december 2006

saturday 30th dec - saturday 6 january 2007

No update on this today section for a week, we take a break. Thank you for reading this, I hope we can welcome next year and fly together. It doesn't get much better.

Cheers, Nick, Kath y Paco

friday 29th of december

Another good day in Alicante. Thermals, cloudbase, sun, lots of pilots, etc... .

Andrzej was flying his brandnew NOVA Ra, stil bit uncomfortable but hit cloudbase today at 1600 m ASL. Yes, december. NOVA Ra is the new dhv 2 of Nova, the succesor of the Tattoo.

It only has three risers and everything is very thin. The toplines seems to be as thin as dental floss.
Andrzey is a good pilot, you can tell by his handling and flying, but maybe a bit rusty, because living in "not the most exciting" part of the world for paragliding of course, northern Germany.

You immediately notice that this glider is fast, thin, not a beginners glider.

And as I talked to Andrzey about his first flying with this hot dhv 2 wing, he acknowledged he really has to get used to this one. Twice he almost stalled the glider whilst thermalling, and this in our winter Alicante thermals.
He was also not too impressed by its behaviour yesterday, soaring on the cliffs. All of a sudden its performance was not outstanding, compared to some old rags which were flying the coastal site yesterday. And he is a pilot with experience on a Boomerang etc... .

But then again, he managed to be on top of the stack today. He flew his wing for over three hours again, and got to cloudbase, not like all the others.

I flew his wing down, couple of wingovers, spiral dive, and of course it is full of energy.
I just hope pilots will make the right decision about this Dhv 2, it's hot. It is for pilots who fly very very regularly, and this doesn't mean soaring, or three trips a year abroad. I really believe this glider is for pilots who fly very regularly in thermals, all seasons.

There are other dhv2 gliders which could be a much better choice for lots of pilots.

I read somewhere that Hannes himself (NOVA boss) said, the faster you fly this one the better.

thursday 28th of december

Did you close your eyes yesterday, sitting in your office, imagining how it is like to thermal eyes closed ?

Very cloudy this morning, smelled like rain. Inland sunny though, so we left for the mountains. But it was weak and way cross. Still managed to scratch up and top-land a couple of times. It's good not to have it too easy once in a while, you could get rusty.

In the afternoon we decided to have a coffee in the hacienda of Palomaret. Waiting for a phone call of friends, trying the coast out.

I had a whole danish family who loved to fly tandem today. Ah, at last Jose Luis called, winds were more and more one and some were flying top to bottoms. So maybe maybe they were beginners and we could stay up.

Of course you know the story, it became good. We soared until dark on the cliffs of Santa Pola. Doing lots of tandems with the danish family, together with polish pilot Andrjea, good old Allan and sweet little Winnie.

Winds were off to the north, the sky cleared up, all clouds burned off again. Just heard on the news that we had the warmest year in more than a century, today I had my longjohns' on though. Northern winds...

wednesday 27th december

This could be painful, but I am obliged to tell you the truth. I am sorry. With this high over Europe, I do hope you have as a good time as we have now, down here in Alicante.

This is the third consecutive day of fantastic flying in Alicante. The weather is just superb.
Ice-cold in the morning (8 degrees celsius), and 15 already at 11 am, rising until nice and warm this afternoon.

We were early at take off, at noon already. A little breeze was promising a good day. Inversion in the valley, so things had to burn off still.
I had to take off early and fly, because lots of pilots were gonna show up, tandems etc... it was gonna be buuuuussssy !

Biting thermals at first. I flew again without vario. I do this lots of times. For me its more rewarding, climbing in a thermal without electronics.
You know that I guide every day, and you know I love it, don't misunderstand me. But when I am working, I do have the radio, GPS and vario etc... at hand all the time. Need it, for safety, to do my job adequately.

But when I'm free, I like to taste the thermals. I try to sense the difference in temperature, study the terrain, look at the windsocks, spot birds. Try to fly the smooth, tiny thermals without the electronics, without the BEEP. Try it, I think everyone will benefit from it, flying without instruments once in a while. What else I do, and now you are gonna call me completely crazy maybe, but I try to fly a thermal, eyes closed. Yes, of course away from the hill, and no pilots around. Try it !
It is gonna be part of my guiding when you are around, if you want to.
Eyes closed, only sensing the lift through your fingertips, the pressure difference in your glider.

Another nice thing today, were our new pilots, young pilots taught by Raul from Onil. They were present, eager to get into the thermals, eager to fly to Maigmo, first steps to XC flying. There is a drive there, hopefully resulting in good flying next spring. We need those new young pilots, because our top-pilots are losing it, most of them are having their best days behind, I notice.
(oh god I'm gonna have comments tomorrow on the hill, it looks promising again by the way)

Well hey, here's a foto of how the weather looked like in Alicante this afternoon. Picture taken by Kath, in my garden.

tuesday 26 december

Same thing as yesterday. Northeast prevision, but weak. It looked very inverted early morning. We were hoping the thermals would kick through the inversion, so at least we would have some cloudbase. And we did.

