Wellsvilles

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Randall Cheney

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Nov 4, 2009, 9:01:15 PM11/4/09
to CacheRichParagliding
Have any of you tried a hike and fly from the north end of the
Wellsvilles? I am curious to know if I could make it to my place in
Petersboro after launching from the Scout peak area up deep canyon.
One other question. What are the websites that you all use to monitor
weather for these sites that you use?
Thanks

Dustin Hawkes

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Nov 4, 2009, 10:26:54 PM11/4/09
to cacherichp...@googlegroups.com, peter...@gmail.com
Hi Randall,

I don't know if anyone had done any flying on that part of the wellsvills.  I know that much of the wellsvill mountain range is considered wilderness area and paragliding there is a gray area.  It stipulates no hang gliders or parachutes, but does not specifically say paragliders.  I don't know if where you are talking about it actually wilderness area though.  Maybe you could mark it on google earth and get back to me.  I would only fly the east side to petersboro in the morning.  Often there are strong winds coming down that side in the evening.

As far as weather related websites these are a couple of my favorites.
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=41.77362&lon=-111.94004&zoom=12&type=hyb&units=english&rad=1&rad.num=1&rad.spd=25&rad.opa=70&rad.stm=0&rad.type=N0R&rad.smo=1&rad.mrg=0&wxsn=1&wxsn.mode=tw&svr=0&cams=0&sat=0&riv=0&mm=0&hur=0&fire=0&tor=0&ndfd=0&pix=0

That one is set to a map of logan but can be changed really easily.  If you click on the round markers for the weather stations and then click the blue link in the upper right side of the white box that opens, you can see the history for the day.  On that screen you can then click previous for previous days histories.  This is good because it shows you wind speeds, gusts, and directions every 10 minutes of the day.

Another couple websites are as follows:
http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/winds/?area=saltlake&fint=06&lvl=lo
for upper winds

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?Submit=Go&sta=KLGU&model=avn&state=UT
just another one for seeing really quickly the forcast conditions for cache valley in general.
--
Dustin Hawkes

Jeff Salisbury

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Nov 4, 2009, 10:35:27 PM11/4/09
to cacherichp...@googlegroups.com
Hi Randall, I've not flown from the Wellsvilles, and I'm not aware of
anyone in our immediate group who has. However, Ray Elliott, owner of
Blue Water Resort at Bear Lake and paragliding/hangliding pilot
extraordinarie, has described hiking the Wellsvilles at night with a
full moon and then launching East into Cache Valley when the sun first
comes up. The main challenge with flying the East side of the
Wellsvilles is that the prevailing winds are from the West which creates
too much turbulence on the East side. That is why Ray timed his hike so
he could launch at sunrise because this increased the odds that the
winds would be right for an East launch.

Regarding weather stations we use:

This is a favorite of many in the group:


http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=41.73550034&lon=-111.83609772&zoom=10

On this page you can see many individual stations. If you click on a
station, you can drill down to this:


http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KUTRIVER4

If you scroll down the page, there are a couple of nice graphs that show
wind direction, and wind speed (both average and maximum gust). The
weather station above is for Riverside which is the best station for one
of our favorite new sites named Short Divide. Short Divide is not very
far from Petersboro. Short Divide is on the west side of the pass
between Clarkston and Plymouth.

Jeff

John Thunell

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Nov 5, 2009, 10:18:14 AM11/5/09
to cacherichp...@googlegroups.com
Randall,
Most paragliders have a glider ratio that range anywhere from 8.6 to even close to 11 on the high performance wings.  I like to use google earth to measure vertical distance from launch to land.  Simple math using vertical distance multiplied by the performance will give you an idea of how far you can go from a launch point in no wind conditions.  For example, I wanted to know if I could fly my speed wing off of temple baldy.  Long story short, I landed within a football area of where the template said I would.
J.M.

--- On Wed, 11/4/09, Randall Cheney <peter...@gmail.com> wrote:

Conly Hansen

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Nov 5, 2009, 1:35:38 PM11/5/09
to cacherichp...@googlegroups.com, peter...@gmail.com
I seldom make any comments because I don't get to fly nearly as much as most of the other members of this group. I want to say this: I appreciate how much you all are advancing the sport in Cache Valley. I appreciate your excellent references including the weather related websites just reported. One of these days, I hope to join some of you -perhaps unexpectedly at the short divide or some other place.

