4 flights one hrs + air time at Dog over the weekend

 Saturday (1/30/16) report :

I ended up going to Dog Mt yesterday (1/30/16) after the parachute clinic in Seattle, Wash. It was windy enough for us (2 hangs and 3 paras) to do some ridge soaring and I topped out 300ft above launch. Scott, Travis and myself was able to squeaked out an hour of air time on the 2nd flight. We could have been stay up longer, but made a decision to landed because rain were approaching.

Sunday (1/31/16) report:
About a dozen of pilots flew Dog today. It was a pretty decent day considering almost no wind. The sky was overcast and also snowed in the late afternoon ..... I did get 700 ft over launch before the shut down of thermals on the 2nd flight. Stas launched a few minutes before me and got 1300ft over. The rain and snow arrived again around 4:30pm.

 

Oceanside sunset flight 1/28/16

It was an interesting day.  Gabe and I arrived Oceanside around 1pm and found no beach for landing (6ft high tide at 3:30pm) , so we headed down to TDM, Pacific City, then to Newport Beverly Beach cliff launch site, in hopes to find a location where there was enough beach for landing. Unfortunately, no such luck. Also, the west winds were kind of light everywhere. I felt Beverly beach is soarable but Gabe insisted not so I don't want to argue with him. So at 3:30pm we decided to drive back to Oside from Newport. (1.5 hrs drive). Gabe went to Pacific City beach to do some paraglider kiting and didn't join me to Oside. The water wave was still reaching the rock on and off at 5pm when I arrived at the parking lot. The wind at the beach was blowing 10mph straight west so I headed up to launch to check it out. It was zero wind at launch but I decided to setup anyway. I launched at 5:30 in zero wind and found it soarable over Maxwell because of the west wind still blowing pretty good at the beach, so I flew till sunset alone. A lot of driving today, but was pleasantly surprised with getting a very nice soarable flight at Oceanside right before sunset. I'll post video later.

3 flights 1 hour air time at Chehalem (Newberg, OR) 1/27/16

Today report:  I was the only hang today along with 5-7 other paras who flew Chehalem Ridge (Newberg, Oregon). Thanks to Gregg, Dave B, and John for driving my car down, which allowed me to get 3 flights (2 soarable/ 1 sledder) in today. The winds at launch never exceed 15mph and it was pretty much dead calm at the LZ whole day. I launched around 11:00am right after Eric M. The winds were around 3 mph with gusts up to 8mph, I gained 50ft above launch quickly and also ran into a lot of sink too.Eric was able to maintain for more than half an hour and I was up for about 15 mins on the first flight. We then went back up again, and the winds became stronger than earlier. It was blowing 6-13 mph around 1pm at launch so we launched again. This time I gained 200 to 300ft above launch easily but the air was quite turbulence. I flew back and forth above launch for a while and got bored, so I headed towards the LZ after 40 mins of air time. The east winds crossing the valley made the ridge lifts not so enjoyable. I took another sledder around 4:00pm. All and all, it was a good day with 3 flights and over an hour of air time.

 https://youtu.be/hqMJZ2ifyZA

One sledder at Chehalem (Newberg, OR) 1/25/16

I came to Newberg with 6-8 pgs and I had an extended sledder. It was too light and too east earlier so everyone had a sledders until around 3:30pm it turned good. Two pgs were soaring the ridge when I done packing up. The condition is more straight with nice south cycles at launch.  Day like today should fly later. Sunny and warm.

https://youtu.be/bTrOv5BPjNU

Two sledders at Dog 1/24/16

About 10 pilots showed up today at Dog. I had two flights. First flight was barely able to stay up on the south side and second flights was just a sledder. It was pretty warm with on and off sun break and zero wind in the late morning , then wind switched more to SE in the afternoon and we have to launched in either light down wind or east wind conditions. Everyone had a sled rides except for Larry that hooked up with a good thermals and reached up to cloudbase which approximately 800 to 1000ft above or maybe more. over all it was a good day.

