Northwest Foot-launched Flight Log

Latest 20 Flights Of 1730 Logged

Penthouse, 8:29 on Sun, 05-Sep-10, Jimmy Wind S & W at 18+ launch, sky clear Duration: 40 min Max Alt: 5047"

Returnig to the sky after 8 weeks of shoulder recovery. Quite the rock and roll ride over launch punching into the inversion. Mellower over the towers but couldnt punch through over there, so I returned to launch and wham! A little too much for the arm to hang in there so I headed out. Valley flow was minimal but thermic and and ass kicker from 600 to the deck. The most difficult time for my shoulder was ground handling back to break down.

Blanchard, 1:00 on Sun, 29-Aug-10, Casey Young Wind SSE at 8-12?, sky Cloudy Duration: 50 mins? Max Alt: 1500

Scratched below launch for about 20 min. or so. Soared with Joel ,Dave, Mike, and the other Dave for another half hour. 10TH FLIGHT Since I started flying again.(APR 28)5TH soaring flight. GOOD LANDING, CAME IN TO LZ JUST AHEAD OF DAVE S. FUN!

Blanchard, 12:39 on Sun, 29-Aug-10, Dave Duperon Wind S/SE at 10-15, sky cloudy Duration: 1:20 Max Alt: +900

Virtually blew my launch by picking a poor cycle and not running. Left wing stalled and I plummeted sideways toward the bushes. Pushed out just before impact and damn if that Sport II didn't fly! Once I got my heart back down out of my throat had a great flight with Dave, Joel, Mike, Casey and lots of others. Tip-toe landing iced the cake.

Cultis, 15:36 on Sat, 28-Aug-10, Dave Duperon Wind NW at 0-10, sky Cu Duration: 5 min Max Alt: Launch

1st flight at Cultis. LOONNNNGGG way out. Had to wait for an up cycle to get off. The 3 that launched earlier got up. We 3 than launched later fell out of the sky.

Dog, 18:30 on Sat, 21-Aug-10, Dave Duperon Wind W at 10-15, sky See picture Duration: 20 min Max Alt: +500

Went back up 'cause it looked better; it was. Good lift all over. Saw a couple of folks get maybe +1K. Went out over valley and kept going up. Picture is of Dave Schy enjoying his first soaring flight on his new Freedom.

Dog, 3:30 on Sat, 21-Aug-10, Dave Duperon Wind W at 5-15, sky Cirrus Duration: 20 min Max Alt: +200 ish

Light but soarable. Just landed so let others have the small lift band. 1st time into the new north field. It's BIG!

Dog, 16:30 on Sat, 31-Jul-10, Scott R. Wind W at 15, sky Mostly Blue Duration: 1.5 hrs Max Alt: 500 over

Dan Uchytil and I picked up the Swami of Flex, author of the Wild Blue Yonder book collection, from the Dog Pound. We rustled Zane from a nap, and snagged Andrey from the ball field parking lot. Solid white caps were somewhat lessened, and launches proceeded unassisted. Justin joined us in the air, and we all landed as the Jorgensens and Sweptons were just setting up. I'm pretty sure Aaron, while inverted, was waving at Dan and me driving away from the LZ.

Tiger, 14:00 on Sun, 25-Jul-10, Scott R. Wind WNW at 5-10, sky Blue Duration: 1:30 Max Alt: 3275

Daniel Uchytil and I were the only HG's. Pretty squirley, small, punchy thermals, and lots of PG's made this a particularly challenging day. Briefly got over the towers.

Rampart, 12:30 on Thu, 22-Jul-10, Martin Slatta Wind NW at 20 +, sky Patchy Qs Duration: Hour 1/2 Max Alt: 5600 ft.

Low cloud base 5200, but lift every where .LZ at boat launch is very small. Landed up by gold creek, west of I-90 new construction zone.I first flew over to the boat launch to land but got a royal as* kicking,so I flew over to the I-90 side of the lake where I had a wind flag set up from last year.I decided not to land there because of the shoulder on I-90 is closed due to road work. I landed north of there by gold creek at new road work area.The work crew was great,After I broke down and lot's of pictures they gave me and gear a ride out to the over pass.

Blanchard, 14:30 on Sat, 17-Jul-10, Dave Duperon Wind W at 0-10, sky Blue Duration: 5 min Max Alt: Launch

Yet another flydown. Dave's maiden flight on his new Freedom! Congrats!

Blanchard, 18:41 on Sun, 11-Jul-10, Dave Duperon Wind W/SW/NW at 0-10, sky Blue Duration: 4 min Max Alt: Launch

Just a sunny sledder. Great to fly with Joel on hist first day back. Congratulations, Joel!

Chelan Butte, 15:30 on Mon, 05-Jul-10, Dave Duperon Wind N/S/E/W at -10 to +10, sky Cu Duration: 20 min Max Alt: 100 over

Very good day, thermals every which way, light prevailing from north. Finally got around to launching after all participants off the hill. Made the wrong choice; left lift in front of lakeside launch for theoretical "better" lift on S side. S. side turned out to be no fun; punchy, small, leeside with sink. Made it to soccer fields with plenty of room to set up good approach. Could have gotten back up off east end but was not interested by that time. Good launch and landing is a good flight, these days. Soccer fields are very pleasant. Lots of folks beamed up on S and W sides to CB. See the photo!

