Baldy Butte Fly-in

22-24 September 2017

G and C.J. near Baldy north take-off

Tough decision whether to go to The Can-Am at Black Mtn or the Fly-in at Baldy. But
the Baldy site needed more support to stay open, and our friends were going there, too. C.J and I thought we’d leave Friday – and we did, but not before getting a flight at Tiger. 

22 Sep, Fri - Unfortunately, the bright blue sky with burgeoning cumulus clouds had morphed into high overcast by the time we were ready to launch. I had an abort on the upper takeoff and then had a mushy launch (someone said, “not like George, at all” which made me feel a bit better). I went around the north side of the Dome and scratched for a while, then flew back south to the Yaher Wall where there was very little lift. Soon I was setting up with another pilot who took the left while I went right. (:15). C.J. also had a short flight and we were packed up and on our way home by 1700. Since we only had to put the last items in the trailer and car, we were out the driveway by 1800. It was dark when we pulled into Lmuma Rec Area after 1930 and we were surprised to find that there was an open campsite. After setting up we had a late dinner then crossed the barbed wire to the camping area for the Fly-in. This year the organizers (mostly Rick and Karen Ely, helped by Randy Lettau) were allowing attendees to drive down into the camping area, but no trailers per Mr. Eaton’s request. Someone had a small campfire going (despite the statewide fire ban) and we hung out for a while before returning to the Aliner. We were careful to not turn on a light inside until we had the door closed, however, once the lights were on we were swarmed by tiny flying bugs. We wondered if they were coming in through gaps in the weatherstripping, but we soon found out that they were small enough to get through the window screens. Bummer! We swatted a few thousand with towels, etc. and we tried removing the vent screen and turning the fan on high to suck them out. That worked but more just came in so we finally gave up and shut the lights off and went to bed. It was pretty chilly, and the bugs quieted down as soon as the lights were off.

23 Sep, Sat – We didn’t get up early but when we did we had to sweep up the bug carcasses before we could make breakfast. Later we drove over to the fly-in site and parked in the shade. Registration was once again at the entrance near “the rock” and there were already 40-50 pilots signed up who had arrived early to fly on Friday. After registering we ran into Randy Sprague who was taking a bunch of RPC guys up (Griz, Wayne, Joe Stermitz, and ?). He offered us a ride so we didn’t have to wait for one of the shuttles. There were a lot of people standing around up near the towers waiting for it to get a little stronger. I watched for a while then decided that I’d rather go early than wait in line for what might be strong conditions. The sky had become partly overcast but I pulled up on a steep slope after C.J. and flew left in lift (!). I should have stayed there (photo above) but I continued west and sank below the ridgetop. I reversed course and returned to the bowl below launch and worked light lift but not enough to get up to the pilot flying a BGD who had stayed in the lift near launch. Eventually I decided to head out along the north spine to look for lift: Not much, and then serious sink. My GPS was saying that it was a 5:1 glide to the LZ but the best I was getting was 3:1. I was thinking that I would be landing in the sagebrush and hoping that I wouldn’t end up in a gully, when I ran into some decent lift which seemed to be centered over a couple of apparently dead cows. I was able to gain some altitude and widen my circles. Now the LZ was within an easy glide and when the lift quit, I headed in to land (:20). C.J. was already packing up. We grabbed some lunch stuff from the trailer and then hooked up with Randy to go back up. I wasn’t too keen to fly in midday conditions so I volunteered to drive. Randy took us down to Big Pines CG to see if Wayne had landed there, but he was still in the air to the south. We picked up a load at the HQ and I drove Randy’s big Dodge Ram up to launch. By then people were mostly launching to the SW, but some were still getting off to the north. Peter launched to the north in his hang glider, the only hang at the fly-in, and got up and stayed high. C.J. decided that she didn’t want to fly for various reasons, a headache being the main one, so we drove down. Back at the LZ we hung out with Patricia and Penny until it got late enough to start setting up for dinner. We brought the “bluebarb” crisp over and added it to the potluck items. Rick had a full-size gas grill which he used to cook up a bunch of chicken and bratwursts; someone else (maybe Karen) brought a big pot of pulled pork. There were two kegs of Iron Horse ale; the one I had was really good, Mocha Death (even better than their Irish Death). There weren’t too many homemade desserts and C.J.’s got all eaten up, even before the cheesecake slices were gone. Sitting around the (illegal) fire we got to hear about all the great flights – some out toward the west, others flew triangles; everyone seemed to get nearly to cloudbase at 7-8000 ft. Sometime after 2000 we drove back to the trailer and endured another episode of the bug infestation from Hell. It wasn’t as cold as it had been the previous night.

