1 hour flight at Chehalem (Newberg, OR) 10/29/15

Chehalem ridge was dry and soarable this afternoon. The low thick fog hung around launch till 2:45pm. I launched at 3:00pm (8-13mph straight up wind) and had over one hours flight. The highest I got was about 400ft above launch. It was a bit turbulent so others decide not to fly.  Winds were pretty light from the south at the big LZ when I landed at 4:05pm. It was dead calm by the time I done packing up my glider. I went back to launch around 5pm and it was still blowing 5-8 mph straight up. A PG pilot Eric Miller showed up at 5:45pm and took two sled rides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjbjodgV2Co&feature=youtu.be

 

1 flight Chehalem Sledder report 10/26/15

I flew Newberg Chehalem ridge with 4 bags (Dave B, Greg, Steve F, Jay Z) today, all para friends launched earlier in the light wind with overcast skies and got a few hundred ft above launch in mostly ridge lifts. I was hoping for the wind to get stronger so I waited. However the sun never came out and the winds started to diminish from 5-8mph down to 0-3mph when I got ready to launch at 3:00pm. So I took a sledder and landed in zero wind. Ray Berger flew his trike to launch around 4:00 pm and it was completely dead calm by then.

3 hrs/ 2 flights at Cliffside (10/24/15)

It was a paradise at Cliffside today. The Iwinsurf and Windfinder forecast was correct. The wind speed did reach 15+mph in the mid afternoon producing abundance of ridge lifts for us to play. I had 2 flights over 3 hrs of air time soaring with about a dozen PGs and two hangs (Neil and Mike F ) in butter smooth wide range lift bands. Neil top landed multiple of times make it look so easy. I flew across the river to the Oregon side at the end of my flight. We all landed by the river. Btw, we've got a new HG flying member, Mike F who is from Ohio. He currently resides in Portland and just join the ohgalist & cbcc . He would love to get updates on when & where someone goes flying. Also, I've cancelled my plans on heading to Saddle tonight after Cliffside since the forecast appears iffy for tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fjb0xGKmoM&feature=youtu.be

 

 

1.5 hrs at Bingen on Oct 21,15

Bingen was awesome today. Three hangs (Mark R, Enrique and myself ) were patiently waiting for almost 3 hrs at launch until the nicely west wind finally arrived at 4:15pm. It was about 2-5 mph between this morning to 3:30pm so most of the paragliders flew during that time. The wind were pickup to 10-15mph around 4:15pm and it get even more stronger until after sunset. We launch around 4:15pm and all got above launch quickly. Enrique and I keep gaining more altitude by going back and forth the ridge. About 20 mins later we were at 1,000 ft above launch, 45 mins later we got almost 2,000 ft above and we flew a across the river to the Oregon site. The wind were getting much stronger and I notice that there were a lot of white capes on the river. So I decided to go for landing after 1.5 hrs of air times. The LZ condition was really windy and gusty (approx 20 to 30mph WSW wind) when I landed. It was definitely a roller coaster conditions and I will post video later. Enrique landed 20 mins after me and it got even more gusty. Fortunately he landed ok. What a beautiful day at Bingen and congratulation Mark got his first flight out of Bingen! Also, specially thanks to two nice paragliders Eric Miller and Ondrej who help Mark carry his hang glider to west launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EodmYJs7C8w

Two sledders at Dog on Oct 20,2015

Not much to report.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqA5pIkTTCA

 

30 mins/ 2 flights at Cliffside . Oct 15th 2015

Five hangs (Mark R, Enrique, Gabe, Kory and myself)  and one bag flew Cliffside today (Thursday Oct 15th, 2015). I launched at 5:00pm on my 2nd flights when the winds were still way too cross from NE. Also the wind were slowly dying and without a thermal in sight, I barely managed to maintain some attitude that close to launch to extended my flight for about 25 mins until the winds completely shut down. This footage was film by the fake GoPro that I bought it for $30 on ebay a month ago. 

 

 

https://youtu.be/k5ZyOF9WG9g

2 hrs/ 4flights at Bremer and Dog Oct 11-12, 2015

Photo By Jeff Lemon 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206000923555407&set=a.1969168622126.2108477.1030282766&type=3&theater

Buddy Carroll may be gone, but he is far from forgotten. We had a good memorial over the weekend at Dog. David (Buddy brother) had a nice bench at the Dog launch to pay tribute to Buddy.

Although, the flying condition wasn't great on Sunday, I was still able to take an extended sled ride to test fly my glider with a new sail at Bremer in very calm smooth air condition. The perfect condition for first flight of a glider with a new sail. I went to Dog after Bremer for Buddy's memorial. It was also no wind at Dog so nobody flew except for those wing have a power. Larry J and Russ G who had their plane skim close to the ground chasing each other. Chuck demonstrated some very interesting launch and landing approach with his trike to entertain the spectators. It was quite an exciting evening.

On Monday, my original plan was to go fly Bremer with Kim but other hangs prefer Dog so we flew Dog instead. We (Enrique, Rick Weber and PG Kim) started early sledder so I had a total of 3 flights; the 3rd flight I flew for 1.5 hrs with Kim and Alan. 

My first flight with the new sail on Oct 11th, 2015

https://youtu.be/8I8lVMPOoEk

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.