Fly2K - Rampart Ridge, Fly-in 2000
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Rampart Ridge, Fly-in 2000 (September 2nd, 3rd and 4th) If you missed this year’s edition of the Rampart Fly-In, you missed an event that will be remembered in tales of local hang gliding folklore for many years to come. When you hear the stories recalled by the many pilots who participated, only then may you begin to understand the full magnitude of the event. It was truly the stuff of which legends are made.
Day 1 As Saturday morning dawned, the local weather prognosticators must have been looking at their laundry list instead of their weather maps. The forecast called for mostly cloudy conditions along with a significant chance of rain and thunderstorms in the mountains. Ignoring the gloom and doom prediction for the day, a small contingent of the Rampart faithful agreed to meet at the Lake Keechelus boat launch to make an on-site assessment of the day’s potential. On arrival, a light breeze out of the west, clearing blue skies and cumulus formations above the hill were all good indicators of the shape of things to come. As soon as arrangements for rides and retrievals were made, the faithful few were motoring up the rock sculptured path to launch. Decent self launch conditions along with gentle thermal cycles further raised the prospects for a good day. Distant rain showers not withstanding, the view from the top had the look of great mountain flying in fantastic unstable conditions. Even with the direct sunlight mostly obscured by cloud cover, the certain signs of lift filled the local sky with a sense of promise. We too would soon be a part of that sky. I think that Scott Rutledge was the first pilot to launch (no surprise there). His ghostly image circled smoothly upward and quickly disappeared to the north. As his thin bladed figure vanished into the sky, an eerie sense of expectation settled over the faithful few. Soon afterwards the remaining winged souls began their own journeys into Cascade paradise. Smooth thermals to cloud-base and negligible sink cycles made the experience nothing less than pure pleasure. Most of the day was spent above 6,000 feet; plenty of altitude to allow for extended periods back at the cliffs. A few forays towards Kendall Peak proved to be effort without reward but the trip across Gold Creek Valley is always a visual delight. Throughout the afternoon, a distant rainsquall had been slowly meandering to the east from the Bandera Mountain area. As soon as that cell moved into the vicinity of Snoqualmie Pass, most of the Rampart faithful elected to land. Landing conditions on the dry lakebed were surprisingly friendly. The obligatory flight debriefing session was filled with the smiles and the laughter of satisfied pilots. Day 2 On Sunday, the second day of the meet, Saturday’s glowing flight report had enticed the appetites of a much larger contingent of pilots. The weather forecast called for much of the same as was forecasted for the previous day. The prediction for afternoon thunderstorms would prove to be significantly more accurate than yesterday’s weather-guess. The view from the top was only slightly more ominous than the previous day. There were a number of slow moving cells in a variety of directions from Rampart Ridge and the landing area. The tops of the clouds appeared to break through into the midlevel causing a great deal more vertical development than was seen on the day before. As the clouds developed into that unstable middle layer, the sky grew darker and the prospect for a repeat of yesterday dimmed along with the sunlight in the valley. Vince, a new pilot to the area from Georgia, launched first. As he circled up over the launch area he let out a loud "rebel yell". While I’m not exactly sure what constitutes an authentic "rebel yell", it was obvious that there was something out there worth making some noise about. Soon after the first drops of rain began to fall, the rigid wings also took to the sky ignoring the moderate showers. A few Falcon pilots also had no trepidation about flying in the rain and off they went. For the majority of the pilots left waiting on launch, there was much discussion concerning the negative effects of raindrops beaded up on Mylar leading edges. As we huddled under our wing shaped umbrellas, the possibility of not being able to fly at all loomed large in our minds. A brief break in the rain and a momentary glimpse of the sun served to partially dry the raindrops from our wings. With the additional drying effects of towels and spare articles of clothing, the remainder of the crowd made good use of the opportunity. Immediately after launching into the dim, there was an obvious wall of precipitation looming to the north in Gold Creek Valley. Many of us elected to momentarily circle up over launch and then made a hasty retreat to the landing zone. A hugely unstable day with thunderstorms in the vicinity is worthy of a great amount of respect. Once the majority of pilots were safely on the ground ahead of the Gold Creek gust front, about a half dozen pilots were still in the air. As the squall marched out of the valley, those remaining pilots were pushed out over the lake into what was later described as "major cloud-suck". All pilots have their own envelope of comfort I guess. A few pilots were unlucky to have made a decision to land during the height of the gust line. Fortunately for them though, the peak winds and gust factor were relatively benign. Interesting cross-field approaches were expertly executed and good landings were followed by howls of approval from the concerned group on the ground. Day 3 Monday’s forecast was again similar to the previous two days. The relatively low freezing level, light west winds and a slight chance of afternoon thundershowers spoke well to the chances of having another good day of flying. A good group of pilots, characterized by one pilot as "The Geritol Crowd", met in the lakebed parking lot at around noon. Transportation arrangements were made and the show was on the road.
The lift in the vicinity of the launch area was workable but not very strong. After a little bit of exploring, I elected to make my way towards the first set of cliffs right away. There was lift all the way across the shallow gap between launch and the rocks at the far edge of the rock escarpment. Typically the thermals are small and solid at Rampart Ridge and the cliff’s initial offering was all that and more. Banking it up in tight to the hill was the first of many exhilarating rides for the day. Multiple trips to a 6,300’ cloud-base highlighted a spectacular flying day. Gliders of every type filled the air. Steve Grossruck’s incredible prototype KasperWing was by far the most impressive piece of engineering in the sky. All I could see was the huge grin on Steve’s face as he turned his way up to the base of the clouds. The ever-present Rutledge GhostBuster and the freshly uncrated Daily Exxtacy 99 also spent the afternoon in total zoom mode. Uneventful landings in the usually eventful lakebed LZ were the perfect ending to an almost perfect fly-in. The only thing that I would have changed (if I could) would have been the weather for Day 2. Many pilots had memorable flights on that day so who am I to balk. Thanks to everyone who made this year’s fly-in a complete success. All of the donations to the Rampart Fly-In Fund served as reimbursement for the expenses incurred by the road clearing efforts of the previously mentioned site maintenance committee. Where were you on the Labor Day weekend of 2000? Where are you going to be on the Labor Day weekend of 2001? I’m going to be at Rampart Ridge for my dose of "Vitamin-R". Airwreck.. Fly2K
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The meet organization staff (Scott Rutledge) kept things simple. After all,
since Labor Day weekend is the traditional Rampart Fly-In weekend it goes
without saying that there will be a host of pilots plying their wings into the
sky. The site maintenance committee (Brian Scott) had completed the necessary
repairs in plenty of time for a few practice rounds on previous weekends leading
up to the event. The site beautification team (Kevin Cosley, Brian Scott) had
prepared the appropriate 
The first pilots off of the hill had an easy time of it. Light cycles and
good lulls made for pretty straightforward launch conditions. After that initial
set of launches, stronger cycles with increased frequency and velocity made
things a little more interesting. With adequate wire assistance the take off
activities went off without a hitch.