Blanchard Bash 2016

3-5 June 2016

C.J. and I have tried to attend the combination DNR Trails Day work party and Blanchard Fly-in every year. This year, unusually, Blanchard did not provide soarable conditions on any of the three days we were there. However, there was good flying at Sumas on Friday as reported by David Le, as well as at Black. Then on Saturday we went with a bunch of paragliders to Black and it was again good with people flying for as long as they wanted and landing in the usual group camp LZ and the larger field across the road from the main entrance to Silver Lake County Park. [Some non-participant pilots launched from Sauk the same day, got up to 11,000 ft along the way and flew all the way across the North Cascades to Mazama!] Sunday was just too hot for us to want to repeat the hour-long trip to Black (and there was the hassle of not having a key), so we headed home early. 

3 Jun, Fri – We left around 1000 with the trailer and didn’t stop for gas in Burlington as we usually do, figuring that we wouldn’t be driving much farther than the launch and LZ at Blanchard. Stacey directed us to our own private site between some trees, leaving the larger spaces for people with large RVs. [Thanks Stacey, for taking time out from prom preparations to be a gracious hostess!]

After getting set up and visiting with some of the locals we rode up to launch with Jan and Murdoch. Conditions looked “OK” but there was some north to the wind. I pulled my wing up and had to abort, and then C.J. managed a forward inflation and launch. But as soon as she got out beyond the trees, it was clear that there was some pretty strong north. She got rock-and-rolled and turned for the LZ. And later she reported that it was strong west, and she had to maneuver herself into a position from which she would not be dragged into the briars and/or RR tracks if she didn’t get her wing collapsed (which she did neatly). I stood on launch a bit but C.J.’s radio report convinced me to pack up. Jan did, too, and we drove back to Beck’s where I got the Sorento and went down to pick up C.J. Tom Lake was there with his French bulldog, along with Jud. No one beside us had been on launch. We hung out around camp the rest of the afternoon and evening, greeting new arrivals as they pulled in. Shawn Lucke, pres of the NCSC, was there so we paid our $25 fly-in donation to him. This year we didn’t go to the Chuckanut Manor for the Friday buffet because we had already done an out-to-eat at the Coho in Issaquah. Instead, we had the rest of our Zucchizza and a salad.

4 Jun, Sat – We got up around 0700 and had breakfast early enough that we could get to the usual meeting place for the DNR work party. As usual there were juice, coffee, various kinds of snack-y bars, fruit, and pastries. I counted about 60 volunteers of which more than 40 were pilots or spouses. Up at the launch we were going to spread out the limbs from three or four felled trees to the left of the new, graded and grassy west launch. But for some reason the trees had not been bucked or limbed. So we ended up just weedwhacking, mowing and generally cleaning up the overlook area. Yaro and I helped David make a tree disappear; he had cut a tallish evergreen that was just to the right of the flight path from the south launch. After that I took a break while helping Paul install additional roll holders for the TP in the rest rooms.

Samish Overlook DNR Work Party - Delvin, C.J., Nancy (By Bonita H)

 By noon we were finished and people were thinking about flying. Hangs were probably going to Lookout and some paras were talking up Black. Fortunately the lunch preparation had gotten an early start so we were able to eat some burgers and brats prepared on Guy’s Bar-B-Choo, plus some salads and desserts. We took David Le with us and headed for the 1400 rendezvous at the LZ with CC and Cathy following. At Silver Lake we loaded CC and Cathy in with us and followed Delvin’s carload up the decent gravel road to the 4600-ft launch. The last mile of the road had some pretty serious waterbars, but only a dozen of them. Conditions looked good and the first person off soared so most people got ready to launch. CC and Cathy flew tandem and went way to the right out of sight, but when we next spotted them they were above the top of the ridge to the north. CC said they had reached 2000 ft over launch. By the time almost everyone had taken off I had decided not to fly so we wouldn’t have to come all the way back up to retrieve just my vehicle. [There were five vehicles, and all but mine had drivers.] It was a half hour down to the red gate at the Mt. Baker Hwy and then another 2.25 mi to Maple Falls. C.J. had landed in the big field, David also. Rick Lai was there with another pilot and wanted to go up to fly but there were no keyholders who wanted to go back up. A call to Jeff Beck gave Delvin permission to loan Jeff’s key to Rick. [Later we heard that they launched around 1930 and had extended sledders.] I stopped in B’ham at Safeway to get some gas (2.549) and then returned to the gathering at the Becks for the salmon and chicken BBQ with potluck salads and desserts (C.J. had brought a big zucchini-chocolatechip-spice cake). The large bonfire with last season’s dried-out Christmas tree on top produced a lot of light and heat, which really was not needed this year.

"Bonbonfire" by Bonita Hobson

5 Jun, Sun – Thinking that folks would want to travel in order to fly, Jeff started the pancake, scrambled eggs, and sausage breakfast early, sometime after 0800. I would have liked to get in a flight but the thought of driving all the way back to Black (about an hour) and waiting until conditions got good later while baking in the unseasonably hot weather was daunting. After waffling for a while and consulting with Chris and Patricia (who had been at Sauk on Saturday) we decided to look one last time at Blanchard launch (we saw a para and two student hangs launch and go directly to the LZ) and then head home early. At least we didn’t have a lot of late Sunday traffic to contend with. We stopped at Costco Burlington to fill-up (2.399) and were home by 1600, giving us plenty of time to unpack and get showers to cool off. Later we heard from Chris, Patricia, Beth and Ernie that flying at Black was not as good as it had been on Saturday.