Back to Grouse and this time there were a few more solo pilots flying...Mark Tulloch was out with his HG, Doug Wakefield taking photos, Bill, Miguel, Dave, Brent, and the tandem guys. Got up top around 4pm and Mark was waiting for an up cycle amongst the cross east cycles. There was a huge lineup for the gondola ride down (despite them running it every 4 minutes, which is their fastest rate when they're moving passengers and not freight), almost to the lumberjack show (= a 1 hour wait) so flying was definitely the better option today!
Up in the air it was quite windy from the south and the thermals were rather snarly and violent at times. It was definitely a day to practice active flying, and keeping your hands on the brakes (no photos!) for the occasional jerk up (or down). Cloudbase was very high today...I got to 1700m easily and I think Mark got higher at times (the CYA ceiling is 1800m). Lots of lift but equally lots of severe sink too. I had wanted to fly back to Crown and beyond, there was plenty of lift for it, but the strong south winds made me think twice since pushing a headwind back to Grouse in those valleys can be not nice sometimes!
On the radio I was able to talk to pilots flying at Bridal and it sounded like good flying there but possibly getting windy, with reports of windlines showing on Cultus Lake. Did it ever get blown out at Bridal or did it stay good?
I eventually noticed a band of shade moving in, and decided to take advantage of it for landing, since the Grouse LZ can be a handful before 6pm when it's sunny and thermic. Total airtime just over 1 hour.
Canada Day at Grouse Mountain
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| The snow makes launching really nice. |
Up on launch there is still tonnes of snow, which makes the launching super-nice...a huge area to lay out on with no mud or sticks, and the snow also covers the boulders so you can lay out way to the east if you wanted.
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| Eye of the Wind |
In the air it was feeling east; cloudbase was about 1600m. We'd get bands of sun and use this to get high. At one point it got very shady and I had to go into "survival mode", hanging out over the west cliffs and their residual heat until the band of shade passed and the sun reappeared. I stayed in the air for about 1h:15min before heading out to land.
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| Looking out over the city. |
On the way out to the LZ we had Whistler Air fly by us in their seaplanes; they were taking the shortcut from Whistler to Vancouver Harbour via the Capilano valley and popped out right at our altitude. I saw the first one (Whistler Air sports bright yellow on their aircraft) below me but the second one was right behind and higher, so I was able to wave to the pilot as he flew by (after doing a hard spiral to show him where I was).
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| Dave Merrick being patriotic. |
The North Shore Paragliding tandem guys were operating in full force today; they expect this coming week to be busy for them. Lots of happy tandem passengers in the LZ this afternoon!
Solstice flying June 21
Initially we thought we'd head to Pemberton but the wx there was looking a bit too cloudy for our tastes so we went to the Fraser Valley instead. Woodside was looking good with a big cu perched atop it and pilots flying around when we showed up.
In the air it was actually hard to get above 1100m but once through the inversion the ride to cloudbase got much easier, to almost 1900m! This is really high for Woodside, and we were debating whether to use this altitude to head west for the 60km triangle, or head east to Hope. Alex, Robin, and I opted for the east-to-Hope route (we don't usually get to fly to Hope but I wanted to do something different), while Al opted for a big triangle by heading west.
Over on Bear Alex got a climb to cloudbase and was away to Hicks while I was stuck on Bear and Robin was back on Agassiz. Eventually I found a climb that took me to 1600m and on my way to Hicks. It seemed to be north around the Harrison Lake area so I took the north line towards Squalik and picked up some climbs along the way, but nothing like the Woodside or Bear climb, and the clouds were drying up on the Woodside side of the river.
Passed by Robin who was at Hicks looking for a climb and joined with Alex who was stuck at Squalik. This time of year with the river so high, there are few landing options along this stretch so we wanted to make sure we were high enough to make the glide across the river to the Hope airport if necessary. Robin had found a nice climb off Hicks and crossed into Laidlaw to continue the flight to Hope via that side.
Eventually Alex dove over the back from Squalik to Dog Mountain and then it was my turn to be stuck on Squalik. I wanted to be at least 1000m here in order to continue to Dog Mountain, but I could only get to 900m. Eventually, after coloring in the terrain with my tracklog over Squalik, I found an anemic thermal which drifted me over the back into the rotor but was getting me over 1000m, so I took it and dove over to the cliffs on Dog.
