Blanchard, 20:17 on Mon, 12-May-08, Dave Duperon
Wind WSW at 5-15, sky Cu/Sun/Clouds |
Duration: 30 min
Max Alt: 1800 |
| Lightly soarable all day with cycles of good lift with thermals, then light cycles during which we unwary found ourselves venturing too far afield for the light, localized lift, searching for that illusive "big one" to take me to cloudbase. Lots of thermals but only a few managed to stay with one or two to get high and then had trouble staying there. Thermally air made my landing a bit of a sploosh in the soggy field. A good time was had by many, many pilots and friends. After a couple of beers at the Longhorn, I stopped to take this picture of the paras still enjoying the glassoff! |
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Blanchard, 13:00 on Sun, 11-May-08, Greg
Wind NW at 10-12, sky Partly Cloudy |
Duration: 41 minutes
Max Alt: 2000' |
| Brought a couple of friends to enjoy the nice weather at Blanchard. Got a ride up the hill with Alan and saw a few gliders in the air already. Jeff was already over launch with a Tandem, so I set up quickly and made my way off. I had my video camera on one wing, and my little canon still camera on the other set to take pictures every 5 seconds or so. Several hundred pictures later... I've got a few nice ones and will have to post up a video. Made it over to the North side of Blanchard for the first time following Joel (sp?). Lots of ridge lift and thermally in spots. Great practice! I was trading king of the hill with Joel for a while, and was on top when we found a nice thermal about 800 up. He was obviously making better use of it than me as he started to climb through so I made some room and lost it. Next thing I looked up and he must've been 1000' over me. Shortly after I couldn't find much more lift and was looking up at launch so decided to head out to the Duck Club. Found some textured air over the road as I was going to land, so instead went for the middle of the field. Damn that grass is tall. |
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Dog, 14:20 on Fri, 09-May-08, Bill S
Wind SW at ~10, sky clear |
Duration: 1:30
Max Alt: 2300 |
| Oh hell yeah, I was needing this. First soring flight since Oct last year. It was only ridge lift but man was it ever consistent. Not a lot of pilots there, Eric T, Mike, Dave and Sunny Jim. Larry and Tina showed up later with a few more but I was already drinking beer! Launched and headed over to the south. Never found anything going up like mad, max alt was predicted at only 3k and most only got to 2.5k. Played all over the place only to return to the ridge to get back above launch. That took some work at first. But then as the afternoon went on, it was easier. It was fun going out looking for lift and then head back to the ridge for more lift. Ineeded this!! |
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tiger, 13:29 on Sun, 04-May-08, russ g
Wind n at 5-10, sky clearing |
Duration: 1.5 hrs
Max Alt: 3400 |
| First Atos flight in a while. Thanks Larry for driving so I could hike up! Flew with Chris Culler, Darren Darsey, Larry Snyder, Gary Braun, Bill Jensen, Bill Shepard, Marty Vendetta, Paul Dees and a few others. Lift was just over 4000 ft. I was only going to 3400 ft. Mostly flying north of tiger toward I-90 fwy. Lots of room as most were spread out and easy to stay up. |
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Stuart, 4:00 on Wed, 30-Apr-08, Jeff
Wind SW at 10, sky Cu |
Duration: 1 hr
Max Alt: 4300' |
| Went out to try the new launch with Ron Goodman. We both hung in with some wild broken lift before heading for the LZ. I finally caught one I could work and off I went for Sumas Mt. Should have stayed in front with the lift but dove back into OD land trying to make the Brewery. Landed in Deming foul right field at a girls softball game instead. Check it here. Fun! |
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Blanchard, 4:30 on Mon, 07-Apr-08, Jeff
Wind S at 5-10, sky developed |
Duration: 8 min
Max Alt: just over |
| Another fun non-commercial flight between friends. here. |
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Blanchard Hill.., 17:40 on Thu, 10-Apr-08, e..THRaSHeR..t
Wind WsW at 10-12.., sky PtSunny.. |
Duration: 1hr 10min..
Max Alt: 2,100.. |
| Set Up.. Broke Down.. Set up Again.. Launched into Glass to 2,100.. Got Cold.. Landed.. Broke down Again.. Retrieved in the back of an open truck bed.. Got cold Again.. |
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Dog Mt., 12:00 on Sun, 06-Apr-08, Scott R
Wind SW at 10, sky Cloudy |
Duration: 1:08
Max Alt: 3817 |
| We are truly blessed with a magical flying site where you can always find the best lift and your best friends. Tina and Larry top the list of the many who came to support Dog Mt. BBBAAARRRKKK!! |
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Blanchard, 6:00 on Wed, 02-Apr-08, Jeff
Wind west at Nil, sky BLUETIFUL |
Duration: 3.5 min
Max Alt: Yeah right |
| A very short but fun flight with an young engineer to be from Cincinati OH. Wish it was soarable everyday! Made a fun video for her Here. |
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Blanchard, 1:00 on Mon, 31-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind SSE at 5, sky OD |
Duration: 30 min
Max Alt: 3100' |
| Launched the south and thought I had it but let it go after a hundred over. Flew to the East and started to get drilled looked like a tough glide to the LZ when a little birdie caught my attention. cranked her up from 400' to cloud base and flew over the freeway. Had to dive from an approaching leerjet 600' over I-5 who was aparently dodging the low cloud base as a nimbus formed and the snow started falling. nice landing in an old familiar field. |
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Blanchard, 4:00 on Sun, 30-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind NW at light, sky sunshine |
Duration: flydown
Max Alt: launch |
| Despite making the tretcherous first tracks in the snow to the top resulting in almost rolling my truck off the road, we managed to solo new pilot Ed masters. The snow melted in the afternoon as the sun came out and lots of pilots got up to cloud base... 700' over...Me and Ed got one more before launch shut down and my truck was retieved without damage! |
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Blanchard Hill.., 14:10 on Mon, 24-Mar-08, e..THRaSHeR..t
Wind S - SSW.. at 10-15 dim to 5-10.., sky Mostly Sunny.. |
Duration: 2hr30min..
