Silver Star Thursday road, snow, and flight report

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Michael Coppock

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Apr 19, 2019, 12:06:20 AM4/19/19
to cascade Paragliding Club
Good news:  it appears that local talent used armor piercing bullets,
and a welding torch to change the Silver Star West Launch road gate
anatomy.  Road is now open again to the top LZ!  Looks like it should
stay open, given they have decommissioned the new road they put in
adjacent to the 1900' "LZ," and the rock crushing equipment is gone from
the quarry.  No guarantee that it won't be locked again, but looks like
this is unlikely in the near future. I mountain biked to lower "LZ" from
L1000 road, and hiked from there  [wasn't sure gate was really going to
stay open.] Snow started at the 2800' level, but does not cover the
trail until you are just under the upper meadow.  As you can see from
the second photo, there is a lot of sidehilling snow for the whole ridge
road, but it should melt fast.    Lot's of stumps and other nasties in
the "LZ [last photo]:"  so use at your own risk.  You especially want to
avoid the very large ditch right before the road.

Interesting flight.  Though most models predicted strong winds at 4K
feet, they were in fact averaging about 220 degrees at 6-9 mph.  Thermal
activity started at 10 am on walk up. The subsidence inversion fog
burned off by 9 am.  Lenticulars/cloudcaps obscured all the visible
cascade volcanoes by 10:30 am..   Light rain fell 11:00-11:15.  Good
thermals began at 11:30 and lasted until 1pm when they became less
regular [the lunch break?], remarkable given that this is a west site. 
The meteo winds made their appearance around 11 am.  I launched from the
4100' launch at 1:30.  This is unusually early for Silver Star, given >
3pm is usual launch window.  But, the lenticulars were lowering, virga
was appearing over I 5 corridor, it clearly was going to shade out for a
while, and I was concerned about the predicted winds ramping up in
afternoon.  Max altitude 4500', max climb 1.8 m/s, average speed 10
km/hr. 40 minute flight.  Small ratty wind tilted thermals that petered
out around 3500-4000 most of the time, several good thermals off of
clear cuts on way toward Kloochman Butte.  The only locals that flew
today showed up suddenly at my peak altitude, two eagles, and they
disappeared N on glide.

The NAM was relatively accurate with lapse rate and winds, as was
WxtoFly with lift, winds, and lapse rate.  Windy predicted higher winds
than were present, as did XCS [which was too optimistic on top of lift.]
.  The ECMWF was too high on wind, and predicted cloud cover. 
Remarkable sky, with ATIS PDX reporting 7,000, 12,000 broken, and 25,000
broken at 11:00 am.  Almost appeared to be a convergence between the
upper level ridge, and the cold front coming from BC, that luckily
stalled out until this evening.

Bottom line:  Silver Star is now much more accessible, and snow should
melt quickly [it does make a smooth launch site though.]

Silver Star, Sturgeon Rock April 2019.jpg
Silver Star N ridge, April 2019.jpg
Stumpage, Silver Star lower LZ and ditch.jpg

Steve Carpentier

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Apr 19, 2019, 1:00:48 AM4/19/19
to Cascade Paragliding Club
Thanks for the update!

Michael Coppock

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Apr 19, 2019, 8:41:46 AM4/19/19
to Cascade Paragliding Club
Looking forward to flying with you there Steve.  FYI, to those who don't know, the North "launch" is the large snow expanse on the ridge photo that starts at top of ridge, and crosses the ridge road about 1/2 way along the road.  It is nice a smooth launch now with all the snow.

On Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 10:00:48 PM UTC-7, Steve Carpentier wrote:
Thanks for the update!  
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