May 18th 2015 (Monday)
One Sledder at Cape Lookout

The winds were coming straight in nicely at CLO launch around noon and we (five hangs and five bags) thought it will get better. However, it just never really turned on. It was sunny and the temp were unusually warm like a summer. A few bags and I took a sled rides. PGs went to Kiwanda late afternoon and reported Sand Lake and the dune was blowing strong. Killchis and Sollie launch were under clouds the whole day.

2 flights 2.5hrs / Cape Lookout 2nd flight on May14th 2015

Ray Berger above me.

The conditions at Cape Lookout were looking pretty good yesterday when I arrived at 11am, with beautiful clear blue sky ,cumulus clouds and white capes all around the ocean, however the soaring conditions were not excellent in the early afternoon due to a lot of north componment (too cross from right) and light winds at launch, it wasn't quite as easy as it could have been. I took my first flight around 1:00pm and it was tricky to stay up, I managed climb up to 50-100ft above launch and it was struggled to find a decent lift band so I landed after 15 mins later. I went back up and took the second flight at 3:15pm (landed at 5:45 pm) and it was much better. During the 2.5 hours flight I found much better lifts after passed the gap. Topped out 1500ft with Ray and Greg. I went to bed at 3:00am last night so I better take a break for flying today. I will check forecast later and decide where to go this weekend. My memory card adopter is broken so i need to buy a need one today to view the gopro files from yesterday.

13 flights 6.5 hrs / Five days camping trip at the coast (May 6th to 10th)

Day 1
May 6 2015 Wednesday /Cape Lookout: 3 hrs
Ray, Robin, Stas, Craig D and I flew had an EPIC flight at Cape Lookout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmc3xtEajqY&feature=youtu.be

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Report from Ray B:

Cape Lookout was excellent today. Took off 1:30 in light conditions, which steadily improved the first 1.5 hours. Then lift everywhere 3-4:30. After multiple trips to north point, went out to salmon hatchery, then turn to Tillamook, then made Netarts at 2600. Instead of landing at Oceanside in a North wind, turned back to Cape Lookout, not losing anything over the bay. Highest altitude was about 3200 today, Rick reported 3700 around the bowl.

Started out lite takeoff winds increasing to 20 + later. Craig DeMott wished he hadn't set up the Falcon but his U2. Stas wished he had kept his U2, and Robin flew his U2 to Kiwanda without crashing. Crisp, clean springtime coastal hang gliding at its best today. Stas and Robin from Washington are camping at Cape Lookout tonite. Ray

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Day 2
May 7 2015 Thursday/ Cape Lookout again:

The fogs were hanging between 1000- 1300ft and every time we (Stas, Robin and myself) got high was inside the clouds with almost 0% visibility. Lifts were pretty light too. Wednesday was a much better day. I went up again around 5:00pm and got couple hundred ft above launch due to too north wind. It was rowdy so I landed after 20mins later.

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Report from Andy:
There were 5 hangs there. It was pretty light with a strong north component and low clouds. I launched last and spent my whole flight scratching around launch, maxing out at about 250' over launch and spent a lot of time at or below launch. I never had enough to jump the gap and got tired of scratching the tree tops and bailed out after a little over a half hour. Those that jumped the gap got up but were limited to about 1000' due to clouds. I left around 3:00 and think Rick and others flew again later so we'll have to wait to hear from him if it got any better.

Andy

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Day 3
May 8 2015 Friday / Kiwanda
Alfredo, Colin, Ray, Enrique, Jeff B
I had 7 flights other had 2 flights.

We had dinner at Los Caporales (Great Mexico restaurant)
35025 Brooten Rd
Pacific City, OR 97135

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Day 4
May 9 2015 Saturday Kilchis :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPOmBfI6Un4

The wind was light with low clouds ceiling covered up Cape Lookout launch in the morning so 7 hangs (Ray, Mark R, Mark F, Enrique, Jeff B, Colin, Alfredo, myself and 1 bag Rob Steven) went to the Kilchis. The wind were light at the LZ (SW 0-3mph) and almost dead calm at launch when we arrived. It improved a bit when we ready to launch around 1:30pm but not quite soarable. I found a lot of small bubbles on the way to Sollie launch and a few light thermals at Sugar Hill. I was scratching back and forth between 600-700ft AGL for 15 to 20mins at Sugar then headed out to the landing. Ray managed to stay up for quite a long time and kept climbing by himself at Sugar.

