I left Chehalem ridge around 3:30pm so this report is only covered from 11-3:30pm.
Today I headed to Newberg with Enrique. I launched at 12:30pm and flew for almost two hrs with 2 hangs (Enrique & Rob Stevens). The bags were waiting due to the gusty wind condition on top; wind speed approx 8-10mph straight up with some gusty strong cycles. It was pretty easy escalating up to 500-800ft above launch. It was a bit windy along the ridge with thermals blown away. Today was one of those days, where you'll get better thermals and smooth air once you're away from the ridge. I got over 2,000ft AGL in between LZ and launch on top of the paraglider LZ. The wind did mellow down after 3:00pm and became quite thermic for paragliders to play. I left at 3:30pm and saw 4-5 paragliders sky out.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
3 flights 5 hrs at Cliffside 2/23 to 2/24
My friends from Hong Kong (Kit and Edwin), really wanted to tell everyone how much they have enjoyed their first visit to the Pacific Northwest. They had no idea what to expect with the flying sites and conditions here, but so glad that they've made the decision to come.Edwin is a new P2 and he has gained so much more confidence and skills. Anyways, they've filmed a lot of aerial videos with their DJI Phantom drones and enclosed are a few footages from the last 3 days of their trip here. They are returning back to San Francisco today and plans on checking out some flying sites nearby Lake Tahoe and Big Sur this coming weekend before returning back to Hong Kong. They were very happy meeting all the friendly pilots (hangs & bags) at Cliffside and looking forward to returning someday. If anyone wants to visit Hong Kong and fly there, please let them know. I've enclosed their facebook links below:
Day 1 2/23/2016
There were 4 hangs (Ray B, Gabe, Stas and myself) & maybe 15 bags that came out to Cliffside today including two of my paragliding friends from Hong Kong flying Cliffside for the first time. The soarable condition turned on when I arrived at 9:15am with approx 8-13mph east wind at launch. Fortunately, the winds calmed down a lot in the afternoon, so everyone got to fly. I had two long flights (total of 4 hrs of air times) and my max altitude was 1600 ft AGL on the 2nd flight. There were a couple of PGs who nearly made it to the windmills, but I am unsure who they are, Sorry. We spent a night at the Dalles (20 miles west of Cliffside) and prepare to fly Cliffside again the following day.
Day 2: 2/24/2016
We stopped by Eagle Caves (The Dalles, OR) LZ to shoot some aerial video with the DJI Phantom drones after having breakfast. Then we headed back to Cliffside for round two. It was another glorious sunny day except much lighter wind compared to yesterday. I was going to do some sledders, but ended up I had one very good soarable flight instead. Stas and I was the only hangs and he took a sledder around 1:00pm because he wanted to go home early. There were quite a few short soaring flights in the afternoon, but the effortless soarable condition turned on around 4:00pm. I launched from the top with the winds speed around 6mph and flew with 5-8 paras for more than an hour. Higher altitude was about 400feet above launch,not bad for a really light East wind day at Cliffside.
Day 3 2/25/2016
We took some aerial videos at Timberline lodge and went for night skiing and snowboarding at Mt Meadows.
Day 1 2/23/2016
There were 4 hangs (Ray B, Gabe, Stas and myself) & maybe 15 bags that came out to Cliffside today including two of my paragliding friends from Hong Kong flying Cliffside for the first time. The soarable condition turned on when I arrived at 9:15am with approx 8-13mph east wind at launch. Fortunately, the winds calmed down a lot in the afternoon, so everyone got to fly. I had two long flights (total of 4 hrs of air times) and my max altitude was 1600 ft AGL on the 2nd flight. There were a couple of PGs who nearly made it to the windmills, but I am unsure who they are, Sorry. We spent a night at the Dalles (20 miles west of Cliffside) and prepare to fly Cliffside again the following day.
Day 2: 2/24/2016
We stopped by Eagle Caves (The Dalles, OR) LZ to shoot some aerial video with the DJI Phantom drones after having breakfast. Then we headed back to Cliffside for round two. It was another glorious sunny day except much lighter wind compared to yesterday. I was going to do some sledders, but ended up I had one very good soarable flight instead. Stas and I was the only hangs and he took a sledder around 1:00pm because he wanted to go home early. There were quite a few short soaring flights in the afternoon, but the effortless soarable condition turned on around 4:00pm. I launched from the top with the winds speed around 6mph and flew with 5-8 paras for more than an hour. Higher altitude was about 400feet above launch,not bad for a really light East wind day at Cliffside.
Day 3 2/25/2016
We took some aerial videos at Timberline lodge and went for night skiing and snowboarding at Mt Meadows.