24 Sep, Sun – After sweeping up the bugs and having breakfast outside at the picnic table we packed up the trailer and moved it up near the rock (a BLM official was telling other campers that there was going to be maintenance work done on the CG and there would be a lot of dust. We took a shuttle ride up with Rick Ely. This time the preferred launch was the more typical south-facing one. After waiting a while for conditions to improve (no one was staying up) I took off after Christel. There was lift right at launch, then more spotty lift over the ridge crest to the west. It wasn’t friendly enough for me to continue working it, so I just headed north across the river to the ridge that people had followed up on Saturday. It wasn’t working on Sunday and I headed toward the LZ while I was still high enough to make it easily (apparently it did not appear that way to some observers). The LZ was soarable so I circled my way back up a few hundred feet and drifted across the highway remembering that there had been lift near the dead cows the previous day. Not so much this time so I did not get up as high as Christel, nor as far away from the LZ as she was. I returned to the LZ to land to the SE which appeared to be into the wind, but as I approached the ground the wind must have switched so I ended up skidding across the ground on the seat of my harness – no damage (:16). I wasn’t watching Christel while I was packing up but when I looked up I saw a few people going over to help her where she had landed on the other side of the road in a rocky area. Tom drove his truck over to help her get back to the camp area. After C.J. got packed up after her short flight we hung out for a while before deciding to see if there would be another shuttle. Craig’s wife, Shirleyann (?), offered to drive us up with Patricia, and Peter who needed to retrieve his truck. On the way up, Peter met his truck being driven down. Not long after 1500, just as we were arriving at the top of the butte, Randy Lettau ran into a dustdevil when he was taking off from the south launch. I did not see the accident but other witnesses said his wing took a big collapse on the left side (others said the right side) and he was spun to the left and then dropped about ten feet to land on the rocky ground on his left side. (Randy thought that he had landed on his feet first). There was a ding in his helmet over his forehead, and he reported hearing/feeling cracking in his neck area. The only pain he was feeling was high on his neck, he was able to move all extremities and there seemed to be no bone or joint damage according to Matt, a local pilot and EMT on the scene. Karen Ely, an ER nurse, also checked Randy over. Soon afterward, Mark Larson, an ER doctor and pilot from Olympia, arrived and agreed with Matt’s assessment. He removed Randy’s helmet and we got the harness disconnected (Randy Sprague cut just the tip of one strap so we could unthread it from the buckle.) Meanwhile, medical aid had been requested and two Kitsap County fire/aid units responded within an hour. The commander of the unit took into account the injury and the roughness of the road and called for a helicopter evacuation. Randy had a c-collar applied and was carefully rolled onto a backboard; a head-bed kept his neck from moving. C.J. and I drove back down with Rick and Matt before the helicopter arrived (in fact, we were back at the LZ before it got there). After watching the helicopter land on the ridge in a big cloud of dust, load Randy on board and take off again, we drove down to Big Pines CG to meet up with Chris, waiting there for Patricia who had hiked down from launch with Sabrina. We hung out with the RPC gang and even got to try Wayne’s Ninebot, an electric unicycle, definitely a challenge to ride. Griz had an even larger one which I understood to be considerably more expensive than Wayne’s $600 one. After giving Sabrina a ride to the LZ, we drove into E-burg and got gas at Circle-K (2.929) on the way to the Yellow Church Café. Chris and Patricia helped drive Randy’s Jeep to Rick’s home and then joined us at about 1930. We had a good dinner of pork street tacos, Caesar salad and Thai shrimp stirfry in a green curry sauce (and a local ale). During dinner we received word that x-rays indicated that Randy had sustained a fracture of C-2 and was being flown to Harborview in Seattle for treatment. [Later Randy reported that the fracture was “very stable” and would require only a neck brace for three months.]  We He also had some bruising on his heel so it appears that he did hit feet first.] We headed home about 2030 and traffic was minimal. We made a pit stop at Snoqualmie Pass just after we noticed that there was a little mouse running around just below our windshield in the windshield wiper area. We couldn’t remove it even after we opened the hood. He was still there when we arrived home around 2200 and parked out in front of the hedge. We hadn't got awesome flights but there's more to a fly-in than the flying. It was a good time to visit with people we don't see all that often.

Inkler’s Point Fly-in

14-17 July 2017

We had heard about the new site near Chewelah in Eastern Washington over two years ago. And C.J. had even written an article about it for the magazine. But we hadn’t managed to get over there and see it for ourselves. When Steve Baran of Center of Lift announced a fly-in to be held there, we put it on our calendar.

