Saturday found us with another weekend of the summer doldrums. Wind was light out of the SE, 5-7mph. It was a small group, possibly because of Father's day weekend and the light air.

Mike...Continue Reading

Saturday was our first flying day since we got back from our Oregon trip. We were treated to a 7-10mph breeze out of the NE, so we stayed planted at the NE bowl. We had a good sized crowd, even though a few of the guys (Dan, Mike N and Jamie) were off to the Ocala Redneck Open TD contest https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...1421592&page=7. Lots of good thermal lift combined with decent wind made for nice high flights. And suprise, suprise no major crashes.

Mike...Continue Reading

Today we awoke to whitecaps on the Columbia. Always a positive sign. We started early and headed tp Klickitat. We found the air great! 38mph winds with gusts at 47mph. Tom and I loaded our Gulps up with 1 lbs of ballast. DJ went “naked” with no ballast in his Raven. We had lots of screaming passes. The lift band was strong all the way out. We would speck out unless we kept the nose down the whole time.
After we had taken enough of a wind beating. We decided to head into Hood for lunch. After lunch we hiked into Lumber and spent the rest of the day there. Hoping for a little less wind, we soon found the conditions were the same. So, we spent our last afternoon blasting across the slope and enjoying the cool weather (temps were 56 f with wind chill closer to 40 f). With a threatening shower coming across the Hood River valley, we decided to pack up and head back to our motel at out 5:30pm. We closed the day to a fantastic meal at Nora's Table.

Mike...Continue Reading

Monday was a turn around day for us. After a couple days of light air, the wind gods shined upon us. The weatherman had predictions of 15-25mph out of the WNW. We headed straight out to Greyback, just above Klickitat. On the way out, we had a deer encounter and snake encounter. The deer jumped in the middle of the road and as we hit the brakes and pulled up beside it, it continued to try to jump around the car. Finally it leaped over to the right side of after a few tense seconds. Our other encounter, was with a rattle snake at Greyback. We stopped to ford a stream near the end of the trail. There was a fallen down shed/house beside the road and Tom decided to investigate. Right in the center floor of the shed was medium sized rattler. We took a few pics and then left him alone. No use in pushing our luck!
Speaking of luck, we found great lift at Greyback. Actually huge pumps of lift came roaring through. Tom, DJ and I found ourselves running huge half-pipes in formation. After flying till we could fly no more. We packed and headed back to Hood River. Along the way we stopped at Klickitat and Tom flew his ballasted Moth in the 30+ winds until his eyes were dry.
We sealed the day with a great dinner at the Mesquitry and then Mike's Ice Cream to finish.

Mike...Continue Reading

Another day of dead air. We made a decision to go to Mount Hood for the morning, hoping for afternoon winds. Spent about an hour driving to the Mount Hood Lodge. Had lunch, then came back down and found we had a 7-10mph breeze out of the West. We packed up our planes and headed up to Lumber. It was a bust for about 40 minutes, then winds stayed at a steady 10mph. Also, Tom found out the Northern slope of Lumber was doing the best so we moved there. We had some great flying till about 6:30pm. Then we started getting some sprinkles and headed back into Hood for some Chinese food. By the time we reached the restaurant it had turned into a full blown storm with thunder and lightning.

Mike...Continue Reading

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Saturday started off slow. The wind was light to say the least. And it was coming out of the East. Unfortunately that left only one place to fly, Rowena. Wind was light and we mainly flew on Alpine lift. At times wind reached 15mph, but it was for brief periods. Nonetheless, we got some good flying in. We ended the day early (4pm), on a good note, no crashes and no outlandings (not a good thing at Rowena's shear drop).
In the evening we Met Gorge Flyer (Mike S) down at the Bike races in downtown Hood. Topped the day off with some beers ans pizza's at Double Mountain pub.

Mike W

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Today was a bust. Wind was practically non-existant. Predictions were for eventually 6-8mph out of the East. So we decided do to some "guy" stuff. The decision was made to head to McMinnville and check out the Museum.
Along the way we stopped at Frye's Electronics. The stop lasted almost 2hours. Plenty of boys toys.
The McMinnville Everegreen Museum was a treat. They have added several different buildings. They now have the aviation museum, space museum, Imax, and a water park (with a 747 and waterslide).
By the time we arrived back in Hood River it was after 7pm. We ended the day by meeting Gorge flyer and friends at Nora's Table in Hood. Of course we didn't missout on a cone from Mike's icecream (which was mobbed) to put the icing on the cake.

Mike W

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We awoke Thursday to white caps on the Columbia and 30+ mph winds. With those optimistic signs we headed early to Bald Butte. Unfortunately, when we arrived a the "Bald" we discovered we didn't have 4wd on out truck and the road was very wet (read mud). We we went up the road about 1000 ft and decided to park it as we found ourselves sliding in the mud. We walked in and checked out the conditions. Since we didn't carry planes up (it's a long trip), we took a quick look and walked down to head for another slope. Our next stop was the backside of Rowena. Rowena was rocking, winds were gusting to 40+ mph. Tom attempted a test Flight with his Super Scooter but it was so violently thrown around, he recommended we move on. So again we packed up and ended to the Dalles flying site. Dalles was great. Wind was almost straight on and the air was smooth. Tom flew his SS and his M60. DJ whipped out his Sunbird and I flew my Triffic.
After we flew our brains out there we decided to head to Klickitat and try out a diffrent slope. When we reached Klickitat we found the wind was hitting the slope from a terrible angle. As a result, we tried a few passes and found the conditions were much like Rowena backside. By this time it was late afternoon and we decided to explore for new sites. We drove out of Klickitat and took the back road, over the top and worked the ridgeline along the Klickitat valley. We then worked along Hwy 14 checking out possible slopes and LZs. By then it was 6pm, eventually we made an early night of it and and hit the sack. Stay tuned for more.......

Mike W in Hood

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