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Latest fall-opening in well over a decade at our local mountain

I first flew Duncan's Mt Prevost in October of 2000 having just arrived back to the island after my first year of flying down in Australia. The thermalling conditions were wonderful, albeit chilly.

Typically, the fire hazard threat is over by the first or second weekend in September, however, this year it didn't happen until a few days ago - about a month later than normal.

The rain finally came and then a surprise break with some sun in the forecast today along with the requisite south winds and Prevost was back in business!

For some various work-related reasons, only three pilots were able to take advantage of the day: Lee, Rob, and Kris. First flights were had from West launch while second and third flights were from Middle launch. Kris (aka Shrek) keep things exciting on launch and then had a nice, long thermalling flight to end the day, getting above launch height and linking in a good number of 360s.

Rob dialed in his landings and Lee flew his small Swing ASTRAL - putting it to good use, working the lift in the usual places - complete with some good finds near the LZ and out over the golf course.

Good job on the hat trick boys!

Looks like the rain is set to return tomorrow.

Zay reports on a late summer OK Trip:

"Day 1
Russ and I did our second annual late night drive and early rise for a chance at finding that big Vernon air that Jayson and others have told us so much about.
We met the crew (Cal, Matt, and Andrew) in Lumby at the LZ. They were kiting in strong, gusty air. Russ and I joined in for a great warm up to a fun trip.
Jayson and Rob were not far behind and after we all had our fill we headed back to the guest house to let Mara develop and finish off our Novice exams.

That night we all had a nice sleddy from Mara. The LZ showed about 15-20km winds when we checked before heading up to launch. As we launched, the winds picked up from the north and we had between 3-6 km of penetration above the LZ. We all got to use our speed system and check adjustment, function and start to better understand what it can do for you.

As we landed the wind continued to pick up. Rob was the last to launch and 30 seconds after he launched, we felt rain on our face and the wind stared gusting stronger. Jayson coached him to use big ears and his speed system to get him down into the valley to land. The wind was strong at this point and Rob was at the back of the field, not penetrating at all and having a problem with his speed bar. He was low over the tall trees in the back of the field not able to get in front of them so he tried to enter the field behind the desired LZ. The rotor shadow was larger then he anticipated and his glider had a 50%+ collapse. He dropped about 20 feet and spun 180 degrees before he got a partial inflation back and landed safely in the field....Good lesson...Rotor is real and it is bigger then you expect. The shadow changes with the wind speed, and it is scary if you are caught in it.

That called for a few beers, so we obliged.

Day 2

First Day Flights from Mara

Rob and I zipped over from Victoria via West Jet this morning, landed in Kelowna, and drove up to Lumby in a rental PG-mobile. As we pulled in to Randy's LZ, we found the rest of the crew (Zay, Russ, Andrew, Matt, and Cal) having a kiting session in gusty, switchy winds.

After Rob had his fill of kiting, we grabbed some lunch in Vernon, wrote some exams back at the guesthouse, and then made for Mara Lake. Wind on the now-excellent launch was crossing from the south but everyone launched well, and enjoyed the buoyant late afternoon flights down to the valley floor below. The wind had picked up from the north on the ground which made for some new experiences, complete with Rob's tangible experience of rotor.

Everyone landed safe and they are all excited for what tomorrow may bring.
Coopers launch in the early a.m. it is!

Day 2: Rained out

Day 3: Coopers and Mara - Buoyant, smooth air with some standard Lumby Valley morning clouds forming and dissipating. Chris, Kris, Rob, Hans, and Lee all flew. Vancouver Island export, Simon, joined in for his first flight at Coopers before heading back to his new home turf of Salmon Arm. Good to see you Simon!

After the last pilot was safely in the valley, some strong south thermals starting ripping through launch and I was doubtful that we'd get another flight in.

However, we decided to go have a look and conditions were even worse than expected: south, east, straight, and even the odd west cycle. A few visitors had multiple aborts before getting airborne and rocketing up over the valley. Lee picked a relatively-good cycle and flew over towards the Saddle before happily heading for Randy's. No one else flew. The forecast was for possible thundershowers but they didn't appear to be manifesting so, after a lunch break, we decided to head Mara Lake way and, if anything else, see the results of last week's severe flooding. The highway north of the LZ was still closed but the LZ itself wasn't under water so up we went!

