My first tandem flight in 1988 was on a mountain in Southern Calif called Kagel. I started flying hang glider solo in 1990. Since then hang gliding has been my primary interest.
Showing posts with label PNW hang gliding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PNW hang gliding. Show all posts
Five paragliders and one hang glider (myself) flew Chehalem ridge today. It calmed down a lot after the last squall passed through which is around 12:30pm. I launched at 1:00pm (5-8mph winds) on the first flight and 3pm (5-10mph) on the second flights. I felt a lot of thermals mixed with sinky air on both flights; I was scratching and got really close to the trees and still could not bench up above launch. Andrew, Gregg , Rob S were able to soar and did some XC. I'm not sure where Greg and Andrew landed? Jay and Eric were getting ready to launch when I left around 4:00 pm.
Day 1 (Friday) Sept 25th
I arrived Baldy LZ around 1:40pm and found the skies overcast with few light sprinkles on and off. The wind was really light (0-2mph ) at the LZ coming from NW. The paragliders headed up to launch around 4pm when the sun came out with light wind blowing at 10-15 mph at launch (5 mph at the LZ) , so they got about 1.5 hours of ridge soarable window. One of the Baldy rule is that no 2WD vehicles are allow on the road;
Unfortunately, no sightings of 4WD rigs with hang rack was available to take my glider to launch, so I missed flying for the day. Spent my evening hiking up to launch.
Day 2 (Saturday) Sept 26th
Rampart 3 hrs flight
3 hrs flight/ 4,500 AGL/ 7,000 MSL
Already blowing 10-15mph at Baldy LZ in the morning at 8:00am Probably 25+ mph at launch. So went to Rampart to meet up with other hang pilots and turn out it was an amazing day at Rampart for sure. Five lucky hangs (Tim C, Stas, Bryan, Chris (from Taxas) and myself) got hours of a magic air time. I launched first at 1:15pm and flew for 3 hours. It was quite easy to climbed over 2,000 ft above launch and also easy trip to the big Rampart wall and across the valley. Thermals were really smooth and climbed up to cloud ceiling fast. I didn't feel any rotors during the landing approach and everyone had a soft landing on the carrier deck.
Day 3 (Sunday) Sept 27th
Rampart 2 hrs flight
It was light with clear skies. 8 hangs (Kurt, Gary, Aaron, Stas, Travis, Eric O, Alfredo and myself) and few bags flew. I flew for two hours.
Day 4 (Monday) Sept 28th
3 flights at Cliffside
I had 3 flights at Cliffside yesterday with Ray B, Enrique, John C, Mark R, Steve F and a few paragliders. All 3 flights launched off from the PG upper launch and it was soarable as well . The conditions were fairly strong when we arrived around 11:30am, so we thought it was going to be an easy soaring day.
Unfortunately, when we were set to launch an hour later, the winds lightened up, although still soarable along the ridge above Highway 14 with narrow lift band; we just couldn't get too high for the first flight. The highest I got was on the 3rd flight which was about 300ft above (almost 900ft AGL) around 5:30pm. On my second flight, I tried to top land at a cross wind on the uphill slope, however my approach was terrible, which ended with me slamming into the ground instead of landing (or you can say crash landing or BIG WHACK).I unhooked and checked to see if everything was okay after the crash, as well as checking to see if I broke any bones. Fortunately, everything turned out okay so I re-launched again shorty. At this time, the lift band had expanded and thermals were starting to get better which made the soaring much easier than earlier. I got higher and higher, but also felt the throbbing of my left shin from the BIG whack earlier. So even though conditions had improved, I've decided to best head out and land. I made it to the LZ by the river with plenty of attitude and had a soft landing on an uninjured right foot. My Gopro was off on my second flight so I didn't captured the crash landing, but Ray saw it so maybe he can fill in with more details. By the time we finished packing, it was getting close to sunset and Ray still skyed out with a couple of paragliders. He landed right before sunset. We had dinner at Hood River "Crazy Pepper" with Mark , Enrique and our driver Justin.
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.
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.
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
Max altitude: 6,400 FT AGL (above ground level) 7,250 FT MSL
I arrived launch around 4:15pm (thanks Kim for the ride) saw Peter and Naomi were setting up. Looked up and found Eric O skyout. The conditions just about to turn epic. By the time we ready to launch the wind became stronger and more crossed from the east. There were couple harmless baby dust devils appeared at launch. I took off first at 4:50pm and went straight up to 1000ft above immediately and it was still going up. Then Naomi , Peter and Timmy punched off shortly. It was too gusty and cross for the PGs so they decided not to fly. It was an excellent height gain , especially over Elk and radio tower. I reached 6,400ft AGL (about 7,250ft MSL) over the west end of Elk Mt. I can see the Riffe lake dam. It was one of the best thermals day at Dog. Unfortunately, the epic conditions didn't last all the way till sunset. It was kind of shut down around 7:30pm. The last group who launch around 7:30pm were struggling stay up. I had few low save and managed to climbed back to 50ft above launch. The winds switched more east when I ready to landed which around 9pm. Over 4 hours of air time for one flight. What an incredible north wind day at Dog!
July 18th 2015 Saturday Report:
1st flight: 2hrs and 15 mins (12:45 to 3:00pm)
Max altitude: 2,000 ft AGL over south bowl
2nd flight: 2.5 hrs (6:00 to 8:45pm)
Max altitude: 5,000ft AGL
The flying was spectacular again at Dog on Saturday. I didn't expect the conditions to turn out so good since it was pretty dead calm when arriving launch around 12 pm. I'd planned on taking a sled ride down and return later for evening glass off; however, amazingly, as I got ready to launch during a light cycle it
started coming up stronger and turned soarable for the rest of the day. I ended up getting 2+hours airtime and topped out 2,00ft AGL over South bowl on the first flight.
I walked up to launch after lunch and looked forward to another enjoyable evening flight. When arriving launch around 5 pm, the wind direction had switched north east. It was similar to yesterday's conditions (gusty & cross from East). The launch conditions were challenging sometimes due to the gusty cycles and cross winds. But once I punched off, the strong lifts just kept elevating. It was quite turbulent and sometimes my hang strap goes slack. Naomi launched after me and I think she flew for 1.5 hrs. The air and thermal at 1000 ft above launch was relatively smooth. Since I had 3 incredible flights at Dog (2 days in a roll), I decided to skip flying on Sunday.
Not much to report for the pass weekend (July 11-12 , 2015). Nothing epic, just another good weekend flying at Dog Mt with friends. Those consistent thermals and ridge lifts allow all of us effortlessly soar for hours till sunset. I had two flight per day and approx 2+ hours on each flight.
As usual, I had two flights and hiked up two times at Dog Mt yesterday. The wind at launch were quite strong (15 to 20 mph) in some periods of the time however it was smooth in the air. Had total of 5 hours air times. Nice day and nice flights.