Video link

https://youtu.be/HbPrH7EMlwo

Sled ride at Oceanside Oregon 1/23/16

Thanks Clifton Westin taking this video for me today at Oceanside, Oregon. The sun and blue sky appeared around 1:15pm today at Oceanside. It was soarable with light rain on & off this morning when I arrived, but no beach for landing. The wind was about 3 mph straight west sometimes NW in the afternoon. Being the only hang glider and about 10 paragliders, we all waited for more beach and wind to launch. Around 2pm, there was enough beach for landing, so I decided to take a sled ride and bags were leaving to Cape Lookout. It was almost zero wind at launch with a tiny bit of WNW cross wind from the right. I landed in north side direction at the beach and headed to Cape Lookout after, but found that the wind was too light and coming from SW at Cape Lookout. I had planned on taking another sledder, but decided to best pack up at 4pm with the rain approaching. Everyone left to Schooner bar for dinner. When I done packing up my gears the rain has stop and the NW soarable winds finally arrived around 4:45pm. It was blowing about 10-12mph and birds were soaring. Since I was alone at launch and glider already packed up so I didn't want to setup again. Paragliders got my texted and Paraglider Dirk came back around 5:00pm and had a great flight. He went straight up to 500+ ft above and flew till sunset.

Launch video: 

 https://www.facebook.com/clifton.westin/videos/138918129821477/?theater

Landing video: 

 

 https://youtu.be/ADrjzlb1jwU

Lonely day at Ciffside 1/21/16

Cliffside was barely soarable today with really light 3-5 mph ESE winds. The winds were much stronger when I arrived this morning around 9:15am and it lighten down from 11:00 till I left around 4:00pm. I launched at 12:00pm at the paraglider launch and I was scratching 50-100 ft above Paraglider launch for 30 mins. I was alone and my car got stuck in the wet mud otherwise I would have enough time to fly again. So I called AAA after hiked back up but they weren't able to rescue me, for fear of getting their truck stuck in the mud too. Fortunately, a house owner Richard lend me a shovel and a few pieces of hard boards to get my car out from the mud. Richard was also kind enough to provide me a hand in assistance. All is well now, but I had to make a stop at Les Schwab to get my tires re-aligned and fixed the wheels balance. A lesson learned, I'm going to park by the gate next time until the field is completely dry.

Facebook Link:  https://www.facebook.com/pdxrick.lai/posts/10153507304354285

 https://youtu.be/xKi2zEsrSs0

2 flights 3 hrs at Cliffside 1/10/16

Cliffside was great as usual today. Two HGs (Neil / Myself) and a half dozen of PGs got as much air time as desired till dark. It started out windy this morning from 9-12am with speeds of 8-12mph then switching to being mellow for a couple of hours that forced us land. I went back up to hang launch around 2pm with conditions switching back on, so flew again with even better lifts. On my first flight, I launched at 11:45am and landed at 1:15pm by the river. It topped out 1,400ft AGL. Second flight I launched from the hangs lower launch at 2:30pm and flew for more than an hour as well. It was very lifty everywhere in the afternoon and was easy to climb 500 to 800ft above launch. We got inside the cloudbase around 3:30pm, which is about 2,200ft AGL. Mostly smooth thermals mixed with ridge lifts. Neil flew his WW rainbow Raven and top landed at the Paraglider launch once. We both landed by the river around 3:45pm. Both of us had a two great flights. I'll post video of Neil's old Raven later.

 Video Link

 https://youtu.be/p6nRfpmLhy0

3 sled rides at Dog Mountain 1/7/16

It was a no wind day at Dog. Four hang pilots flew (Scott C, Stas, Gabe and myself ). I had multiple flights with different camera angles.

 https://youtu.be/fubkPYcURLk

Below freezing temps /2 hrs First flight of 2016 at Cliffside

The condition today was similar to New Year's Eve day except for being waaay colder. My thermometer was showing -10F at 2,700ft AGL and the ground level temperature was about 5F at launch. I can't believe that I was able to tolerate the freezing temps for nearly 2hrs air times. The wind direction was also better with it blowing from ESE ,so not much head wind to deal with going towards the east side. I arrived at 9:30 and it was already windy enough (15-18mph) to punch off from the lower launch. I thought I was going to be alone today so I left my car at the bailout LZ for shorter hike. Gabe and another hang pilot Nat arrived later, as well as PG Kelly soaring with his speed wing earlier. I launched around 1pm with the wind remaining strong at mostly 15mph without gusts. The ridge lift and thermals was so smooth and quite easy branch up above the windmills, however due to the lower clouds ceiling, the max height I reached was about 2700ft AGL. I landed by the river after an hour and 40 minutes later because I saw Gabe car heading down. It was pretty strong too at the LZ. Nat haven't flown for 3 years also had a very good flight today. It was too cold for Gabe, so he decided to drive for us. Thanks Gabe! Not bad for the first flight of 2016.

Bingen information

Bingen is a hike up site. 9 miles from LZ to Courtney Road (see google map link below) and hike 3/4 miles to west launch (approx 1/2 mile to SE launch).

https://goo.gl/maps/WHqDJQ8U2iTLRYZc6

Landing approach