Reproduced from the monthly newsletter.
Contents:
Beach CleanupClub Sponsored Events
Trip Report - Canada
Hat Creek Scratch-off
Flying The Gorge
Get Your Official BAPA Sweatshirts
Paragliding Addiction
Monthly Meeting Minutes
BAPA Annual Beach Cleanup
Dave Sondergeld
Date: September 23
Time: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Location: Stables parking Lot
Once again it is time for our annual beach cleanup. Our cleanup corresponds to the "Adopt a Beach" cleanup held nationwide. We will be setting up a table in the Stables parking lot and the State Parks department will supply us with trash bags. This cleanup has been sponsored by BAPA for the past four years and has helped keep the coastside clean in the Thornton Beach area. The cleanup is not limited to BAPA members, so feel free to bring friends and family. It is also a good idea to bring a pair of work gloves. For more information feel free to call me at 415-756-4530.
Thanks & Hope to see you at the cleanup!
BAPA Event Calendar
Mike Yost, Activities Director
September 9th
Potato Hill Cross Country Challenge!
Get ready for fun and adventure. Potato Hill is about 3-4 hours from the Bay Area (depending on where you start and how fast you drive!). Its in the Mendocino National Forest, west of I-5. Sort of the interior version of Elk Mountain with one major difference: you can take a two wheel drive up to launch! The closest town is Stonyford, which also happens to be a great cross country destination from the Potato Hill launch.
Rules for the contest: Fly as far as you can toward the town of Stonyford. If you reach the town, head south following the highway. (If no one goes cross country, the prizes will be awarded for highest altitude gain.)
Prizes!
First place: Panoramic Helmet or new Flight Suit (size is winners choice)
Second place: Quick-out Parabiners
Third place: Giant Wind Sock.
Prizes donated by Wings and Things Paragliders.
For more information, call Mike at 415-574-8895
September 23rd through October 1st
Owens Valley at Its Best
Thermal and Cross Country Clinic with Kari Castle. This event will include expert instruction, "rides to launch", XC retrieval, and lectures concerning XC and thermalling. Cost $600. For more information contact Kari Castle at 619-872-2087.
October
Baja Mexico Trip
CANCELLED - due to lack of interest.
October 26th through 30th Owens Valley Tour
Thermal and Cross Country Clinic with Kari Castle. This event will be for BAPA members ONLY - limited to 6 pilots. Cost $300. For more information contact Mike Yost at 415-574-8895.
November 23rd through 26th
Thanksgiving San Diego Trip
The flying was so great in San Diego at Eastertime that BAPA's going back for Thanksgiving! We are going to fly Horse Canyon, Blossom, and Torrey Pines. We will be staying at the Goodnight Inn in El Cajon. Please make your reservations soon (rates from $34.95 per room): 619-286-7000. We will be sharing four wheel drive vehicles (cost depends on how many people sign up).
If you're interested, sign up by November 10th with Mike at 415-574-8895.
December 9th
BAPA Christmas Party
Start making plans for the end of year party that will feature a live lounge act, paragliding videos, and great food and drink with all your paragliding friends!
Canada Trip Summary
Mike Yost, BAPA Activities DirectorFor the second year in a row, Canada proved to be quite fun and exciting. We arrived on a Friday night in Calgary and proceeded to drive through the Canadian Rockies to the town of Golden, B.C. the next day. During the following eight days we had a total of five flying days. Conditions ranged from poor to excellent. We each had outstanding flights that pushed our limits and made us make critical decisions in our flight plans concerning alternate landing areas. On one occasion Dave Bingham and I waited several hours between rain squalls at the launch and somehow got this crazy idea that we could race this squall line that was heading for the primary LZ.
Guess who won? The squall. The problem was the strong wind preceding the squall. For this reason, you had to set up about a half mile upwind of the LZ. Dave played it smart and set up his approach this way and was able to fly backwards into the LZ and landed coming straight down below the wind gradient. I wasn't so lucky. The squall got pissed that Dave had won his race and decided to kick my butt. I came in over the LZ about 800ft over - I was at the downwind side parked with speed bar fully applied. I looked down and saw that I was not penetrating and was directly over power lines. I decided to run with the wind and find something downwind. Pilots on the ground told me afterward that when I turned downwind they had never seen a paraglider move so fast. I was screaming downwind over a neighborhood with menacing power lines all around. Beyond this neighborhood was a huge field of saw grass. I immediately came over the field and turned into the wind and did some ears to get down quickly. I immediately grabbed my glider and hiked toward the road where I saw Randy and Hero drive up. We stuffed the wing in the trunk right at the moment of the downpour. I donıt think I will try racing a squall again.
