I'm going to assemble the information i got from David Raybourn. It was contained in several e-mails but included site rules and good weather information.
Here it is:1) Cape kiwanda is a State Designated Flight Park and is open to anybody to fly.
Flights can be made off of South side or the North side.
Landings on the beach are permitted.....
.... Driving on the beach is permitted on the South side and on the North side.
Park north of the creek on the North side to keep the LZ clear.
There are some rules written somewhere but it may be hard to find them anymore
2) Just to be clear ....no official of any stripe, including ushpa, Mark F., or the state ....has to know or give any type of involvement or permission for anybody to organize anything we want and fly at Cape Kiwanda
3)
Late March is better for Coastal soaring in between the rain squalls.
April 1st is generally the start of the soaring season with longer Windows between the rain squalls and the winds occasionally shifting from South West to West.
April has more sunny days but still 2-3 day storms.The winds tend to toward the southwest and that is great for soaring at a lot of the coastal sites and Cape kiwanda can be flown on the south side and occasionally the north side.
The last two weeks of April can be some of the best coastal soaring at Oceanside and Anderson Viewpoint.
The entire month of May is pretty ideal with the perfect mix of light gentle winds starting generally lighter in the morning and maxing out around 4pm at 8-12mph.
The middle of of May can still have a few low pressure systems with rain for one day followed by three days of great flying at the north side of the cape.
That creates a thermic drawing effect from the coastal mountains.
The second half of May can be really ideal for training or it can also have some dead days with no wind or or even too much wind from the north.
The first two weeks of June typically are still flyable in the mornings but getting to Northerly later in the day and strong for easy training.
The last two weeks of June you can get perhaps an hour in the morning but by 11am it is too strong and north.
Light South is best for the 200'ASL South side.... the wind can get split by the cape if it is exactly West and make it funny on both sides .
The ideal wind direction is Northwest but the cape can be flown all the way to North because the wind gets funneled and wraps around into the bowl.
Perfect conditions are created by a series of squall lines Marching In off the ocean ....with high pressure in between ...spaced 2-6 days apart.
June is marked more by a high-pressure that is centered over Vancouver BC that pushes wind ......instead of a good Spring lapse-rate drawing it in from the Coastal Range behind you.
The place seems to make its own weather and can be flyable year-round when no other place is..... including eastwinds.
Some years you can shift all of this advice by 2 weeks either direction.
If a little bit of morning or evening rain is in the forecast .....with partly sunny skies... I would go flying.
More later..... time for breakfast!
Dave R.
4) My buddies who have more recent experience have claimed that the climate shift has made April more likely than May ......but then again don't forget about those April Showers bringing the May Flowers.
The last half of June is so close to the summer solstice that it is hard to find flyable days and this pattern goes all the way into the first half of August or so with perhaps 20% of the days being flyable and the others being too Northerly with fog and high afternoon winds to 18 miles an hour.
By the second half of August you can get a late season of nice sunny days with nice afternoon sea-breezes up to 6-8 and that pattern can continue through September.
August is also more likely to have those high-pressure days that sit directly over you or slightly in land giving you just down air everywhere with squirrely over the back kind of stuff.
September can have a convergence setup between light easterlies and a sea breeze that meet and create a convergence to about a 500 feet that every migrating bird Under the Sun seems to use to go North/South.
Look for the high pressure center to be West ,offshore, from Vancouver BC.
the clockwise rotation gives you Northwest winds as long as a thermal low does not develop over Redding CA and create very strong North winds for days or weeks during the midsummer.
The high pressure will eventually move Inland and give you Easterly wind.
By October it's raining pretty consistently again and will be through the end of February or March.
For tides consult a table.....
there are extreme tide periods with minus tides.
The slope of the beach and the storm driven waves can have as much an effect as the tides.
There is usually enough Beach to land on even on the high tides especially as you go a little bit Northerly on the beach.
The winter storms tend to take the sand out from the north side Beach and it can be Rocky but never unusable ........but sand is usually back by April.
Some years the slope is perfect on the North side and some years there's a big 10 ft high cliff that you have to climb in the sand.
The North dune has been 125 feet high at times but it has been as low as 85 ft...... usually higher and steeper earlier in the season.
Some years it seems flyable almost every day and other years it's hard to be there on the right day..........sigh.
I am selling my house and moving next spring / summer so I can't commit to any help beyond contacts.
(but could probably take a few days off to help fly a condor 220 or 330 .....wink , wink.)
Davexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[/b]
OK THERE IT IS, THE STRAIGHT SCOOP FROM DAVID RAYBOURN. ALL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FLYING AT CAPE KIWANDA! EVERYBODY CAN FLY (EVEN BOBK) AND WE CAN USE HIS WEATHER INFORMATION TO PICK THE BEST WEEK FOR A REUNION MEET. I THINK IT NEEDS TO BE A WEEK IN ORDER TO GET AT LEAST ONE GOOD FLYING DAY AND HOPEFULLY MORE.
This is a good beginning let's keep talking and thinking about this. Hopefully we can get some Oregon HG flyers on board with planning. Oh, and yes Dave, my Condors will definitely be available to you.
The paraglider congestion is a bit disappointing but we'll just have to deal with it at the time.
Frank Colver
by Frank Colver » Fri Sep 08, 2017 10:01 am 
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