Cliffside

[Luke]

A few of us are going to check out cliffside today.  

[l.dan...@comcast.net]

It was a fun day.  Earlier was actually better for general flying as there was abundant thermalling activity from 11:15 (when we got there) until around 2:00pm.  The cycles were varying from south to east.  There was a fair amount of wind at launch but the ridge lift was not sustainable.  After 2:30pm it started to get more windy with bigger gusts and lots of sink out front.  There was some soaring after this time but the wind at launch was obviously not indicative of the air away from launch.  Ridge lift was still not sustainable which was a continuing sign of the somewhat weird air. Gradually pilots cleared out of the skies with just a few in the air and Harrison exhibiting stellar glider handling skills when few were still even contemplating a launch.  Eventually it was a one man show with Jon Malmberg performing all kinds of stunts on his smaller wing to amuse us pilots who had recently resigned ourselves to the ground for the latter portion of the afternoon.  After Jon landed the rain to the south and west was looming ominously in the distance so we resorted to food and beverages in Hood River.  Lift was a little tough to come by down low but above 1700 feet it seemed easier with larger bands of thermals.  I think David Le got the highest at over 4200 ASL and was able to soar at high altitudes down the ridge over the windmills during a flight that lasted over an hour.  David also had the best low save:  He was just about at road level near the gully as I announced over the radio that I would get him a beer if he made it back to top land.  Within 5 seconds he started going up and less than a minute later he was comfortably over launch (beer help piloting skills ).  In the early afternoon there was lots of flying and some students had there first flights in spicier thermals.  Many pilots landed out at bail out LZs, some top landed, others got high and were able to sustain altitudes for a long time on thermals.  My flight was also over an hour but I know David got higher than me because we were thermalling together then went our separate ways in search of the beast thermal at 4200 feet (my highest point), whereupon David went up and I went down. Other pilots were able to thermal pretty high also but that was really the only way to get high. The air was pretty deceiving all day as it did not ever seem like the wind at launch gave any kind of indication as to what would happen 5 seconds after you got off launch.  Overall it was great practice at staying up in highly thermic conditions!

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[rick...@gmail.com]

Thanks Luke, l always love reading detail flight reports. 

Rick

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