Cliffside (near Rufus, Oregon) Saturday. 1st flight: The skies already fill with a dozen of PGs when l launched around 1. Thermals goes up to 2,000 ft. and there were some areas with big sinks. The unstable lifts that was there would exist in one spot for a while and then disappear. My flight last for 50 mins. Thanks for Gabe stopped by the bailout LZ to pick me , Stas and Ron Stephen up. 2nd flight: The winds got much stronger in the afternoon so most of the PGs didn't fly after 3. Ray Berger launched after I done packing up and he benched up above the wind turbines while I was setting up. I launched at around 3:30 right after Kory McEniry and Nat. Gabe Dinu and Stas launched after me. There were a lot of lifts escalate us up to 3 to 4 K around launch area which is quite high for normal Cliffside day. I was able to benched up to the wind turbines and passed the aluminum plant but the strong east winds (also too cross) was just way too turbulence for me so I didn't stay there for too long. I flew for two hours (last one to landed) and we all landed by the river in 20 mph strong ESE winds. It was one of the nicest Cliffside flight. Gabe , Stas and I went to The Dalles for dinner to celebrate. We are spending a night at The Dalles and will fly Cliffside again today.
Report from Ray B:
We all skied out the last hour plus! I managed 2 hours 42 minutes and almost 3400 ft after scratching the first hour. Flew up to John Day River and later flew over the Oregon side on the way down searching for sink when landing. The lift east of aluminum plant turned on and finally filled in all the way back to launch. Smooth glass-off seemed to flush all but 1-2 paragliders out of the sky as it picked up to 20mph.
Accidently hit a paraglider pilot in the head when I was moving up to launch. Those long wings on the rigid are hard to judge but probably not a good idea to do a top landing on launch when pilots are moving their gliders up to launch. Might want to top land somewhere else?
Lots of hangs as Rick already mentioned their names. Good crew of paragliders too. Beautiful and warm day in the Gorge. Ray
Day 2 Sunday
Another fun day at Cliffside. Stas and Gabe Dinu left early so I was the only hang glider with about a dozen paragliders. It was a repeated of yesterday except with much lighter winds. I launched around 4pm and flew for 2.5 hrs. Got up to 2,500 ft few times on the NW side behind the old hang launch with few PGs. Wind turbines on top was facing east (same as yesterday). Pretty mellow ridge lift from 5:30 till sunset..
Cliffside day 3 report: Two hangs (Neil & myself) and two bags (Jon M & Austin) flew Cliffside today. It was soarable. However not epic but a repeated condition to the weekend and last Tuesday with much stronger winds. Jon flew his full size pararglider and Austin flew his mini wing in 15-20mph winds. I launched at 3:30 and got a bit over 2 hrs flight with maximum altitude gain of 1,900ft. The winds became stronger around 5, causing my glider to fly backwards at times. It got very windy and rowdy between 1,500 to 1,900ft due to some north winds, so it wasn't fun like the last couple of days. Surprisingly, it wasn't that windy at the LZ by the river when l landed at 5:40, but definitely had some north winds in it. Wind turbines were facing more NE after I landed. It was blowing especially strong when I returned to the launch parking lot to fetch my water bottle. Videos and photos coming soon.
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