Blanchard May 29

Heading north with Peter.

The forecast for pretty much everywhere else looked bad with low clouds, rain, and wind, but Blanchard was looking the best of the lot.  Lots of Canucks there today taking advantage of the light winds and thermic conditions.

Long glide back to Blanchard from the north!

Cloudbase was quite low, less than 1000m initially, but it (slowly) rose throughout the day to 1200m at the very end of the day.  Big development over the back but the coast stayed nice, so near the end of the flight Peter, Martin, Dave, and I flew south to connect with the cloudstreet which was stretching to just south of the Skajit Regional Airport.  The first glide away from the mountain was the toughest, as it was a long way and we couldn't get very high (1100m), but once we connected to the first cloud it was 3/4 bar all the way south to the airport, staying in the smooth cloudsuck the entire time.

Playing in the clouds to the south.

We turned around at the airport since there was lots of air traffic near the runway; later on we saw 8-10 stunt planes doing barrel rolls and other synchro acro, presumably practicing for the US's Memorial Day celebrations tomorrow.

Heading back to Blanchard and the LZ.

Other pilots ventured inland to the Sedro-Wooley and north towards Acme, while most others stayed in the vicinity of Blanchard.  Probably 20-25 PG pilots out today!

May 29 flight.

Woodside May 10

After yesterday's cu-nims and thunderstorms in the Fraser Valley as we drove back from Cranbrook, today was looking quite nice.  So back out we went to try the 100 km Al Thielmann triangle.

Cloudbase was way up there, above the legal airspace limit of 1981m on the Woodside side, but it wasn't the nicest air.  The west wind came in a bit stronger than we expected which got me as I was trying to punch west to tag the Dewdney TP.  Pattison wasn't working either, and after getting flushed at both Pattison and Dewdney, and hearing the reports about how nasty the corner of Dewdney was, I decided to get out while I still could, and flew back to Woodside.

Heading back to Woodside after an unsuccessful attempt at the Benedict triangle.

Over the back to Agassiz Mountain and then Bear, but I couldn't get high enough at Bear to make the jump to Ludwig with any comfort.  Norm had tried the Green Hill route and no luck, but was able to find a flatland thermal over the freshly-plowed fields downwind, and made it across.  However I was unable to find a similar climb, and ended up landing at Seabird Island.

Alex managed to make it across to Ludwig and did the Ludwig-Elk run, while Igor flew north up Harrison Lake a bit before landing in Laidlaw.  Al Thielmann did some bear-country-flying through the Norrish Creek valley before popping out behind Bear and then doing the Ludwig-Elk run as well.  And lots of pilots made the jump to Sasquatch and beyond before the west wind shut them down.

An easy hitchhike over to Bridal, just in time to watch the Bridal pilots coming in to land in the late afternoon wind.  The schmoo was coming in too, but earlier in the day the Bridal pilots had gotten above Cheam and 2400+ m, since the airspace limit is much higher on the Bridal side.  Too bad we were forced to stay below 1981m on the Woodside side; the air may have been much nicer, higher up!

Woodside flight.

Wasa May 5

Wasa launch at dusk

Alex and I are in Cranbrook for Brett Yeates' wedding and we took the opportunity to fly one of the local sites, Wasa.

Parm and Will from Smithers joined us for a 4x4 adventure and we discovered the road is clear of snow all the way to launch at 1800m!  Unfortunately it was still quite windy (it had been blown-out all day) even at 7pm but it looked to be dying a bit as the shmoo came in.

A nice soaring flight in the SW winds until it got close to dark and then landed at the large LZ's on the way to Lazy Lake.  That was the last (and only) flying of the trip as it was a windy period pretty much all over the entire province.

Lazy Lake and the LZ.

Pemberton April 30

More light north wind in Pemberton, not the greatest flying, but good practice for comp flying: dealing with less-than-optimal flying conditions!  It was certainly XC-able, just a bit funky and not a classic Pemberton day.  But went out to Spindrift and back and the snowline has receded a lot!  The Hurley Pass road is melted-out a lot higher now and upper launch is now accessible via John Lyon's shuttle service.

Spindrift-n-return.

Tenquille Lake, still snowed-in!

Bridal April 18

Better than yesterday, probably due to the fact we actually had blue skies instead of white skies, but still not a "gimmee" day.  Got to almost 1500m a few times but it was more like 1200m the rest of the time.

Still lots of snow on upper launch.

Near the end of the day a pilot flew into some trees just west of launch at around 400m.  He was totally fine but trapped at the top of the tree, with his glider visible and dangling from the crown.  We advised him to secure himself to the tree and await Search and Rescue since he wasn't sure he could descend the tree himself.  Fortunately he had gone in quite close to the remains of an old road so SnR was able to drive partway and then hike the remaining bit.  Last we heard they were just getting him out of the tree as dark was coming on, so I imagine the pilot will have to return tomorrow to get the glider out.

Pemberton April 17

A rather lame day after all, for XC flying anyways, as none of us were able to get above 1000m with the thick high cirrus.  I spent over an hour groveling at lower launch height, or below, and when I finally got back up to launch height, I took the opportunity to top-land so I could dress down and rest.  Andrew "got away" but landed out at the base of Owl, and most everyone else landed in the LZ.

At the end of the day I flew the Skin down, my first single-surface glider, and it was fun!  A zippy little glider and idiotically easy to kite and launch, but a bit disconcerting in flight with all the rustling of the exposed ribs.  And the glide and climb is much less than my current glider.  A fun toy if you want to hike up with a glider in a 15L daypack!

Pemberton Goodness April 9-10

West side of Spindrift Moutain, looking SSE.

