1 flight 1 hours / Last flight of 2016 at Dog Mtn (Glenoma,Wa)

Gabe and I left Portland today around 9am to meet up with Stas at Dog Patch at 11am. The road to launch was as Eric described yesterday. We were met with falling trees and thick blankets of snow (1.5 to 2 feet deep) on the road, but were confident thinking of making up to launch with Gabe's rig. We all had on regular shoes and brought along a hand saw,an ax and shovel (borrowed from Kim) just to be prepared.  As shown from the photos, we had to cut some big trees to get through. With Gabe's Ford Expedition and no tire chains, we weren't able to make it to launch, but luckily close enough to hike the rest of the way.

At launch, the winds were light from west so we all expected getting sledders.  However, it turned out better then expected considering the light conditions. We all soared, and I was able to reach 1,100 ft above launch and flew for an hour. Dog Mtn flight today was somewhat of a surprise, from bitter beginnings to ending with sweet flights at the end. Thanks to the help of Gabe and Stas's rigs, this year ended on a high note! 

Video Link: 

 https://youtu.be/4R4iwS7gdMk

Shorter version

Longer version:
https://youtu.be/r3a096CH9ls

2 Sled ride at Top Peterson /12-29-16

Gabe D and l flew Upper Peterson twice today (didn't see any paragliders).  Launch conditions was very light (0-3mph SSW/ SW).  It was barely any wind at the LZ either so we just fly down to the bottom on both flights.  Thanks to Gabe son Isaac who drove for us.  Lots of sunshine and so warm (45-50°F).

 https://youtu.be/HAqP2lF6Yos

Summary of 2015 & 2016

After tallying up my flight hours and number for 2015 & 2016, it appeared 2015  outnumbered 2016 with more flight activity. Apparently, I was quite lucky to have only been skunked 3x's in 2015.  And yes, by using all the sophisticated weather forecast model it does really help along with the Cascade Paragliding Club (CPC) paragliders flight reports from their google email posting.  By reading their flight plans and reports, it really inspired me to get out more.  I'd probably wouldn't have had many good flights without the support of the CPC paragliders. Can't say for sure if I'll be flying much in 2017, but I do hope other pilots and myself can maintain safe flights and keep the skunk reporting at a low ratio for the coming year. 

2015 No of flights: 214 Hours: 276 

2016 No of flights: 193 Hours: 240 

Skunked report from 2015: 

Nov 5  Bingen (too strong so Mark R and I didn't fly) 

Nov 14 Peterson Butte (too strong and I was alone so I didn't fly) 

Dec 5  Cliffside. It was flyable but I chose to be Mark R driver so he can get 5 sledders for that day. 

Skunked report from 2016: 

Dec 3. Wishram,Wash new site (too strong and too west)

Dec 20 Oregon coast. Had a 10 second sledder at Tierra Del Mar 

Dec 24 Christmas Eve Cliffside 3K west launch (too NW) 

	2015	Number of flights	Air Time (hours)
	Jan	13	2
	Feb	11	10.5
	Mar	17	22.5
	Apr	24	26
	May	33	33
	Jun	17	28
	Jul	25	62.5
	Aug	16	41
	Sep	23	24
	Oct	16	11
	Nov	10	6
	Dec	9	9.5
	Total	214	276
	2016	Number of flights	Air Time (hours)
	Jan	19	9
	Feb	21	21
	Mar	16	12
	Apr	18	28
	May	23	30.5
	Jun	13	19
	Jul	13	24
	Aug	19	33
	Sep	17	30.5
	Oct	16	15.5
	Nov	13	9.5
	Dec	5	7.5
	Total	193	239.5

Christmas Eve 2016

Merry Christmas to everyone. 

I went to the turbines farm in Goldendale, Wash yesterday (Christmas Eve) with Mark Rabe and Stas. The winds down below (pg launches and LZ by the river) was blowing WSW 8-15mph all days with sunny skies.  Mark thought his Ford Explorer with the studded snow tires was able to drive up the 3K west facing launch without a problem; however, the snow was far thicker and deeper (see photo below) than anticipated, which got us stuck a couple of times. It took us a while to dig the car out and without a shovel we had to use our hands (non water resistant gloves). We almost gave up thinking about abandoning the truck to walk the miles on snow to get to the main road with just our regular shoes on.  Mark lives 10 miles from the main road and it would've been torturous had we ended up walking.  Fortunately, we were able to get the truck moving again after all the manual digging and made it to launch, but alas, it was too cross (NW 15-25mph) and the windchill temperature approx 12 °F (-11°C) so we didn't fly.  Hopefully we can get one last 2016 flight end of this week.

https://goo.gl/photos/NcavCUe5jVmfur8t9

Video from yesterday