2.5 hrs/ 2 flights at Bremer & Dog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F__zJGI1Qw

More good flying at Bremer today (Sept 23nd Wednesday) .  There were two bags (Dave A, Dave Little)  / five hangs (Stas, Tim C, Jeff B, Tim and myself)  launched around 1:00pm and it was pretty easy to find lifts along Bremer ridge.  Some good thermals reached up to 1300ft above launch.  I flew for one hour and 20 minutes. Then, four hangs went back to Dog for the 2nd flight , it was really light with overcast skies. I launched around 5:15pm and surprisingly I was able to found enough lifts below launch boated around for over an hour. Shawn , Jeff and Tim C launched after me also got some good soarable air time. 

4hours/ 5 flights on Labor day weekend at Dog and Rampart

http://youtu.be/qDyIq0I768k

Sept 5th 2015 (Sat)

I had two flights. It was mostly very light to variable ridge lifts with a few thermals in the early afternoon. I got 200ft above launch and flew for about 40mins. Not too long after I landed , there was a big wall of a rain slowly approaching toward Dog that produced some powerful lifts for the second group. I think they got 1000ft above launch until the rain arrived. We went up again waited for the rain pass through. As soon as we were ready to launch the wind died down. I soared for a short time and landed.


Sept 6 & 7th 2015 (Sun & Mon)

It was soggy and no wind at Dog the whole day on Sunday so nobody want to fly except for me. I wanted to do some cardio exercise so I hiked up two times and flew down twice in no wind condition. Left Dog Mt with Jonathan at night to Rampart and it turned out we had an awesome flight at Rampart on Monday Labor day. There were 10 hang pilots (Dave L, Jonathan, Bryan H, Paul D, Lenny, Stas, Kurt, Gary, Aaron R and myself) came out and all of us had a wonderful flight. The winds were more on the light side at launch and LZ with cloudy skies but there were still a lot of easy find smooth thermals everywhere. I launch at 2:30pm right after Dave L and flew till 5:35pm. Cloud ceiling was about 1000ft above launch when we launched therefore the higher peak of the Rampart cliff wall was under the clouds. We were cruising underneath cloud base most of the time between the cliff wall and launch. It cleared off around 4:30pm and finally I was able to make it to 500ft over the cliff wall. My max altitude at the last hour was about 6,000ft MSL.

11 hrs of air time at Dog and Rampart (4 flights)

https://youtu.be/OBfmIHzCFYY 

Friday 8-21-2015

Dog (Glenoma,WA)

5 hours / Topped 4500ft MSL

Saturday  8-22-2015

Dog (Glenoma,WA)

1st flight sledder 

2nd flight  2.5 hrs / 50ft above launch

Yeah it was really smoky at Dog all day (Saturday) ,poor air quality and visibility. Not much wind at launch and no big thermals unlike Friday conditions but enough lifts for few of us squeeze out few hours or so of soaring flights. 

Sunday 8-23-2015

Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass, WA)

3 hrs / Topped 7500ft MSL

Two bags and three hangs flew Rampart today. It started out really cross from the East and was light.The hang launched streamers that showed wind blowing the opposite direction so we went up to the Paraglider's launch. Paragliders took off first around 2:30pm and got 500ft over quickly so we decided to setup. When I was ready to launch around 3:15 pm, both Paragliders had already landed, so I thought it would be a sledder. I launched first at 3:20pm and the air was pretty rowdy. Finding stable lifts was difficult during the first 1.5hrs of my flight. Until Alfredo launch around 4:45pm is when things started to smooth out. We were able to connect with some big smooth thermals that took us to 7500 ft; we flew to Rampart's big cliff wall, Alta mountain and across the valley....etc. Got cold and tired after 3 hrs later so we landed around 6:30 pm in a pretty smooth NW wind at the LZ.  I didn't feel any rotors. 

Friday at Dog over Elk Mt

 Sunday at Rampart

 Alfredo launching

 Rampart skies still hazy on Sunday afternoon

8 hrs air time (4 flights) at Dog Mt on Aug 15th & 16th , 2015

Saturday Aug 15th, 2015

The conditions was really weak at Dog today. I had two flights. It was almost no wind at launch with 90% overcast sky it results there were a lot of short flights. I was very lucky on my first flight that I did a few low save at 500ft AGL and got back up to launch, caught a few strong good thermals over the north side after scratching below launch for a long time.

1st flight :
I launched at 12:45pm and had almost 3 hours of really fun air time. Topped out 2k above launch and made few trips to Elk , radio towers and Hwy 12.

2nd flight:
I've run out of patience after more than an hour of waiting at launch. So launched at 5:45pm and it turned out to be a sledder as I expected. Others who launch after 6:30pm was able to stayed up and flew till sunset. Larry and Marty went pass Elk and got really high.

Sunday Aug 16th, 2015

It was a very ice day of flying at Dog. When the north wind arrived it provided a lot of good flying for everyone.
1st flight:
2.5 hrs

2nd flight:
2.5 hrs

4 flights 10 hrs in 3 days trip at Dog, Rampart and Blanchard.

Day 1 (07-23-15 Thursday)) at Dog Mt 

2 flights / 2 hrs per flight

  

It was another epic glass off evening condition flying over Elk Mt again. I landed around 9:00pm on the 2nd flight then had dinner around 10pm at Bucksnort with: Ray, Kory, Scott, Lisa, Dave, Dianna...... Left Morton really late and headed to Rampart around 11pm meet up with Alfredo, Colin and Shah next morning.

=================================

Day 2 (7-24-15 Friday) 

Rampart; air time 2 hrs 

4 hangs flew Rampart on July 24th(Friday).  I launched first at 2:30 pm and I thought it was going to be a sledder since it was overcast, plus the condition was really light (2-3 mph straight up wind) at launch. But once I airborne, it was pretty easy to find plenty of smooth thermals in front of launch and was able to reach 1000 ft above launch. Trips to Rampart cliff wall was easy too, we got higher over the first cliff wall. Alfredo and I got 2000 ft above launch (Approx 4000 ft above landing field). I made it to the second cliff wall and landed after 2 hrs later. LZ was rowdy due to the the strong NW wind, but we all had a nice easy touch down landing on the "carrier deck". Colin and I spent the night there and hoped for the conditions to cooperate for the following day. The rain didn't make it to Rampart, but there was overcast skies with 80% cloud covering all afternoon and cloud base was about 3000 ft above launch. 

=================================

Day 3 (7-25-15 Saturday) 

Blanchard ; air time 4 hrs 15 mins

I decided drive up to Blanchard (2 hrs from Rampart) after checked the morning forecast and it turned out I had a great time sharing the air with paras and hangs on my first flight at Blanchard. Thanks to Shawn for the site intro and also the property owner who allowed us to land there.  I love the spacious grassy landing field.  I launched at 1:15 pm (first hang to launch) in about 2-3 mph light cycles on the south launch. Got above launch after few pass and then just began to enjoyed the 4+ hours long flight in this beautiful site.  Never got tired of the gorgeous ocean scenery.  Most of the time my altitude was between 1500- 1800ft AGL/MSL until around 4 pm then Alfredo and I found more smooth thermals that took us to 2000 ft.  Here is the video of my first flight at Blanchard stating at 2 mins . 

=================================

Photos of Rampart granite cliff wall

Dog Mt evening flight over Riffe Lake 

Snack time

Rampart landing (Carrier Deck)

Blanchard south launch

Blanchard landing field