2 hrs flight at Cape Lookout (Netarts, OR) 4/24/16

Cape Lookout was working great today. The wind was light most of the time but it was really soarable from 2pm to sunset. There was about 15-20 paras and only 2 hangs (Gabe and myself). I flew for 2 hrs from 5-7pm and Gabe got an hour from 5:45 to 6:45pm. I topped out 2,800ft and it was an easy trip to the end of the cape.

Video Link:

https://youtu.be/vGi3UZREG-A

Around 3pm (high tides at 3:40pm)

 

2 flights 4 hrs of air times from 4/19 & 4/20

4/19/16 Tuesday
Five hangs (Robin, Stas, David Lundquist,  Laura and myself) and one bag (Kim) had a good flights at Dog yesterday. I flew for over two hrs from 5-7pm and max attitude was 1,900 ft AGL. It turned soarable around 2:00 pm with a lot of SW winds (approx 5-10mph). It was pretty much a typical Dog conditions day with few strong thermals over the back bowl. No 600fpm.   I went to Seattle at night and visiting couple skateparks.

4/20/16 Wednesday

I was going to fly Tiger Mtn after spending couple hrs skateboarding at Kent skatepark. However, Dog forecast looks better so I decided to go to Dog instead. I had a great 2 hrs flight with 3 hangs (David Lundquist, Gabe, David Little and myself) and 2 bags (Kim & Jerry). I encountered some magical lift line around 5:00pm and climbed up to 2,800ft AGL over the lake.

https://youtu.be/Yd3kTPZOzSg

Arbor Heights 360 Skatepark

Kent, WA

3 hrs Cliffside on 4/17/16 Sunday

I launched first at 3:00pm (landed at 6:15pm) followed by Jeff, Kory,Nat (2nd flights of the day), Jonathan and Gabe all flew for about couple hrs. I think we all benched up to the turbines on top. Kory (Atos wing) , Jeff (brand new U2) and Nat (WW Ramair) was able to climb much fastest and highest than me. The east winds was just too strong for my Freedom, I can't seem to penetrate forward. It took me LONG time and a lot of works to pass the Aluminum Plant and reach above the top.

During my landing, I pull in as much as I can to added all the speed to keep the glider under control. The field that I landed (a bit away from my van) it's a concave surface that reduce the wind flow a little bit once I get close to the ground. It get much stronger when I carried the glider back near to the tower. I used all my strength to hold the nose down unhook myself and parked the glider. According to my wind speed indicator it was blowing 25 to 30 mph. The near by weather station showed 23 mph winds around the time I landed. Actually, I prefer to landed at the bailout LZ in the strong wind day like yesterday.

The exciting part of the day was dealing with the strong winds after landing at the end of the video.

Video link: 

https://youtu.be/Y1QsrzCTSMM

 

and
Here is the photos link from paraglider Gabriel Schwarzmann.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206113232457436&set=pcb.564421017065366&type=3&theater

Nat getting ready to launch.

5 flights 5 hrs air time on 4/15 & 4/16

4/15/16 Friday:
I had three flights at Dog Mt (Glenoma,Wa). It turned sorabale around 4:00 pm and south bowl works really good. Topped out 2,100ft AGL at the south bowl and flew for two hrs.

4/16/16 Saturday:
1st flight at Bremer (10 miles west of Morton, WA)
The road to the hang launch was still under 4-6 inch of snow so I launched off from the paraglider launch. Topped out 1,200 ft above launch (3,200ft above LZ) and flew for about 70 mins. This site is a great thermal site that faces south but it can also be flown on light north wind day.

2nd flight at Dog (Glenoma,WA)
It was similar like yesterday. I launched around 4:00pm and flew for 2 hrs.

Bremer video from yesterday

FrostBite Fly-In 2016 / 4 flights 7 hrs air times (4/9 to 4/10)

Thanks to Tina & Larry and to all who helped organized this year's party. The nice weather made it perfect for flying 3 days in a roll ; probably the warmest "FrostBite" year according to my record. Here's the video & photos taken of my 4 flights from Sat & Sun (2 flights per day).

Day 1 (Sat 4/9/16)

12 to 2pm 

5 to 7pm

Day 2 (Sun 4/10/16)

1 to 3pm

5:30- 6:30pm

2 flights one hour air time at Oceanside 4/3/16

I had two flights today at Oceanside.
1st flight : Sledder (launched at 1:00pm)
The winds was a bit light and too cross from south.
Zero wind at the LZ.

2nd flight: Over an hour (from 3-4pm)
The winds direction remaining the same but much stronger winds compared to earlier. It was gusty at launch (15+ mph) but pretty smooth in the air. I noticed that I was flying backward without pulling in the control bar every time when I reached 500 ft above launch . The strong head wind made it so difficult to go anyway. It was more fun going back and forth over Maxwell.

Video from today:
https://youtu.be/byuzpkxf98w

2 flights 4 hrs at Dog Mt 4/2/16

19 hang gliders and 4 paragliders flew Dog Mt on April 2nd, 2016

Hang glider pilots:
(Aaron R, Aaron S, Chris T, CJ, Dave L, JJ, Kenny, Kerie S, Kurt H, Larry J, Marty V, Paul D, Rick L, Rob W, Scott C, Stas , Timmy, Tina J, Travis)

Paraglider pilots:
(Dave A, Diana A, Chi T and Nobu)

Dog Mt (Glenoma, WA) was soarable from morning through sunset on April 2nd, 2016. There was a whitecaps on the lake when I arrived around 11:30am. About 19 hangs and 4 bags flew. I had two flights ( 2+hrs air time on each) and my max altitude was 2200ft AGL on the 2nd flight (5-7pm). I made it to Elk Mtn ( cross the lake) 4 times on the second flight but couldn't found much lifts there.

Video Link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBTdc9h9L_0

 

2 hrs flight at Bingen, WA

Bingen was awesome today and well worth the hike up to fly. I flew from 4:45 to 7pm with more than 20 paragliders. The first 30 mins of my flight required some extra work in search for lifts to stay up, then the easy soaring part started around 5:30pm. Although none of us got real high, we all soared for hours till dark. It was easy climbing up to 600ft above launch. No issues with air traffic because the lifts were pretty wide spread. We all landed in pretty nice smooth conditions by the river.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/fMMi1XeGJFY

 

Thanks for posting this Matthew Huntington. I can't believe google satellite caught me on Bingen west launch. That was capturing on April 1, 2016. It was blowing light east winds earlier so a group of paragliders took a slidders on the south side. I was hang waiting at the west launch alone for hrs on that day. Launched off around 5:00pm and had over two hrs great flights with more than 20 paragliders. Awesome day


Just noticed some new satellite images on Google. Who got caught on the Bingen launch? A few paragliders on the South launch and a hang on the West launch.
https://goo.gl/maps/pWD7SSF671v
(you have to switch to 2D in the menu at the top left to get the new views)