Thank you - Conly Hansen

________________________________________
From: cacherichp...@googlegroups.com [cacherichp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dustin Hawkes [dkha...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 8:26 PM
To: cacherichp...@googlegroups.com; peter...@gmail.com
Subject: [CacheRichParagliding] Re: Wellsvilles

Hi Randall,

I don't know if anyone had done any flying on that part of the wellsvills. I know that much of the wellsvill mountain range is considered wilderness area and paragliding there is a gray area. It stipulates no hang gliders or parachutes, but does not specifically say paragliders. I don't know if where you are talking about it actually wilderness area though. Maybe you could mark it on google earth and get back to me. I would only fly the east side to petersboro in the morning. Often there are strong winds coming down that side in the evening.

As far as weather related websites these are a couple of my favorites.
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=41.77362&lon=-111.94004&zoom=12&type=hyb&units=english&rad=1&rad.num=1&rad.spd=25&rad.opa=70&rad.stm=0&rad.type=N0R&rad.smo=1&rad.mrg=0&wxsn=1&wxsn.mode=tw&svr=0&cams=0&sat=0&riv=0&mm=0&hur=0&fire=0&tor=0&ndfd=0&pix=0

That one is set to a map of logan but can be changed really easily. If you click on the round markers for the weather stations and then click the blue link in the upper right side of the white box that opens, you can see the history for the day. On that screen you can then click previous for previous days histories. This is good because it shows you wind speeds, gusts, and directions every 10 minutes of the day.

Another couple websites are as follows:
http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/winds/?area=saltlake&fint=06&lvl=lo
for upper winds

http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi?Submit=Go&sta=KLGU&model=avn&state=UT
just another one for seeing really quickly the forcast conditions for cache valley in general.


Randall Cheney

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Nov 8, 2009, 10:33:26 PM11/8/09
to CacheRichParagliding
Thanks for the info. I looked at the wilderness map and it covers
most of the area I had in mind. Its kind of a patchwork in that area
though and It would be difficult to know if you are in or out of it.
I uploaded a couple of images showing my place. If any of you can ever
use it for a place to land (PG or PPG) please do.
RC

Erik Mortenson

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Nov 9, 2009, 12:17:54 AM11/9/09
to CacheRichParagliding
Hey Randall, what are the gps coordinates of your field? I'll fly out
sometime to meet you.

Erik

Randall Cheney

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Nov 9, 2009, 4:52:58 AM11/9/09
to CacheRichParagliding
Erik,
If only I could be there. The problem is I'm still in Okinawa Japan.
I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun though. I will be here for
another year or so and then I'll go down to the point and take the PG
lessons. Google earth is telling me 41 degrees 44' 10.28" N and 112
degrees 00' 47.66" W. would be about the center of my field west of
my house. I am renting our house out while I am here but he is a
commercial pilot in training so I'm sure he won't mind a surprise
landing. There is 30 acres there so plenty of room to land if you
need to and he probably won't even notice. I wish I could be there.
You can look at the images that I uploaded to get a good idea of the
shape of the property.

Thanks

RC

erik...@gmail.com

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Nov 9, 2009, 1:16:29 PM11/9/09
to cacherichp...@googlegroups.com
Oh that's right, sorry I forgot. I hear there is some good paragliding
in japan, have you looked into any lessons there or are you not close
to any mountians ?

Randall Cheney

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Nov 9, 2009, 3:03:00 PM11/9/09
to CacheRichParagliding
I have looked into lessons. At the moment only PPG is offered and 10G
for a setup is a bit too much for me right now. I don't know if they
would use the same P ratings but if they start to offer PG lessons I
hope to pull together the $ and start with that. There are mountains
here and some very favorable winds for PPG launch from the beach but
there is a lot of restricted airspace due to the american military
presence here. I'll have to be content with dreamin for now.

On Nov 10, 3:16 am, erikpm...@gmail.com wrote:
> Oh that's right, sorry I forgot. I hear there is some good paragliding  
> in japan, have you looked into any lessons there or are you not close  
> to any mountians ?
>
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