Miles in May Camrose May 19

Our tow group is in Camrose for our annual Miles in May, where we try to fly far and work on bettering the Canadian PG Open Distance record.  This year our tow team is myself, Alex, Peter Spear, Andrew Berkley, and Steven Semisch.  Many thanks to Brett Yeates, who despite being unable to join us this year, graciously lent us his winch and told us to fly far and bring it back with a bunch of new records on it.

Peter coming in after a test tow on Steven's winch

Yesterday was blown out and thunderstormy so we bailed on the day, but the HGs managed to get a short window in between the wind dying and the storms arriving.  I think Ross did something like 60 km yesterday.

Today was looking much lighter winds but still a chance of thunderstorms, and there was a lot of overcast and shade so it was not going to be super-early, although there were Q's forming to the west and north where the skies were bluer.  After doing some experimental tows on Steven's winch we changed venues and went to Rosalind to join the puffy Q's which were starting to form in our vicinity.

It was not going to be a fast or easy day as there were storms brewing to the west and north, and with the SE winds it was blowing us directly into the maw of the shade.  After getting a low save after my tow (97m AGL!), I was able to get established and start heading NW with Peter a few km's ahead of me.

Alex and Steven also got away although they had bad sinky lines and ended up landing quite early.  Alex had a bit of a circuitous walkout as as he landed in a dry spot but surrounded on most sides by water, and had to find a dry route to the road and a waiting Andrew.

A line of storms to the north, and it's getting hard to skirt around them.

The climbs were pretty slow considering the way the sky looked, and the going was slow enough that I had to decide on each climb whether it was worth it to climb all the way to cloud base and allow myself to drift closer to the storms, or leave the climbs partway up and try to fly east to skirt the edges of the storms.  There was an obvious blue hole to the NE which Peter and I were attempting to skirt, and the geographic distance between the blue hole and the storms was getting smaller and smaller, so Peter and I opted to land before things got too hairy.

I decided to land before the storms got too close.

We discovered something when landing on the prairies in mid-spring: you can either land in a plowed or stubble field and deal with the accompanying turbulence, or you can land in a nice mellow green field and get devoured by mosquitos (presumably they are living in the grass).  We both opted for the latter and gave a generous blood donation to the local wildlife ;)

Not much distance made today since we both had to do a bunch of zigzagging to jump between clouds and make our way crosswind as the wind direction switched during the flight, but it was nice to get back in the prairie air and see the enormous countryside which is central Alberta.

Follow us on live tracking at XC Find Canada.

52 km not-so-straight-flight.

The boys out at the local driving range to work off some extra energy.

Woodside May 2

Alex was off trying his new Gin Explorer at Little Nic, while I was trying out the BGD Cure at Woodside.  I had actually already had a flight on it down in Colombia, but it's now my main glider for the next season or so.

The Cure launches much nicer than the Artik, mostly due to the lightness of the glider and the lack of mass.  Thermalling is quite easy and intuitive and I had no problems segueing from the Artik to the Cure within a few minutes.

It was pretty lame conditions at Woodside but I was able to eventually get high enough at the towers to go over the back to Agassiz Mountain.  Lame there as well, with the occasional boomer up to cloud base, but reports were of roughness at Bear Mountain so I decided to turn back.  Getting back took a few climbs and some patience, but I was able to get back easily via the northern route and an easy top-landing to enjoy the sun on the black carpet and drive a truck back down.

Mark Tulloch getting some airtime as the skies cloud over.

Blanchard April 30

A nice spring day at Blanchard with lots of PG pilots from Bellingham and Seattle in addition to the Canadian contingent.  Some moderate west wind aloft and quite overdeveloped a few kms inland so not really XC conditions, but it was nice to fly over the water and out to the oyster island.  Al managed to top land at the parking lot (!) to avoid the retrieve, thanks Al!

Savona Easter Meet April 14-15

With the weather in the Fraser Valley looking very mediocre, Andrew and I decided to get away for a few days and join the Easter Meet in Savona with the hang glider pilots.

