Grouse Mountain Flying

Yesterday I flew Grouse Mountain for the first time as a guest of Nicole's.

Conditions didn't seem especially inspiring and I figured we would all just get in a sledder, but a pilot who launched as we went up the chairlifts showed us that there definitly was lift out there.

Grouse is an interesting site; first off, you have to be a member of the Grouse Flying Team to fly there and after flying yesterday, I understand why. The launch is fine, although it is parallel to a chairlift which you have to fly over. The landing zone is also quite tricky as it's small with a hill behind it and surrounded on three sides with tall trees.

After launching, I flew around for about an hour, regretting that my camera was in an inaccessible pocket and that I couldn't take pictures from the air. The view was very pretty, even though downtown Vancouver was somewhat hazy. On a nice clear day, I think Grouse would be a beautiful site to fly.

There were about 15 of us or so who flew yesterday which was pretty unexpected. I have a new respect for the tandem pilots who fly there - I hope someday I can build my skills up to a point where I would feel comfortable flying tandem from a site like Grouse.

All in all, it was great to fly Grouse; going up the tram and then taking a chairlift to launch is a really cool experience, something that would be awesome to have on every mountain! It's nice to also know that I have flying site only half an hour or so from my place - sweet.