Monday, August 29, 2016

Rampart 8/28 & 29 report (4 hrs air times in two flights)







8/29/16 Skateboarding session at North Bend skatepark. 


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I've encounter with fighter jets many times at Dog Mt (Glenoma) and Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass) , but this time I have my camera on and captured two jets flying in front of us. Too bad that Gopro don't have zoom in function. 

8/28/16 Sunday: 

I saw Paul's email about going to Rampart in the morning while on my way to Dog Mtn so I've decided to skip Dog and head straight to Rampart instead. 

There was 4 of us hangs (Paul, Glenn, Ron and myself) who flew. No paragliders. Stas came out to hang out and drive for us. The condition was light, overcast and too north with really weak thermals. I'd launched first at 3:15 maintained a few hundred ft above launch for the majority of the flight. I boated back and forth between the PG launch and south side of the Hang launch for an hour reaching at 700 ft above launch a few times however, I sank each time while heading north to the wall. Nobody made it to the first wall and my flight lasted for about an hour and 15 mins. 

8/29/16 Monday : 

The soaring condition was much better than yesterday. Light straight up cycles at launch similar to yesterday. I launched first at 3:15pm and got over 2.5 hrs flight. All of us (Robin, Travis, and l) made it to the 2nd wall. No paraglider again?? Robin and I reached 2K above launch over the first wall. The winds were quite strong at the LZ out the North whole day. There were no rotors at the LZ when we landed between 5-6pm , just strong north winds blowing about 15-25mph. All 3 of us had a good landing on Carrier Deck LZ.










Thursday, August 25, 2016

3 flights 6 hrs/ From 8/22 to 8/24 (Rampart and Tiger Mtn)

Flying sites in Pacific Northwest:
http://pdxhanggliding.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-live-in-portlandor-and-do-fly.html

Date: 8/22/2016  & 8/23/2016

8/22/2016 Monday
Rampart was good today, although it was cold and overcast with cloudy skies. The cloud celling was approx 2,500ft above launch (7,000 MSL). The launch condition was a bit gusty from North (right side) but once in the air, it felt really smooth and lifty. The condition reminded me of flying at the coast during the winter. l launched at 3:40 and just shot up quickly to 1,000ft above launch. Abundant of smooth lifts from in front of launch all the way through the 2nd Rampart wall. I reached 2300ft above launch (6,800 MSL) over the 2nd wall. After about an hour, l started getting really cold (40 degree F)  then finally hit sink when headed south to the lake, so I started back to the LZ  for landing and felt strong north headwind. There was definitely plenty of rotors during the landing approach. I landed around 5:15pm on the carrier deck in the NNW direction. Thanks Tim for driving. 

8/23/2016 Tuesday
Another great Rampart day. 5 hangs (Robin, Travis, Tim C, Myself and Alfredo) all launched aound 3:15pm and every one were up for more than two hrs. I got 2 hrs and 45 mins. The condition was even better than yesterday. Top of the thermals reached between 2,700-3,000ft above launch. Kind of like yesterday except much more warmer and sunnier.


8/24/2016 Wednesday
Travis and I decided to fly Tiger today. We launch around 4:pm and flew for two hrs. 

Rampart video
 

Tiger video
 









Saturday, August 20, 2016

3 flights / 5.5 hrs Tiger and Dog Mtn (8/18 & 8/19)

Video from Tiger and Dog. 



Youtube version:

Vimeo version:


Aug 18th,2016 Thursday
Tiger Mtn report:

Tiger was good on Thursday.  I flew for 2.5 hrs with two hangs (Alfredo, Travis) and about six paragliders. Michael was nice enough to let us follow his shuttle to launch (6.2 miles). We left the LZ at 12 and I drove down Alfredo's rig.  I'd hiked up and launch around 3pm. Unlike the forecast said, there wasn't a strong north, but thermic with really light north wind cycles. It was either very light north or almost zero wind at the LZ for most of the day. The top of the thermals was about 800 ft above launch. 

Aug 19th, 2016 Friday 
Dog Mtn report:  

A lot of decision making on where to go; Saddle, Black Mtn, Tiger Mtn or Dog?? We voted for Dog because is closer although the forecast called for East winds at Glenoma (wrong direction) with 90+ degree.  It turns out that Alfredo, Larry, Travis and I had great flights at Dog. The east wind was starting to lighten around 1:30pm. I took off from the north launch on the 1st flight (at 3pm) and west launch on the 2nd flight (at 5:30pm).  It was pretty much dead calm at launch and with really light thermal cycles at the LZ.  Both flights combined was almost 3 hrs of air times. The 2nd flight was much better, topped out 1200 ft above launch over the microwave towers.  Larry went further east and I think he got 2k above launch. Travis went to Elk with his Falcon and made it further west to the Cliff. Hopefully, he will share more about his adventure. Another fun day at Dog. 

Aug 20th Saturday
Supposedly,l was going to either Rampart or Black Mtn today. But something came up so l came home last night. 


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

8/15/16 Rampart 2hrs and 20 mins flight

There were eight hangs flew Rampart yesterday (Dave L, Robin, Tim C, Travis, Alfredo, Collins Ron B and myself) . Great flight with punchy thermals. I launched 3rd after Dave L and Robin and climbed up above launch immediately. The thermals wasn’t incredible, but it was plenty to maintain above launch. I flew for 2hrs and 20 minutes and max altitude approx 6000ft MSL (1,500 above launch).  Another successful Rampart day. I'm planning to fly Tiger on Thursday and Cam-Am Black Mt this weekend. 

Video from yesterday. 





Saturday, August 13, 2016

4 flights 6 hrs from Aug 11 & 12 at Dog Mtn

Pilot: Rick Lai
Glider : Northwing Freedom 170
Hang Glider information:
http://www.northwing.com/freedom-hang-glider.aspx
Blog: http://pdxhanggliding.blogspot.com/

4 landings from Aug 11 & 12 at Dog Mtn
4 flights / 6 hrs of air times

Video


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

4 flights / 6 hrs First week of Aug,2016 at Dog Mtn

8/4/16 Thursday 2 flights /3hrs
Dog was really good after 6pm. Winds turned North and NE and we all launched around 6:30 and flew till sunset (I landed at 8:30pm). Tina, Colin and I went to Elk and found some great thermals that took us almost to 2K above Dog launch. It was Colin's first trip to Elk and he did great yesterday. Since I had two great flights yesterday.  I decided to come home last night.

8/6/16 Saturday 2 flights 3 hrs
Repeat of Thursday 







Monday, August 1, 2016

Two flights 3 hrs air time at Dog 7/31/16

I had two flights and hike up twice  on Sunday. Another beautiful day with easy soaring condition however there were only few hangs (Paige, Marty, James, Travis, Stas and Tina) and one para (Dave A) flew, Such a quiet Sunday.  I wonder why??


Youtube version: 

Vimeo version: