Peterson today

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Bill Briskey

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Dec 1, 2021, 1:23:35 AM12/1/21

to Cascade Paragliding Club

Seven handsome PG pilots gathered to fly the Butte today. The forecast was for light SW winds so I was expecting a hike and sledder, not a bad recipe for a guy with holiday excesses already starting to accumulate and more expected. 10am found us at the LZ with a strong 15 SSE wind challenging us. Josh pushed off first and was teased by cycles when there was just enough lift to soar out front, but not enough to bench up. He landed and relaunched, having fun but making it clear that we were going to have to hike or wait for a wind change. Michael (PG/HG) tried to join in the fun, but as he launched the wind backed off, so he had a short sledder around the hill to the west, landing perfectly and light as a butterfly (so he says). Visiting Seattle/Aussie pilot Zach retrieved him and all but one of us headed up the hill.

We all agreed that it looked better higher up the hill, especially since we had some awesome windsocks at mid and the top to observe (Thanks Jason!). I stopped at mid and prepared to launch, hoping that it would eventually shift west, and the others hiked to the top. By the time the rest of the group was ready to launch, the wind had backed down even more. Eric showed how it was possible to side hill land between blackberry bushes above mid and successfully relaunched after hiking back up to the top. Most of the rest of us flew extended sledders to the LZ.

One of our group found that when you get low on the hillside, the wrapping wind, though light, can still change directions and make sidehill landing challenging when there are lots of gullies, trees, and bushes to break up the smooth flow. He safely landed, but also stuck his wing in tall bushes containing hidden blackberries. The extraction took a couple hours, although it would have been longer but for Eric's flying down to help.

I am compelled to report that the pilot in the bushes wasn't me - I did it last month at Yaquina. In my case it was a simple landing at the bailout LZ (fairly flat field) and the wind and I had different ideas of where I should bring my wing down. The wind won. Fortunately I was not on a steep hillside with evil blackberry thorns clutching lines far above my head, so I was free in 20 minutes. Oh, how we are often humbled by things we cannot see.