Spring Fly-ins 2012

Frostbite
Dog Mountain
6-8 April 2012

G Landing at Dogpatch

6 Apr, Fri -  It was a good plan to drive down Friday morning because that was the only day that was flyable in normal conditions. A few folks flew on Saturday but the wind was from the east all day and again on Sunday. C.J. and I both got a flight in the early afternoon, and I went back up late in the day with Kim and Kathy Smith. Later was better and I managed to extend my flight to almost half an hour by soaring the treetops at the very edge of the lake. The temperature dropped down below freezing Friday night and we had frost on the exposed aluminum inside the trailer in the morning.

7 Apr, Sat - East wind predominated all day and only a very few pilots launched into the rotor. I rode up to the east launch with Kim and another PG pilot and helped Kim launch in a lull in the strong east cycles. He soared easily up over the back but when he attempted to start descending north of Dogpatch, he took a big collapse which the wing didn't recover from until close to the ground. He landed in several inches of water covering the meadow. Later, the potluck dinner was excellent with lots of choices and there was a keg of good beer, two kegs actually because Lenny Baron brought one to celebrate his 25th year of hang gliding. The temperature was not as cold as the previous night but the bonfire was the focal point of the evening. It was also a good place to present the USHPA Commendation Award to Larry (and Tina) for all they do as Dog Mountain site stewards.

Tina, Aaron, Kerie and Jade

8 Apr, Sun - The wind continued to blow from the east and C.J. and I decided to go find a trail to hike or snowshoe. We drove to the USFS ranger station in Randall and looked at the maps in the kiosk. Someone had mentioned a trail with a good view down toward St. Helens so we headed that way. However, not only was the road (26) closed due to snow, but there was a major bridge out as well. After walking out to look at the washed out bridge we drove back to the Cispus River and upstream to where the road to Burley Mountain forked off to the right. We only got a couple of miles up that road before snow and downed trees stopped the Trooper. Since it didn't look like a lot of fun to slog along the road in the dark forest, we headed back to Dog. The crowd had diminished considerably and we joined the exodus as well.

Considering the lack of flying, there was an amazingly large turnout of pilots, family and friends at Dog for Frostbite. More than fifty pilots bought keys and/or signed up for the spot-landing contest; and almost all 75 of the t-shirts (long sleeve cotton, this year) were sold. As always, Ralph Senter, the Dogfather, was a guest of honor complete with a newly-composed song by George Zatloka. Aaron Swepston received a hand-made looping glider trophy from Kenny Richardson for his many years of entertaining us with his aerobatics.




Blanchard Bash
Blanchard Hill
13-15 April 2012

Here's C.J.'s summary of the Blanchard Fly-in from an email to the NWPC, Cloudbase and North Cascades Soaring Club Yahoo groups:

"Since this was the Blanchard Bash, George and I stayed at Blanchard for the weekend. We were not disappointed! We arrived and set up camp at Jeff and Stacey's early on Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, but the wind was strong from the N—no good for flying, as far as we knew, although we later learned we were wrong and it had been excellent soaring at BJ. We hiked up to the Oyster Dome lookout for fabulous views out to the west and the south, and commented that we'd yet to get over to this rocky outcrop in our paragliders. Well, that was about to change!

Saturday started off with light south wind, and aside from Tom Johns on his Falcon and two PG pilots, who launched relatively early, everyone had sledders from the S launch for several hours. The wind gradually switched around to the W, and then even a bit N of W, so we all trucked our gear (even the hangs who'd set up on the S launch) over to the W launch. The first several folks had extended sledders from that side as well, but somewhere around 3:00 the lift turned on, and the fun began. At first only a few of us got high—about 3500'—with a dense swarm working at or just above launch level, but later on the lift became more widespread and the swarm began to elevate. I think just about everybody had enjoyable flights. And I got to fly over to the Oyster Dome!!

Oyster Dome from the air

Jeff and Stacey put on a great party Saturday night, with tons of chicken and brats on the BBQ pit, and pilots brought enough pot-luck desserts and salads and miscellaneous munchies to keep us all well ballasted. Jeff & Stacey's daughter Enes turned 13, and graciously shared her birthday cake with all of us. The zipline got a lot of use. The bonfire was too hot for toasting marshmallows but perfect for hanging out around. I'm not a late partier, so I don't know if it lasted till the wee hours, as I didn't...

 
Sunday started with a huge breakfast party, sausages and pancakes, and scrambled eggs-and-cheese in the biggest flying pan I've ever seen. By mid-morning those of us sticking around Blanchard headed up the hill,and it turned on a bit earlier than yesterday. Quite a few eagles were indicating the lift was out there, and several pilots proved it was more than just "bird lift." Murdoch was first off and soared the south side, and Greg Adler on his topless glider was above everybody, just boating around and enjoying having the sky up there to himself for quite a while. One PG pilot in an orange glider worked light lift near launch for a while before getting low and heading out towards the LZ. He amazed us all by finding a thermal over the flats that took him up above launch level! Others soon took off and had various degrees of success staying up. Nobody seemed in a big rush to launch.