I had never been to Dog Mountain before (most of my to-Hope flights have involved a final glide at this point and leaving the mountains) and I had an easy glide to the airport, so I took the opportunity to sight-see and be a tourist for a while. I didn't know Dog had a gondola that goes to the towers at the top! The cliffs were working nicely and I could have gotten back up and high, but the airport was beckoning and Rob S was reported to be on his way to pick us up (he hadn't been able to get through the inversion at Woodside and eventually landed).
Hoovered into the airport next to Robin and Alex and then off to Bridal to get Rob a second flight (thanks for picking us up, Rob!). En-route to Bridal I received a SPOT message from Al saying he had landed out. I had setup a shared SPOT page for Al a few weeks back, so I accessed it now and emailed the map and co-ords link to Jim who was planning on picking him up.
Back at Bridal it was glassing off nicely but I decided to be the retrieve bunny this time and told the boys to do a glide test from Bridal to Agassiz where I would pick them up. Meanwhile over at Elk the hike-and-fly guys were whooping it up with a big Solstice party (apparently with nudity, women, and booze involved) where they were planning on spending the night. Kevin flew over and joined them briefly but opted for his own bed at the end of the day :)
We had a scare on launch when one of the visiting CA pilots tried to do a Lindsay into the stumps below the rock, but miraculously flew away with a bunch of leaves in his lines and I'm sure soiled pants.
Picked the boys up at the school in Agassiz and then off for Indian food while we heard that Jim had picked up Al. Ain't technology wonderful? Years back, if somebody landed out by themselves, there could be a major search for a missing pilot, but nowadays if you have a SPOT, you can let people know where you are. I fly with a SPOT as well (mostly for comp retrieval purposes) but I always find it comforting to know I have it in case I land out and don't have cellphone coverage.
Alex and I are off to Cortes Island for the next week, so no flying for us until we return!
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| Looking west |
Over on Bear Alex got a climb to cloudbase and was away to Hicks while I was stuck on Bear and Robin was back on Agassiz. Eventually I found a climb that took me to 1600m and on my way to Hicks. It seemed to be north around the Harrison Lake area so I took the north line towards Squalik and picked up some climbs along the way, but nothing like the Woodside or Bear climb, and the clouds were drying up on the Woodside side of the river.
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| Dog Mountain with the gondola line on the left. |
Eventually Alex dove over the back from Squalik to Dog Mountain and then it was my turn to be stuck on Squalik. I wanted to be at least 1000m here in order to continue to Dog Mountain, but I could only get to 900m. Eventually, after coloring in the terrain with my tracklog over Squalik, I found an anemic thermal which drifted me over the back into the rotor but was getting me over 1000m, so I took it and dove over to the cliffs on Dog.
I had never been to Dog Mountain before (most of my to-Hope flights have involved a final glide at this point and leaving the mountains) and I had an easy glide to the airport, so I took the opportunity to sight-see and be a tourist for a while. I didn't know Dog had a gondola that goes to the towers at the top! The cliffs were working nicely and I could have gotten back up and high, but the airport was beckoning and Rob S was reported to be on his way to pick us up (he hadn't been able to get through the inversion at Woodside and eventually landed).
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| Hope airport on the right. |
Hoovered into the airport next to Robin and Alex and then off to Bridal to get Rob a second flight (thanks for picking us up, Rob!). En-route to Bridal I received a SPOT message from Al saying he had landed out. I had setup a shared SPOT page for Al a few weeks back, so I accessed it now and emailed the map and co-ords link to Jim who was planning on picking him up.
Back at Bridal it was glassing off nicely but I decided to be the retrieve bunny this time and told the boys to do a glide test from Bridal to Agassiz where I would pick them up. Meanwhile over at Elk the hike-and-fly guys were whooping it up with a big Solstice party (apparently with nudity, women, and booze involved) where they were planning on spending the night. Kevin flew over and joined them briefly but opted for his own bed at the end of the day :)
We had a scare on launch when one of the visiting CA pilots tried to do a Lindsay into the stumps below the rock, but miraculously flew away with a bunch of leaves in his lines and I'm sure soiled pants.
