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Day 1
Cliffside was spectacular today. It was one of those day just punch off , turn left and few minutes later you will be above the wind turbines. Bob Horning will write a detail report later. 4 hangs (Bob H, Scott M, Mark R and myself) and half dozen parargliders flew today.
Report from Bob
Amazing day again, and wouldn’t you know it, Rick called it and was there flying, so it had to be great!!! We had 4 hangs, Rick, Scott, Mark and myself, plus about a dozen PGs. It was mine and Scott’s first time to fly Cliffside, been wanting to for a while because of all the good reports I keep hearing, and I was not disappointed! Was surprised that with all the experience that Scott has that he had not been here, and he was not disappointed either! Winds were 8-14 mph from the E to ESE, so take off was just a few steps. After circling out I was a few hundred feet above launch (1,185 ft) within a minute. Stayed there for a bit to gain more altitude, while watching Rick take off not long after me. Shortly he headed to the east to the big ridge and flew close to it, gaining altitude quickly. I followed his example and soon we were both skimming clouds, topping out at 2,700 ft, 1,500 ft above launch. The sun was out and shining on launch and the rest of the river area, though we had clouds at the top of the hills on the north side. At about 2,550 ft it was the frost level, so the hills were frost covered from that point and up to the wind turbines. And holy molly, I have not been in the area for over 15 years, there is a ton of wind turbines! With the frosty weather and them moving and seeing them through the clouds it looked a bit like the frozen planet and machines on Star Wars. Rick flew fairly close to them, both in front above them, almost like Luke Skywalker running his fighter around the legs of the machines!!
Mark launched not long after us and joined us for a while, while Scott took a bit longer to set up, but once in the air he climbed like mad, watched him a bit below me and I made a couple circles and all of a sudden he was going above me!
Lots of lift along the hillside, and even some away, so even if you moved into an area that had no lift it was easy to drift along, enjoy the day, and take your time to find lift again!
Lots of hawks in the area in the rim rock, saw one doing what I think was a mating dance/flight, swoop up and then fold his wings and dive, just to swoop right back up in the air currents and dive again and again. Very cool to watch from up close and above.
On my way to landing I had enough altitude and still lots of lift on the way over to John Day dam, flew over that for a bit!
All of us had between an hour to almost 2 hours (Rick) of flight, I had an hour and a half flight before my hands finally said enough (cold). All in all it was a great day for flying!!
Mark launched not long after us and joined us for a while, while Scott took a bit longer to set up, but once in the air he climbed like mad, watched him a bit below me and I made a couple circles and all of a sudden he was going above me!
Lots of lift along the hillside, and even some away, so even if you moved into an area that had no lift it was easy to drift along, enjoy the day, and take your time to find lift again!
Lots of hawks in the area in the rim rock, saw one doing what I think was a mating dance/flight, swoop up and then fold his wings and dive, just to swoop right back up in the air currents and dive again and again. Very cool to watch from up close and above.
On my way to landing I had enough altitude and still lots of lift on the way over to John Day dam, flew over that for a bit!
All of us had between an hour to almost 2 hours (Rick) of flight, I had an hour and a half flight before my hands finally said enough (cold). All in all it was a great day for flying!!
Day 2
Another awesome day at Cliffside with hang pilots Mark Rabe, Scott Michalek, Tom Montague plus PGs (Kelly, Mark Sanzone, Grorge George Mcpherson, Zac Blodget, Kieth Keita Salmon, ..and few more). I flew twice , launched around 1:00pm in a fairly light breeze and flew for 40 mins. It was easy to get 100 to 200ft over launch until around 2pm it got much better. Tom and Scott launched around 2:30pm and flew till almost sunset with me. It was a different conditions than yesterday. The highlight of my flight was got up to 2,300ft over the bailout field and flew over to Oregon side with Scott and landed 15 mins before sunset right after Scott and Tom. Today flight definitely made Tom 3+ hrs drive to Cliffside worth it.
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