When the flying was excellent it was just like an elevator at Golden. I remember one flight my vario was beeping at 200-400 fpm for at least 15 minutes straight, while other flights it would scream at 1300 fpm for seconds. We all had flights to 3000ı over launch and once again Jim Wagner showed us how to go cross country by going 20 miles. The site-seeing during the non-flying days was fun and interesting. The scenic beauty of Canada is quite impressive.
BAPA pilots who came with me to Golden were: Randy Alflen, Rich Hular, Steve Rock, Dave Bingham, Jim Wagner, and Hero Miyazaki. What's special about Canada? It is never dull, the people are fantastic and the flying is great. We will be back next year for sure.
Scratch-Off at Hat Creek
Ann Sasaki"Well, it's pretty light, but it's not going to get any better, so we'd better launch now." Ha! Was I ever wrong about that.
Hat Creek on Saturday, July 29, 1995. The previous evening was a real disappointment with South winds which made reaching the LZ difficult, though do-able. Therefore, our expectations were somewhat low for Saturday's flying.
Michael van Keulen launched first into light conditions about 6:20 pm. I followed him and Ron Thompson was next, then Paul Peck. Julie Spiegler joined us shortly, then Gever Tulley. Also, Tim from Berkeley flying the mountains for the first time. We scratched for all we were worth and after a while four paragliders out of seven were still in the air. With only a few spots of weak thermal lift and areas of sink in between, this was not some easy, boating-around, "There's lift everywhere" flight. This was: one misjudgment, one wide or untimely turn, and you could be watching from the LZ and swatting mosquitoes.
I was on a northward leg around 7:30 pm and slightly higher than everyone else. I looked back over my shoulder and saw the other three simultaneously turn south. "They're on their way to the LZ," I thought smugly. "I can probably hang in here for a few more minutes and let them land before me."
Then magically, I found myself rising above the Rim for the first time that evening. Yes!! I came up and over and had a beautiful view east to the lake and hills behind. As I turned back south I saw that Ron, Julie, and Paul had also risen above the Rim and we were now in glass-off! It was as gorgeous and euphoric as we remembered it from previous years.
Meanwhile we started hearing grumbling from the LZ. "How long do you plan to be up there?" "I didn't expect to WATCH glass-off." Someone hit upon a bright idea and the LZ potatoes raced back up the hill and re-launched into glass-off. We cruised until 8:30 as the sun was setting. The view was stunning as usual with Lassen, Burney, and Shasta mountains framing the valley and the sun glowing orange. A really soulful place and a really rewarding flight. The icing on the cake was top-landing for the first time with a crowd of spectators (from Alaska!) and my pilot buddies telling me to hold out my hand and theyıd put rocks in it to weigh me down. The flying on Sunday was interesting. Gever and Julie had nice thermal flights in moderate lift around 10:00 am. Somehow I managed to have the absolute sled ride of the day, arriving in the LZ straight away. The hard part was launching since it was seriously dead on top and us coastal folk are not so hot at no-wind forward launches. Gever and Julie got the awards, Michael, Paul and I had to try twice (which led Paul to conclude that Michael's more exciting thermal flight should have been his if only Michael hadn't blown his launch and delayed Paul, or something along those lines....). Ron opted for a running reverse launch where he fabricated enough wind to get the wing up over his head before hurling himself into the void.
Michael and Ron were in the air around 11:30 am, a bit late for Hat Creek on a summer day. Sure enough, we were experiencing some BIG cycles in the LZ and they found them in the air. The Compact and Miura did some nice thermalling and we were all suitably impressed, sort of wishing it was us. However, when Michael's Compact surged violently forward and he was looking at his trailing edge in front of him, we changed our minds. Michael got rocked and rolled for a while and was probably thinking "Good thing I have this nice, stable wing which is sort of over my head." Ron watched this from above and said "Damn! Now I have to go through that to get down." But after putting on Big Ears at about 5000" and holding them to the LZ, he had a fairly smooth descent. Michael also landed safely and remarked that his flight was a bit more gripping than he had expected. After that, we headed to Wag's for brunch and felt that Hat Creek had once again come through as a beautiful place to spend the weekend, flying and hanging out.
I'm sure you're dying to know if we learned anything on our trip about flying conditions. Well, I won't disappoint you:
- As others have discovered before, Hat Creek in a South wind can be a bummer because it is hard to reach the LZ and you have few alternative spots to land. Do yourself a favor and don't fly north of the wind is from the south because that only makes things worse. (Duh)
- Does it ever get better if the howling afternoon winds drop quickly to light conditions? I said no, but I was mistaken. It didn't glass-off until one hour after the wind dropped.