Picked the boys up at the school in Agassiz and then off for Indian food while we heard that Jim had picked up Al. Ain't technology wonderful? Years back, if somebody landed out by themselves, there could be a major search for a missing pilot, but nowadays if you have a SPOT, you can let people know where you are. I fly with a SPOT as well (mostly for comp retrieval purposes) but I always find it comforting to know I have it in case I land out and don't have cellphone coverage.
Alex and I are off to Cortes Island for the next week, so no flying for us until we return!
Woodside June 16-17
Thought it would clear either/both days, but it never really did...Wednesday it was lightly ridge soarable and Alex and I were able to stay up for about 1 hour before we headed out to land and eat. During this flight we were also able to do some performance tests between my XC3 and his new M4...I have a higher trim speed, but on bar he has me on glide. We are currently flying at pretty much identical all-up weights (my heavier harness and carrying ballast equals his initial higher body weight) and flying similar pod harnesses, and we did the tests several times right next to each other, so the results are pretty reliable.
The rest of the day was pretty much sled rides since the winds died. Next day was similar...sled rides and the sun never quite broke through. I did do a flight on Alex's glider and agreed with him that 81-82kg is too light for the small unless you are used to flying gliders lightly-loaded.
Maybe Pemberton on Tuesday/Wednesday if the weather holds up next week. It would be nice to get a nice XC up there, maybe the 100 km OR or triangle if we can swing it?
The rest of the day was pretty much sled rides since the winds died. Next day was similar...sled rides and the sun never quite broke through. I did do a flight on Alex's glider and agreed with him that 81-82kg is too light for the small unless you are used to flying gliders lightly-loaded.
Maybe Pemberton on Tuesday/Wednesday if the weather holds up next week. It would be nice to get a nice XC up there, maybe the 100 km OR or triangle if we can swing it?
Eastern WA June 11-12
Alex and I decided to hook up with the Seattle crowd for the weekend as they were gonna be flying the desert. Invited Al and Matt along and met up at Baldy Mountain which is in between Ellensburg and Yakima.
After getting Al's and Matt's site orientation finished and their waivers signed we headed up the mountain with a pretty large crew from Seattle (14 pilots in total). Up on launch it was switchy with pilots launching south, west, and northwest.
The thermal off launch was one of the smoothest I've had in a long time for one of that strength (4-5m/s sustained all the way up to cloudbase at 2500+m...usually if it's that strong, I find the edges rough but not this time). Given that it was my first real time going XC from this site, I followed the Seattle crowd who was heading north to I-90. We had to avoid the US military's firing range airspace on the way there (and they were indeed using the airspace...we could see the puffs of smoke as they fired off missiles and bombs). And the skies were looking fantastic to the east (some OD to the far north but nothing to worry about), but we weren't allowed east right away due to the airspace. To the north is Ellensburg, which tends to get windy so you have to be careful to get high and stay high until you get out of the wind tunnel.
To the north we headed, and pretty much all of us sunk out either on Umtanum Ridge, or in Badger Pocket, with Dave Wheeler and Bill Hughes making it to Vantage where they reported landing backwards.
I had a really cool retrieve from Umtanum Ridge, where I was hitch-hiking along the highway when a stretch limo pulled up and offered me a ride to Ellensburg. It was a wedding party on their way to a wedding: the groom and his best man and a bunch of buddies, and they were quite happy to give me a ride to the turnoff to Baldy. I felt quite scungy in my desert-dust-encrusted flying clothes next to their pressed tuxedos, and I made sure to keep my dusty gliderbag away from them too :)
Back in Ellensburg we decided the call would be Chelan for Sunday so that's where we all met up the next day. There was quite a large turnout with 7-8 HG and maybe 15 PG pilots all setting up on launch. The skies were looking good again but this time the clouds were showing southeast, which is an odd direction for Chelan.
Up in the air it was definitely SE, and after getting high we experimented with crossing to the rim, but once over there the thermals were just drifting us back over the river and back to the Butte side, so we changed tactics and decided to fly north along the airport side instead of along the rim.
I found the air a bit harder to read this day; the cores were not consistent and they would fizzle out in weird spots. And there was huge sink in amongst the clouds. But I managed to get past Brewster and partway to Omak before I got shot down at 57km. At Brewster the plateau on the east side of the river drops down, and the east wind was really howling through there, so the cross-tail wind I had previously turned to a cross-headwind, and then a full headwind at times as I crossed to Brewster. And there was some high cirrus moving in which was thickening up as the front was moving in (it was starting to OD to the west in the mountains).
