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.
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.
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.
Day 1 (Friday) Sept 25th
I arrived Baldy LZ around 1:40pm and found the skies overcast with few light sprinkles on and off. The wind was really light (0-2mph ) at the LZ coming from NW. The paragliders headed up to launch around 4pm when the sun came out with light wind blowing at 10-15 mph at launch (5 mph at the LZ) , so they got about 1.5 hours of ridge soarable window. One of the Baldy rule is that no 2WD vehicles are allow on the road;
Unfortunately, no sightings of 4WD rigs with hang rack was available to take my glider to launch, so I missed flying for the day. Spent my evening hiking up to launch.
Day 2 (Saturday) Sept 26th
Rampart 3 hrs flight
3 hrs flight/ 4,500 AGL/ 7,000 MSL
Already blowing 10-15mph at Baldy LZ in the morning at 8:00am Probably 25+ mph at launch. So went to Rampart to meet up with other hang pilots and turn out it was an amazing day at Rampart for sure. Five lucky hangs (Tim C, Stas, Bryan, Chris (from Taxas) and myself) got hours of a magic air time. I launched first at 1:15pm and flew for 3 hours. It was quite easy to climbed over 2,000 ft above launch and also easy trip to the big Rampart wall and across the valley. Thermals were really smooth and climbed up to cloud ceiling fast. I didn't feel any rotors during the landing approach and everyone had a soft landing on the carrier deck.
Day 3 (Sunday) Sept 27th
Rampart 2 hrs flight
It was light with clear skies. 8 hangs (Kurt, Gary, Aaron, Stas, Travis, Eric O, Alfredo and myself) and few bags flew. I flew for two hours.
Day 4 (Monday) Sept 28th
3 flights at Cliffside
I had 3 flights at Cliffside yesterday with Ray B, Enrique, John C, Mark R, Steve F and a few paragliders. All 3 flights launched off from the PG upper launch and it was soarable as well . The conditions were fairly strong when we arrived around 11:30am, so we thought it was going to be an easy soaring day.
Unfortunately, when we were set to launch an hour later, the winds lightened up, although still soarable along the ridge above Highway 14 with narrow lift band; we just couldn't get too high for the first flight. The highest I got was on the 3rd flight which was about 300ft above (almost 900ft AGL) around 5:30pm. On my second flight, I tried to top land at a cross wind on the uphill slope, however my approach was terrible, which ended with me slamming into the ground instead of landing (or you can say crash landing or BIG WHACK).I unhooked and checked to see if everything was okay after the crash, as well as checking to see if I broke any bones. Fortunately, everything turned out okay so I re-launched again shorty. At this time, the lift band had expanded and thermals were starting to get better which made the soaring much easier than earlier. I got higher and higher, but also felt the throbbing of my left shin from the BIG whack earlier. So even though conditions had improved, I've decided to best head out and land. I made it to the LZ by the river with plenty of attitude and had a soft landing on an uninjured right foot. My Gopro was off on my second flight so I didn't captured the crash landing, but Ray saw it so maybe he can fill in with more details. By the time we finished packing, it was getting close to sunset and Ray still skyed out with a couple of paragliders. He landed right before sunset. We had dinner at Hood River "Crazy Pepper" with Mark , Enrique and our driver Justin.
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.
It was another great weekend at Rampart and Dog Mt again, with a total of 10 hrs combined within those 3 days of flying.
Aug 7 & 8th at Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass, Wash)
Aug 9th at Dog Mt (Glenoma,Wash)
Day 1. Friday (1 flight)
There was six hangs (Ron B, Chris C, Jonas, Stas, Travis and myself) who flew Rampart on Friday. Not too windy at launch & pretty smooth at the landing "Carrier Deck" too. We were all able to get off launch without wire assistance. Thermals were everywhere and reached up to 7000ft. I flew for 3.5 hrs while others at least got 2+ hours.
Day 2. Saturday (1 flight)
Also six hangs (Alfredo, Shah, Dave L, Aaron R, Kurt, Cliff S and myself) who flew Rampart. The conditions was similar to the day before exception to more friendly clouds and better thermals.The cycles was a bit stronger and gusty at launch compared to yesterday. I flew from 1:55 to 5:10pm (over 3 hrs) and I think others flew for 2 hrs too. It was an easy trip
to the cliff wall and Alta Mt (The next Mt north of 2nd big
Rampart cliff wall). I cored up to 7800' at Alta Mt.
Day 3. Sunday (1 flight)
I launched around 1:30pm (landed around 5:00pm) after Scott C, Justin H, Larry (Tandem with Hazel) and Tina. It was almost no wind at launch, so I expected a sledder. Flew down to the lower point and found a lot of small bubbles that consistently kept me at a couple hundred ft above the tree top for over an hr until the good soaring conditions arrived. JJ and Stas joined me at first, then followed 10 hangs and 2 bags launching after seeing JJ , Stas and myself getting above launch. I went to the back bowl to avoid air traffic with Ron B, Stas, and JJ.... for a while and topped out 2000ft AGL over the back bowl. I made one trip to Elk but found nothing there.