14 July, Fri – We originally wanted to get started on Thursday but the part I needed to get the trailer tail lights working wasn’t supposed to arrive before the 13^th (As it happened, the T-One wiring harness by Tekonsha showed up on the 12^th and I got it installed the same day replacing the Curt wiring harness which had malfunctioned). We got going around 0830 and took I-90 all the way to Spokane where we got off near the airport to go to a Walmart to get a collapsible water container to replace the one I had left in the garage. We ended up with four one-gallon bottles of water instead of a 5-gal jug of questionable quality (and a bag of delicious red cherries). Then we drove through Spokane on US 395 and stopped at Costco for gas (not the usual Costco we have stopped at on previous trips in Spokane Valley). The traffic was pretty slow on a Friday afternoon but we got to the LZ and camp area sometime after 1600. No one was there and we were out of cell phone reception for ATT. Still, Steve must have seen us arrive from the upper launch and drove down to welcome us. Conditions for flying for the mostly hang glider crowd was “not soarable” but Don Croft flew his paraglider and managed a soaring flight and another PG also flew but did not soar. [Later Don did a little scooter towing] Since the newly bulldozed road to upper launch was serious 4WD, we couldn’t go up to check out conditions so we just hung out meeting and visiting with the local pilots and those from Canada (Simon Mitchell and others) and Montana (Paul Roys, Mike Zuchetto, and others). No one else showed up from western Washington. We set up our Alps Mountaineering shade structure to add to the market umbrella Steve had erected at the tables he was using for registration ($25 each plus 2 t-shirts @ $10 ea). Overnight it cooled down and we had a spectacular thunder and lightning show with just a little rain. I got up in time to put the solar panel in the car before the controller got wet.

15 July, Sat – About eight of us went in to Valley, a small town just a mile or two to the south, at the end of the Inkler ridge. We found Mama’s Café which turned out to be quite nice. After breakfast Steve took us on a tour to the upper launch at Inkler’s and then down through the Wuesthof’s compound and out their paved driveway to CR 231. Later, Steve decided that we should give Parker Mountain, just a few miles away, a try. We drove over to the LZ (1670’); I left our vehicle there and we rode up with Steve and others. We had to pass through a gate (birth-7, same as the combo at the LZ) but the road was 2WD. [From the LZ on Cottonwood Road, head east on 2888 for one mile, just before a rocky cliff on the right take a right fork and drive through the forest breaking out in a clearing below launch (possible bailout below road), after re-entering the woods, turn left uphill just before another clearing. Launch is a large clearing at about 2950’ big enough for setup and launching two gliders at once]. The sky showed dark clouds with virga in the distance but coming toward us and we did get showered on. Almost everyone set up but only Steve flew and he had a sledder. We drove down with Tony Policani and headed back to camp and the LZ (1670’). Later we rode up to Inkler’s upper launch (2360’) with Steve, and C.J. managed to launch before the wind picked up. I packed up (difficult on the moon dust-covered surface). A bunch of hang gliders (6?) launched and soared in the strong winds. I was ready to head down, but just before sunset the wind moderated and launch conditions improved. I had a scenic sunset flight pushing farther to the north each time until I was soaring over the lower launch and even got to the NW end of the ridge overlooking Rte. 231. After returning to the upper launch I tried going south as far as I could, almost to Valley, then back to the LZ where C.J. was holding our wind streamer for me as I came in over the hang gliders (about 22 min). The high 90 deg temperatures dropped as the sun set again.

16 July, Sun – We prepared our own breakfast (although Steve and Susan went a few miles up the road to the Chewelah Casino and found a Sunday brunch which he said provided enough food for three meals). Later Steve took us up to see the lower launch (2160) which has less parking and set-up room than the upper launch. Then continued up to upper launch where conditions did not look good. We returned to the LZ passing the Wuesthof’s (Shawn and Stephania) house. Later Lance Stafford showed up with his PG and we rode up to the TO with him. Conditions looked light enough for paragliders (all the hangs were waiting for it to get “better”) so I laid out and took off. I was more confident about the site this time and was able to get above the takeoff to 2700’ and boat around for 17 min before landing in strange conditions. It felt like I was on a conveyor belt as I flew and flew staying less than 10 ft above the ground before landing. Lance had a very short flight while I was in the air. C.J. did not launch until conditions improved later, but she had a short (5 min) flight. Her landing was also strange with her getting dumped from a few feet up and the wing blowing over her head as though she was landing downwind. Later we noted some dust devils, so weird things were happening. I finally got around to putting the tiedown on the trailer as it got gusty. We had been thinking that maybe we would stay the night and then head back via US 20 over Sherman Pass the next day, but Steve asked us if we’d like to spend the night at his house. A shower sounded good so we agreed. Meanwhile, Tony had some food left over and proposed a trial run on a group barbecue for the next Inkler Fly-in. Conrad Agte and John ___ were still around although Susan had taken off earlier. I was still thinking that conditions might improve for another evening flight but the gusts or dust devils continued and by 1700 we were thinking that the flying was over. On consideration, it didn’t make sense to drive 33 miles back toward Spokane making our trip on Monday even longer, so we decided to take a rain check on Steve’s offer and start west as soon as we could get packed up. It was probably after 1800 when we headed north through Chewelah and along the Colville River valley to Colville and then Kettle Falls where we crossed the Columbia River and entered the Colville National Forest. In ten miles or so we found a Forest Service Campground at Canyon Creek. There was no water or trash but there was a trail that went along the creek which made for a pleasant walk. Plus, there were huckleberries for the picking. We had already had dinner so we settled for a bit of dessert before bedtime in the cool forest air.