Lots of pilots were out for their first 100+ km XC's of the season, flying up to Spindrift Mountain and back to Pemberton.  There is still a bit too much snow on the valley floor to go much further than Spindrift, so we have to wait a bit for Athelstan and beyond.  The wind was north but flukey so the thermals were a bit hard to read and I saw lots of wing dancing, and some pilots complained of nausea as well.  But it was light-enough winds to not really be a problem and climbs to 2600m.  It was cold!

The Meager volcano with the landslide.  The valley floor is still snow-covered!

Some pilots flew south instead, down Lilloet Lake, and reported equally light-but-north conditions as well.  All in all it was a good day to stretch the XC muscles.

Saturday flight.

Looking towards Bralorne and Goldbridge.  Lennies in the distance.

Sunday it was the regular SW direction but still lots of lift, but it took a long time to climb out, 45 minutes for Andrew, Simon, and myself.  Painful, but worth it to finally get high and start moving.  It wasn't really possible to head over the back since we weren't getting high enough so we flew north again, this time turning around at Sampson.

The Hurley FSR is still snow-covered.

The SW was picking up and I could see lenticulars forming in the distance so I suspected it would get windy soon.  After my photo session I flew back to launch and the SW was indeed picking up, to the point that I wondered if it would become unsafe to land at the usual LZ's later on.  I ended up landing near the gravel pit to retrieve the car, and during my leisurely packup watched the wind pick up and the trees start waving around.

Sunday flight.

Mt. Sampson!

Those that flew down Lilloet Lake had to fly back into the wind and it soon starting raining paragliders over Mt. Currie (the village, not the mountain!).  And for those that went to the Wray LZ it got gustier with some pilots having to speedbar their way down.  But in the end everyone was down safely!

Easter weekend flying

Heading back to Woodside after flying west to Deroche.

A "classic" Fraser Valley day on Friday as we drove out in the rain with a clearing forecast.  Misjudged it by an hour or so as we had to stand around on launch in the rain and hail until it finally cleared up but then it was time to fly!

I missed the first group of pilots heading west although it sounded like it was a bit early still for the crossing as most ended up at the Sandpiper airstrip at the base of Sasquatch Mountain.  I think Alex, Paddy, and Peter made it away.   When I got high enough for the crossing I was alone but made it easily enough from 1300m.  Lots of shade around Sasquatch and Deroche and I ended up turning around at Deroche where Alex and Paddy were returning from a run out to Dewdney.

Looking up Harrison River on the Sasquatch-Woodside crossing.

Sasquatch seems to harbour a lot of shade so I had to spend some time climbing in order to make the glide back to Woodside; Paddy had a bit of bad luck and ended up landing in Lenami's cutblock where a nude sunbather was enjoying his solitude while Alex and I climbed out above him.

The Bridal side was looking very shady and Andrew was reporting little luck over Green Hill and it was looking like it could be windy in the valley and into Hope, so several of us headed to Bear to see what would happen.  In the end I flew back to Harvest West where Alex was packing up, while Al landed at Harvest and Andrew landed in Agassiz.  Peter made it back to Woodside while Tom Chromy did fly to Hope and landed at the airfield.

Pemberton lower launch.

Saturday was looking like it could go either way, FV or Pemberton, so we opted for Pemberton.  It was already flyable when we arrived on launch around noon with Jim and Corinne top-landing multiple times.  I wanted to head over the back to the entrance to the Duffy Lake Pass so left the antennas at 2100m, finding a bit of a venturi at the entrance of the Anderson Valley as it was blowing SE up high.  Andrew and Simon followed and we made our way to the entrance to the Duffy when the high cloud moved in, making the SE more noticeable and not so nice.

Heading for the convergence near the airport.

Flying out towards the airport we found the convergence between the Lilloet lake SE and the Pemberton SW, which was enough to get us to the gravel pit.  Alex had flown to the Owl gap and Jim had flown across the Anderson valley before returning to launch.  Many others were still in the air as the high cloud had moved off and the sun returned.

Dressed for the cold!

Woodside February 22

The days are getting longer and the sun stronger, but the air is still cold!

The clouds were forming behind launch and drifting towards us in the light east wind.

Lots of clouds around and it was actually raining on the way out, but it dried up for the most part and was flyable for 3-4 hours today.  Cloudbase was still low...about 900m in the afternoon, but the lift was smooth and abundant.  The bald eagles were out in force today doing their talon-grab-tumbling routine but they ignored us for the most part.

Once again not quite XC-able, although Martin, Al, and James headed over to Sasquatch Mountain to try their luck, no joy and they all landed at the golf course.  A few others flew across the river to see if there was any/much lift on the Chilliwack side and returned pretty low.  I decided to play with the clouds and try for some "glory" shots.

A beautiful day amongst the clouds and watching rainbows over Agassiz Mountain.  Lots of moisture in the air after yesterday's and this morning's rain but the sun actually had some strength to it now; XC season is just around the corner!

Had a bit of icing after the cloud-surfing!

Woodside February 16

My first flight of the new year, and my first in 4 months.  I was feeling a bit rusty and the thermals were a bit on the weak side at first, so it was a struggle for me to finally get high after almost an hour groveling below launch and almost sinking out.  Martin and I had an awesome low save from 99m AGL directly over the Riverside LZ.  Most others sunk out (although Peter top-landed) and drove up for flight #2.

The air finally strengthened and it turned into a glorious 3 hour flight in the late winter air.  We had oodles of bald eagles out playing with us as the clouds formed.  Not quite strong enough to go XC, but it was good to get my gear sorted out and the cobwebs cleared for the upcoming XC season!

Woodside's new haircut directly below launch.