- Should you wait for the wind to drop and then pick up again in glass-off? Well, I can't guarantee that it will ALWAYS follow this pattern. If it drops off, maybe that's it. As long as it's flyable, you may want to launch and do a little work staying in the lift and you may be rewarded as we were with a glass-off later.
- Don't plan to launch midday or in the afternoon. There is a small window in the morning before 11:00 when there is some thermal activity, but don't get your butt kicked. After 11:00 it depends. The pattern we've seen is that it picks up FAST and gets STRONG. The afternoon is almost always howling wind and unless you're a hangglider pilot, you're unlikely to want to launch before the wind really starts dying down.
- Be careful about scratching in the mountains. You may hit sudden lift or sudden sink which will be highly undesirable when very close to the ground, trees, the hillside or other wings. Don't demonstrate your ability to scrape within inches of the ridge while flying in the mountains.
- As I snuck in the minutes from last month, the wind often picks up considerably after the sun goes down at Hat Creek. If you are still in the air, it is wise to penetrate out in front of the ridge BEFORE sunset so you don't get nailed when this happens.
- On unflyable days at the coast, practice those no-wind forward launches so you don't have to be a launch lizard in the mountains. That way you can get off even if there aren't strong cycles. As we found on Sunday, it can be dead at launch but building and eventually booming over the valley.
The Gorge
Gerald "Penguin" MyersThe Columbia River Gorge is a 150 mile long East-West cut through the Cascade Mountains that provides a convenient place for the Columbia River to get to the ocean, and makes for a well demarcated boundary between Oregon and Washington. Because the Gorge is the only gap in the Cascades between Canada and Mexico, when the eastern desert heats up and creates a low, air from the cooler Pacific Ocean tends to move upstream taking the easiest way East -- through the Gorge. Laymen call this air movement 'wind'.
Shortly after the end of the Mesozoic era, I started grade school at Skamania on the Washington side of the Gorge. At that time the Gorge was most known for the timber coming out of it. These days, the action is at Hood River on the Oregon side, and the name of the action is windsurfing. Hood River has more windsurfing shops than any other city on the planet, and more than its share of personalized plates like WIND 4ME and WindEE and Wind1, sometimes on cars that have gear piled on top worth more than the car carrying it. A paraglider pilot here can feel right at home -- half the population (the 'boardheads') live and breath weather, weather in general and the location, direction, and speed of wind in various parts of the Gorge in particular. There is the regular weather channel; NOAA radio weather; a 900 number for wind predictions for the entire gorge or specific stretches of it; Windsight -- a subscription service that has windtalkers all over the place -- and 'Victor the Predictor' - Bart VervLoet on local radio with where it's happening wind reports sprinkled with Bart Speak, the best known of which is 'Attitude is Everything'. An official 'Sailable Day' is at least 3 hours average wind above 15 knots, and the hot shots pray for forty. You might think that with all this wind, is would be a lousy place to paraglide. You would be wrong.
There is a small but growing group of paraglider pilots, several of whom describe themselves as 'burnt out board heads', who are establishing some great flying sites along the Gorge. It's a natural sport for them, good for the days it is too calm to sail, and making use of their intimate knowledge of local wind conditions. There are several big secrets here, the first being that the Gorge has calm days even during the 'best' sailing months -- I got some great flights in the day before the opening of the Sailboard Nationals and the last day of the Nationals. The other secret is the variability that can exist along the length of the Gorge, with winds West to Hood River battling winds East coming downriver, making for a flyable convergence zone. There are also side trips up the Hood River Valley that work when the Gorge is a little too strong. Because the area is a bit new for general paragliding, there are also a number of sites that are still being explored or awaiting pioneering -- ideal for pilots with mountain experience to work with the locals on exploring. There are also several well developed Class 1 sites, but the area, so far, does not have any really good training sites.
It is always good advise to check in with the locals before you fly in a new area, but at the Gorge it is imperative. Many sites are very land-owner sensitive (it's OK to park here, but not there - 50 feet away), and the weather in the Gorge can change from flyable to hairy in a very short time. And, in truth, the Gorge does blow out a lot, especially in the summer. So rather than tell you about specific sites and how to get there, here is some access information to tuck in your travel kit.
