2 flights 2.5 hrs/ Weekend flights report Jun 28, 2015

Had some great flights at Glenoma, WA Dog Mt yesterday. (One sled ride /two soarable flights/ total of 2.5 hrs air time).

I arrived at Morton around 9:30am and found the skies overcast with the wind already honking some nice cool temperature. Headed up to launch, I was hoping to get some AM soaring flight with Stas and Shah around 11:00am, however the stormy conditions completely shut down when we arrived launch. Then it turned into being VERY hot and muggy weather with zero wind. I hiked up to launch and still didn't see any improvement, so we took a smooth sled ride down at 1:00pm. Alfredo and Mark Rabe also took a sledders around 2:00pm. Then we took turns to mow Dog Patch (as you can see from photos/ video that our primary landing field is 100% back now). Due to the heat wave, humidity, and zero wind conditions, no one seemed to be in the mood to fly except Mark Rabe and myself. As we headed up to launch for another sled ride, the wind finally arrived producing unlimited soaring condition for us all till sunset..... Shah came up again to join us and three of us had great soaring flights. After 1.5 hrs of air time (topped 600 ft above launch) and being able to cross the lake a few times in a strong head wind, I was pretty satisfied with the outcome of my day. I landed at 6 pm and packed up my gear setting to go home, when approached by Mark about doing another flight. It was hard to resist since we had a driver and the wind was lighter ....so I flew another 45 mins with Mark to end the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1WQCJRGz0A

 

2 flights 4 hrs air tmes on Jun 26th 2015 at Dog Mt

Dog Friday report: 

The good news is lake water go down more and Dog patch is 80% dry now but the bad news is campers are starting to setup there tents at Dog Patch Mowed area that force us to land at the wet tall glass. 

I had two flights yesterday at Dog. The 1st flight was launched at 1pm with Tim and Robin and flew for 2 hrs. I landed at Dog Patch before campers show up.  The 2nd flight was launched at 6:15 and landed at 8:15pm. Flew with Mike, Robin, Kim and Jerry.  Off the tower and Elk again into the buoyant air. The windsock in the Dog Patch switching back and forth and also invaded by campers (tents was setup in the middle of mowed area) so I decided to land at the North field instead. I will return to Dog tomorrow and probably no more room for landing at Dog patch. 

2 flights 4.5 hrs air time/ An amazing glass off flight at Dog Mt 06-20-15

I was debating on going to either Tiger or Dog Mtn yesterday morning and at the last minute, decided to head to Dog instead. A good choice as it turns out, because I just found out Michael's brand new bus (Tiger shuttle) doesn't have a trailer or rack for hang gliders anymore. From now on, all hang pilots will probably need to buy their own gate key to fly Tiger??

Anyway, yesterday was really good at Dog. Firstly, thanks to Larry for mowing the tall grass at Dog Patch to provide the extra room for us all to ensure a safe landing even when there's a lot of campers /cars at the berm. As usual I had two flights; 4.5 hrs total of air time. The 1st flight was launched at 1:00 pm right after Dave L took off. We both got about 500 ft~ 800 ft over launch. Most of the time there was smooth ridge lifts and we landed in the strong west wind winds after 2+ hrs later. I hiked back up again after lunch for the evening glass off flight with about 6 hangs and 2 bags. I launched at 6 pm and flew for 2+ hours at glass off conditions. When the wind switched north around 6:45 pm, the real magic moment started happening. I was boaty between north ridge and radio tower for a while and then saw Larry and Tina got really high at Elk, so I went there to catch up with them. The thermals was much better at Elk than radio tower and the max altitude I got was about 3,000 ft AGL. Larry probably got 4k AGL earlier. You can't see Larry & Tina in my video because they were at least 500 to 800 ft above me. I should have gone to Elk earlier with them instead of Radio Tower. What an amazing day it was!

