4 hrs /4flights at Bremer Ridge and Dog Mt on Sept 18-19, 2015

Friday (Sept 18th):
There were six pilots flew Bremer on Friday (3 hangs and 3 bags). Thanks again to PG pilot Kim for inviting me to fly Bremer and also thanks Dave Auman to letting us (3 hangs Travis , John Coyier and myself ) ) landed in his property (Area151). The flying was very good with plentiful XC opportunities at Bermer on Friday. The conditions at launch and LZ were really light from morning till 4:30pm (We left at 4:30pm). I launched at 1:40pm at the paraglider launch the first time so it feel like flying a new site to me. There were some beautiful little cumies clouds above launch providing thermals however I had to worked really hard to gain altitude in the beginning. I was struggled few hundred feet below launch for a while then hooked a nice thermal on the east side of the ridge. I flew for 1 hour and 40 minutes and topped 2000ft above launch (4200 AGL/ 5000 MSL). Once I got above launch the rides up to the cloud base were pretty easy and smooth.

Satuarday (Sept 19th):
I flew Bremer again with five hangs (Aaron R, Gary B, Kurt H, Ron B, John C) . Although mostly overcast with light west wind conditions, there was still a good amount of thermals allowing us to soar. I launched first and encounter some broken thermals mixed in with the good ridge lifts above launch. I boated back and forth few hundred ft over launch for a while , then headed to the east ridge and found consistent thermals. The top of the lift was about 900ft over in mostly smooth air. Gary and John came join me later and sometime they outclimbed me was even higher. After more than one hour of air time I decided to land so I have time to catch one more flight at Dog. Thanks a lot to John C going back up for retrieved.
Dog was really light but there was a lot of small tiny bubbles just enough for me and Brent (PG pilot) to maintain between 500-600 feet above LZ for another one hour flight.

 https://youtu.be/eGMT58BMJCM
Or Vimeo link
https://vimeo.com/139863180

Click to the below link for more information of Bremer

http://pdxhanggliding.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html

6 hours air time / 5 flight on Sept 11 to 13 weekend

Sept 11, 2015 Tiger Mountain (Issaquah ,Wash)

Only two hangs (Travis and myself) flew Tiger today. We and most of the paras had an extended sledder. It was almost zero wind conditions at launch and also no wind at the landing. Nice to flight Tiger again and I ran up to launch in a hot humid weather.
Anyway, I'm here for the Tiger party tomorrow so I will fly Tiger again even a sledder conditions. Not sure about where to go on Sunday yet. Maybe Dog, Rampart , Tiger again.... Etc.

Sept 12, 2015 Tiger Mountain Fantastic Fly-In Festival

The 2015 Fantastic costumes festival turned out really good. There were about 50 paragliders flying at one time and only 9 hang gliders including myself, Tim Cayward, Travis, Glenn, Steve Alford, Rob, Kerie, Aaron and Bryan. The soarable condition turned on around 3:00pm and we all soared. I flew for 2 hrs on the second flight and hooked up with a few thermals that topped out 1000 ft above launch. I had two flights and total of almost 3 hrs of air time. As you can see from the video the whole sky was filled with paragliders.

Sept 13, 2015 Dog Mountain (Glenoma, Wash)

It was really windy and gusty (20-25mph) at launch the whole day. I had two flight that combine 3 hrs of air time. Aaron R, Eric O and myself flew till sunset.

On Sept 12

I captured this incident on Sat (Tiger Mt Fantastic Fly In) around 3:30pm. It looked as if two paragliders were launching at the same time ; one got tangled with another glider and was dragged down to the bottom of the launch. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I heard that the pilot was okay, however his glider got toasted.

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

3 flights 10 hrs in 3 day at Rampart and Dog (Aug 7th to 9th, 2015)

It was another great weekend at Rampart and Dog Mt again, with a total of 10 hrs combined within those 3 days of flying.

