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

Video from Tiger and Dog. 

Youtube version:

https://youtu.be/knjts8sqHro

Vimeo version:

https://vimeo.com/179614339

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. 

1.5 hrs/ 2 flights Dog Mt (Glenoma, Wash) 11/3/15

About today,  there were a lot of NE wind at Dog so we all launch from the north side. I took a AM sled ride before everyone showed up then catch the ride up with Gabe for the second flight. I launched again at 3:00pm followed by Gabe and Alfredo.  We all got over launch immediately.  Alfredo and I flew for 1.5 hrs, Gabe got about 40 mins.  We had several sweet, strong climbs with the peak altitude about 850ft over launch.  Elk was working too, but returning back to Dog patch with east head wind made me feel uncomfortable so I didn't stay there too long.  It turned out being a great day at Dog. 

6 hours air time / 5 flight on Sept 11 to 13 weekend

Sept 11, 2015 Tiger Mountain (Issaquah ,Wash)

Only two hangs (Travis and myself) flew Tiger today. We and most of the paras had an extended sledder. It was almost zero wind conditions at launch and also no wind at the landing. Nice to flight Tiger again and I ran up to launch in a hot humid weather.
Anyway, I'm here for the Tiger party tomorrow so I will fly Tiger again even a sledder conditions. Not sure about where to go on Sunday yet. Maybe Dog, Rampart , Tiger again.... Etc.

Sept 12, 2015 Tiger Mountain Fantastic Fly-In Festival

The 2015 Fantastic costumes festival turned out really good. There were about 50 paragliders flying at one time and only 9 hang gliders including myself, Tim Cayward, Travis, Glenn, Steve Alford, Rob, Kerie, Aaron and Bryan. The soarable condition turned on around 3:00pm and we all soared. I flew for 2 hrs on the second flight and hooked up with a few thermals that topped out 1000 ft above launch. I had two flights and total of almost 3 hrs of air time. As you can see from the video the whole sky was filled with paragliders.

Sept 13, 2015 Dog Mountain (Glenoma, Wash)

It was really windy and gusty (20-25mph) at launch the whole day. I had two flight that combine 3 hrs of air time. Aaron R, Eric O and myself flew till sunset.

On Sept 12

I captured this incident on Sat (Tiger Mt Fantastic Fly In) around 3:30pm. It looked as if two paragliders were launching at the same time ; one got tangled with another glider and was dragged down to the bottom of the launch. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I heard that the pilot was okay, however his glider got toasted.

4hours/ 5 flights on Labor day weekend at Dog and Rampart

http://youtu.be/qDyIq0I768k

Sept 5th 2015 (Sat)

I had two flights. It was mostly very light to variable ridge lifts with a few thermals in the early afternoon. I got 200ft above launch and flew for about 40mins. Not too long after I landed , there was a big wall of a rain slowly approaching toward Dog that produced some powerful lifts for the second group. I think they got 1000ft above launch until the rain arrived. We went up again waited for the rain pass through. As soon as we were ready to launch the wind died down. I soared for a short time and landed.


Sept 6 & 7th 2015 (Sun & Mon)

It was soggy and no wind at Dog the whole day on Sunday so nobody want to fly except for me. I wanted to do some cardio exercise so I hiked up two times and flew down twice in no wind condition. Left Dog Mt with Jonathan at night to Rampart and it turned out we had an awesome flight at Rampart on Monday Labor day. There were 10 hang pilots (Dave L, Jonathan, Bryan H, Paul D, Lenny, Stas, Kurt, Gary, Aaron R and myself) came out and all of us had a wonderful flight. The winds were more on the light side at launch and LZ with cloudy skies but there were still a lot of easy find smooth thermals everywhere. I launch at 2:30pm right after Dave L and flew till 5:35pm. Cloud ceiling was about 1000ft above launch when we launched therefore the higher peak of the Rampart cliff wall was under the clouds. We were cruising underneath cloud base most of the time between the cliff wall and launch. It cleared off around 4:30pm and finally I was able to make it to 500ft over the cliff wall. My max altitude at the last hour was about 6,000ft MSL.

8 hrs air time (4 flights) at Dog Mt on Aug 15th & 16th , 2015

Saturday Aug 15th, 2015

The conditions was really weak at Dog today. I had two flights. It was almost no wind at launch with 90% overcast sky it results there were a lot of short flights. I was very lucky on my first flight that I did a few low save at 500ft AGL and got back up to launch, caught a few strong good thermals over the north side after scratching below launch for a long time.

1st flight :
I launched at 12:45pm and had almost 3 hours of really fun air time. Topped out 2k above launch and made few trips to Elk , radio towers and Hwy 12.

2nd flight:
I've run out of patience after more than an hour of waiting at launch. So launched at 5:45pm and it turned out to be a sledder as I expected. Others who launch after 6:30pm was able to stayed up and flew till sunset. Larry and Marty went pass Elk and got really high.

Sunday Aug 16th, 2015

It was a very ice day of flying at Dog. When the north wind arrived it provided a lot of good flying for everyone.
1st flight:
2.5 hrs

2nd flight:
2.5 hrs

4 flights 10 hrs in 3 days trip at Dog, Rampart and Blanchard.

Day 1 (07-23-15 Thursday)) at Dog Mt 

2 flights / 2 hrs per flight

  

It was another epic glass off evening condition flying over Elk Mt again. I landed around 9:00pm on the 2nd flight then had dinner around 10pm at Bucksnort with: Ray, Kory, Scott, Lisa, Dave, Dianna...... Left Morton really late and headed to Rampart around 11pm meet up with Alfredo, Colin and Shah next morning.

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Day 2 (7-24-15 Friday) 

Rampart; air time 2 hrs 

4 hangs flew Rampart on July 24th(Friday).  I launched first at 2:30 pm and I thought it was going to be a sledder since it was overcast, plus the condition was really light (2-3 mph straight up wind) at launch. But once I airborne, it was pretty easy to find plenty of smooth thermals in front of launch and was able to reach 1000 ft above launch. Trips to Rampart cliff wall was easy too, we got higher over the first cliff wall. Alfredo and I got 2000 ft above launch (Approx 4000 ft above landing field). I made it to the second cliff wall and landed after 2 hrs later. LZ was rowdy due to the the strong NW wind, but we all had a nice easy touch down landing on the "carrier deck". Colin and I spent the night there and hoped for the conditions to cooperate for the following day. The rain didn't make it to Rampart, but there was overcast skies with 80% cloud covering all afternoon and cloud base was about 3000 ft above launch. 

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Day 3 (7-25-15 Saturday) 

Blanchard ; air time 4 hrs 15 mins

I decided drive up to Blanchard (2 hrs from Rampart) after checked the morning forecast and it turned out I had a great time sharing the air with paras and hangs on my first flight at Blanchard. Thanks to Shawn for the site intro and also the property owner who allowed us to land there.  I love the spacious grassy landing field.  I launched at 1:15 pm (first hang to launch) in about 2-3 mph light cycles on the south launch. Got above launch after few pass and then just began to enjoyed the 4+ hours long flight in this beautiful site.  Never got tired of the gorgeous ocean scenery.  Most of the time my altitude was between 1500- 1800ft AGL/MSL until around 4 pm then Alfredo and I found more smooth thermals that took us to 2000 ft.  Here is the video of my first flight at Blanchard stating at 2 mins . 

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Photos of Rampart granite cliff wall

Dog Mt evening flight over Riffe Lake 

Snack time

Rampart landing (Carrier Deck)

Blanchard south launch

Blanchard landing field