Strong but consistent cycles were blowing through on launch, albeit with a left (south) cross to them. It has to be mentioned that the Mara launch looks amazing! Kudos to Doug Nitchie and crew for all the hard work in making this site what it is today. Pilots will be benefitting for years to come! After a bit of patience, the cycles calmed enough for Lee and then Hans to launch, followed later by Kris, Chris, and Rob. I went last with Monica on tandem and we all had 20mins plus pre-sunset flights, easily making it to the LZ with plenty of height to spare. Ian and Mark: I will post some pics of your LZ from last year. It's completely submerged now!

After a long day of travel yesterday, Lee and Kris from Victoria and Rob and Hans from Vanderhoof all arrived in warm, sunny Vernon. There has been an amazing amount of rain here this month and the rivers and lakes are all super high and, in some cases, overflowing. The sun came out in full force today though and lots of flying was had by all!

As per usual, low cloud greeted us early in the morning in Lumby and everyone had 2 flights in light wind - with some thermal action on the second flight. I flew on the second run and worked many strong, but short-lived thermals all over and below launch and the two gullies to the north, before finally securing a climb up to base, eventually flying down Lumby Ridge and then over to the Saddle before coming back to Randy's to help with landings on the third flights.

We then took a long lunch break, hoping that the wind would swing and be good for the Saddle. It never happened. Instead, we ventured back up Cooper's (with Chris who'd just arrived) and everyone got another flight in some smooth NE flow.

Four flights each for Lee, Rob, and Kris.
Three for Hans, two for me, and one for Chris for a total of 18 flights on Day 1.

Forecast looks bleak for tomorrow but then good for the rest of the long weekend!
Wish us luck :)

Finally some consistent flying!

This past Sunday a large group of flying hopefuls descended upon, and then ascended from, our Duncan rock. Roll call: Bev (who had her longest flight to date), Johnny (who's he you might ask? well, he's back and he had his best Prevost flight ever!), Andrew (lucky #13 out of the way with a 20min first solo at this site), Kris (a little wandering, but he put it together at the end), Cal (getting more than his money's worth out of his old Airwave ship with multiple trips high over launch), Greg (nice to see the new Dad back in the saddle), Ian (two flights - the second one testing the limits of strong wind and rough thermals), Pierre (also two flights - he was wind dummy on the first run and made up for it on the second), and, finally, Maurice (who elected to go for an instructional tandem flight with me - complete with a low save, a strong climb up to 3500' over launch, multiple spiral dives high above the LZ, pitch control, spiral entries and exits, wingovers, B-line stalls (futile attempts), etc.

Wonderful Day at our local mountain

Overall, yesterday was a pretty special day at Mt Prevost for most pilots who made it out. It was supposed to be cloudy with light south wind so it looked like a perfect student day - and I tried to rally the troops accordingly.

As for students, only Chris and Kris (K-ris we'll call him) could make. Otherwise, the usual suspects Ian, Bev, Maurice, Rick, and Lee shuffled their days and were able to join in (the forecast for the rest of the week looks dismal).

We started a bit earlier than normal and I'd hoped to get multiple, short student flights in, however, the wind was west in the LZ and on launch and Lee (as he kindly does) took to the air first and was soon 300' over launch and gaining. Hmmm...

Rick launched next and, after a number of passes, started climbing.
Next up was Chris, who reversed off nicely and then K-ris - both of whom headed out soon after. Ian and Maurice didn't get the height gain they'd have liked, but timing and flight path can often make all the difference.

Bev was the only one who forward launched and she did so beautifully - right into a nice fat thermal that she proceeded to put some smooth S-turns in, slowly but surely getting up close to where Rick and Lee were flying around high above. Way to go Bev!

I drove down to pick up Chris and K-ris and, by the time we got back to West launch, the thermals had started rolling in much stronger forcing us to wait for lulls. K-ris went first and let out a yell as he got lifted up over launch right away! It wasn't looking good for Chris though, and we almost decided to pack it in when a perfect lull arrived, and boom - he was off!