45 mins flight at Chehalem Ridge (Newberg, OR) 3/6/16

Alone at Chehalem Ridge (Newberg, OR) 3/6/16

Video Link: 

https://youtu.be/36Vd5VAhXp8

I had a nice approximately an hour (or maybe 45mins) flight at Chehalem today. The winds were cranking at launch (20-28mph) after the last squall passed through around noon. With no more rain so I went back to Newberg skatepark for another skate session. When I return to launch around 1:30pm , the winds had backed down to 10-15mph with more blue sky and sunshine. Fortunately, an RCer guy was there so I wasn't all alone.I decided to take a flight, punched off at 2:15pm with 10-15 mph wind and got high really fast. No penetration problem until 30 or 40 mins later when I felt stronger head winds from SE or SSE also with the rain approaching from the west side. I decided to land at the PG's LZ because it was a shorter walking distance to launch for my car. Packed up everything before the rain came and began the walk. However, I was lucky to have gotten a ride from a nice local guy after walking a few hundred yards. Rain started on the way up to launch so I didn't get wet. 

1 hrs and 10 mins Chehalem (Newberg ,Oregon) 12/4/15

https://youtu.be/NYaQXkL95Rs 

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.

Bingen, Wash skunked report 11/4/15

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. 

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.

2 flights 4 hours air time at Rampart and Black Mountain (near Maple Falls,Wash)

 https://youtu.be/9Cb6cHDFYoI

Aug 26th 2015
Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass. Wash)
6000ft MSL
3 hrs flight

Rampart worked well yesterday. There were one para and four hangs flew (Travis, Ron B, Alfredo and myself). The paraglider went up early (launched at 12:30pm) , took an extended sledder. Hangs group arrived launch at 1:30pm,  I was first off the air at 2:30pm and had a 3 hours of really fun air time , others hangs also flew for 2+ hours. Top of lift was over the Cliff wall at 6,000'. 

I thinks most likely we are going to fly Black today.  I'm meeting up with two hang pilots at the Maple Falls Shell Gas Station around 11:00am. We will stop by the LZ before headed up to launch. 

Aug 27th 2015
Black Mountain (Maple Falls,Wash)
1 hour
1500ft over launch (5000ft AGL/ 750ft MSL at LZ )  

There was a few hours window today at Black Mountain when it was soarable before it shut down.   We arrived top launch at 2:00pm and found almost zero wind. We all launched around the same time in really light cycles. Konrad , Shawn and Travis launched before me and they climbed quickly above launch.  It was a bit rowdy and not much good lifts once you away from the ridge. I feel very lucky to have managed a flight for more than one hour and got at least 1500 feet over launch few times (I think is about 5000 AGL). Travis, Konrad and myself landed at the campsite main LZ and Shawn landed at the big field by the road.  When I landed around 4:30pm the wind socks in both LZ were hanging straight down.  Almost no wind. 

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