Five hangs ( Mark R, Enrique, Alfredo , Colin and myself ) went back up for the 2nd flight around 4:00pm and Andrew (paraglider) went to Sollie alone. I was the last person to launch and the wind was completely down to 0 mph when I ready to go. Smooth air all the way to Sugar hill and found few small thermals just like the first flight. I'll post video and photos later. We will try Cape Lookout tomorrow (Sunday).

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Day 5:
May 10 2015 Sunday / Cape Lookout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4oN-4Sger8

Cape Lookout finally turned on around 4:00pm (05-10-15). I launched at 4:30pm and landed at 6:30pm because it was too cold. The launch condition was about 8-12 mph NW winds and once I punched off it escalated quickly straight up to the cloudsbase. Unfortunately, the clouds ceiling were on and off between 1000- 1300ft that force us kept it below that altitude. Jonathan , Mark R and Rob Steven (3 hangs) and 2 paragliders launched after me and everyone soared to the cloudsbase. The smooth lifts was everywhere even flew out to the ocean can felt the lift. Don't see any white cap and such a easy trip from the cape returned back to the beach. I wished Jeff , Neil, Alfredo and Colin would've stay longer for this excellent CLO magic moment. It still blowing 10-15 NW straight up at launch with much higher ceiling right now at 8:00pm. All paragliders went to TDM and they are probably had a great flights there too.

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7 flights 13.5 hrs Four days trip at Oregon Coast Cape Lookout 04-30-15 to 05-03-15

April 30th (Thursday)
1 flight 2 hours 15mins
2 flight 1 hour

It was really good at Cape Lookout today (Thursday). I had two great flights. The wind at launch were about 5-8 mph straight up the whole day. Three hangs (Stas, Gabe and myself) got 1500 over and flew to the end of the cape. Four bags showed up later to join us. I had 2 hours and 15 mins on the first flight and flew another one hour again alone before sunset. Hiked up three times and camped at CLO state park. Probably another repeat for today and the weekend.

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May 1st (Friday)

1 flight 4 hours and 30 mins

Five hangs (Ray B, Gabe, Stas, ??? and myself) flew today (no bags). The north wind already here this morning when I was having breakfast around 8:00am at Oceanside. I headed to cape lookout after breakfast and it was blowing about 5-8 mph straight up at launch at 10:00am. I launched at 10:45am and flew till 3:16pm(4.5hrs).

As the day go by I realized that it turned more rowdy and windy however the incredible huge lift bend make it easy climbed up to 2500 ft AGL. The air smoothed out sometime but the north winds were still strong up high. Few people went to Kiwanda and reported back 20+ mph at the beach. We went back to CLO launch around 5:30pm and it was 15-20 mph at launch.

The forecast for tomorrow and Sunday looks same as today. Unlike yesterday (Thursday) the wind were much stronger in the afternoon so I suggest to launch early to avoid gusty north wind for this weekend.

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May 2nd (Saturday)

1 flight 5 hours 

2 flight 15 mins

Everyone had a great long flights today. Approx 12 hangs and 1 paraglider (JJ) flew. It was another repeat of Friday with even better conditions. I launched at 10:30am and landed at 3:30pm. (5 hours) /max altitude 2300 AGL. Four hangs went back up around 6pm and wind were still cranking. I got 100ft above launch and just can't stand the "washing machine" rowdy air anymore and landed.

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May 3rd (Sunday)

1 flight 30 mins

Non soarable day at Cape Lookout. We should've go to Kilchis or Sollie.  I launch in the morning after hang waiting for couple hrs and got a 30 minute light soaring window with couple paragliders. The condition got worst in the afternoon. I stayed there till sunset and took couple more sled rides with Mark Rabe , Enrique and few paragliders. The forecast looked better than the last two days , winds speed and direction at launch were good too but for some reason the sea breezes weren't cooperating at all.....