We made use of the southern valley breeze to fly thermals at Palomaret.
Boxing day, lots of pilots in the air, too much traffic at times, felt like Palermo-driving. They came from the left, the right, above, under you, not so nice and stressfull at times. Lots of too laidback pilots in the air, not realising they were in the wrong.

Best thing was that Winnie flew her thermals, for the first time after her accident being towed up at home in Denmark. Enhorabuena.

On the 25th of december we flew at Palomaret. We enjoyed 4 m/s thermals and Bruno got to 1550 meter ASL. Most of us made the run to Maigmo and back. I don't know how we deserved it, but it was one of the greatest christmas gifts I ever received. This time of the year, those kind of thermals, that height, all afternoon flying, jesus christ. On the 24th pilots were flying at Carrascoy, Murcia.

sunday 24 - monday 25 december

saturday 23 december

Flying at Hondon de las Nieves. Northern take off, near the antennas. Took some pictures flying ,you can watch them on http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/

Yes, thermal activity just before Xmas. After a while it got real overcast and strong in the air. Time to warm up with an glass of Orujo in the local bar. See you later Arvind and Paul, Gert, Tom and Tom and Jurgen. Hope to see you again.

friday 22nd december

Northern Alicante bad again, southern Alicante at least bits of sunshine.
There is a high pressure over Spain and we have northeastern winds.

This cold air brings us the moist air from above the mediterrean sea. (sea temp 15 degrees celsius).
Once it hits the continent, it cools down abruptly and results in rain and even snow on our higher mountains. Today more inland, Castilla La Mancha, Don Quichote's land, it was dry and sunny.

And today, yes ! Some flying in Murcia again. Away from the higher mountain ranges near Alicante. We save those for teaching us how to thermal ....

Happy men

thursday 21st december

Today was bad. Blue sky, but windy from the north. We didn't fly, our only hill El Plantio was gusty to fly on. It is the hill very close to the airport, and the times it is flyable can be counted on one hand. When it is pure north, even airplanes are warned to be careful, landing at Alicant airport, so why should we even think of flying eh.

Dates for our spring-roadtrip to the feet of the Pyrenees is set from saturday 23rd of june till saturday 30th of june 2007. More details will follow. We will fly the sites of Ager, Organya and Berga, a roadtrip in spring with doyouwanna. Price will be democratic, as they always are with doyouwanna.
Group will be small, max 6 pilots, so we will be flexible to move from one site to the other. There will be an airport pick-up in Barcelona on saturday 23rd of june. It'll be a non stress flying trip, to the southern hills of the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. You may already let me know if interested, I will sent you more info asap, upcoming days this is.

wednesday 20th december

We didn't fly today. It was raining up in Alicante North, down south sunny till afternoon. So we went to check an alternative site near Torrevieja. A site where only once we flew on. It is not high, but nice to play on when the weahter is bad inland and especially up north.

But winds were totally off, so we couldn't enjoy it.

Day off, raining in Alicante, snow on the mountains.

Site near Hotel Masa international. Yes very low, and almost no landing field, but hey if the weather is bad and you want to play ...

tuesday 19th of december

Forecast, westwinds, veering to north later in the day. Cloudier and cloudier by end of afternoon, early evening. What do you do ? You check your northern sites, cold air from up north, mixed with blue sky, the warm sun. Should function in the afternoon on a northwestern site. So left again for Carrascoy, northwest and high, take off at 1000 m ASL.

Arvid, Andy, Paul, Suby and me. No others interested. Even my german pilots weren't eager to fly today, no idea why, didn't hear from them at all. Maybe enjoyed night life too much, Las Palmeras maybe ?....

It was weak at first, very smooth thermals. Andy showed where they were, just above landing area, in the valley they were. Suby rushed to them with his comp glider. Soon overflew Andy, who was struggling. He thanked Andy for pointing him out the thermal, promising a beer.

An hour and a half later Suby landed, he flew all over in the valley, good day for him. Bit he's another league.

I watched the clouds forming looking up northeast, towards Alicante. These were nice clouds up there, nicer than the ones we had at Murcia. Rafa send a message, Palomaret good. I called and messaged the germans, maybe they woke up by now, and they could fly this hill, which is not such a drive like we had to Murcia. But no sign of them.

Driving back I saw the wonderfull convergence clouds over the southern hills of Alicante. This must have been a good day, surprisingly though with the forecast we had.

Called Rafa, he told me cloudbase was at 1800 m and now he was driving direction Castalla to pick up our buddy Ismael. He made XC. It was only functioning a good hour, but what an hour.