17 Jul, Monday – We got a reasonably early start and stopped just up the road a short distance at an old CCC camp where a stream had been dammed to form a small lake for recreation. More recently the silted-in lake had been undammed and the streambed made to look natural again. We stopped at Sherman Pass CG and info, and at an information overlook about the White Mountain fire. We stopped again in Republic for information at the Ranger Station. Then we drove down to Tonasket and south on 97 to Omak where we got gas (2.749). We left 97 at Okanogan and drove over Loup Loup Pass on US 20 which appeared to have had some pretty bad washouts that were being repaired. Hank’s Grocery in Twisp provided us with a good buy on red cherries and ice cream cones (4). That meant we didn’t have to worry about finding parking for the car and trailer in Winthrop. We stopped at the overlook at Washington Pass and walked the loop trail which has wonderful views of Liberty Bell and Early Winters Spires. Our next stop wasn’t until we reached Burlington where we got gas at Costco (2.549) and bought some oranges and a replacement headlamp for C.J. Traffic was surprisingly light passing through Everett and Bellevue and we were home around 1900.

18 Jul, Tues – We attended Tai Chi class at the Senior Center as usual. I picked a ton of berries; we’re running out of space in the freezer already. C.J. had forgotten that there was a NWPC meeting in the evening but we got ready to go with time to spare to pick up Wheely at Meadowbrook where he had landed. We dropped him off at the LZ and then got to Pogachas around 1900. Paul and Martin Palmaz were there doing a USHPA info Q and A session on the insurance issue. In addition, Ian talked about choosing a harness and showed some video about deploying a reserve when there is a lot of g-force (simulator near the LZ in Annecy). After the meeting I talked with Kim Smith about the fatal accident at Dog (he wasn’t there) and found out that Jerry Devlin had had a serious-injury crash while landing midday at Bremer.

19 Jul, Wed – The trailer brakes were not working (not unusual) and showed that they were not connected according to the Tekonsha brake controller on the trip to Inkler’s. I pulled off the right hub and everything looked okay, but the left-side brake magnet was totally unconnected. I checked with eTrailer.com and didn’t find magnets available but the whole brake assembly didn’t seem to be any more expensive than I remember the magnets to be. So, I ordered a pair. Later I managed to remove the four fasteners that hold the brake assembly to the axle using various wrenches including 11/16” sockets, crowfoot, and adjustable wrenches (I don’t have any 18mm wrenches which is probably the size I need).

20 Jul, Thu – Tai Chi. A little rain in the late morning. I finally got around to responding to a couple of nominations for USHPA awards. There haven’t been very many this year.

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.

Oceanside Open Fly-in 2016

29 April – 1 May

G flying his Swing Sensis at Cape Lookout

29 Apr, Fri – Left home at 0808; got gas at Covington; arrived Cape Lookout (CLO) State Park around 1320- so it was about five hours including the gas and a rest stop along I-5. We took our usual backroad route down getting off the freeway at Longview and crossing the Columbia. Then we left the highway and traveled through the gloomy forest (particularly in the off and on rain) passing through Vernonia and Timber. Eventually we intersected Rte 6 and followed that to Tillamook where we filled up again at Fred Meyer. There were lots of sites available at Cape Lookout State Park. Loop D was almost completely open with only a few of the 72 sites taken. Later, Loops A and B were opened as well. [All the stress of thinking that we might not have a place to camp could have been avoided by not calling for a reservation – all the reservable sites were taken in Loop C – and the reservation people did not know that the rangers keep Loop D for first-come-first-served camping (and A and B, too). Fortunately a ranger called me back after I left a message and told me about Loop D.]