Rick landing video
Kit first flight at Cliffside
Edwin Chiu flights
Gabe (hang) launching
Aerial videos at Timberline lodge
Kit facbook page
Sunday, February 21, 2016
3 flights at Dog Mtn 2/16/16
Six hangs (Larry, Colin, Dave L, Glenn, Stas and myself) flew Dog today. I had 3 extended sledders and it was close to soarable on the second flight. Two flights were launching from the west launch and one from the north launch. The cycles at launch were irregular ,very weak , often cross from the south and sometime blowing from the back (SE).... The wind was more consistent at the LZ mostly blowing from the SW all afternoon.
Dog Mtn (Glenoma, WA) launch time lapse video from 2/20/16
Dog Mtn (Glenoma, WA) launch time lapse video from 2/20/16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQGtWQ4m9vI
Monday, February 15, 2016
2 flights 3 hrs Peterson 2/15/16
Another fantastic soaring day at at Lower Peterson; all hangs (Greg, Ray, Gabe, Jeff, Mark, Chris, Peter, John & myself) flew today, including a small group of RCers. Most of the weather forecast predictions were correct (except for NOAA), with 10-18mph SSW and wind speed decreasing in the afternoon. It sure did deliver a good flying day for us all. I got in two long soaring flights and top landed on both. A total of 3+ hrs air time and max altitude was 1600ft AGL.
weather forecast from this morning:
Windyty 10-22mph
Windfinder 10-20 mph
WU 10-15 mph
Iwindsurf 10-19 mph (Corvallis stations)
Saturday, February 13, 2016
40 mins flight at Peterson 2/13/16
Rick Weber (another hang pilot) and I (Rick Lai) was hang waiting at the Peterson upper launch (Lebanon, OR) for a couple of hrs this morning waiting for the clouds to burn off , as you can see from the video. The wind condition at the upper launch was much lighter than we expected. It was only blowing 3-5 mph when we were ready to launch. It was almost zero wind at the Rocky farm LZ. Rick W launched 5 mins before me and flew for 45 mins.
Mark Rabe (hang pilot) showed up at the lower launch about 20 mins after Chris Pugmire left (probably around 3:30pm). It looked really soarable (15-20mph) and I was tempted to go up with Mark to get another flight. However, the sky looked really grey and I was afraid to pack up the glider in the rain, so I decided to not join Mark. Mark had 50-100ft over launch for about half an hour by himself and then rain came right after he landed.
Mark Rabe (hang pilot) showed up at the lower launch about 20 mins after Chris Pugmire left (probably around 3:30pm). It looked really soarable (15-20mph) and I was tempted to go up with Mark to get another flight. However, the sky looked really grey and I was afraid to pack up the glider in the rain, so I decided to not join Mark. Mark had 50-100ft over launch for about half an hour by himself and then rain came right after he landed.
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Report from Chris:
And it did blow off Rick and Rick took off and then me 10 min later. I could not bench up because it had to much east to it so I stayed above the lower screwing off for 50 mins. Following me was Kory and then Gabe. When I left I don't know what happened so you guys tell me. It was stronger and really SW on my drive to lunch in Albany at 3 anyone get more before the rain?
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Friday, February 12, 2016
40 mins flights at Oceanside 2/12/16
Seeing all the rain cells moved away from Oceanside toward inland this morning around 9:30 am, I've decided to stick with the plans of doing some early morning flying at Oceanside, then heading over to Lincoln City's skatepark for some skateboarding session. It was pouring rain at Clackamas when I departed at 9:30am all the way to Tillamook. I arrived Oside at 11:35 am, meeting up with Eric T & Mike C (paras) finding no rain at the time. However, there was a blanket of heavy fog covering up the whole city of Oside. The wind direction was WSW 5-8mph at the parking lot and there was only a tiny beach further down south left for landing due to the14ft high waves. The high tides was coming at 3:00pm and with zero visibility, it just didn't look good at all. .... I went up to launch and set up anyways, hoping that the fog will eventually dissipate. It did clear off at 12:45, so I punched of on the south side in about 10-15 mph wind and I climbed straight up immediately. It appeared kind of windy up on top, so bags decided to pass on launching. It turned out I had one of those effortless smooth air soaring Oceanside flight and topped out 500ft above launch. During my flight, the fog was getting heavy again and beach disappeared quickly too. This led me to land
after 40 mins of air time. Thanks to Eric T , who gave me a ride back to launch for retrieve. Mike C and Eric T headed down to TDM and I left for Lincoln City's skatepark at 2:15pm. I'm skating now and hopefully won't break any bones to end my day.
after 40 mins of air time. Thanks to Eric T , who gave me a ride back to launch for retrieve. Mike C and Eric T headed down to TDM and I left for Lincoln City's skatepark at 2:15pm. I'm skating now and hopefully won't break any bones to end my day.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
2 flight 3 hrs at Cliffside 2/8/16
The flying condition today was a repeat of yesterday, except with better ridge lifts & a bit stronger thermal activity. The highest I got was about 1500ft AGL (LZ by the river). It seemed like more people skipped work today to fly Cliffside. We had 4 hangs (Kory, Stas, Robin and myself) and maybe 15 paras (or more?) that showed up today and all of us had a great flights. I didn't have to hike up today (Thanks for Kory and Stas), so had the extra time to do a couple flights. I flew this morning with Stas and a few bags. I was up for 30 mins on the first flight then 2.5 hrs (from 2:30 to 5:00pm) on the second flight. The wind was about 3-6mph at launch in the morning then it picked up to 10-15mph in the afternoon. Thanks to John Benedict who helped in driving our vehicle down. Robin and Stas is spending a night at Cliffside to fly again tomorrow.
