Saddle and Dog total of 4 flights / 5.5 hrs on 5/12 & 513/16

5/12/16  (1 flight / 1.5 hrs)
 I flew Dog Mtn (Glenoma, WA) with Robin , Shawn, Kim (PG) and Alan (PG) on Thursday (5/12/16).
It was great but a bit bumpy and windy.We got about 500 ft over. 1.5 hrs flights and hiked. Nothing really special.

5/13/16 (3 flights/ 4 hrs)

Saddle Mtn (Beverly, WA) was outstanding yesterday. The NNE winds was already blowing about 15-20 mph when we arrived ORV park LZ at 10:30am. The nine pessimistic hang pilots (Aaron R, Alfredo, Colin, Enrique, Jonas, Mark R, Robin, Shawn and myself) drove up to launch anyways and expected high possibility blown out for the day. The winds were really honking hard at launch, my wind meter showed 25-35mph. At around 1pm the winds back down a little bit so Robin , Aaron R, Enrique and I started to setup. We launched around 2:00pm in 20-25mph winds and had no problem going forward. The rest of the crew also had no problem launched into a very strong winds (including 3-4 Single surface gliders) skied out and had multiple top landing wonderful flights. So it turned out with everyone having great flights. I had 3 flights and totaled at 4 hrs of air times. Topped out 4,500 ft AGL. (2,500ft above launch). Aaron flew the longest distance, I think Robin and Alfredo probably got the highest altitude (maybe over 5K) and Mark Rabe had the most top landed flights (maybe 10?). Mark drove up from Portland for his first time flying Saddle. Congrats Mark! All in all, it was one of the best Saddle days that I've (we) ever had. 

Video link:

https://youtu.be/nyiVOk0MQAE

2 flights (3 hrs) at Cape Lookout 5/8/16

First flight 11:45am to 1:00pm
I launched right after Mark Sanzone and flew for hour and 15 mins. Got to 2,000ft MSL. The gain was really slow with no sink. The winds and lifts was getting weaker and lighter. Almost no wind at the beach and high tide is coming fast too. Neil C launched 30 mins after me and he I think flew for couple hrs. The winds was also really light at launch when we took off.

Second flight 5pm to 7:15pm
My second flight was awesome too. I launched at 5pm and flew till 7:15pm. Max altitude 2,200 ft MSL after crossing the first gap. Since the north wind was a bit strong, so I didn't go to the end of the cape today. Two more hangs (Jeff and Jonathan) launched an hour later and enjoyed the magical smooth boaty air.

6.1ft high tides at 3:30pm with 10ft height surf which meaning there's no bailout LZ between 1:30 to 4:30pm at CLO.

Video (Two flight landing only):
 https://youtu.be/nYU_noxuN9k

photo by Jonathon Severdia 

3 flights (3hrs) between 5/5 & 5/6 at CLO and Dog

Video of 3 flights between 5/5 & 5/6 at Cape Lookout and Dog Mt. (Glenoma, WA)

5/5/16 (Thursday) Cape Lookout
I arrived launch around 1:00pm (high tide at 12:45 with no beach) and it was blowing about 8-10 mph winds. Much more lighter winds than we expected.   Ray Berger launched first around 2:00pm while I was hiking up and he managed to gain 1,000+ ft over launch before the thermal block happening.  So Ray ended up had 1.5+hrs good flight.  There was still a lot whitecaps out front when paraglider Jeremy (little cloud wing dealer) and I ready to launch but so weird  that there wasn't much winds at launch (2-5mph or less).  We launched about 30-45 mins after Ray and sank out quickly.  We both landed at the bailout LZ right below launch.

5/6/16 Dog Mtn (Friday)
I went to Dog Mt with Enrique and had two great flights. Topped out 1000ft over launch and total 3 hrs of air times.

Two sledder at Oceanside 5/2/16

Too bad that the forecast was wrong today at Oceanside. It was blowing only 0-5mph most of the time from noon to sunset and also too south (cross from the left).  Tim Cayward launched first when the winds picked up a bit around 3:00pm and it was the best soarable windows for the day. Tim got it and I think he went straight up to 1000ft over and flew for 30 plus mins. That soarable window only last for very short time. The winds shut down quickly and everyone else (3 hangs and 5 bags) only had a several short flights.

Video: 

https://youtu.be/Tp5YsqD7oOE

Oceanside Open 2016 4 flights 6 hrs of air times

The Oceanside Open Official Day is on 4/30/16 to 5/01/16. Myself and a lot of pilots are arriving early of the week. Here are my three days report:

Day 1 (Thursday) 4/28/16

1st flight at Kilchis (Tillamook, OR)
2nd flight at Cape Lookout (Netarts Bay, OR)

I was the only hang today flying CLO after my two hrs flight at Kilchis with Ray Berger and Dave Palmer. I arrived CLO launch at 6:pm and observed a few Pgs getting above launch immediately after take off, so I knew there was plenty of lifts out front even with the wind being really light at launch (0-3mph). It turns out that I got over an hour and reached to 1,600 ft AGL after crossing the gap. The lifts was so light and smooth compared to the afternoon flight at Kilchis.

Video from day 1:
https://youtu.be/U-FKyPuHiQM

Day 2 (Friday) 4/29/16

I arrived Cape Lookout launch around 12:30. There was a group of paras already soaring above the cape and about 10 hangs were setting up. The morning session eventually turned off and everyone landed when all the hang pilots ready to launch at around 1pm. A few paras took a sledders in the afternoon that showed no sign of lifts. We waited till around 5pm than finally the winds arrived. Few hangs and I take advantage of the improving conditions , we launched in about 15+mph strong NW winds and we went straight up to 1500ft right away. The winds were getting stronger , clouds forming quickly, squalls approaching , high tides coming.... etc. so I decided to landed after almost an hour of flight. The winds still really strong at launch , few more hangs launched after the squall passed through and some decided to pack up.

Day 3 The Official Day (Saturday) 4/30/16

There was about 15 or more hangs and countless paras who flew Cape Lookout today. The conditions was fantastic, it turned on early (around 10:00am) and it got too strong (15 plus mph winds)later for paras but never blew out for hangs. Also, we had plenty of room for landing at the beach so actually, it was beyond perfect. I was the first hang dummy in the air (launched around 11am) and witnessed the sky filled up with bags and hangs as we all spread out. I topped out 2,400ft MSL and flew to the end of the cape a few times easily. I made the mistake of only wearing a T-shirt, a thin jacket and gardening gloves, so I was freezing. I wasn't able to tolerate the cold air after two hrs of flying, so decided to land, otherwise would've stayed up for 5hrs.

Video from Day 2 & 3
https://youtu.be/ooikc_CFiWU