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.
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.
It was a paradise at Cliffside today. The Iwinsurf and Windfinder forecast was correct. The wind speed did reach 15+mph in the mid afternoon producing abundance of ridge lifts for us to play. I had 2 flights over 3 hrs of air time soaring with about a dozen PGs and two hangs (Neil and Mike F ) in butter smooth wide range lift bands. Neil top landed multiple of times make it look so easy. I flew across the river to the Oregon side at the end of my flight. We all landed by the river. Btw, we've got a new HG flying member, Mike F who is from Ohio. He currently resides in Portland and just join the ohgalist & cbcc . He would love to get updates on when & where someone goes flying. Also, I've cancelled my plans on heading to Saddle tonight after Cliffside since the forecast appears iffy for tomorrow.
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.
Paige, Stas, Chris Tarnawski and myself flew Dog on Thursday (Jun 4th). I launched at 3:00pm with light SW wind. The first hour was just a typical soarable Dog Mtn conditions. Then it turned into a XC condition when the wind direction changed more to north. I found plenty of extremely good thermals between north field and school LZ that took me to 6,500. ft MSL and just a slowly drifted to the microwave towers. I can easily cross Hwy 12 and flew to the mountain behind Larry property. I made few trip to Elk and also found a lot of good thermals there. I was so happy with my flight and decided to landed at the school LZ after 2 1/2 hours of air time.
Tim Cayward and I were the only hang pilots flew Tiger today. We took the 12:30pm shuttle to launch with a group of paragliders. The winds were too strong for paragliders (15 to 20mph) so we were the only hangs flew today. We had the whole sky to ourself and both of us flew for 3 plus hours. Topped 3300 to 3500ft AGL.
Jun 6th (Saturday)
Dog Mtn:
First flight 1 hour and 15 mins (1:00-2:15pm)
I went up with Alfredo in the morning and flew for 1 hour and 15 mins, Gabe showed up later to join us. He was preparing to land at the Dog Patch to get wet. After about an hour of playing around over the ridge I headed to the school LZ. I topped out about 300ft above launch. Alfredo landed at the north field.
Second flight.
2.5 hours 6:00-8:30pm
Alfredo , Stas , Larry, Chris, Travis ,Tina and myself had a great late evening flight at Dog. Most of us reached 1300ft above launch. We went up to launch around 5:00pm and found wind were quite strong from the north side. I launched first and the vario just keep beeping and going up up up..... We played the north ridge for hours in the buoyant air until sunset. It was like magic. I landed at the north LZ first time this year.
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Jun 7th (Sunday)
1.5 hours 12:30pm to 2:00pm
Maybe the temperature reached 90 degree so it was kind of quiet at Dog today. It turned out only 8 hangs flew (Kory, Gabe, Stas, Jonathan, Travis , JJ, Tim and myself). We launch around 12:30pm and I flew for about 1.5 hrs. Since my van left it at Dog Patch parking lot so I decided to land at the berm.