2 flights 2 hrs air time at Dog Mtn flights 06-17-15

2 flights
2 hrs air time

Colin, Robin, Gabe, Andrey and myself flew Dog yesterday.  The 10+ mph SW wind at launch delivered some decent ridge soaring conditions that gave us plenty of air times . The max altitudes gain was about 600ft above launch. The lake water levels go down enough to allow all of us to landed at Dog Patch yesterday. Here's the video of my landing from yesterday.

North field LZ has been mowed. Huge now

Dog report from yesterday Part 2: Gabe landing video.  It was too hot so he chose to land in the water.

https://www.facebook.com/pdxrick.lai/videos/10153084772264285/

4 flights 4 hrs at Dog and Tiger Mtn on Jun 12 & 13, 2015

Dog report (6-12-15)
2 flights
Although Jerry, Mike and Kenny came up to launch later but I was the only one flew Dog on Friday (06-12-15). It was really windy day at Dog (15-20mph). The lifts go up to 1200ft above launch and there were a lot of tents and cars parked at the berm next to the streamer. I managed to landed at the dry berm without hitting them in both flights.

Tiger Mtn report 06-13-15
2 flights
There were a ton of paragliders at Tiger yesterday(06-13-15). The Good thing about Tiger Mtn was that we can spread out with plenty of room. The conditions were light NW for most of the day, but in the late afternoon the thermals became consolidate more so everybody had some nice flights till the gorgeous sunset. I had two flights and got almost 3 hrs of air times thermalling up around 3500ft AGL and landed at 8:30pm on my 2nd flight.

5 flights 11 hrs / Flights Log from Jun 4th to Jun 7th 2015

Jun 4th 2015 (Thursday)

Dog Mtn.

Paige, Stas, Chris Tarnawski and myself flew Dog on Thursday (Jun 4th). I launched at 3:00pm with light SW wind. The first hour was just a typical soarable Dog Mtn conditions. Then it turned into a XC condition when the wind direction changed more to north. I found plenty of extremely good thermals between north field and school LZ that took me to 6,500. ft MSL and just a slowly drifted to the microwave towers. I can easily cross Hwy 12 and flew to the mountain behind Larry property. I made few trip to Elk and also found a lot of good thermals there. I was so happy with my flight and decided to landed at the school LZ after 2 1/2 hours of air time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0ebGTRRoE

Jun 5th 2015 (Friday)
Tiger Mtn

Tim Cayward and I were the only hang pilots flew Tiger today. We took the 12:30pm shuttle to launch with a group of paragliders. The winds were too strong for paragliders (15 to 20mph) so we were the only hangs flew today. We had the whole sky to ourself and both of us flew for 3 plus hours. Topped 3300 to 3500ft AGL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rO0uQXCEQ

Jun 6th (Saturday)
Dog Mtn:
First flight 1 hour and 15 mins (1:00-2:15pm)

I went up with Alfredo in the morning and flew for 1 hour and 15 mins, Gabe showed up later to join us. He was preparing to land at the Dog Patch to get wet. After about an hour of playing around over the ridge I headed to the school LZ. I topped out about 300ft above launch. Alfredo landed at the north field.

Second flight.
2.5 hours 6:00-8:30pm

Alfredo , Stas , Larry, Chris, Travis ,Tina and myself had a great late evening flight at Dog. Most of us reached 1300ft above launch. We went up to launch around 5:00pm and found wind were quite strong from the north side. I launched first and the vario just keep beeping and going up up up..... We played the north ridge for hours in the buoyant air until sunset. It was like magic. I landed at the north LZ first time this year.

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Jun 7th (Sunday)
1.5 hours 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Maybe the temperature reached 90 degree so it was kind of quiet at Dog today. It turned out only 8 hangs flew (Kory, Gabe, Stas, Jonathan, Travis , JJ, Tim and myself). We launch around 12:30pm and I flew for about 1.5 hrs. Since my van left it at Dog Patch parking lot so I decided to land at the berm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUXCDF7nciI

Gabe landing at Dog Patch