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Charlie raises the XC bar - at the end of winter!

I was on a rare visit to southern Ontario last week and on Thursday and Friday, a few lucky pilots were greeted with cloud dotted skies and strong climbs.

On the Thursday, PMac, Jimmy, Charlie, and Rick all flew Prevost with Charlie and Rick making it south as far as the Training Hill.

Here's a short post by PMac:
"Big air. Up to 3000' in 15-20 seconds from launch. First time at 4.8 m/sec up. Shortly thereafter realized I was in the middle of a large black cloud overhead. Big ears and speedbar STILL +0.3 - 0.5 up. Considered B-line but made it off the edge. Over the golf course at 2500 and in lift and thought about joining Rick except for the huge cranking spirals (UP) he was spinning in over Duncan. I then cored any sink i could find to get back to Terra Firma. Still excited hours later."

Paul at DallasTo add to the day, Paul flew Dallas for a rare February flight!

On Friday, just Rick, Charlie, and Jimmy were out again and it turned into another good one with Jimmy getting his first thermalling session of the year in and Rick pushing out west past the gravel pit and then south to Duncan.

Here's short post from Charlie:
"BIGGGG Day on Prevost. James was doing his first real thermalling - great work James. Rick skied out and went XC and I went XC west to Honey Moon Bay which is across Cowichan Lake from YouBou. SWEEET DAY!"

Congrats to Charlie on the epic flight. No one has flown west with such a low cloud base (around 3200') so he really had to dig deep to earn it. With waypoints inserted, probably a 40km flight!

Charlie's XC route on Google Earth

We still have airspace restrictions due to the Olympics/Paralympics so heading east wasn't an option.

Click image for more photos!Lots of flying and good Hawaiian fun!

WAY too much to write up, but here's a very brief summary:

Natalie - grounded by the Obama visit for most of her trip, she managed to log some flights on the Big Island as well as long flights at Makapuu and then Kahana on her last day

Paul - had a couple of nice high and long flights on the Big Island and then decided to join us for two days on Oahu where he, again, had some high and long ones - complete with a downrange sunset dash with Charlie from Makapuu to Kaneohe!

Charlie - joined Paul on the Big Island for some nice thermalling and then had an amazing time on Oahu with 4 out of 6 flights from Kahana being XC flights, 2 XC flights from Makapuu (one with Lee to Koko Crater AND back, and one with Paul downrange). Hours and hours for this guy. Whales anyone?

He put together a nice video here:

Hola!

For the past three years, my family and I have been making an annual migration to Mexico for two weeks of each January. Luck has it there happens to be a flying site in little fishing village to the South of PV, called Yelapa. This village can only be described as quaint.

There are no roads in Yelapa. Until recently there was no road access at all. Something that could loosely be described as being... 'a road' now exists but I would not recommend taking any vehicle that you are fond of. Even if you were to decide to drive there, you would need to leave your vehicle in the... 'parking lot' (another very loose description).

Most people catch a water taxi.

As best as I can tell, about 15 years ago - some hippie took their paraglider to Yelapa and found a suitable place to launch from. 15 years later, there are two launches.

Yelapa is beautiful. It is nestled in a small natural harbour where a river has washed enough sand out to form a fresh water lagoon that is separated from the ocean by a white sand beach. This beach is the LZ.

Day 1:
I woke up early and I was a was keen to fly so I went looking for the lower launch. I followed several meandering pathways - along which I discovered the waterfall and the 'parking lot' - before locating the lower launch.

The only description I had for finding this launch was 'a long hike up shit creek'. This is a bit unfair to the creek because it is actually a dry creek bed that would only be active during the rainy season (summer). Long hike it isn't - steep it is.

By the time I found launch and ate breakfast. The boats were indicating that the wind direction had turned from outflow to inflow so I set off on my second hike, avec glider.

After waiting to catch my breath and then waiting for a straight cycle I launched myself off and had a nice sledder to the fore mentioned beach.

On the beach were a couple of people kiting. One was named Miguel... Jayson, he says 'Hi'.

Click image for more photos!Lee and Natalie fly high, while Hans and PMac kite low

The Hawaii PG Tour doesn't begin until this Friday, but a few pilots have started trickling in early. A nice, post-frontal weather system with light north winds presented itself over the Koolau Range and some of the locals got off earlier (one of them, "Mad Dog", eventually landed downrange at Kualoa Park!).

Our crew showed up at the Makapuu LZ after lunch where PMac and Hans got a feel for the wind with a kiting session. Natalie, Lee, and I headed to Manics launch where Lee got airborne, cranking in some turns before gaining enough altitude to transition over to the main cliff face above Sealife Park.

Natalie and I then hiked a bit higher up to Cactus Launch with little Nika in front. Once we got to the top, Lee decided to try for his first toplanding, and, after working to lose height out front, he set up well and put his new Cobra in just behind launch.

Click image for more photos!Merry Christmas from Hawaii!