Given the wind direction it would have been nice to turn up the Methow valley when I got to that gap, but with the skies looking more threatening to the west it would probably have ended up with me landing and then getting rained on, and I don't know that valley well enough to know if it tends to get windy around Twisp. The skies to the east were looking fantastic with no OD at all, but with the SE winds they were a bit hard to reach :) In any case, it was kinda cool to fly north along highway 97 with an easy retrieve the entire way below you, and the possibility of flying even further north to the border.
After getting Al's and Matt's site orientation finished and their waivers signed we headed up the mountain with a pretty large crew from Seattle (14 pilots in total). Up on launch it was switchy with pilots launching south, west, and northwest.
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| Windmills at Ellensburg |
To the north we headed, and pretty much all of us sunk out either on Umtanum Ridge, or in Badger Pocket, with Dave Wheeler and Bill Hughes making it to Vantage where they reported landing backwards.
I had a really cool retrieve from Umtanum Ridge, where I was hitch-hiking along the highway when a stretch limo pulled up and offered me a ride to Ellensburg. It was a wedding party on their way to a wedding: the groom and his best man and a bunch of buddies, and they were quite happy to give me a ride to the turnoff to Baldy. I felt quite scungy in my desert-dust-encrusted flying clothes next to their pressed tuxedos, and I made sure to keep my dusty gliderbag away from them too :)
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| Flooded Yakima River |
Up in the air it was definitely SE, and after getting high we experimented with crossing to the rim, but once over there the thermals were just drifting us back over the river and back to the Butte side, so we changed tactics and decided to fly north along the airport side instead of along the rim.
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| Looking north from Chelan Butte |
Sunny and Hot in Pemberton June 5
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| Looking north toward Hurley Pass. |
First thing in the morning Greg, Reto, and Jim took a helicopter up to Mt. Currie where they all flew off. Over at MacKenzie it was sunny and hot, and a bit of NW wind. Nice launching conditions but we never actually launched until sometime after 1pm.
I was flying Alex's glider since he was flying mine so it took a few turns to get used to the new brake pressure etc. But got away from launch and up to the towers, and then turned north. (BTW, there is still 1 patch of snow on the road to upper launch that is preventing pilots from driving all the way, but it's about a 10 minute walk from the last snow patch.)
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| The new launch still has snow on it. |
Back at launch there were reports of a glider in the trees just below launch but the pilot was OK. Then I watched another pilot spin their glider into the trees just on the ridge before you get into the south bowl, they were OK as well and hiked out within the hour.
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| Some company! |
Woodside May 29
A windy day, although it didn't start off that way. But cloudbase was low (1100m), and it got windy enough, that going XC was tough. Went over the back to Agassiz Mountain and it was more of the same there, so went to Green Hill where there was a bunch of clouds forming between it and Cemetery. Was able to get to 1000m over the south end of Green Hill, which would normally be enough to cross to the Bridal side, but it was a bit too windy for my liking to do the crossing from that low and with the river at full flood (it's especially wide at that point!). So punched upwind hoping to get high enough under the cloudstreet to cross a bit more west where the river narrows and there are more LZ's, but no luck and I opted to land at the Agassiz School where Kevin picked me up.
Meanwhile Alex and Al had crossed to Ludwig and reported getting scrubbed off the mountain in south winds, with Alex landing on the parallel road beside the #1 highway, and Al landing in the triangle LZ below Ludwig. Matt had followed me and landed in Agassiz too.
Over at Brial Martin N. and Ihor were flying and reporting it was OK (earlier in the day). By the time we reassembled it had picked up in the Bridal LZ and was looking like it would stay windy for the rest of the day, so most people opted to either head home, or wait for the end of the day in the hopes the winds would die down. So not the best flying day, but there was a window of XC-ability, and the hang gliders at Woodside seemed to be loving it :)
Meanwhile Alex and Al had crossed to Ludwig and reported getting scrubbed off the mountain in south winds, with Alex landing on the parallel road beside the #1 highway, and Al landing in the triangle LZ below Ludwig. Matt had followed me and landed in Agassiz too.