XC around Xmas in Europe ¿ It happens.

Great fun, and a bit nippy at the end of the afternoon.

Bad weather, windy weather upcoming ...

monday 18th of december

Fabulous. Grey in Alicante, even raining early morning. But forecast looked good for southern region of Alicante. So roadtrip to Murcia, Carrascoy.

We took off early afternoon at this northwestern site. First Andy, then Arvid, Paul. Then Johan,me and Tom. When we were in the air, Carrascoy was in its typical mood. The higher you got the more wind was on.
If you have flown this site before, you know it is better not to be too greedy and stay low. Johan did, I did, the others landed earlier.
Full speedbar in my Magic gave me nothing but sink and no groundspeed. So couldn't make it to the proper landing field, and landed in (luckily) not cultivated field. Because farmers down there are not so happy with us, nutters, flying over their orange groves.
Tom, was getting higher and higher. Soon though, we saw him spiralling his Advance Sigma6, to get lower lower lower. Big ears next, anything to get away from this strong winds on height.

After his landing he explained us that he was getting higher, getting less and less groundspeed. Getting more and more higher, eventually flying backwards. Not a good feeling.
Better cafe con leche and wait for better conditions.

And they got surprisingly better, Arvid and Paul, both low airtimers had one of their longest flights late afternoon.

left on foto, Tom high under the cloud, right smoother conditions late afternoon

saturday sunday 16 17 th december

Flying the whole weekend. Peña Rubia, Toix. Not epic, but where in Europe can you fly like this in winter ? I doubt if there is a better place than Alicante.
Tomorrow we are looking at the southern sites of Alicante, Carrascoy, soon be closed for months again. We have to fly that site before Xmas.

friday 15th december

Angry sky. Up north of Alicante, Benidorm, Calpe, Col de Rates, raining. Southern Alicante , sunny, but limited to fly. Winds up to 30 k per hour and very gusty. No chance.

Maybe El Plantio would have worked, this is a small ridge near the airport of Alicante, takes north. Probably to closest site to an airport, appr 500 m from the runway. But couldn¡tmake it today. Sunday onwards visiting pilots again, can't wait.

thursday 14th december

Eastern wind, tried out small alternative hill near Villena. But got blown back, had to land behind the hill, fortunately no harm done.

At the coast early day, soaring possible. But needed a change and drove inland. Alex and friends went to San Antonio, up there as well too strong. Don't know if they flew later in the afternoon.

High pressure, northeastern winds for upcoming days. Sunshine.

wednesday 13th december

Grey day. No flying at all. High pressure, air coming down, bits of rain all day. Relax.

tuesday 12th of december

Northeast, and for days. Today too strong for the coast. Inland at San Antonio. Usually working with this kind of weather. Strong at the coast, high pressure, and cloudbase not too low.
Not the most beautiful site, but works very nice when the sun is out. A 200 m high hill, with football pitches as landing field. Landing fields, which you can't see from take off.

I remember flying this one years ago, with pilots who have flewn it before. So went up, and first one airborne. Soon on the radio :

Nick !
What ?
Whats happening on the landing field ?
What do you mean ?
There is a fair going on !
Jesus.

Luckily on the side of the football pitches there is a huge road on which sides we can land on. Uuuff.

monday 11th december

Early afternoon already a phone call from Rafa Caudete. He is a low airtimer who is crazy about flying. As a young man, he loves to fly every minute possible. So he called early, telling us it didn't look that bad.

Although winds were northeast, which is opposite of what we need for that hill.
It was cloudy enough to fly on the lee-side, the ever blowing breeze did the rest.

Just in case you are looking for a bargain, I got one :

wednesday 6th - sunday 10th december

Roadtrip to Valle d Abdalajis, Andalucia, (more) southern Spain. Left wednesday morning with not a lot of hope to fly well on this roadtrip. But, but, but, .. this is Spain and the sun is sometimes stronger than we think.

Visiting Grananda meanwhile, a must when passing through. The Alhambra, the village surrounding the Sierra Nevada.

Got a call from my friends of our biggest local club Mas7. They were flying on thursday in the Valle d Abdalajis. Blimey. And this when it was still raining, 50 km more north where I was checking the western site of Loja.
On friday too much wind, so all went rock-climbing in El Chorro, famous in Europe, as famous as le Palud in France. And as famous as the climbing is, in Marche-les-dames in Belgium. But that's only because a Belgian king fell of this rocks and killed himself rockclimbing, long time ago.

Saturday was epic. No wind at take off, western side. Almost forced to alpine launch. But once in the air, easy to get to cloudbase. Some took it too literally and had to big-ear down. No stress.

It was flyable all day, from midday onwards till sunset. But every good half hour pilots were landing, because hands were frozen. Up high it was only 4 degrees, and that's nippy.

