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.
Cliffside turned on around 3pm. There were 4 hang gliders (Gabe, Kory, Mark R , myself) and approx 30 paragliders showed up to fly. Mark and I went up to the top of the windmills in the morning scouted around. We found many doable launch spots as you can see from the pictures. The cloud ceiling were low in the morning so we will return next time.
pictures , Google link, video... enclosed in the below link:
From Mark property to top of the windmills (12miles):
From Cliffside launch to top of the windmills (15 miles):
Day 1: Ed Levin 600ft launch
Day 2: Mission Peak 2000ft launch
Day 3: 1st flight at Ed Levin 600ft launch
Day 3: 2nd flight at Ed Levin 1800ft launch
Day 4: Waddell Creek (Too foggy didn't fly)
Day 5: Family Day/ No flying
Day 6: Awesome day at Fort Funston
Day 7: Driving back home 11/17/16
Day 3: Ed Levin 600ft & 1800ft launch
I got to launch off from the upper launch (l think 1800ft AGL) on my second flight yesterday. Thanks local pilot Abhishek Sethi for the ride. This is another top landable site. The footage still on my GoPro so I will post it later.
Landing at Ed Levine captured by Lijian Liu : LINK
Landing at Ed Levine captured by Janica Schmanika : LINK
I've received a lot of private emails regarding flying sites/conditions in the San Francisco Area, which has been very helpful and I've learned a great deal. I really appreciate to those who chimed in to help. The goal of this road trip is to visit my parents and do some skateboarding/ BMXing sessions at the second largest skate park in the U.S. (Lake Cunningham Skatepark). Flying is the last priority for this road trip, but definitely will be enjoyable in getting some air time if weather permits. A few bay area pilots reached out to offer assistance and some believe that Funston and/or Mission Mtn would be the best bet for this coming weekend, so we'll see when I get there. Also, there are few Pacific Northwest pilots that may be joining me as well. Many thanks again!
The day turned out pretty good. There were plenty of smooth ridge lift and thermals from 12:30 to 3:30pm. Rick Webber and l launched at 1:00pm and we flew for 2 hrs and 10 mins. we topped out 800ft over the upper launch (1900ft AGL). 4 hangs and approx 20 paragliders flew today.
Cliffside report of yesterday: Today at Cliffside, three hangs (Gabe , Mark and myself) and approx 10 paragliders showed up in the afternoon to fly. All forecasts called for really light east winds (0-3 mph) all day. However, it was blowing more than 10mph in the morning when I arrived Cliffside around 9:30am. It was definitely soarable in the morning but since I don't want to fly alone so I went to Mark Rabe's Goldendale property in the morning instead. Mark gave me a tour as we drove on quads exploring his property (in first part of the video)). We headed to Cliffside afterwards and arrived launch around 12:30pm. The winds was weaker compared to the morning, but still blowing 10-13mph at the upper launch. Paragliding Rick (from Ellensburg, WA) launched around 12:45. He hooked up to some good thermals and got a couple hundred feet above launch. Then the winds started to diminish when we (and other paragliders) were ready to launch so we took a sledders. Thanks to paraglider Rebecca for picking us up. The winds remained weak, so many paragliders had just short flights in the afternoon. Gabe arrived around 3 pm and the three of us hang waiting for an hour and still see no improvement for soaring conditions. Gabe and Mark took a sledder at 4:30pm. I launched at 4:45 and surprisingly I felt some weak lifts along the ridge. I was able to soar and had the whole ridge to myself for 20 mins. I think it turned on really late today, probably 30 mins (5:30pm) before sunset and a few paragliders had some very nice late evening soaring flights today.
Three hangs (J, Ray and myself) soared Chehalem ridge early afternoon today. It was sunny with windy conditions (15-20mph) when we launched around 12:30 but it wasn't much winds at the Johnson Ranch LZ (3-5mph). I got thousand feet above launch and flew for hour and 35 mins. I thinks Ray got 1500ft over launch.
Ray B Report: Good times with Rick and J. I think we all got over 1hour 30 minutes. Air was on punchy side but fun. One moment you'd be 1000 over plus, next you wondered if you were going to make lz from down the ridge? LZ needs some tall grass and weed chopping. Whack! Thanks for the heads up Rick. It looked good to me but didnt see anyone going at first. Petersons looked good too? Ray