Watching the virgo come down across Deadmans valley.

Still some snow in the meadow behind launch and very strong-looking skies so we didn't fly for very long each day, landing early and watching it blow out on the ground during the mid-afternoon.  With east wind in the forecast for the 3rd day we opted to return to Vancouver and left the hang gliders to fly at the Pimple in Kamloops.

More virga behind launch and over Kamloops.

Woodside April 9

I had missed the good XC day last week but I wasn't about to miss another one so soon!

SE wind up high which is an unusual direction for the Fraser Valley, and it made the crossing over to Sasquatch a bit easier than usual.  In fact, after the climb out over Sasquatch, it was quite easy getting to Dewdney, and I was having to pull out of climbs around 1700m just to give myself a buffer with the overlying airspace.

Crossing back to Woodside in rare SE conditions.

A group had decided to continue up to Benedict but I was thinking the return might be a bit challenging with the SE wind, and the clouds were getting a bit spread out in the area and giving large areas of shade.  Arriving back at Woodside it was definitely more lee side than when I left, and I ended up climbing out over Riverside and the Fraser River.

Dressing warm for cold April flying!

I thought about landing but decided to do a lap to Agassiz Mountain and back; Peter and Vlad continued to Bear where it wasn't that great so I was happy to turn around at Agassiz and head back to Riverside.

The sandbars are exposed this time of year which is nice if you have to land out.

By the end of the day it was definitely over-the-back conditions and pilots were getting super-high as is typical in outflow conditions.  65 km out-and-return which is not too shabby for my first FV XC this year!

Woodside March 25

The forecast was showing it was going to be windy, but we were hoping it would be a bit less and nicely flyable.

Nope, the forecast was pretty spot-on, and it *was* windy.  A bit on the strong side for me, so I waited it out for several hours while some other pilots braved the cycles.  After a while I noticed the cycles were a bit less, but going more and more cross from the north, so I decided to launch while it was still good, and enjoyed an hour of windy ridge soaring.

Woodside February 22

After the hot weather in Colombia it was a shock to fly in snow!  No XC yet, it's still a bit early for that kind of flying, but nice to surf the clouds and see some friends I haven't seen for a few months!

Trip to Colombia Winter 2017!

For the past few months Alex and I have been planning a return trip to Colombia.  We've both been there before, and I've been wanting a nice vacation for a while!

Our hammock abode in Minca.

Misty mornings on Agua Panella.

Instead of just doing "Rolda", we decided to mix it up a bit and toss in some coastal exploration as well as some smaller mountain towns.  On the Caribbean coast we visited many towns, including the very nice town of Minca, up in the mountains above Santa Marta, and Cartagena, tourist-central.  It was super-muggy and we very much appreciated any air conditioning we could find as well as the ocean swims.  The highlight of this portion of the trip for me was the snorkelling we did in the Rosario Islands...not as spectacular as Tobago, but nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the cities and into the bathtub-warm waters!

Ronda was a bit wet this year!...

From the coast it was inland to Roldanillo where the weather wasn't playing ball...it was much wetter than usual, although still plenty flyable every day, so long as you were willing to wait out the rain and/or land when you saw rain coming.  Fortunately the Cauca Valley is wide and open enough that you can see storms coming from a long ways away, and in any case there were minimal gust fronts if they happened at all (especially compared to Golden!).  Lots of flying up and down the west mountain ranges, not so much on the east side since there were airspace issues to contend with.

...But still plenty flyable!

Fortunately you could see the rain from a long ways away!

After the first Rolda comp we relocated to Piedechinche (nearer to Cali) to sample the afternoon side of the valley, and were treated to a rare (?) ride up to 3600m on a blue and stable day.  I suspect this site shades-out quite a bit as it's a big mountain behind launch, and any clouds which form are going to spooge out into the valley in any east wind.  And that's what happened on other days; even though it's an "afternoon site", you can definitely fly it in the mornings, and in fact, it's probably best to fly it earlier rather than later if you want to go XC.