Over at Brial Martin N. and Ihor were flying and reporting it was OK (earlier in the day). By the time we reassembled it had picked up in the Bridal LZ and was looking like it would stay windy for the rest of the day, so most people opted to either head home, or wait for the end of the day in the hopes the winds would die down. So not the best flying day, but there was a window of XC-ability, and the hang gliders at Woodside seemed to be loving it :)
Mt. St. Benedict May 19
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| Lots of snow still at launch! |
Alex reached launch first, ditched his bag, and returned to schlep my bag the last 20 minutes or so. Sometimes a boyfriend is handy :) Up on launch there's still tonnes of snow which makes it really nice for launching (and top-landing) this time of year...no mud or twigs to worry about.
Quite strong cycles coming through but nice lulls too; Al launched first and was immediately away. I was second and over launch soon afterwards. Got my highest over Shotgun 1888m (the CYA limit is 1980m) and the winds were kinda funky...north at that altitude, but west lower down, and south once you got below peak heights.
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| Alex over Shotgun. |
After exploring Shotgun, McKay, and other points to the north, I flew south over the powerline valley and found the south wind. Easy flying to Dewdney where the wind gusts on Hatzic Lake looked 15-20 kph; Alex turned back and landed at Durieu School where it was much less (the further north you go and out of the FV flow, the less wind...usually). The rest of us followed suit and were packing up by 7pm and then it was time to retrieve the truck.
More pics of the day here.
A beautiful day and nice to fly a different site and in a different air mass.
Woodside May 18
Not a big day for me, but since I had a such a great flight yesterday, I'm not too broken up about it :)
Cu's were popping but Woodside wasn't working that great early in the day. I think it was still inverted above 1100m (XC skies had predicted this) so it was tough to get high. Went to Agassiz with Alex and it was snotty there, but made the transition to Bear OK.
Alex opted to head for Ludwig with 1300m, but I wasn't comfortable with leaving that low, with no real LZ's on the other side, so I stayed behind being patient and hoping to get higher. But despite the cu's continually popping over Bear, I was unable to get to more than 1200m. But Alex had gotten a mid-valley thermal which got him to Ludwig OK, so when I got to 1200m I went searching for it.
It was there over the recently plowed field, but the south wind had kicked in, which meant it was drifting me the wrong way (back towards Bear). All the height I'd gain in the thermal would be all for naught once I punched back towards Ludwig. So after spending about 40 minutes surviving out over highway #7, bouncing between 300 and 800m, I landed at Seabird Island.
Took me 1 hour and 2 hitchikes to get back to the car at Eagle Ranch (pretty quick, actually), where Alex was just coming in from his Raymont Challenge. Despite it being named after him, he's never actually closed the triangle by returning high enough to climb back out. This time, after getting the climb at Little Mountain, he arrived at Woodside with 400m which is enough to climb back out over the south clearcuts. We really should mark that Little Mountain thermal with a waypoint, since it seems to be pretty consistent!
Meanwhile, over at Bridal it was sounding pretty good. Lots of pilots in the air and also some top-landings (crashes?) in the deep snow at Upper Launch. It looked like it would have been soarable until 8pm.
Cu's were popping but Woodside wasn't working that great early in the day. I think it was still inverted above 1100m (XC skies had predicted this) so it was tough to get high. Went to Agassiz with Alex and it was snotty there, but made the transition to Bear OK.
Alex opted to head for Ludwig with 1300m, but I wasn't comfortable with leaving that low, with no real LZ's on the other side, so I stayed behind being patient and hoping to get higher. But despite the cu's continually popping over Bear, I was unable to get to more than 1200m. But Alex had gotten a mid-valley thermal which got him to Ludwig OK, so when I got to 1200m I went searching for it.
It was there over the recently plowed field, but the south wind had kicked in, which meant it was drifting me the wrong way (back towards Bear). All the height I'd gain in the thermal would be all for naught once I punched back towards Ludwig. So after spending about 40 minutes surviving out over highway #7, bouncing between 300 and 800m, I landed at Seabird Island.
Took me 1 hour and 2 hitchikes to get back to the car at Eagle Ranch (pretty quick, actually), where Alex was just coming in from his Raymont Challenge. Despite it being named after him, he's never actually closed the triangle by returning high enough to climb back out. This time, after getting the climb at Little Mountain, he arrived at Woodside with 400m which is enough to climb back out over the south clearcuts. We really should mark that Little Mountain thermal with a waypoint, since it seems to be pretty consistent!