We set up and then drove up to the CLO launch at Anderson’s Viewpoint passing some pilots (Sarah, for one) packing up in the group tent camp area. There was a large crowd of HG and PG pilots waiting for the wind to pick up. We schmoozed for a while then drove up over the summit and down to the Sand Lake off-road park (USFS) to see if we could figure out the site where people had reported flying. We tried the day use area near the West Winds CG (parking on asphalt right up against the sand) and couldn’t see an obvious flying site. In retrospect, we were looking at the backside of the dune so it would not have been obvious. We checked the other campground which was nicer (more like a typical FS CG) but it was full of ORVs. Sites 1-62 were all reservable at least four days in advance (and full) and only a dozen or so other sites were first-come-first-served – and they looked full also. It didn’t look like a pleasant place to camp. We also looked at Waldron Island County Park as we drove past but that was expensive requiring an $11 reg. fee and then $21 per night. That seemed like a bit much, but I might be spoiled because the park access pass for disabled veterans I requested from Oregon provided free camping in all state parks.

Derek kiting at Cape Kiwanda

We headed on to Cape Kiwanda where we drove on well-packed sand to the much-eroded dune. Brad and Maren were there as well as the Brockway clan and a bunch of others but there was not much action on the dune in the light-wind conditions. [We ran into Cliff ? who was the guy who has been flying the Sand Lake site – he said you can drive out to the beach but you have to go down a slope (and back up it to return) which he does in his pickup with normal tires but he said it helps to get up some speed on the packed sand before heading up the slope. The northern part of the dune works in SW winds, and the southern section is better for NW winds.] A squall line approached providing increasing wind but shortly after that it rained pretty hard soaking the erstwhile dune flyers. Remembering that I had not secured the roof of the Aliner with the strap, we decided to go back and take care of that before the winds caused us any problems. We returned to the CLO launch and stayed there for a while watching one PG launch and sink out and then, when the wind picked up and white caps approached, another launched and went straight up then out to the diminishing beach at the LZ on speedbar. Shortly thereafter, HGs began to launch, a few rigids and then Rick Lai on his single surface Freedom who seemed to be doing okay even in the stronger winds. C.J. reminded me that we needed to go to the CG and secure the trailer roof (oops!) so we did that. Just as we passed the beach we saw Rick land. After getting the strap in position and the inside bar hooked up, we drove north to Oceanside having heard that there would be early registration from 1700-1900. No one was at the community center so I guess the rumor was wrong. Back at camp we talked with Orv as he was breaking down in an A-Loop campsite. We could see two or three rigids in the distance to the northeast. Another single surface launched from CLO as we watched so the takeoff was still working at least for HGs. Back at the trailer C.J. prepared a stir-fry with ham and veggies, and we had blubarb crisp for dessert. The sun sank into the gray clouds but it stayed light quite late as C.J. worked on her Thailand article.

30 Apr, Sat – Up at 0700 and drove in to Oceanside for registration at 0900 and then a scheduled meeting at 1000. Knowing that wind speeds at CLO might increase later, we skipped the meeting, and with with Josh, Chris and Patricia drove right to launch where conditions were still light – not quite soarable yet. We got ready to go anyway and as the next group started to launch the wind increased just enough to make it soarable. I was fourth or fifth (Josh was second) and had a good reverse inflation and got off cleanly. There was enough lift to stay up and climb very slowly from the

View north from CLO at 1500 ft.

340ft launch. I was working back and forth and then concentrated on a bump just north of the first big gap. I was at seven or eight hundred feet when the first PG (an Artik 2?) went across to the cape itself…and he was below me. I tentatively pushed out into the gap then turned back to be sure that I could return – no problem. So I crossed with light lift all the way and continued surfing up to over the top of the 850-ft cape ridge where there was a great view to the south – Sand Lake all the way down to Kiwanda. No one was trying for the west end of the cape, about two miles away, so I returned to the north side of the gap; it was slow going. A message on the radio warned that the wind was stronger from the north above 1500 ft and I was already above 1400. I tried getting lower by flying out over the ocean but the lift band was very wide. Still, I was mostly making speeds in the low teens (km) as I pushed north so I felt comfortable about staying up a bit longer. The air was very smooth (except where the increasing number of paragliders caused some wake turbulence). I headed NE to see whether there would be lift above the new clearcut that extends all the way down to the road but there was nothing and I returned to the area behind launch and out toward the gap, once again getting up to near 1500 ft. I repeated the circuit to the clearcut and back to TO and behind. By then my timer was closing in on one hour so I started flying north and descending out beyond the beach. I got as far as the end of the CG A Loop before turning back and flying (fast) downwind to where a just-placed orange cone marked the “spot”. Turning into the wind on final I had a moment of flying backwards before I pushed speed bar and crept forward to within the outer circle (not drawn yet) for about 1hr05min. I was able to collapse my wing with my brakes and got it bundled up so I could carry it over the rocky berm to the empty group camp where others were packing up. I hadn’t seen C.J. for a long time although I flew with her for a little while during our flights. She had forward-launched sometime after me and when she landed (and then been dragged through the sand a bit) had flown about 1hr11min. After packing up I got a ride to our car with Mike and Christel. C.J. and I returned to the trailer to eat lunch in the sunshine at our picnic table. The wind had picked up and the sky was pretty much empty of PGs, but the HGs were having their turn.

