My first tandem flight in 1988 was on a mountain in Southern Calif called Kagel. I started flying hang glider solo in 1990. Since then hang gliding has been my primary interest.
A small group (Tim C, Tim D, Ron B, Scott C, Thomas H and myself) of hangs showed up for the day. I flew and hiked up twice , got total 4 hrs of air times. I saw strong surface wind (at least 15mph) and lake field with white caps when I arrived LZ at 11:30AM. Launch condition was a bit gusty for whole day and Tim C instrument says around 20mph out of NW.
I forgot to recharge my GoPro 3 so these photos and video were taken with GoPro 1. Sorry about the poor quality
Dog was very good this weekend, I had one flight on Saturday (2.5hrs flight) and flew twice on Sunday (2hrs on each flight). Both days were soarable from sunrise to sunset with strong winds. Many hang pilots showed up this weekend and everyone had great long flights. I missed Saturday's late evening magical air, but Stas and Shawn were up in the sky long enough to get some Elk Mt.session across the lake on Saturday.
My Sunday flight began with a lot of smooth cloud surfing air that lasted from 12 to 2pm with Thomas, Paul D and Shawn. In the afternoon, more hang pilots showed up. Kory and I launched around 6PM and found much better thermals over Elk when the winds switched north after 6:30pm. I climbed up to 2000ft above launch (3400ft AGL) with Kory over Elk and thermals got even better when temps dropped. Kory and Larry went further west down to the lake. Too bad that most of the pilots launched and landed early, otherwise they would've enjoyed the spectacular Elk sessions with us. Winds direction at the LZ charged it to the opposite side (East winds) when I landed.
Dog Mt. gave 10 hangs a great evening flight again (Larry J, Tina J, Alfredo, Ron B, Tim C, Tim D, Eric O, Stas, Gabe and myself). Everyone showed up LZ around 2:30PM. Nice cumulus clouds forming thought out the day. I launched first at 4PM followed with Larry and Tina shortly. There was a lot of turbulence earlier and it got more consistent later on. Larry went to Radio Towers and got high. Many were wait till after 5 or 6PM when winds switched north. The tops being around 1000 to 1300ft over launch. Winds direction switched to East when I landed at around 7:45PM.
Landing video / landing in opposite East direction
Dog was fantastic today. Beautiful H2 conditions! Only 4 hangs (Robin, Jeff B , Chi and myself) came out. Wish some of you would have been there to share the air.
I arrived Dogpatch at 10:45AM , lake already fill up with white capes and it was blowing strong at the LZ . It remained strong west and turned a bit NW around 4:30pm. Robin and l flew twice, our max altitude was approx 4K MSL. Robin and l went to Elk and we hovered just about the whole ridge and went further west. Thermals, ridge lifts were friendly and abundant. Let's hope that tomorrow will be the same.
It was kind of quiet at Dog on Saturday. I hiked up two times and had a nice morning and evening flights. Total of 3.5 hrs. Max altitude about 600 ft over launch at the evening. Rob Andrews, Nat (from Hood River) and myself flew for couple hrs in the early afternoon. Congratulations to Rob got his first flight at Dog Mt. Then Neil C, Ken. Tim D, Vince C , Chi , Dave C, Paul, Dave, James , Alfredo and five paras showed up in the later afternoon to join us. Alfredo and I launched around 7:30PM when the winds shifted to north, nice to just boat around the whole north ridge with Alfredo, Neil and then went to Elk till sunset.
Extremely quiet at Dog Mtn on 4th of July holiday. Two flights have the whole sky to myself. First flight with Chi in early afternoon. Chi got an hour soaring flight at the lower ridge and I was up for almost 2 hrs. Than l fly again by myself from 5:30 to 8PM. It turned light north after 7PM so l got to soar the north ridge for about an hour. Topped out 500ft above launch.
I got the bad news regarding a PG friend in an accident at Cape Lookout on the same day I flew Black Mtn. I'm deeply saddened to hear of the tragedy. Rest in peace dear friend, Clif Westin.