Video link:
Sunday, February 7, 2016
1 hrs and 45 mins flight at Cliffside 2/7/16
Great soaring conditions for everyone who came out to Cliffside (near Goldendale, Wash) today. I flew for almost 2 hrs with Neil (hang pilot) and many paragliders. It was soarable from this morning till sunset. The conditions was warm and sunny with light winds, tomorrow's forecast will be similar. I know a few paras will be there for sure. I think tomorrow will actually be even better with less air traffic, a bit stronger wind conditions compared to today.
Video Link:
Photos link on Facebook:
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Two sledders at Dog Mt 2/6/16
As expected, no wind and was overcast today at Dog. I drove myself up twice for 2 sledders. I didn't feel tired after hiked up two times and I was going to go for 3rd flights and hike again but winds switched east. I launched in light East on my second flight around 2:30pm. More East wind arrived Dog patch around 3pm, so I left early. Larry and Tina flew by Dog a few times skimming through LZ in their planes to entertained me. So I'm the only one who ended up flying Dog today.
Video link:
Friday, February 5, 2016
Where to fly this weekend
| 02/06/16 | 02/07/16 | 02/08/16 | |
| Saturday | Sunday | Monday | |
| Dog (Glenoma,Wa) | SW 2-5 Cloudy | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Bingen (near Hood River,OR) | 6-15 WSW wind died down to 3-5 WSW in the late afternoon | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Blanchard (Edison, Wa) | 8-15 south in the morning with chance of rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Eagle Butte (near Kennewich,WA) | 15-20 WSW | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Cliffside (Rufus, OR) | Wrong wind direction or Rain | 5-8 East some models say 8-10 | 5-8 East some models say 10-15 Sunny |
| Saddle Mt (Mattawa, WA) | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Light NNE 5mph.atGround level/ Mostly Cloudy | Light NNE 5mph.atGround level/ Mostly Cloudy |
| Tiger Mt (Issaquah, Wa) | 5-12 south | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Peterson (Lebanon, OR) | 5-8 SE in the morning and turn more ESE (Might be too east in the afternoon | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Bremer (10miles west of Morton,WA) | 3-6 South Cloudy. Road to launch may still have a lot of snow | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
| Sollie Smith (Tillamook, OR) | Some models say light ESE and some say 5-8 S Mostly cloudy. | Wrong wind direction or Rain | Wrong wind direction or Rain |
Thursday, February 4, 2016
2 flights 2 hrs air time at Lower Peterson 2/4/16
Gabe, Peter (from Corvallis) and I had great flights at Lower Peterson's today. I arrived launch at 10:00am alone and the winds were out of the south blowing 15-20mph with sunny skies. It was in perfect soaring condition, but since I had to follow the Peterson's rule of, "No Flying Alone" I watched a movie in my car while waiting for Gabe's arrival. I started to set up around 12pm. The conditions remained the same with birds soaring above launch. Gabe and Peter showed up at 12:30pm so I launched. The conditions then got a bit strong at launch (20-25 mph), but I was able to managed without wire assistance. I climbed 1,500ft above lower launch quickly to the upper launch towers with the air being smooth like flying at the coast. I flew for almost 2 hrs and decided to top land. Peter and Gabe top landed shortly after me. It was about 20 mph winds when the 3 of us landed on top. After we took a break, the winds starting to die down to 10-13mph. It was a great day!
Video link:
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
3 flights 1.5 hrs air time at Chehalem (Newberg, OR) 2/2/16
Chehalem was soarable. The winds produced plenty of ridge lifts for Greg, Brian, Mark S, Vince (paragliders) and myself to maintain 300-500ft above launch. The winds were more on the light side at launch in the earlier afternoon (approx less than 5 mph). There was a lot of strong east components on it. Although I was able to get above launch but just not fun soaring into those funky and rowdy east airs. So my flight was short and landed at the bottom para LZ. Headed back up around 3:00pm and the launch condition got stronger (12-15mph) so I decided to fly again. Still have a lot of strong east but I flew for an hour and landed around 4:30pm at Johnson's Ranch (hang LZ) with almost zero wind at the LZ. It was still blowing very good at launch when I went back up to retrieved my car around 5:00pm. Thanks for Mark Sanzone driving for me.
Video Link:
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