C.J. on the edge of the CLO trail

We drove up to the Cape Lookout trailhead parking lot which was overflowing with cars, but we managed to find a spot (1430). Expecting a crowded trail we were unsurprised to be passed by parties in both directions, but it was still a magnificent trail. It was noticeably warmer on the south side of the Cape and, when the trail zigged to the north, windward, side, it was chilly. We met Josh, Michelle and Christina Ammond, and the Brockways (minus Derek) as they returned from as far as they had gone. The trail ends abruptly on a point on the southwest end where the cliffs drop sheer to the water (as they did in several places along the trail. There were maybe 8-10 people hanging out in the sunshine. On the way back we encountered Brad and Bianca; we must have missed Maren somehow. We got back to the parking lot around 1730 quite tired as the trail was uphill most of the way back.

After changing clothes back at the trailer we drove into Tillamook for the dinner at the Elks Lodge. We had a drink  while waiting for the buffet to open at 1930. There were lots of people to visit with as something like 90 had signed up, a big change from the previous year. We still filled out our pilot reports although we figured we had no chance at any of the prizes with so many people getting good flights. Dinner consisted of a good salad bar and then an interesting lasagna plus some green beans and toasted garlic bread. Later, at the raffle, I got one of the pilot prizes – a radio harness. It was kind of bulky and neither C.J, nor I needed one, so I passed it on to Patricia who had moments before been talking about needing a radio harness. During the awards we were surprised to have three of us from our table receive duration prizes, one-liter engraved glass steins – Josh, C.J. and me. On the hang gliding side, Ray Berger got the duration award for something like four-and-a-half hours, Rick Lai was second with over three hours. There were also awards for spot landing. Fading fast, we left at 2130.

1 May, Sun – We got up a little later than on Saturday, had breakfast and didn’t pack up very much before heading down to the community center at Oceanside to see what the consensus was about “weather to fly”. C.J. went down the street to see what CJ’s group was doing and I talked a bit with Reed about the Oceanside launch and the high launch at Cliffside, also one of his projects. No one seemed excited about the flying prospects for the predominantly east-wind, so we decided to head

C.J. and Vince at new ramp on Maxwell Mountain, Oceanside

home. First though we wanted to see the launch up on Maxwell Mtn. We took Vince Collins up with us because he had his new SylvanSport trailer hooked up to his truck. The west-facing takeoff had been built up to make a wide ramp and covered with thick Astroturf, a big change. Reed said that once the pilots figured out that west was the wind direction that gave them the most soaring area, the west launch became the favored takeoff. The other addition to the site was a blue faux British Police Callbox (The TARDIS of Dr. Who fame) built around the porta-potty to shield it from the view of the homeowners on the north end of the launch area.
C.J. and I returned to the campground and it took about a half hour to pack up and get on our way. We stopped to say goodbye to Chris and Patricia and Josh and Michelle and then we hit the road. It was another beautiful, sunny day but the wind was quite strong from the east and it didn’t look as though the conditions would change. We made an important stop just north of Tillamook to have an early dessert of Tillamook ice cream – three flavors for $5. Next time we should try the sampler which is five flavors for $5.25. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot but the line for ice cream was negligible – nothing like what Mark Forbes had reported on Saturday. It may have helped that it was only 1115. After enjoying our ice cream in the sunshine on the patio, we headed north on 101. Traffic was not a problem but it was a good thing that we didn’t want to stop at any of the state beaches – the parking lots we saw were all full and overflowing. We crossed into Washington over the long bridge after filling up with gas at Costco (Warrenton). We must have been early enough that there were next to no traffic slowdowns as we made our way along I-5 north of Olympia. We made one longish stop to fill the tank at Covington and shop for some groceries, saving a trip into Issaquah on Mon or Tues. That put us home at 1730, about six hours after leaving Oceanside. Considering the long stop at Covington, it wasn’t much longer via the coastal route than by I-5. We were pretty tired from not only the long drive but also our flight and hike the previous day. It was one of the best Oceanside fly-ins we have attended.