Only Carmen, topped up her airtime with three hours, three hours of consecutive flying in this cold. We all wanted to see her magic gloves. They looked designed in the sixties, and they were of poor cheap plastic. Those were the days, made in Taiwan ... .

We all camped near the lake, had good wine, steak on the BBQ, and lots of fun. Again, good friends, good flying, no hassles.

Oh by the way, Rafa from Caudete won the spot-landing competition. Anothe bottle of wine of course.

El Chorro, climbing

Valle d Abdalajis west

Arabic market in Granada, day blown out

Last week(s) of june 2007, I organise a roadtrip to the southern sites of the Pyrenees. It'll be a roadtrip flying Ager, Organya and Berga. Feel free to ask us more info.

Soon I will invite you all through this 'today'-section. The group should be small to be as flexibe as possible to get the most flying in. Give it a thought ok ? Cheers.

tuesday 5th of december

Tomorrow is fiesta in the whole of Spain, till monday. If you want to live in a country with muchas fiestas, well that's the one. I can't keep up for what we have fiesta again, one thing I know, we all love it of course. Just had a look on the calendar, it is constitution day, and friday we celebrate some virgin again, hoorah !

And today as well, we loved it. We were inland, Peña Rubia flying. Five of us, three of us did well, considering the conditions are 'december'-like. Suby and me bummed out ..... after struggling to find the right thermal. We stayed up for a while, scratching close to the sunnier bits of the hill, west wind generating some ridge-lift.
But as soon as we took our chances away from the hill, into the valley, sink-alarm almost. Damn. Once in a while some turns were giving us hope, but soon as roasted chickens on the ground.

Dudo ,Rafa, Imre were more lucky, got into the right thermal went for the neighbour ridge and had a good hour of flying. Winds were west, not too strong as predicted.

Tomorrow fiesta, told you already. We are off to the south. Probably very windy in Alicante for the next upcoming days, that's why. We maybe go to Almeria, Granada or even more west Valle de Abdalajis. I know the sites, and can't wait to fly them again. If not we'll just have to live with the hospitality of the Andalucian people, and their tapas.

I won't be updating my 'today'. But my phone will be with me in case you want me to pencil you in for the upcoming weeks. Bye now.

Photo send by Michael Pausch, he took it when we were flying over the lake of Guadalest. The day before a plane crashed and they were fishing it out.

monday 4th of december

Well, Alicante is one site richer, thanks to the greediness, the perseverence of Jarl Christian Kind. Sometimes pilots are more passionate about flying than birds, you would think. Even small, low hills, with obstacles, don't withhold the ones with a huge drive for flying to try out new things.
As long as we get our feet off the ground no ? Jump !

He found a new site in Torrevieja. Checked it this afternoon and here it is. I don't think we'll frequent this site very much, but hey if it is strong east, and we are near, why not ?

Foto's from Jarl himself.

The site reminds us of our alternative sites like Cabo de Huertas, Cala de Finestrat, Campello.

sunday 3rd december

Carascoy, Peña Rubia, La cortina. That's where there was paragliding done today. I can speak of Carascoy where we flew together with the Murcia boys, Rafa, Sayo and Kath.

Bits rough in the air, and at times strong headwind. But if you felt fit, you could stay as long as you would. In between the soaring bits, you had to fight to get into the punchier thermals. Once in a while you had the impression you weren't moving forward any more. You looked above and you saw the other pilots above you racing you by. Very typical for certain days at Carrascoy. Sometimes at some height, winds are stronger. Sometimes stronger than higher up. Ahum, difficult to explain. If you ask locals again and again howcome, they keep on answering you . 'eso es', it is that way... .

For those who are interested in some spanish culture, today there was food culture. After flying we we went for a famous restaurant that serves paella. Their specialty is paella with rabbit and snails. Awesome. Every table gets a pan with the paella, and dig in. No fancy stuff, the real stuff. The restaurant is not known by foreigners, it is still one of those very very local places.
A very typical spanish atmosphere. Very loud in the restaurant, seems like everybody is raising his voice, having a good time. It was sunday, lots of people well dressed up. Proud older spanish señoras, and also cute younger women, dressed as if they want to seduce the waiters. TV on, nobody watching. Kids running around, shouting. Bright white neon-lights. Cheap table wine with sweet lemonade, vino tinto y casera.

Maybe not your cup of tea ? Well then you certainly miss the 'carajillo'. We love it.

saturday 2nd december

Soaring over the med. Cloudy though, colours not that sharp. But anyway, a huge window at the coast we had. Nice and steady 18 km/h winds, untill all died off.

friday 1st december

Morning flights at Cabo, and afternoon flying inland. It was very cloudy and rainy up northern Alicante. Still pilots flying early afternoon at Cabo, and bits later I had a message Dudo was flying inland.