5 flights 16 hrs/ 3 day at Cape Lookout 5/3 to 5/5/2019 Longest duration hang gliding flight

Flying sites in Pacific NorthWest:

http://pdxhanggliding.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-live-in-portlandor-and-do-fly.html

Where to learn Hang Gliding in Pacific Northwest:

  http://pdxhanggliding.blogspot.com/2018/05/where-to-learn-hg-in-pacific-northwest.html

 Video 

 I've captured a juvenile bald eagle at 0:55

My Longest flights records breaking weekend: 
over 8 hrs on 5/5/19
https://youtu.be/DrOpg65fL3c

over 7hrs on 5/3/19
https://youtu.be/HN6iEAaJvCg

 My longest duration hang gliding flight (over 8 hour on Sunday & over 7 hour on Friday)

5/5/19 Sunday 

About 10 PGs and myself (only HG) flew Cape Lookout today (Sunday). It turned on around noon with light NNW (approx 8-12mph at 1,400ft and 5-10 mph at launch level) super gentle soaring conditions though sunset. The cloud ceiling remained at 1,400 to 1,500ft easy reach once we crossed the first gap which was the maximum altitude. I flew for over 8 hours from 12:35 - 8:40 pm, making it my all time longest flight. I'll post more video and pics later.

5/4/19 Saturday

 I had 3 sledders today. Few pgs launched in the morning were able to soar for short window. It was too north , warm so maybe thermal block too?? Will try again tomorrow.

  

5/3/19 Friday 
Will be spending the night with Robin at Cape Lookout today as we'll continue flying here tomorrow. Six hangs (Craig De Mott, Neil Clark, Robin Briejer, John Saltveit, Rick Webber , myself) and approx 10+ PGs flew CLO today. Also, today marks my longest flight ever which lasted 7 hours and 20 mins from 10:45 to 6:05 pm; broke last year's record. On another note, "the face of man" ( below launch) did not appear today. Apparently, it appeared when it was intended.

Witnessed a near fatal incident at Cape Lookout on 5/3/19 Friday:

On Friday, I planned an 8 hr flight until something happened to PG pilot, Carlos Pena. It was around 5:30 pm with just Carlos and l sharing the sky. He was able to make it to North Point to join me and we had a great time at NP. I then decided to fly back to launch and head out offshore to take videos of "Face of the man" below launch. When flying back to the first gap, I saw Carlos by the end of the cape and heard his voice in panic over the radio reporting that he could not penetrate and may end up in the water. During this point he was on the south side of the cape and too far from the beach . Over the radio, I told him clearly to avoid landing in the water if at all possible and to aim for trees. I witnessed him sinking out fast in the rotors behind the cape and lost sight of him. I tried flying to the edge of the cape at the backside to look for him when I too got nearly blown over. The conditions were NNW approx 18-20mph and I wasn't that high either. Since I had not heard from him again over the radio, I told the PGs on the ground to call 911 in case Carlos might have landed in the water. Afterwards, I heard him over the radio stating that he barely made it to some rocks near the boy scouts camp. What a relief! This was the second time I witnessed 2 PGs getting blown over to the backside of the cape within 2 weeks. The last incident took place during Oceanside Open week where I saw a pilot luckily landed safely at the beach on the south side of the cape. Definitely a scary sight having to watch another episode with Carlos disappearing behind the cape and knowing that there wasn't any beach for him to land. I'm so glad that both incidents had a happy ending.