3 hrs/ 3 flight at Cliffside fist weekend of Oct

https://youtu.be/_viT6QP4ozM

Oct 3 rd 2015 Saturday
1 flight
40 mins

It was REALLY light at Cliffside today. The West winds were still blowing about 5-10mph at the hang launch when we arrived at 11:30am. It turned ESE around 2:00pm and more East around 3:30pm. Five hangs (Neil, Gabe, Mark R, Enrique and myself) launch around 4:00pm at the Paraglider launch and it was pretty easy to climbed above launch. I was lucky that hooked up with few small thermals that extended my flight to about 40 mins and got 1200 AGL few times. The LZ by the river also very calmed , it was pretty much zero wind at the LZ.

Oct 4th 2015 Sunday
2 flights
over 1 hrs 

We had a beautiful day at Cliffside today. 3 hangs (Gabe,Mark Rabe and myself) and a lot of paragliders. Everyone had a great effortlessly flight cruising around till sunset. A few PGs made it above the wind mills and I think some got 4k earlier. My max attitude was 1,600 ft AGL. I had over 2 hrs of air time landed around 7:00pm on my second flight.

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.

1 hr 20 mins (2 flights) at Kilchis (Tillamook, Oregon)

Video coming soon!

Sep 3rd 2015 Kilchis (Tillamook, Oregon) flight report:

Today I went flying with Ray, Kory and Mark at Kilchis with no paragliders in sight. There was a few showers around noon. The winds were pretty light at the LZ/launch for the whole afternoon with overcast skies. I launched first around 3 pm and scratched for a while just to maintain 100 to 200 ft over launch elevation. There was enough bubbles above Kilchis launch to keep us up boating around a few hundred feet above launch all day. I got bored at the same spot, then headed out to Sugar Hill hoping to find better thermals. Unfortunately, rain came when I arrived Sugar and I didn't feel any lifts either so I landed. The other guys stayed close to Kilchis launch for a while and had a longer flight. Ray stay up for more then an hour and I think he got 800 ft over launch. I went up again for the 2nd flight with Mark and had a better thermal climb this time around, reaching 300ft over launch. Similar to the 1st flight with a bit of improvement, I was able to soar for 50 mins, with the first flight lasting about 25 mins.

Photos: 

https://www.facebook.com/pdxrick.lai/posts/10153256215924285

1 flight 2 hours air time at Oceanside/ Aug 30th 2015

 

https://youtu.be/vGSZF4FUwAY

Oceanside was awesome yesterday (Sunday). Seven hangs flew (Steve Forslund, Ray B, Rob Stephens, Gabe, Jeff H, Jonathon and myself). The winds were a bit strong and too south at launch most of the time but once we punched off it was just effortlessly elevator up to 1000ft above launch in the smooth coastal air. I think we all got more than 2 hours air time. There were a lot of cloud forming and we had a great session of cloud surfing.

This is the video and photos from yesterday

What wrong with this photo??

2 flights 6 hours at Dog on Aug 1st 2015

I went down to Area 151 on Saturday morning after 3 epic days at Rampart, and then headed out to Dog with Travis and Paige.  First flight I launched at 1:00pm and flew for 3 hrs.   I went up again after lunch and launched at 6:00pm when wind turned north . The thermals just keep getting better, got 1000ft over the north ridge and went over to Elk and got really high  (4000ft AGL) until 9:00pm. The last group when up to launch around 7:00 and winds turn more NE so they didn't launch.

3 flights 9 hrs On July 17th & 18th, 2015

July 17th ,2015 (Friday)

4 hrs

Max altitude: 6,400 FT AGL (above ground level) 7,250 FT MSL

I arrived launch around 4:15pm (thanks Kim for the ride) saw Peter and Naomi were setting up. Looked up and found Eric O skyout. The conditions just about to turn epic. By the time we ready to launch the wind became stronger and more crossed from the east. There were couple harmless baby dust devils appeared at launch. I took off first at 4:50pm and went straight up to 1000ft above immediately and it was still going up. Then Naomi , Peter and Timmy punched off shortly. It was too gusty and cross for the PGs so they decided not to fly. It was an excellent height gain , especially over Elk and radio tower. I reached 6,400ft AGL (about 7,250ft MSL) over the west end of Elk Mt. I can see the Riffe lake dam. It was one of the best thermals day at Dog. Unfortunately, the epic conditions didn't last all the way till sunset. It was kind of shut down around 7:30pm. The last group who launch around 7:30pm were struggling stay up. I had few low save and managed to climbed back to 50ft above launch. The winds switched more east when I ready to landed which around 9pm. Over 4 hours of air time for one flight. What an incredible north wind day at Dog!

July 18th 2015 Saturday Report: 

1st flight: 2hrs and 15 mins (12:45 to 3:00pm)

Max altitude: 2,000 ft AGL over south bowl

2nd flight: 2.5 hrs (6:00 to 8:45pm)

Max altitude: 5,000ft AGL 

The flying was spectacular again at Dog on Saturday. I didn't expect the conditions to turn out so good since it was pretty dead calm when arriving launch around 12 pm. I'd planned on taking a sled ride down and return later for evening glass off;  however, amazingly, as I got ready to launch during a light cycle it

started coming up stronger and turned soarable for the rest of the day. I ended up getting 2+hours airtime and topped out 2,00ft AGL over South bowl on the first flight.  

I walked up to launch after lunch and looked forward to another enjoyable evening flight. When arriving launch around 5 pm, the wind direction had switched north east. It was similar to yesterday's conditions (gusty & cross from East).  The launch conditions were challenging sometimes due to the gusty cycles and cross winds.  But once I punched off, the strong lifts just kept elevating. It was quite turbulent and sometimes my hang strap goes slack. Naomi launched after me and I think she flew for 1.5 hrs. The air and thermal at 1000 ft above launch was relatively smooth.  Since I had 3 incredible flights at Dog (2 days in a roll), I decided to skip flying on Sunday. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI0ZZXs6v4k

 Got high over Elk Mt.

2 flights 5 hrs air time at July 9th 2015 /Dog Mt flights log

As usual, I had two flights and hiked up two times at Dog Mt yesterday. The wind at launch were quite strong (15 to 20 mph) in some periods of the time however it was smooth in the air. Had total of 5 hours air times. Nice day and nice flights.