Getting high at Piedechinche!...

...And flying fire thermals!

Travelled north to find some less-busy flying spots, and opted for Apia and Jerico, both small mountain towns with epic roads up steep winding roads glued to the mountainsides!  Both Apia and Jerico were a welcome change from the heat and business of Roldanillo...we were pretty much the only gringos in town each time, and the launches were much less busy, although the tour groups were everywhere (probably doing the same thing as us, finding sites less busy than Rolda).

The Canadian crew in Roldanillo.  Photo courtesy of Kevin Ault.

Jerico and the new launch, opening next year.

If I was doing the trip again and wanted to focus on flying in Colombia, I would probably start with the non-Roldanillo flying sites, and do Rolda at the end.  There are so many sites in Colombia!  Pretty much any mountain in the coffee zone is a candidate...there are paved roads and busses to many of the towns, and plenty of cleared land, that you can fly from almost anywhere!

Back in the land of snow and ice!

California trip September/October

With the winter rains approaching and some free time, Alex and I decided it was time to revisit Marina and get some sand-dune flying in.  Marina in the fall can be quite nice, especially if you time it correctly to get the onshore winds.  But don't leave it until too late, otherwise you'll start getting the offshore winds!

Alex getting his new glider sandy.

Arrived to Marina to find it on already (the forecast had showed it being on for the past few days) so we immediately started flying from the ramp at Marina State Beach.  It was a tad on the light side (~9-10 mph) but doable, and we could see a group at Lakecourt.  Turns out it was Dave Turner with a tour group of Russian pilots of varying skill levels.

Point Lobos Nature Reserve, just south of Monterey

It had been a while since I had flown the sand dunes, but it came back quickly and much less sand in my glider vs. last time!  Crossing the gaps is fun if you are at all competent with kiting, as you can just kite your way the last bit across, and start flying where the dune starts rising again.

Some of the local HG's came out to play!

The next four days it was on every day starting around noon (W or NW 12-15 mph), and the last couple of days it blew out by 3pm.  But that's plenty of hours to surf low, do the Sand City run and return, or kite your way through the gaps.  We had company most days (in fact it was busiest I've ever seen at Marina) of both PG and HG, including a local HG who was a pleasure to watch...his launches and landings next to the ramp were butter-smooth.

The view into Yosemite Valley

Even though Marina continued to be flyable for several days after, we decided it was time to move on and we went to Yosemite National Park to do some hiking etc.  Despite it being early fall, it was still very busy in the main valley and even in Tolumne meadows and Tioga Pass.  Some days it was sunny, other days it rained or snowed, depending on how high you were.  Nights were below freezing!

Icy water in Tolumne!  The only reason it wasn't iced up was because it was flowing...

On the east side of Tioga Pass was Owen's Valley, a welcome change from the cold in the Pass.  It was a stable period with it being difficult to get above the 12-13,000' peak, but we were just happy to be warm and dry!  Met up with Kari and Cookie and Brian, plus a visiting pilot from Oz and a couple from Monterey, so we had a good crew most days.

Hilltop Hot Springs, near the Mammoth Airport

Finally it was time to return home to the wet NW for work, just in time for the first major rain- and windstorms of the season.  Until next time!

Beautiful fall colors around Convict Lake

Grouse Mountain September 10

We had a fairly large group at Grouse today...a bunch of guests, regulars, and the tandem operation.  Strong-ish west wind aloft and weird clouds forming, but it was easy to get to the clouds at 1500m and play around.  Peter and I started going to Crown Mountain but turned around since it was looking too shady.

Capilano Reservoir is low now.

 Lots of lift over the city as the clouds were forming out there too, and strong west wind until the last 100m or so, at which point it switched to the usual SE flow at ground level.  Capilano Lake is very low at this time of year!

Some instability forming out front in advance of the approaching north wind.