Aug 7 & 8th at Rampart (Snoqualmie Pass, Wash)
Aug 9th at Dog Mt (Glenoma,Wash)

Day 1. Friday (1 flight)
There was six hangs (Ron B, Chris C, Jonas, Stas, Travis and myself) who flew Rampart on Friday. Not too windy at launch & pretty smooth at the landing "Carrier Deck"  too.  We were all able to get off launch without wire assistance. Thermals were everywhere and reached up to 7000ft.  I flew for 3.5 hrs while others at least got 2+ hours.

Day 2.  Saturday (1 flight)
Also six hangs (Alfredo, Shah, Dave L, Aaron R, Kurt, Cliff S and myself) who flew Rampart. The conditions was similar to the day before exception to more friendly clouds and better thermals.The cycles was a bit stronger and gusty at launch compared to yesterday. I flew from 1:55 to 5:10pm (over 3 hrs) and I think others flew for 2 hrs too. It was an easy trip
to the cliff wall and Alta Mt (The next Mt north of 2nd big
Rampart cliff wall). I cored up to 7800' at Alta Mt.


Day 3. Sunday (1 flight)
I launched around 1:30pm (landed around 5:00pm) after Scott C, Justin H, Larry (Tandem with Hazel) and Tina. It was almost no wind at launch, so I expected a sledder.  Flew down to the lower point and found a lot of small bubbles that consistently kept me at a couple hundred ft above the tree top for over an hr until the good soaring conditions arrived.  JJ and Stas joined me at first, then followed 10 hangs and 2 bags launching after seeing JJ , Stas and myself getting above launch. I went to the back bowl to avoid air traffic with Ron B, Stas, and JJ....  for a while and topped out 2000ft AGL over the back bowl. I made one trip to Elk but found nothing there.

3 flights 11 hrs / 3 days awesome flights at Rampart (7-29 to 31, 2015)

https://youtu.be/z_ZFVITCE38

Video and Photos are coming soon.....

Day 1 (July 29th,15 Wednesday)

Today flight definitely made my 3+ hrs drive up to Rampart worth it. I had another great flight at Rampart today with Jeff Beck, Colin R, Robin and Dave L. We all launched around 1:30pm in a   fairly light breeze. Lifts were everywhere and thermals got really soft in the late afternoon even at the LZ. It was easy to get 2000 ft over launch and soared the whole RP cliff wall. I hit 7k MSL couple times. I think Jeff and Dave got 9k. I landed at 5:45pm in a super smooth condition.  Got total of 4 hrs and 15 mins air time. What a beautiful day. 

Day 2 (July 30th,15 Thursday)

Another awesome thermic day at Rampart with Jeff Beck, Rich, Darren, Alfredo, Travis and myself (6 hangs) getting two to three hrs long flights. I flew from 3 to 6pm (3hrs) , last one to launched and last one to landed.  Each day the conditions was better than the previous. 

The highlight of my flight was seeing those three fighter jets passed through right below me in front of the hang launch (approx 300 to 500ft from me).  After that I decided it is time for me to landed. Another group of pilots and myself will be here tomorrow and Area 151 on the weekend. 

Day 3  (July 31st,15 Friday)

The day started out with stronger wind at launch (10-15 mph gusts) but later it mellowed out. No fighter jets at all only 9 hangs (Colin, Bryan, Jonas, Robin, Alfredo, Jimmy, Stas, Mark R, Enrique and myself) soared the friendly sky. I flew for almost 4hrs (3-6:50pm). The thermals are not as good as the last couple of days but was still pretty good. Still able to reach 2500ft over launch and easy trip to RP Cliff wall if you put some effort working it.  I'm on my way down to Area 151 right now (10:30pm) 

3 flights 9 hrs On July 17th & 18th, 2015

July 17th ,2015 (Friday)

4 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. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI0ZZXs6v4k

 Got high over Elk Mt.