Meanwhile, over at Bridal it was sounding pretty good. Lots of pilots in the air and also some top-landings (crashes?) in the deep snow at Upper Launch. It looked like it would have been soarable until 8pm.
Woodside Raymont Challenge May 17
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| Butterfly at 2000m |
We had high hopes for the day but when we got to launch just after noon it was quite shady over Sasquatch and the shade was soon over Woodside too.
I didn't want to be waiting on launch for it to get sunny, so I took off just before 1pm. It was indeed hard to stay high as the shade was shutting things down. Sasquatch and the entire range to Mission was in shade, Woodside was mostly in shade, and Agassiz Mountain was in shade too from a big cu overhead. Everywhere looked crap. Al and Rob tried going to Harrison knob but no joy and had to turn around.
I had had enough of the air at Woodside so I went over the back to Agassiz, even though it was still in shade. I was hoping the giant cu over it would be working, but when I arrived it was the same 'ol kind of stuff that we had a Woodside. Not great. Green Hill was in the sun and had cu's forming over it, so I decided to head over there.
Arrived quite low (I had never gotten up on Agassiz in the first place) and Martin N was just landing the RCMP detachment. Since Green Hill was the only thing around with any amount of sun on it, I went into "survival" mode and hung out, finding little pieces of lift but never anything to get me to cloudbase. Finally I found something with a bit of meat to it, and tracked it over the back towards Bear Mountain.
There was actually a lot of lift beween Green Hill and Bear, with lots of cu's forming and semi-cohesive lift. The day seemed to be changing with the air drying out and things finally getting some sun (we may have just launched a bit too early for the day). I finally found something that got me to 1700m which was plenty to get to Ludwig and finally on the Bridal side.
The day was turning on big-time now, so I switched from "survival" mode to "race" mode, and did the Ludwig to Gloria run with practically no turning (I only stopped at Cheam to tank up to 2000m 'cause I wanted to see the new avalanche activity on the north slopes). Al was with me at this point, and Rob was doing his Sammy-altitude run.
I had heard Alan say he had gotten to 1900m at Elk and cloudbase was rapidly rising, so I was pretty hopeful we could get high enough to glide back to Riverside LZ and an easy retrieve. But at Elk it was even better; I got to 2100m and was feeling pretty good about my chances.
Rob was with me and Al slightly below and behind when we left for the glide over the flats. It was pretty quiet until just north of the highway when I saw Rob hit a bump and start sniffing around. A thermal was in the area and we wanted it! We were able to get 200m off that thermal before it petered out (I think it was from some recently burned fields just upwind). Back on glide for Woodside with the extra 200m under our belts and the fabled "Little Hill" thermal spot was coming up. And yes indeedy it was there and working, just east of the golfcourse and in the lee of Little Mountain! This time were able to milk it for almost 300m of extra altitude.
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| Final glide to Woodside |
And we did make the other side of the river with 530m to spare. Enough to get to the clearcuts below the south knob, and it was still working enough at Woodside that we were able to climb out over launch. Al topped up and went on glide for Sasquatch, while Rob and I started taking turns trying to top-land to drive Matt J's truck down (since he had given us the ride up in the first place). Rob got in during one of his passes which let me tank up to push west as well.
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| Woodside from Harrison knob |
Al, Rob, and I were super-stoked about completing the "Raymont Challenge" in it's entirety, and actually getting back to Woodside with enough height to climb back up to launch. I'm not sure if any PG pilots have actually done this before yet? If not, then it *can* be done, but I think you need:
a) a stinking high cloudbase at Elk
b) little valley wind
c) thermic help along the way via Little Mountain etc.
d) pilots doing the glide with you, to increase everyone's chances of finding lift
If you are missing one of these then I think the chances of making it back to Woodside, high enough to climb back out and not just land at Riverside, are much slimmer. We ended up getting a combined 500m in climbs along the way, and it got us to Woodside with roughly 530m. So, without any help along the way, you'd get to Woodside proper with 30m (in this case), which is not much altitude for climbing out on and you probably want to land at Riverside :) So better start really high at Elk, in case you don't find anything along the way!
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