Frostbite 2016

George above Area 151                         by David Le

 Three days of glorious sunshine (ignoring the gloomy mornings) provided more flying than any recent fly-in that I can remember. The wind was too strong during the middle of the day for paragliders at Dog, probably a good thing, but in the evening the white caps on the lake went away. Meanwhile, Bremer and Area 151 were producing good PG flights with four pilots making the 12.5-mile trip to Dog from 151 on Friday. There was a great turnout of hang glider pilots at Frostbite but C.J. was not among them having left her wing at home – she had had surgery to remove a skin cancer on her upper right arm on Tuesday and her doctor gave strict instructions to do nothing that would rip the stitches out.

8 April, Fri. – We got started around 0930 with the trailer but no hang glider and reached Dog before noon (gas at Costco in Covington - 207.9). C.J. helped Tina by doing the registration while I helped Brian Scott and others gather driftwood for the bonfire. C.J. had realized by now that she had forgotten to pick up her Ozone backpack with her computer so she would not be able to work on her article for the magazine during the weekend. Later, as the sun got lower, Larry and Tina figured that everything was set-up and went up for an evening flight. I got a ride up with them. While they set up, a mini-wing pilot flew. I waited until all the HGs had launched and the wind had switched to the north before setting up. Kim and the mini-wing pilot showed up and launched before me after several tries. [Before they took off we saw more PGs in the air – they hadn’t launched from Dog. Later we found that they had come from Area 151(Brent Taylor, Gene Beaver, Dave Auman and ?)]. It took me several tries as well and Tim had set up and launched his HG before I got off. It was nicely soarable on the north side and I climbed to 3200 feet but didn’t try to reach the microwave. Hang gliders were over at Elk but I didn’t think I could get back if I went over there, so I tried flying north to the ridge near the boat ramp. I was almost there and down to 1700 ft when I saw a hang heading back low. Figuring that there was no lift, I turned back and zoomed to the LZ and then climbed on the point and all the way back above TO where I saw another PG struggling with the launch. I went back toward the north again, then turned back to the LZ. While I was still pretty high I got rocked with some big turbulence, and when I was flying my cross-wind leg I was hit by a gust that blew me downwind into the high grass. I turned sharply back and it looked like I was about to land outside the mowed area when another gust lifted me and slid me left into the field for a good landing. Later C.J. and I had dinner in the trailer where it was relatively warm compared to the dropping temperatures and breeze outside.

9 Apr, Sat – Cold night and a gloomy, low-cloudbase morning. I hung out while C.J. worked on registration hauling in money hand-over-fist as a record number of hang glider pilots signed in. Around noon I was surprised to see a paraglider setting up to land because I hadn’t seen any PGs launch. It turned out to Matty Senior on a paramotor; he and Josh had launched from the airstrip in Eatonville and flown past Mt. Rainier to reach the Dog LZ. Josh had run low on gas and had turned west to almost reach the Morton Airport. Matty thought that he could borrow someone’s car at Area 151 so he could retrieve his van from Eatonville. I gave him a ride over there and picked up Josh on the way at Skaggs Road. A few PGs were flying down from Area 151 and after packing up Vince and Adam and David Le decided to go back up. I threw in with them. On launch we could see a number of wings at Bremer, some sinking to the bailout, some getting up. After some time, two of the pilots reached 151 and began soaring near launch. That was a good clue that it was soarable; Adam (he of the Einstein hair) took off but missed the cycle and sank out. I was luckier and got into the lift; I flew a ridge lift pattern with a wing from Bremer for a while then started trying to circle in thermal lift. As I got a bit above the trees on launch I tried going back into the bowl behind and working the face. After a couple of tries I was able to stick and Vince and David came over and climbed with me and above. At one point I was

George at Area 151

high enough to look directly at snow-covered St. Helens and realized the other peak must be Adams, not Rainier. [Probably we were all thinking about the flights to Dog on the previous day but no one made a move to fly to the next ridge (Hopkins?) and I had left my phone in the car anyway.] I tried going back toward launch and then headed west from there gradually climbing until I got over the valley rim at around 2500ft. The air was getting somewhat more textured and I decided to fly out into the valley. I circled the edge of Area 151 and worked down. I was rocked by turbulence on a high downwind leg and again when I turned on final but landing was smooth. After packing up I and most of the paras went over to Dog for the dinner which was just beginning at about 1730. At least four went up to join the two PGs which were flying now that the wind had moderated. Whether on purpose or just by happenstance, there never were more than five PGs in the air at any time. Dinner was good with lots of tasty stuff including C.J.’s “blubarb crisp” (with a can of whipped cream). I hung out a while around the fire but I wasn’t prepared to sit through a lot of amplified music from the stage (back of Dave’s U.S. Army flatbed truck) so I headed back to the trailer pretty early. When C.J. got back it was cold enough that we ran the heater for a while before going to bed with an extra quilt. It turned out that once the cloud cover formed, it didn’t get very cold after all.