Natalie and I arrived last night (the 23rd) and are staying on the Windward side of Oahu for the next few weeks. Now, before you get all jealous of our time here in one of the world's paragliding paradises, listen to this.
Ahem.
Barack Obama likewise decided to come to Hawaii for the holidays - which makes sense, being that he's from here. However, now that he is the President, his visit necessitates serious restrictions to the use of airspace. Uh-oh.

So, the FAI issued something called a TFR which is in effect from December 24th @ 2pm until January 4th @ 12 noon, stopping all flying on Oahu. Violators face criminal penalties and deadly force.

Now on most days, on the windward side of Oahu the flying starts early - you don't have to wait for thermals to cook up like on the mainland. But today there was next to no wind anywhere on the island so we would have to wait for some onshore wind to build. But the TFR started at 2pm so it would be tight!

I called Thom in Kailua and he said that a bunch of guys were heading to Nanakuli on the west side of the island (their main site when the trade winds aren't active). Natalie and I weren't up for the drive and hike that it would require so we decided that we'd make our way to Makapuu and hope for the best.

Another year of flying on the islands has come and gone and, overall, it was an excellent season. Some good spring mountain flying, followed by consistent sea breezes in the summer for dynamic flying, and then, when the fire hazard finally passed, some great fall mountain flying.

A dedicated crew of pilots took to the air when able and some new faces came on the scene as well: Greg, Nathaniel, Maurice, Bev, Johnny, and Audrey all made good progress towards their Novice Pilot rating and will be finished next season.

Here are the 2009 VIParagliding Pilot Awards as I see them:

MOST IMPROVED: Charlie Webb

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Paul McLennan

NOTEWORTHY FLIGHTS: Charlie Webb (Duncan to Ladysmith XC)

Lee Kenyon (Saltspring XC)

Rick Heatley (Maxwell high pressure soaring)

MOST PROMISING: Johnny Lu







DETERMINATION: Beverley Hall, Maurice Robinson








AIRTIME: Charlie Webb

Mountain and Ridge

Record-breaking rainfall with flooding in the Cowichan Valley has dampened the flying hopes of the VIP Crew for the last few weeks. Today, however, the sun came out and the winds blew correctly for both mountain flights at Prevost and ridge flying at Dallas.

Charlie, Pierre, and James took advantage of the first run in Duncan and P-Mac joined them for the second and third! Smooth but short flights were had by all with gorgeous views of snow-laden Mt Baker. Way to take advantage of the day guys!

Charlie's video: HERE

Paul's sunset flight!The south wind pushed in at Dallas and by 3pm it was on. I was committed to dog-training but tormented myself by pulling up the Cook Cam and, as luck would have it, there was Paul - soaring the ridge by himself! He got about an hour of sunset flying.

Click image for more photos!Sunny, easterly kiting session for Natalie, PMac, and Charlie

The wind looked south and steady early in the morning so Natalie and I headed down to Dallas with the dogs. Unfortunately, it dropped right off by the time we got there.

An hour or so later, it started coming in but had swung quite east. Not to be dissuaded, both PMac and Charlie were ready and they teased their gliders up, hoping for some more punch to the wind.

Eventually it did strengthen, and Natalie pulled out her Gradient BRIGHT 3 and tried out the Woody Valley PEAK 2 harness (she loved it!).

PMac was happy to get tuned back into his ARCUS 5, Natalie finally got some kiting in after months without any, and Charlie rocked his COBRA.

The sun was a welcome change to the last week of dreariness and these three pilots took advantage of a nice kiting window.

On a different note, last month an excellent video featuring our sport was shot at a couple of our main BC sites.
Have a look: PARAGLIDING

Click image for more photos!Welcome to November

A large VIP Crew hit the mountain for a post-Hallowe'en flying session. We had: Johnny, Audrey, Simon, Pierre, Lee, Paul, Charlie, Rick (with Paul's partner, Dan, on tandem!), James, David, and P.Mac.

All three launches were flown throughout the day with flights ranging from smooth and easy to trick 'n treaty.

Low-saving, cloud-basing, and all-around good times!

Rick put a short video together:

Click image for more photos!
Dozens of pilots, dozens of great flights!

Quintessential autumn flying conditions came together this Saturday as did a large VIParagliding crew to take full advantage. Let's see...

- Paul, who lead the day off and tested the waters with the first flight, followed later on his next flight, easily winning the 'scratch master' award

- P.Mac, who hit yet another Paratrick, getting high over launch, and, of note, launching toute-seule!

- Charlie, who almost managed to stay up on his first flight, did so and more on his second (the XC to the Raptor Centre should be renamed the Rockstar Route, he's been there so many times now)

- Audrey, who got her 2nd and 3rd solo flights in, both from Middle launch in stiff winds. Excellent launches were followed by rare, student height gains and even 360s! Way to go Audrey!

- Rick, who took super-keen Liza for her first tandem paragliding flight and then, on the next round, pulled out his Mustang2 for some solo action (glove-less at cloudbase can cool even the hottest of pilot)