Flying a New Site in January

Eagle Caves is a little site just above the town of The Dalles. I must have driven past it 50 times on the way to Cliffside but I've never flown it.

Today's forecasts in the gorge were reasonable, but it wasn't clear if it was a hiking or a flying day. The west end of the gorge had decent hiking forecasts (somewhat clear but windy) and the east end seemed better for flying (gray, cold, damp but soarable). Forecast meet reality as I drove through the Gorge and the result was disappointing.

Even the west end of the gorge was gray and cloudy and the east end was even worse. Nowhere looked to be fun for hiking but Eagle Caves was out of the clouds and seemed to be soarable. So that's where I ended up with (thanks to cell phones) a handful of other pilots.

It was cold, damp, gray and grim. But it was easily soarable, and that's hard to turn down in January. You couldn't go anywhere except soar the ridge just above the town. Everything was a shade of gray - like watching television when I was young. After around an hour's soaring I stopped fighting my frozen fingers and headed out to land.

Not exactly classic flying, but it's always nice to fly a new site and to get some airtime in winter.

Some black and white photographs -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/EaglesCaves10Jan#

Stolen Coastal Flight

Today's forecasts weren't very encouraging but they weren't bad either - showery and strong, but with a decent direction and lapse rate. Things were a little complicated because several sites had encouraging forecasts and monster high tides were due for the coast around 1.15.

After some debate, Steve and I headed to Ecola - a beautiful coastal site, but where the beaches aren't usable at high tide (so top-landing is mandatory). Monster seas and threatening skies made the no-fly decision for me. Steve flew very briefly, but a shower curtailed his flight almost immediately.

Things got worse, so we headed South to Oceanside. There we had soaring flights of 20-30 minutes with a handful of pilots that had spent much of the afternoon waiting there. Conditions were more reasonable (less threatening weather, easy to land on the beach) but still not great. The wind was from the S, which allows you to stay aloft at Oceanside, but makes it hard to go anywhere. There were some threatening clouds out to sea that dissipated without causing problems. I flew my speedwing and kept my eyes on the weather, happy for some air-time.


Some pics at -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Oceanside02Jan#

Last Flight of the Year

For several days, today's forecast has looked promising for flying, at least in relative terms - a day of showers surrounded by days of rain. A bit of a crap-shoot, but at least a chance of some decent flying. But yesterday afternoon - contrary to the forecasts - it started snowing and there was still a lot of snow on the ground this morning.
But the roads didn't seem too bad and Steve and I headed to the coast in his trusty van, through rain, sleet and snow - to reach sun, blue skies and friendly winds. What a contrast!

The winds weren't terribly strong, but it was nicely unstable and very easily soarable. I launched first, Steve joined me and we flew around Oceanside for the next couple of hours. The wind was basically SW and we had a few trips S down to the Capes and back to launch before some rain clouds seemed to be heading our way. We headed S to the Capes, Steve went on to Netarts, I decided to head back as the clouds passed to the N to get the van.

Not too bad for the end of the year!

Some photos -> http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Oceanside30Dec#

Coping with Winter

One thing I've been pleased with this winter is not trying too hard to fly. When conditions have been half-reasonable, I've flown and enjoyed it - even if it has been a sled ride. I've had a few hike and flys and really enjoyed them - the flying tends to be unremarkable, but I enjoy the contrast of hiking and flying.

I have avoided trying to fly on gray, cold, damp days. Sometimes these days turn out to be perfectly soarable but even then it's not a lot of fun. And of course many times they aren't flyable or you wait around all day for a sled ride. So instead I've been doing quite a bit of hiking and enjoying that.

We've passed the winter solstice and the days are slowly getting longer - yippee!

Bingen Hike and Fly

Flying has been predictably poor for the last few weeks. Most of the long-range forecasts have been showing a full set of rain symbols. Sometimes you notice that, in four days, there is only a 60% chance of rain and hope you can do some flying then. Then you can try to separate the rain days from the showers days, wondering if you can squeeze in a flight between the showers. Generally, of course, these hopes are all in vain.

As a result, I've been doing a lot of hiking and very little flying. Today, things were good enough to take my wing with me for the hike. I took my lightweight kit, parked my car at the Marina at Bingen and had a really nice hike up through the woods to launch. Lightweight kit makes all the difference in such hikes; the sun was out, I could see Mt Hood, everything felt good.

I arrived at the W launch in no wind, but I decided to go over to the S launch - I was worried there still was a slight E flow. There was no wind at launch, I knew I didn't have enough time for two flights, so I ate my lunch and relaxed before flying down to the river. A no-wind launch, a no-wind landing and my vario didn't beep once on the flight - but I still really enjoyed it!

Some pics at ->


http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Bingen23Nov#

Playing Hooky

My employer (Autodesk) is very understanding; they let me organize my work around my flying. Today's forecast was reasonable, the next few days look dire, so when an afternoon meeting got cancelled I headed out on the long drive to Cliffside. There were around 8 other pilots there when I arrived.

It was a little too light and everyone was struggling to stay up. It is very easy to top-land at Cliffside (at least 90% of my top-landings have been there) so, when the lift starts failing, you try to top land before you get flushed. Surprisingly, conditions improved as the afternoon went on. You couldn't get very high (the most I managed was barely 200ft above launch) but staying up slowly became easy. Very smooth lift - hardly a bump. At the end of the day, Mark and I were left, flying at will. Lots of top landings, plenty of touch and goes and a whole bunch of fun.

Fall Flying at Bingen

Saturday was pretty dismal but on Sunday a variety of contradictory forecasts encouraged me to head through to the Gorge. The clocks went back during the night and winter is definitely approaching. I feel a little bit like a bear eating as much as it can before hibernation - one more decent flight before the winter! There were around 12 pilots on the West launch, including Jim B. and Mark who I hadn't seen since the early summer. Conditions were very light but the weather and views were fantastic.

There didn't seem much point waiting; it didn't look as though conditions would improve quickly. The first few pilots to launch didn't find much lift so I wasn't surprised when I launched towards the middle of the group and struggled. There was some lift, just not quite enough to stay up. I scratched a little as pilots headed to the LZ; towards the end Mark and I were left by ourselves trying to resist gravity. I caught a little thermal, but it only delayed the inevitable. Fun but a little frustrating!

There was a lot of debate in the LZ. The wind seemed to be switching from the W to the E; should we head to Cliffside? The information we had was sketchy, I was reluctant to commit to an hour's drive when Bingen was working reasonably well. This view prevailed, so we went back up the hill.

Bingen has a S launch and a W launch, but it is in the gorge and that funnels any wind either W or E. In reality the S launch can only be used in very light winds. The S launch seemed fine, but I wanted to check the W launch first; after checking it with four others we came back to the S launch. By this time, others had launched and were low, in scratching mode.

I launched and found a nice thermal that got me 600 ft over launch, with wonderful views of Adams to the N. The wind at altitude was clearly from the East. I flew over launch a couple of times before heading East. I hoped to get a good thermal away from the hill and get high enough to have a mini-XC to the W, but no such luck. I ended up scratching and eventually landing in the LZ.

Everyone was pretty happy with their day; when the weather is nice, even a sled ride at Bingen is good! I headed home early, with the roof down in my car, pretending it was the summer.

Pics->http://picasaweb.google.com/DMMullin/Bingen01Nov#
Tracklogs -> http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/284836, http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/284835