10 Apr, Sun – Another cold and gloomy morning with low cloudbase. I hung around the trailer for a while, took a walk to the north on the delta as far as the creek, came back and had some lunch. Matty and Josh were already back from their Sunday flight from Packwood up toward Rainier and back. The sky had cleared and people were flying so I headed over to Area 151 to see what the PGs were up to. I had missed a trip up to Bremer again; some had flown back to 151. Kraske had headed to Dog to pick up a Dog key, Brent had packed up his trailer and headed home, Vince was gone. Rob, Adam and another ex-HG from Portland were still around and eventually decided to go up to 151 TO. It was gusting on launch and didn’t feel like it would be friendly air so we waited for an hour. Finally I decided to give up and everyone but Adam agreed. He launched and sank right out. We drove down and I returned to Dog where I packed up the trailer while the spot landing awards were given out. C.J. and I left around 1700 and were home around 1900. It was a different Frostbite without C.J. flying.

11 Apr, Mon – I disconnected the trailer and washed the accumulated grime off it. Then I set it up and unloaded the fridge and dumped the porta-potty. As I was setting up the trailer I noticed that the aluminum trim on the driver’s side A-wall was loose near the front. I drilled a 7/64-in hole and put a bolt in to keep it in place. Then I sliced and scraped and used solvent to remove some worn weather-stripping from the curbside aluminum roof support. I installed a new length of open-cell foam weather-stripping. That should be good for a while although every time I close the roof, one side scrapes against the weather-stripping and abrades it. I left the Renogy solar panel in the trailer; it had worked very well at Dog keeping the battery fully charged so that we could run our lights, water pump and the propane furnace (as well as charge my phone). I blew a fuse when I hooked it up to the wrong polarity – but that’s what fuses are for, I guess. (I need to replace 15A fuse.)

Baldy Butte Fly-in

25-27 September 2015

C.J. and ? soaring at Baldy Butte

C.J. included this fund raising fly-in when she wrote about events to consider for next fall; she also described some of the far-away celebrations of free flight such as the Ellenville National Fly-in and the  Dixon White Memorial Fly-in at The Craters near Flagstaff, Arizona.

26 Sep, Sat - We didn't head over until pretty late and when we got to the Lmuma campground next to the LZ, there was only one site left. I.m sure we could have parked almost anywhere since we didn't need a formal site with a table and fire ring, and the "iron ranger" was sealed up with plastic wrap and tape indicating that there was no fee for camping. After hanging out for a while with the other pilots (and eating a fresh-picked apple) we realized that the increasingly strong winds would preclude flying for the rest of the day. So we drove back up the river to Umtanum Canyon trail and hiked the trail. We found a piece of high ground to have lunch and turned back after about three miles. We ran into a few other hikers and three mountain bikers plus a few deer. There were no signs of the abandoned homestead except for a few fruit trees and some old fence posts. There were, however, lots of beaver sign. Back at the LZ Naomi and others were setting up for the potluck. One of the local guys, Rick Ely, was going to grill some sausages and other goodies. As it got dark, it got colder and the windchill increased as well. No fires were permitted due to the terrible fire season we were having, particularly in eastern Washington. So, after eating, most folks headed for tents, cars or RV's to stay warm. As did we.

G with his new Sensis  (B Hobson)

27 Sep, Sun - After breakfast and a bit of hanging around we scored a ride up the hill in Rick's pickup. There were the usual bighorn sheep on the ridge below launch - pretty cool to see them. On launch the pilots who arrived earlier were at the east end of the ridge up near the tower. There was a light and variable breeze but mostly from the E and NE. A few people launched and finally someone seemed to find lift out away from the hill. I launched to the NE after a few aborts and found some workable lift out to the NE and got up over launch. I worked farther out to 3900 and then it got bumpy so I headed west across the river to the ridge on the far side. No lift at all even as far as the high point, so I returned to the LZ and landed E which was downwind, fortunately light. C.J. got a good flight and after schmoozing around for a while we packed up and hit the road for home.

G launching  (photo by Bonnie Hobson)

C.J. flying her new Golden4

View from Umtanum Canyon