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.
Showing posts with label Portland Hang gliding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portland Hang gliding. Show all posts
Five paragliders and one hang glider (myself) flew Chehalem ridge today. It calmed down a lot after the last squall passed through which is around 12:30pm. I launched at 1:00pm (5-8mph winds) on the first flight and 3pm (5-10mph) on the second flights. I felt a lot of thermals mixed with sinky air on both flights; I was scratching and got really close to the trees and still could not bench up above launch. Andrew, Gregg , Rob S were able to soar and did some XC. I'm not sure where Greg and Andrew landed? Jay and Eric were getting ready to launch when I left around 4:00 pm.
Chehalem was on the strong side today so only 2 hangs flew (Mark R and myself). The average wind speed at launch was about 10-18mph from noon till 3:30pm. I waited almost 2 hrs till the clouds dissipate by 2pm. I launched at 2:15pm and immediately gained a few hundred ft above launch. I was able to climb 500 ft over in mostly smooth ridge lifts. I flew for an hour and 15 mins and landed at the Johnson's Ranch (Big LZ). It was very calm when I landed at 3:25pm (2 mph South breeze). The wind at launch had backed down some, then drove Mark R up so he can take his first flight at Chehalem. Mark launched at 3:45pm and he was able to soar a little bit before sunset and landed safely at the small PG LZ. You can see Mark's launch at the end of my video here.
The forecast was spot on as expected. Peterson's conditions was light south and switched to light west around 3:30pm today. Three of us launched at 3:00pm in light cycles at about 0-2mp wind. It turns out being no glassoff, but only delivered a short sled ride for us. The air was very calm all the way from launch to LZ. Here's my video from today at Top Peterson.
Today at Bingen, 3 paras (Michael C, Eric M and Sol) and 2 hangs (Mark and myself) headed up at launch around 11:30am. Mark did most of the hiking carrying his glider this time with my help on some steep area. So it took us more time get to the west launch. The winds were blowing about 8-12mph by the time Mark and I arrived launch at 1:00pm. It was perfect soarable condition for hangs and bags. 3 paras launched quickly and got some good soaring flight before the wind picked up speed exceeding to unpleasant conditions. By the time we were done setting up around 2:30pm, the winds continued to excel to approx 18 to 25+mph. Paraglider Eric reported that the LZ was blowing 15mph. I thought it was too strong for Mark, so we waited in hopes that the wind will decrease later. The conditions were tempting and I was offered by Mark to take the flight, however, doing that would leave him being alone at launch , so I decided to wait with him. Unfortunately the wind never die down. By around 4:00pm we decided to pack up. Bingen is the worst place to get skunked having to hike back in the dark with the glider, we have to walk back to the truck to pick up the Kayak carts first....... but I do think that we made a wise decision. Thank God that we did not ask the para friends to drive Mark's ruck down to the LZ. I'm exhausted right now and need to get some sleep ASAP.
Rick Weber reported three hangs had a sled rides at lower Peterson today.
More good flying at Bremer today (Sept 23nd Wednesday) . There were two bags (Dave A, Dave Little) / five hangs (Stas, Tim C, Jeff B, Tim and myself) launched around 1:00pm and it was pretty easy to find lifts along Bremer ridge. Some good thermals reached up to 1300ft above launch. I flew for one hour and 20 minutes. Then, four hangs went back to Dog for the 2nd flight , it was really light with overcast skies. I launched around 5:15pm and surprisingly I was able to found enough lifts below launch boated around for over an hour. Shawn , Jeff and Tim C launched after me also got some good soarable air time.
Friday (Sept 18th):
There were six pilots flew Bremer on Friday (3 hangs and 3 bags). Thanks again to PG pilot Kim for inviting me to fly Bremer and also thanks Dave Auman to letting us (3 hangs Travis , John Coyier and myself ) ) landed in his property (Area151). The flying was very good with plentiful XC opportunities at Bermer on Friday. The conditions at launch and LZ were really light from morning till 4:30pm (We left at 4:30pm). I launched at 1:40pm at the paraglider launch the first time so it feel like flying a new site to me. There were some beautiful little cumies clouds above launch providing thermals however I had to worked really hard to gain altitude in the beginning. I was struggled few hundred feet below launch for a while then hooked a nice thermal on the east side of the ridge. I flew for 1 hour and 40 minutes and topped 2000ft above launch (4200 AGL/ 5000 MSL). Once I got above launch the rides up to the cloud base were pretty easy and smooth.
Satuarday (Sept 19th):
I flew Bremer again with five hangs (Aaron R, Gary B, Kurt H, Ron B, John C) . Although mostly overcast with light west wind conditions, there was still a good amount of thermals allowing us to soar. I launched first and encounter some broken thermals mixed in with the good ridge lifts above launch. I boated back and forth few hundred ft over launch for a while , then headed to the east ridge and found consistent thermals. The top of the lift was about 900ft over in mostly smooth air. Gary and John came join me later and sometime they outclimbed me was even higher. After more than one hour of air time I decided to land so I have time to catch one more flight at Dog. Thanks a lot to John C going back up for retrieved.
Dog was really light but there was a lot of small tiny bubbles just enough for me and Brent (PG pilot) to maintain between 500-600 feet above LZ for another one hour flight.
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
Today flight definitely made my 3+ hrs drive up to Rampart worth it. I had another great flight at Rampart today with Jeff Beck, Colin R, Robin and Dave L. We all launched around 1:30pm in a fairly light breeze. Lifts were everywhere and thermals got really soft in the late afternoon even at the LZ. It was easy to get 2000 ft over launch and soared the whole RP cliff wall. I hit 7k MSL couple times. I think Jeff and Dave got 9k. I landed at 5:45pm in a super smooth condition. Got total of 4 hrs and 15 mins air time. What a beautiful day.
Day 2 (July 30th,15 Thursday)
Another awesome thermic day at Rampart with Jeff Beck, Rich, Darren, Alfredo, Travis and myself (6 hangs) getting two to three hrs long flights. I flew from 3 to 6pm (3hrs) , last one to launched and last one to landed. Each day the conditions was better than the previous.
The highlight of my flight was seeing those three fighter jets passed through right below me in front of the hang launch (approx 300 to 500ft from me). After that I decided it is time for me to landed. Another group of pilots and myself will be here tomorrow and Area 151 on the weekend.
Day 3 (July 31st,15 Friday)
The day started out with stronger wind at launch (10-15 mph gusts) but later it mellowed out. No fighter jets at all only 9 hangs (Colin, Bryan, Jonas, Robin, Alfredo, Jimmy, Stas, Mark R, Enrique and myself) soared the friendly sky. I flew for almost 4hrs (3-6:50pm). The thermals are not as good as the last couple of days but was still pretty good. Still able to reach 2500ft over launch and easy trip to RP Cliff wall if you put some effort working it. I'm on my way down to Area 151 right now (10:30pm)
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.
Glass off wasn't good last night. The winds were kind of shut down so everyone else decided to go home early. I was the only one scratching for light lifts at couple hundred feet above launch from 7:30 to 8:30pm. It was kind of "boring lonely soaring" all by-myself. Thanks for JJ, Scott and Mikey kept me company at the LZ. The afternoon flight was much more fun. I flew for 3.5 hours from 12:30 to 4:00pm with about 6-8 more hangs and 1 bag.