Penthouse, 14:00 on Fri, 18-Jun-10, Jimmy C Wind variable at cyclical, sky Some Q's Duration: 1:10 Max Alt: 6600'

Was thinking about heading up the Cultus ,when I called Tony Hillis and we talked ourselves into Flying here. When we got there wind was very lite over the back form the NW but the south cycles were strong enough to negate the prevailing. Oooo leaside thermals. Tony punched off into a fairly strong cycle and was over launch pretty much immediately. I had to wait quite a while before I could get off the hill, and didn't get more than about 20' over before heading out to the SE ridges where Tony and I workled like hell to gain 200 feet. I would have been satisfied with thermalling down low like that but I saw a small ripper coming up through the trees and flew to it and stuck my left wing in it and pushed out like Superman for what seemed like a hundred turns till I got up high enough to flatten out and turn the other way to unwind. Whoa, them were some tight turns makin me all dizzy and shit. The efforts eventually took me to cloudbase at 6100 where I let the cloud have it's way with me and suck me up to 6600'. From there it was time to head to Higgins cause ya just don't get that chance very often. While over there I spotted a black bear on the south slope just a munchin on something. I toured the entire ridge stopping to thermal up now and then to stay over the top wishing I had a camera. Valley flow was rather lite but squirley as usual but the landing was just about perfect and ended in severe grins!

Chelan.., 12:00 on Sat, 19-Jun-10, Et.. Wind Var.. at Var.., sky Pt Sunny.. Duration: 1hr 45min Max Alt: 7000..

Easy climb-out in glass smooth up.. Flew the clouds over the Butte for a bit while a heavy overcast moved in from the south.. Crossed over town and got cBase at Deer.. Moved north to a big climb at Arbuckle where I almost got hit by an out of control swallow chasing bugs at 7K; he looked out of place at that altitude.. Toured the lava plateau near Alta lake and elected to land just south of Pateros.. Later in the afternoon the sun was out again and the sky was lit up with big development in every direction..

Penthouse, 8:04 on Sat, 12-Jun-10, Jimmy C Wind south-west at 10+, sky some Q's Duration: 35 min Max Alt: 4775'

Daily and I punched off after 2:15 into easy up launch conditons. I was able to hang above launch with my 225 but wishing I had the Fusion. Cut my flight short so I could make it to work. Other pilots later and all soared. This is the earliest we've ever gotten up through the snow.

Chelan.., 12:30 on Sat, 12-Jun-10, Et.. Wind Var.. at 0-5-7-0.., sky Q.. Then Clear.. Duration: 3hr 30min.. Max Alt: 8900..

Smooth Butte climb to 82.. Crossed to Lamoine and had to go all the way to the blacktop before I got up from 4K.. Cloud hopped well south of the main road to the Mansfield area while the clouds disappeared all over the flats.. Kept going to the Pot Hills.. Turned around and flew back without much trouble until the intersection.. Dove to the powerlines south of Jensens and almost decked it.. Found just enough to barely get into McNiel by 50ft.. Picked my way along the rim; made the soccer field no prob..

Dog, 14:00 on Mon, 07-Jun-10, Jim S. plus others Wind W at 5-10, sky Partly Sunny, sprinkles Duration: ~2:00 Max Alt: 4200

Typical DOG day: very soar-able, ideal launch conditions, scads of eagles, adolescent and mature, with other wildlife.

Cultus, 14:19 on Sat, 05-Jun-10, Scott R. Wind NW at 5-10, sky Blue Q Duration: 1:30 Max Alt: 4573

Met up with Dave L, Chris C and Christine in Clear Lake. Beautiful 2WD, approx. 30 minute turnaround. Waited for NW cross to subside, and launched into a West facing upslope trickle. Immediately found a weak thermal in front of launch. Calculated glide slope to the LZ is 5.8 to 1, so if you don't get up, head out. Huge thanks to Chris for the site orientation, and for deciding to drive my rig down. This site is in it's fragile beginnings, so please go with a local before flying.

Chelan Butte.., 13:00 on Sat, 05-Jun-10, et.. Wind SSE.. at 5-7.., sky Pt Cldy.. Q..q..q.. Duration: 3hr 30min.. Max Alt: 8400..

Sunk out right away on the Butte.. Clawed back up and crossed with 8.. Sunk into McNeil.. Clawed up again and went inland with 72.. Not too bad from there to the rodeo grounds.. Then things went bad again; Groveled to the deck near the pot hills.. With less than a thousand over the ground, dove away from the road on a hunch.. Got up BIG from 32 to 82 right away.. After that low save, decided to turn back to Chelan; Drove most of the way without much stress.. Cleared the point with just a couple hundred and got pounded into the gorge in BIG sink.. Crapy DW landing in the soccer field.. Love/hate relationship with Chelan..

Blanchard Hill.., 16:50 on Fri, 04-Jun-10, et.. Wind SW.. at 10-15.., sky Pt Cldy.. Duration: 1hr 10min.. Max Alt: ?_4000..

Litespeed Carbon Outer LE Mod Test Flight; No instruments (dead battery).. Unexpected great after work flight.. Fresh post frontal breeze.. Decent ridge and thermal.. Good climbs; well above the Lilly Lizzard plateau.. Friendly local thermal guides.. Landed early for the IPA..