Eventually the wind clocked around towards the W, and a bunch of us again moved over there, although both hangs and bags continued to take off from the S for most of the afternoon. Cloudbase was lower on Sunday; it felt dangerously sucky around 2900', but it was fun staying on the W edge of the clouds and flying to the N towards Chuckanut. George got to make the trip back to the Oyster Dome on Sunday, although he reported that it was stressfully slow, and sinky, pushing back out to the W. One PG pilot who took off relatively early from the S launch on a new [Advance Omega] wing, with the intention of heading right for the LZ, ended up getting high and flying for hours. I'd guess that his new wing is a keeper!


A lot of the hang pilots flew at Lookout and Cultus on Saturday, and at Cultus on Sunday, but they'll have to tell how that went. PG pilots at BJ on Sunday reported not-so-fun conditions, with OD and switchy winds. It looked really big over the mountains from our perspective above Blanchard.

A big thanks to Jeff and Stacey for allowing us to take over their place for the weekend, and for all the work they do to keep Blanchard as one of our premier biwingual sites on the W side of the mts. If you haven't flown at Blanchard since the major work done by DNR this past winter, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised by the improvements to the launch areas (no more firepits just where you want to lay out your wing!), and the comfortable separation between the hoards of spectators and the pilots (just what USHPA wants us to do at all our sites!)."

So there you have it, from one point of view. Others will surely have different tales to tell ;o)
C.J.

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Beach'N
Chelan Butte
4-6 May 2012

Friday - Rain at home and a forecast of strong winds kept us on the wet side of the Cascades until 1600 when we pulled out in rain which changed to mixed rain and snow in the Pass.  However, by the time we had reached Easton, the rain had stopped and the clouds had broken. The rest of the drive was in sunshine.  Although we had eaten dinner at noon, we couldn't pass up the tasty stew at Tom and Lori's with Conrad, Brian and Judy Scott, and Steve Alford. Lori had invited us to stay at their house so we did not have to pull the trailer over Snoqualmie and Blewett Passes. (Thank you, thank you!)

Saturday - After hanging out at Lakeside Park for a while, we drove up with JJ (Snodgrass), a student HG pilot and with David Carrol for a driver [David had come over to do some re-training with Larry and Tina, but they were otherwise occupied with an unexpectedly early birth of Jasmine's baby girl early Saturday (8lb 1oz).] The wind was gently blowing up Lakeside launch when I took off around 1100. There was lift to circle in right off the hill but it seemed more like bubbles than a solid column of lift. I tried again on the ridge leading down to Lone Pine but was barely able to maintain. Heading out, I passed the northern edge of Lone Pine not sure about making the beach at Lakeside, but I kept going and came in at least 200 ft above the lake-level LZ. The wind coming down the lake must have been a bit stronger near the ground because I ended up short of the spot-landing target even though I thought I had had plenty of height on my approach.  Meanwhile, C.J. launched after me and must have "beamed up" because when I talked to her on the radio she was already at 7200ft and headed north. Rather than go all the way to the airport, she worked her way back upwind and landed at the Lone Pine bailout. I drove up to get her and we decided not to fly again as the wind was picking up and conditions were getting turbulent. That didn't keep most other folks from flying, some going XC and others doing the spot landing. C.J. volunteered to do the scoring so Lori could drive for Tom, and I headed out to get gas and pick up a watch at Walmart. [Gas was expensive ($4.14 at Safeway) but the watch was $10 cheaper than the same one at Freddie's in Issaquah.] Around 1800 Troy's Pizza delivered 14 excellent pies, Lori whipped up a couple bowls of salad and we (some 45 pilots had signed up) all chowed down in surprisingly mild temperatures.

Sunday - After some time at the park we drove up with "Fly Mike" and another paraglider pilot, and hung around on launch waiting, I guess, until someone really sky-ed out. Some HG and PG were getting up while others were sinking out so no one was in a rush to go. There were dust devils on launch. Eventually I packed my wing away and, as if that were a signal, the XC pilots began to launch. Mer got up and crossed then landed in McNeal, Chris A went out toward Sims, Steve Thibeau landed in the Soccer Field, others - ? C.J. decided to fly and tried to launch Lakeside but the winds did not cooperate and she finally decided to pack it in. It was after 1500 so we cleared out from Tom and Lori's and said goodbye to the rest of the folks in the LZ and were on our way home by 1600. We stopped for a few gallons of gas at Cle Elum where prices were even higher than Chelan (4.19). We got home around 1930.