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I launched early (around 11:45am) in a light SSE breeze with almost 100% cloud covered sky condition. Didn't expect much, so I turned left immediately aiming for the Sugar hill and LZ expecting a sled ride since this was my first flight at Sollie. Surprisingly, I found a lot of nice thermals on the left side of the ridge, so was able to climbed between fifty to hundred ft above launch level. I turned back to launch and hoped to hook up on another thermal near launch, however didn't feel anything and started to slowly sink out, so I headed to Sugar hill to prepare for landing. I found a lot of a nice bubbles that allowed me to maintain between 600-700ft AGL for a
while at Sugar hill. I landed in almost zero wind after 25 mins of air time.
We didn't take up on Ray's advice to head to Kilchis on our second flight; the wind later switched to light NW in the afternoon, so everybody ended with a sled ride on the second flight. Yes, the road to launch is smooth so my tiny car shouldn't have any problems driving up to launch. I would like to fly Sollie or Killchis more in the future.
The NW wind is coming this week , it looks good at Cape Lookout. Come get it!
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Report from Ray :
We arrived too early about 11:00, Rob, Kathy, and I. We watched the LZ for awhile and went up to Kilchis. I stalled Rob as long as I could and fortunately it was long enough as he took off about 1:30. Really light conditions compared to what I am use to but birds were going up. We both got to 3400 immediately, surprisingly, then 3800 shortly after. Rob cut his flight short by flying out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and landing with Alan. I flew around venturing to Kilchis River and Point, then out to valley but always coming back to Kilchis or Kilchis River bowl and staying between 2800-3800 ft. Good day altogether with 1 hour 50 minute flight. No lift at Sugar and lucky if you got up at Sollie launch. Kilchis was definitely the place to be because everytime you went back it was easy to fill up and leave. The road up was totally easy, especially the cutoff to Kilchis which is also widened better than I have ever seen it. New gravel too, I believe Mark checked it out a couple weeks ago. Logging company had done alot of work widening the road up last spring, still looks great. If the coast is too light to soar, go to Kilchis or Sollie, when it works best. Long time formula that seems to work. Ray
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Sollie Smith report from Enrique:.
Rick and I carpooled to Tillamook. We meet a group of paragliding pilots there and M. Rabe, brother of a pilot of the golden years with celebrated flying feats to his name. We all drove to launch. Conditions were light and with a lot of East component, which subsided as the day went by. Fat clouds promised (and delivered) lift, but not for everyone. Of all the plumbers, only Ray (who launched from Kilchis) contested the cloud suck to the paras. Mark, Rick and myself all had two flights, and in every case the first one delivered more soaring than the second.
We tried CLO and Oceanside afterwards, but the lift was extremely weak at CLO and downright dead to blowing from the back at Oceanside, so we called it quits. It was the first flight at this site for Rick, and I had not been there in several years, so now we are both eager to try Kilchis, the generous gas station according to Ray.
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