Max Alt: 5,000.. |
| Good clouds to 5'000 feet around Blanchard.. Overdevelopment and soft hail squalls in the surrounding hills.. More pictures here.. |
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Blanchard, 3:00 on Sun, 16-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind S at 10-20 aloft, sky overcast |
Duration: 1:15
Max Alt: 2800' |
| Wasn't suppose to be good...but it was. lots of friendly eagles. plenty of big ears as the hangs took over the sky creating extra drivers on top. Parked to the east over the big part of the hill and just touched cloudbase before an eagle lured me back into sink. We would have a picture for you but as Brian and I were flying tip to tip, him with a camera and me with a smile, suddenly two AA batteries jettesoned and we were laughing out loud. Several people landed not feeling good as it was a bit textured on the way out. I am ready for the cloud streets to come. Bring it on! |
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Blanchard, 5:30 on Tue, 11-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind W at 15-20, sky overcast |
Duration: 1:50
Max Alt: 2450' |
| Awesome after work flight. Arrived to find perfect west conditions. flew the Batcaves/Larabee/launch triangle twice and watched the sunset over the oysterdome with a peregrine falcon. Over flew the driveway and landed in the biggest puddle of all. Still a bit dazed from wangin' it to the deck. |
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Lk Whatcom, 18:03 on Mon, 10-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind SE at 0-5, sky overcast |
Duration: 15
Max Alt: 2500 |
| Towed the guys a few times and got a little wetter than expected. The lake is still quite cold. Took a few shots of the mayhem here |
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dog west, 7:30 on Sat, 08-Mar-08, sunny Jim
Wind west at very light......5mph, sky alto cu? |
Duration: 1hr.
Max Alt: launch....plus or mi |
| lots of pilots showed up for a weird dog day......ridge lift never really kicked in but light bubbly thermal kept us going all day.....i don't think anyone actually sunk out......almost no wind on launch or the lz.......yet soar we did....with five pilots thermallingl left in one bubble and five pilots thermallin right in another bubble.......as the two bubbles began to come together it got pretty exciting and we probably looked like a giant eggbeater........I for one, was pretty whipped when I landed;-) the next day most folks towed......but davo, terri crippen and I headed up dog and took off in no wind ....I really thought we were going for a sledder..... I sunk all the way to the lower trees........hit light lift......gradually worked back up to launch.......still hardly any wind..........amazing......I got an hour |
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Blanchard S, 14:00 on Sat, 08-Mar-08, Schy
Wind S to NW at 5-10, sky Cu's |
Duration: 26 min
Max Alt: 2640 |
| Launched the south side and went porpoising right up at the "nose" between w and s launch. Main cloudbase was at appx 2600 and Conrad and I played in it above a lower layer that was hugging the hill. Lots of eagles and spectacular visuals. It turned north and we landed to he north, short but sweet! |
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dog, 12:54 on Sun, 02-Mar-08, sunny Jim
Wind none at zero, sky cu/blue |
Duration: 1.5 hrs
Max Alt: ??5,000?? |
| it was a doo-dah launch ramp with no wind lines on the lake.....Davo's impatiance actually paid off this time as he launched in zero wind and dug a thermal out of the pocket half way down dog and corkscrewed his way up past launch while some of the rest of us were scrambling into our harnesses......way to go Davo!!!! I went out to join Davo and didn't stop till I hit cloudbase......then I flew over to panarama and hit cloudbase again......then I flew back to dog by way way of peterman......got high again at Dog and flew over to elk..........froze my ass off but had a good time.............. |
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Blanchard, 2:00 on Sat, 01-Mar-08, Jeff
Wind SW at 5-10, sky CU |
Duration: 1:45
Max Alt: 2000 something |
| Like a little fly-in...It was nice to be with so many at once although my neck was a little tired from the continuous scanning. After 1:15 finally caught a good one with a pair of dog fighting baldies and took it back toward the bat caves. Lost it just over 2K and flew all or nothing for colony mt. I ended up with the latter but it was close...You can see a short video from the first 20 min or so of the flight here |
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Blanchard, 15:05 on Sat, 01-Mar-08, Duperon
Wind SSW at 5-15, sky Sun/Cu |
Duration: 1:30
Max Alt: 1942 |
| Max altitude per my new Flytec vario/altimeter, the first instrument I've flown with since my truck and instruments were stolen back around 2000. It recorded the max altitude I achieved in my first flight of the season in my (almost) new glider. Life is good.... I shot a movie of Dave's launch but I got tired of waiting and hit the stop button just as he yelled "clear!" so the start of his run is missing. The wait time can be seen here or, if you have a decent (non-quicktime) player, you can view the two, merged together here. |
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