If you are in or around the Portland area, try the Cascade Paragliding Club telephone bulletin board first: (503) 977-0454. If it is looking good for Gorge flying that day, Rick Higgins will call in the location of when and where to meet to start the day. Another good resource in the Portland area is Dave Raybourne of Hang Gliding and Paragliding School of Oregon at (503) 223-7448. In the Hood River Area, the people to call are Rick Higgins (503) 387-2112, a 12 year boardhead who checks three weather sources every morning before calling the Cascade bulletin board if it looks good, and is actively exploring new sites; Mark Telep who runs a small paraglider school at (503) 298-8222; or photographer/frequent flyer Jay Carroll on the Washington side at (509) 493-2070. If all these fail and you are in Hood River, tune in to 151.925 and see who's on. Like most paraglider groups, especially the smaller ones, the hospitality extended to out-of-towners who want to fly is super. Give the Gorge a try, the view up and down the Columbia from Bingen East and West launch 2000 feet above the river is sensational, and flying over a small town and a railroad train chuffing up the track is a blast!!
You still don't have one?!
EditorsThere are still a few BAPA Sweatshirts available. Don't miss this opportunity to get your very own cozy, stylish Stables sweatshirt. Interested? Come to the next meeting or corner Ken Davis while he's still BAPA President. $25 and $35 (depending on weight). All are white with a multi-color design.
Paragliding Addiction Test
Reprinted from the Internet, hg-digest (via Australia, NZ, and the Australian Paragliding News)Do you have Hard Core Pilot Syndrome (HCPS)? Take the following test to diagnose HCPS.
1. People show you pictures of their holidays and you comment on the "great clouds".
2. You always have your wing in the car - Just in case it's "on" today.
3. The word 'penetration' loses its sexual connection.
4. You only visit friends who live near flying sites.
5. At parties you steer the conversation to flying and thermalling.
6. The only people who stay at your house are pilots - or soon-to-become pilots after succumbing to the total saturation environment.
7. You know the names of all the flyable sites within 200 km of your home.
8. Youıll watch a crummy show for an hour because there is a 10 second shot of a wing in it.
9. Your pet's name is 'rotor', 'sink', or 'cunim'.
10. You drive for 3 hours to a site hoping that the weather forecast is wrong.
11. Instead of photos of the family on your desk you have photos of yourself flying at various sites.
12. Your driving becomes erratic because you are constantly looking for roads up the hills, watching cloud development, watching thermalling birdies.
13. Raised relief topo maps with XC routes marked are permanently mounted on the walls at home.
14. You hang in your harness to read or watch TV.
15. You pay more attention to the wind direction than to other people talking to you.
16. You have planned to save your wing and gear first if the house catches fire. (For true cases of HCPS this does not apply - see question 2).
17. You cannot look at a hill without trying to work out which wind direction would be best for a launch.
18. Half or more of the stored phone numbers on your mobile phone belong to farmers who control access to flying sites. [Or windtalkers, for those in more urban areas.]
19. You can recall every vacation you've had since taking up flying - simply by looking in your logbook.
20. You root for any thermalling bird and wonder about its LD, best glide ratio, and top speed without flapping its wings.
21. On a keyboard the words you can type fastest without looking are 'wind' and 'thermal'.
22. When looking up the index of a cookbook you realize that you have been absent-mindedly searching for 'paraglider'.
So, do you have HCPS? The only cure is to sell your wing.
Or, give in to it!
Meeting Minutes - Aug. 2, 1995
Ann SasakiKen Davis called the meeting to order at 8:22 pm.
New Members
There was one new member attending - Lee Underwood who flies a white Rainbow. Lee has flown in France for the past three years and now lives in the Bay Area.
There were thirteen old members attending.
Notable Flights
Brad Smith flew for several minutes at Cheetah Ridge. This was his first flight since being the hospital for back problems. Brad was semi-gratified that he top-landed but Alec went to the beach.
Julie Spiegler described some good scratching and glass-off flying at Hat Creek. The Saturday flight was about two hours, which was great in a year of erratic weather and sparse glass-offs.
Old Business
Ken Davis made a motion to accept the minutes from the July 5, 1995 meeting.
*** Motion passed.
Officer Reports
Treasurer's Report
Bob Gilmour reported that BAPA is still solvent. Bob also said that we no longer have problems covering site insurance costs, because member contributions, dues, etc. have brought in enough money.
New Business
BAPA Nominations
The members present nominated people to fill all the BAPA officer positions for the next year. Julie Spiegler and Ann Sasaki will confirm the acceptance of the nominations with anyone nominated who was not at the meeting.
Editor Appreciation Event
Al Baldini made a motion to sponsor dinner for the RidgeDancer editors - Julie Spiegler and Gever Tulley.
*** Motion passed.
Julie and Gever may somewhat amend that motion and actually plan some kind of BAPA get-together instead. (That's why we like them, they do stuff for us.)
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm.