May 2006

Always Epic, what can I say. For all levels, from hot shot XC pilots to low airtimers, this is an excellent month.

wednesday 31stof may

Belgium 12 degrees, Paris 9 degrees, in the alps snow over 1000 meter. And in Alicante it is raining. What the fuck is wrong with this weather.

Luckily tomorrow it'll all be better. Back to normal, 25 degrees, sunny and flyable with east to southeastern winds.

tuesday 30th of may

Early at take off Cabo, but in no minutes way too strong. Not a very may-month this was today.

By the way we still have GIN Zoom Large on sale for only 1600 euros (!!) all in, brandnew, not been taking out of the bag yet. Spread the word.

monday 29th of may

No flying today. Thunderstorms inland, not a drop at the coastline. Winds were very variable at times. Too dangerous to even think about flying at times.

sunday 28th of may

Bye Winnie, bye Allen, you are always great guests, see you again soon. And say hi to all Danish pilots I know.

Today was a very typical sunday. Yes, Cabo de Santa Pola., People watching us, people asking to do tandems. Great fun, relax, after hours of waiting for the right wind on the cliffs.

saturday 27th of may

Today we flew at Monte Cabrer. Conditions were very good. I, Allan, test flew the Airwave Sport3. Had a lot of lift almost 6 m/s at times. Suddenly I felt it was going down very fast. I looked up and .. the whole wind had gone ! Pretty scary ! But the wing is a Dhv 1/2 and sorted itself out in no time. I flew for a little more than 3 hours and at last succeeded to land.

I tried to land before because I had to pee. But I could not get down Had to give it a go in the air, so peed on my pants. This has been a very nice day

........Allan, Denmark

Monte Cabrer is a very beautiful site,. You go up in Nick's truck. It's impossible in a car. Climb the mountain, about 10 minutes and there you go. A very nice take off is waiting for you. today the conditions were forforward launch, but you had to be quick (run your ass off).

I don't have so much experience with thermals but neverthelss I hit some opgoing wind shortly after take off. It was fantastic. Nick is a fantastic guide. He does everything to make us come up in the air and to make us happy. And he succeeds always. We are here for the 4th time and will come back for sure.

.............Winnie, Denmark

The day at Monte Caber was great for a low airtime pilot. It was only my second time mountian flying and my first experience of thermalling. the conditions were very friendly and I learned a lot. Good take off, some htermalling and safe landings.

...............Paul, Britain

Great day again at Monte Caber, epic flying thrills and spills. Thrills for everybody. Happy faces.
Spills for a few - little tumbles on take off but nothing serious.
One spill of a different kind for Allan but thats his to explain ! He was test flying Nicks Airwave Sport3, good thing he wasn't testing Nicks harness as well !!

Another epic day while the majority of pilots were waiting at the wrong site.
Nick guidances wins again !

.............Andy, ex-Britain, Mazzaron Spain

friday 26th of may

Friday, tomorrow weekend boys. Hope the weather is great whereever you are. Down here today too windy to fly, but very sunny and hot.

You know that I always check equipment if one of you guys come and visit us. You never know what happened in the airport etc... etc... . So if pilots don't mind, I do the check.

So this week I checked again all equipment from my visiting pilots. Next photo's show you that the check is not unnecessary.
Many or all pilots nowadays do have an emergency chute. But surely half of them were never taught how to throw the damn thing though, and how, where to throw it, what to do with the glider next etc... .
The yearly reunion in the gym ,throwing the reserve is helping, I for sure. ( Just received a message from a friend that 4 out of the 16 chutes didn't open properly, last weekend during the meeting of his club ... )

If you look at the photo's, you see that the maillons attached to the harnass are just sitting there loose. These photo's are taken with the pilots aside, just opened up the velcro, and look how the maillons are set. They were upside down. Knowing the strength of the maillon is tested in its length, the maillons can break if they are twisted when throwing your reserve.
Details ? I don't think so.

This equipment was sold by or a paragliding school, and/or dealer - distributor of very well know brand, in two different countries, not Spain by the way. I would like to emphasize on the importance of rigging the equipment correctly and checking it very regularly. Use shrink plastic to keep the maillons in place.

As I do not have shrink plastic and a hair dryer on take offs when I check equipment, I use electrical tape to keep everything in place during your stay down here.
I hope you appreciate my comments, the only reason is I want you to be safe. Hey don't worry too much about it eh, just get it sorted.

thursday 25th may

A big success today.

First at San antonio, calling my friends not to come because it looked like top to bottom. But conditions got better by the minute. Allan, who was trying the Niviuk Artik, climbed up to cloudbase, flew downwind and made his first XC flight of over 20 km. He tried the Niviuk Artik, first time in thermals after flying it a couple of hours yesterday soaring.

Then we flew where he landed approximately, Reconco. But it got so much smoother, at the same time getting messages that at the coast it was still 40 km per hour and up.

We left home and got new messages that conditions were getting better at Cabo back home. And yes, another hour in the air for all of us.

And this in my birthday.

wednesday 24th of may

Niviuk Artik, Niviuk Hook as demo gliders at Cabo de Santa Pola. Hours of flying for Dave, Georg, Marc, Ian, Andy, Winny, Paul and Allen.

A strong easterly banging on the cliffs. Again a warm day, beaches are getting cleaned up for soon to come hot hot weather.

tuesday 23rd of may

Too unstable today. Big clouds up north reaching our coastline by midday. We were at Cabo this morning. One german took off with southern cross wind, only top to bottom. Not worth mentioning.

monday 22nd of may

The most exciting thing to tell is that Penelope Cruz is acting in Agost next week. Shooting a movie about a famous Spanish bullfighter. So we invited her and the whole crew to do tandem flights over Palomaret. And in sept Palomaret will not be flyable for a week, because the Asterix and Obelix movie is gonna be shot near take off Palomaret. Gerard Depardieu tandem ??

So no flying today. First at Toix, where southwest wind was predicted, but too big the inversion was. So after some waiting, we drove back to Alicante where pure notherwestern winds didn't allow us to play. Bad day. Cloud cover all day, very warm weather.

sunday 21st of may

Flew the Niviuk Artik again. Conditions were very active. But all went ok. Three times I was thinking that i was gonna loose half of my wing. Each time I looked up and saw, each time the right half, losing all pressure. But in a second or three it filled up with air again, so no collapse. I do not recall this happening ever with any other glider. The feeling of it, really looking up expecting it etc... was very weird. But the glider kept on flying, and the wing never collapsed.

Anyway, as I said, conditions were not good. It was bumpy, winds from all over. All afternoon, it never really got smooth. It just died off completely.

And I was in the hospital again, just back now, british pilot broke a foot. Again a landing in the valley. From what I heard what fellow pilots saw, was that with the no wind landing, he didn't slow down his glider enough. And this is spanish grass you land on, not a grassy field with cowshit. Ok, he is allright, in plaster and his flying trip over, shame. And I've seen better take offs guys ... .

Enough of that, glass of vino tinto will do good.

saturday 20th of may

Sportive day. Early at Palomaret and active flying. Cloudbase not so high, thermals with sharp edges. At 1200 m ASL, windsheer, quite active. Flew the Artik and didn't make me nervous a tall. The brake travel is not like the usual dhv 2/3 glider, it gives you room to experiment with the pitch and roll. Another good thing so.

Had to stop and bring Gunther to the hospital, made a pretty hard toplanding. But in the end, nothing broken, just a swollen ankle, couple of weeks rest. Luckily.

During the day there was an exam for beginning pilots to get their club pilot license. Many pilots I haven't seen for ages.

friday 19th of may

For you guys who booked with us the upcoming month. You will not regret it. Weather looks awesome and the region is great and known for its thermalling, soaring with excellent views and conditions.

Today the Niviuk Artik arrived, Niviuk's dhv 2. Couldn't wait to have a go on it and throw it around. Easy dhv2, with a huge play-element.

I am not a specialist, don't know how many grams per cm2, don't even know what cloth they use, neither how thick lines are etc... . There is enough technical stuff to check on the internet, help yourself.
I can only be as straightforward as I am, to tell you this is a good glider. It is fun, easy to fly, turns easy with not too much banking, and invites you to do wingovers, spirals. And this on the first flight with the ARTIK. (see some foto's etc above)

For those who will be here soon, we have next gliders to have a go on :

- Niviuk Hook dhv 1/2
- Niviuk Artik dhv 2
- Airwave sport3
- Gradient Aspen2 (next week)
- all Apco gliders !
- all Axis Para gliders (Pluto, Venus, Mercury etc... )

Be my guest, buy at a happy price !

This is Gunther looking at his wife's Brigits' landing, Ozone Buzz

thursday 18th of may

Wauw, what a heatwave. In the upper 30 all day. And no wind at all. Totally inversion all over Spain.

Luckily good timing with the swimming pools and waterparks, they opened up last weeend.. The sea feels fine, refreshing, and nobody on the beaches yet, which is nice as well.

The inversion was so huge, you could hardly see a couple of kilometers away. It looked as if you were in Africa, southern Morocco. Looking in the desert, knowing it stretches for miles and miles but you can only see a couple of kilometers. It is good to experience this view, but two days is enough.

Ice-creams, beer in frozen chilled glasses, the only way to cool down. Tomorrow temperatures should drop, better flying so.

wednesday 17th opf may

I must have one of the lowest airtime pilot of England in my group for the moment. It was funny, when yesterday he said to me : ' Don't panic Nick, I am not gonna fly today'
This morning he wasn't coming with us, he wanted a 'pub'-day. Another new word for me.

Great, well not that great. We couldn't see shit at take off. There was an orographic cloud forming over take off at Calpe. Sometimes when we fly at Calpe, we can soar these things. But to take off in this it was too tricky, visibility zero. And, for those who have been here, Calpe is not just a site.

Between take off and landing zone there is the sea, and above that you have to get height, otherwise the glide over the sea will not get you to the landing field. So we only fly there with decent wind, to make sure we gain height soaring, before even thinking of gliding towards landing field, which is a nudist beach. Easy, easy, the nudist beach is usually packed with men, no not even young boys David, shame on you !

So waited a bit having lunch in the harbour. Somewhat later Pedro, our local pigeon, took off from the antennas. He had about a 40 meter stretch of sun, maybe less. We watched him to see if we were gonna drive up or not. He couldn't get lots higher, and soon aimed for landing.
Flying in a cloud is (sometimes) fine and fun, definetely with a compass on and ALONE. But soaring in a cloud near a hill is different, so that's why 'beer' o clock.

Pedro Sigma6 advance	Take off Toix

tuesday 16th of may

Inversion, high pressure. Which meant bumpy stuff for early fliers.

At the end of the afternoon around 5 pm, Paul, Gunther and Birgit in the air. They loved it. Then need a couple of good flights, boosting their confidence so we can go early day and try to get some epic flying in more inland, where cloudbase should be higher. Thinking of Caudete, Cabrer, maybe even Carasqueta.

Monday 15th of may

Again Cabo de Santa Pola, Have new guests, and they love the flying on the cliffs. Very sensible decision to get some hours of soaring in and then go inland tomorrow. They have to get the rust off. Because inland it is booming.

Good take offs, bad take offs, good flying, dolphin flying, good landings, 'bottom' landings, all of it today.

Was glad to see Chris with his brandnew Niviuk Hook, having a first go on it. I saw him doing a kinda dance around his glider after a good hours' flight. I hope it was a happy dance, it looked a bit Indian, maybe he had a curry.

sunday 14th of may

Lots of students from the local school, having their first flight, their first top to bottoms at the cliffs of Santa Pola. Yes, we do have a local school now teaching in english, so if you know somebody tired of waiting for good weather, we can help out.

Gunther, Brigit, Gerard soared untill it got too strong. Razz and Brian struggled with their take off, groundhandling is the secret and they know.

Later in the day again, a big window to fly.

saturday 13th of may

Strange day. Pilots flying at Cabo when we arrived. Window was just open. Soon lines on the sea meaning winds were gonna pick up rapidly. Two pilots in the air, both flying backwards. Luckily we didn't take off. One pilot was pretty low airtime and wasn't briefed enough what can happen and what to do in these circumstances. Luckily he had radio on, and told him to get as high as possible and then fly downwind, and pick out a landing field. There are many big huge landing fields no obstacles behind, so that wasn't a problem.

As we didn't fly we had loads of time, to check on the equipment of new visiting pilots. Again, sorry guys but this is important, again the maillons on the shoulder connecting the harnass to the emergency chute were loose. Meaning they were not taped, no shrink plastic, not even a rubber band holding them in place. Could mean the maillon moves and gets broken by a throw of the reserve. And this done by a licensed instructor ... . Also the speedbar was connected with cheap hardware store carabines.
Sometimes I can't believe it.

It is a bit worrying at times. Paragliding magazines are usually full of professional advice, lots of safety notices (scary), and sometimes a review about a glider.
Last review in one of the paragliding magazines, the test pilot admitted, that he hadn't flewn thermals for five months (???). How can this, maybe very sympathetic and extreme nice man, do a write up about testing a glider that, by the way, he just flew once. How relevant can this article be ?
On the other hand he is so honest to say he hasn't flewn a thermal for five months, and on top of that reveals that he only flew the glider tested, once.
There is a lack of profesionalism in this though, if you ask me.

I see things and I read things. And I am doing this job daily. Checking equipment for instance. And to my humble opinion it is scary sometimes how things are sold , how things are done, and at what price but that's another story.....

I hope nobody is angry now. Because that wasn't my point. Safety is one of my main concerns, as a paragliding guide. Salud !

friday 12th of may

Today, it was as dangerous as climbing up a coconut tree on the Fidji Islands.

But !

'It is good to be here, it is good to be anywhere' : Keith Richards

thusday 11to of may

East winds for Cabo, too strong for most of us.

wednesday 10th of may

Cabo de Santa Pola today. If you like flying hours and hours, enjoying spectaculor views over the Med, this is where you wanted to be !

This is Gerard flying with his GIN, soon to land., Too many shots last night.... .

Toni Brown, THE Metoffice pilot from Cardiff, Wales, and Razzle world traveller kept on flying, untill they flew out towards the sea, to spot the girls on the beaches, so missing the lift and bummed out. Young boys ... they had their priorities right !

tuesday 9th of may

Cabo de Santa Pola today.

monday 8th of may

Excellent day at Peña Rubia. Antolino, Dudo, Jose Luis, Federico, Bartual all went XC. Took off first and immediately got nice climb up to 1465 m ASL. Easily could have gone downwind XC, down to Banyeres.

Decided to fly back to take off, to see what my English pilot Toni Brown would do. Mistake, cirrus clouds covered the sun, and no more feed for a while. Should have gone. The others went and almost on a glide, with here and there a fluffy thermal they got bits more than 20 k away. It would have been nice to join my spanish buddies and fly in team. But when I saw the smile on Toni's face, all was ok. His last flight later in the afternoon gave him 500 m climb above take off, went all the way to Biar, took a picture of the castly he flew over and flew back upwind, half speedbar, amazingly making it back to the proper landing field. Hurray !

Some foto's :

sunday 7th of may

Strong, May, midst of spring, hot down below, cool at take off, developing clouds in the back. At 1 pm in the air. Lovely climb,. although fighting to get in, and to damp the pitches and rolls of the glider better not let go of the brakes and take a foto. It is just May, that's it.
You would hate it when you are rusty, to fly in these conditions. It is tiring, every other second conditions changed. From sweet to punchy bits, from no climb to vertical climb without warning of 4 to 5 m/s.

I hear pilots talking about, yeah 8 m/s climb, half wing gone, got it into a deep stall, got rid of the cravatte, banked it in again, thumb in carabine, my vario screaming like a pig.
God, we piss our pants down here if we here these big stories, scary. Half of it, is already good enough for us. Hey, due to cancelled bookings we do have room for more pilots this month. Door is wide open, as always.

One thing is for sure, we go to bed now, knowing tomorrow is another big day of flying down here. This is not sex-ed up !

saturday 6th of may

Thermals up to 5 m/s. You didn't have to ask for climb, it was given. Sometimes you had to work your way down, not be flying too close to the clouds, which were just not developing too big. Know what I mean ? You better knew how a spiral dive was done etc... .

We had several tandem flights, Suby, Bartual and me. Climb over the valley, astonishing views for the passengers. Several attempts were needed to topland, with its crosswind at times, it was hard to get in, in one time.

I think all pilots enjoyed it,even lowairtime pilots had good fun when everything, as usual, died off later in the day.

friday 5th of may

Last day of the week. Most of us have a weekend to fly now. Good, tomorrow it looks better. Sunny and northeastern winds.

Down near the southeastern coast of Alicante it was very overcast all day. No sun all day. Winds were east, at times good for Cabo, but then it started be rainy, each time we got to take off. Bummer.

I think HALO or http://theyr.net/index.html do not offer there services for free any more. It happened before, and then after some time, their charts were free again. Wait and see.
There must be a similar wind-chart to be found on the net, anybody ?

thursday 4th of may

Kitesurfing was the option today. Too much wind. Even meteo alert inland Spain for heavy thunderstorms and wind. Andalucia, Algodonales, Granada, all under alert. Luckily at the coast down here it is not so bad. But good it ain't either.

Saturday looks fine weather again, tomorrow on this non flying day, we go 4x4 into the Sierra de Aquilas, always an adventure.

wednesday 3rd may

No flying today. Winds up to 50 km p hour and even rainy inland. At the coast during central hours luckily sunshine and temperatures up to 25 degrees. Chill.

Tuesday 2nd of may

Early morning, already 40 km p hour at Cabo. So not like yesterday. With some friends, I planned to go hiking instead. No flying. But you never know, take gliders with you anyway.

So off to the nature reserve of Monte Cabrer. Dudo, Frederico, Jose Luis and me, 4 musketeers. Hi-hie , hi-ho, wherever you will go, ... .

Parked car at landing area, and 4x4 up to the top to hike. Take off actually didn't look that bad. So lets give it a go. Forecast was gusts up to 60 km p/h. Crazy ? No, sometimes these gusts only get here by late afternoon.

Jose Luis out first, had to fight to stay in the air. A bit later Frederico, climbing up to where we saw the vultures before. 4 huge vultures had marked the possible climb when we arrived at take off.

Then Dudo, with his brandnew Sigma6. I started to rig as last one. Wanted to make sure, we got heights so we could land where car was parked, otherwise a big mess getting back up again, a challenge for Paris-Dakar lovers this road is.

'Me : 'How are things Dudo, I am about ready to take off, and hope to land near the car later.'

Dudo : 'Nick, careful, it is bombastic ... '

Me : 'What Dudo, what the fuck is bombastic ???'

'Look !' : he said.

I looked up and saw him flying, yeah, some pitch and roll, but nothing too bad.
Ok, took off and immediately hit sink till halfway. Then it shook me up, gusts from North and soon in a not so king thermal. Aha, bombastic !

It felt at times that I was flying in lee thermals, and asked them how the winds were above the crest.

A short shout : 'South !' , not the usual laidback info you expect from top-pilot Frederico.
South goddamned, this is a northeastern hill, and winds were pretty strong east at landing an hour ago. Strange.

Left for more safer trigger points, more - into wind, where we saw the vultures climbing up at first.
Had to fight for half hour, to get to the height of the take off again. I was already knackered. It was bloody hard work.

Cloudbase was low, no XC possible, and hard to get in the thermals which were very broken at times. No big collapses, but constantly piloting, not letting go of the brakes.
Two hours of thermalling in this shit was enough. Glad I saw Jose Luis aiming to land. (because I hate to leave the hill the last, and land first)
Stayed for another half hour, now soaring with the northern winds, above the old ruines of the Arabs, above the city of Cocentaina.

Enough, went for landing, I saw Frederico making the toplanding, so he could drive my car down.

An excellent day, with excellent buddies, bombastic !

Some old pictures of the site we were flying on:

Monday 1 may

How can you not like flying at Cabo. It is a soaring place, outstanding soaring place with a view, for me the best and most interesting soaring place in Europe. Ok, I admit, I only know Europe for flying. Destinations like Mexico, Brasil, South Africa, India, Nepal I never visited with a paraglider. I visited many of those places, countries, backpacking, before I flew paragliders.
And I got to precious places, surely I would never have visited, with a paraglider on my back.
But I have been around in Europe with a paraglider on my back looking for the adventure.

There is something for every kind of pilot, at the Cabo de Santa Pola.
Let me sum up, not in an order of importance.
It is along the mediterranean for starters. If it is weak, you can still enjoy the flight scratching the cliffs, working your way up along the kilometer long ridge. If it is strong, you pick the fruits of your experience (literally translated from my flemish ... ), and secretly feel proud taking off with elegance at a 30 km per hour wind.
Fellow pilots being 'in the clouds' because they had a sensational flight and a superb toplanding. You meet the locals, who do not fly anywhere else but Cabo, who are always enjoying the views, the surrounding, the 'history' and 'present' of the site.
You fly it, early mornings, when bad weather is predicted for next upcoming days.
Before the winds this is.
You fly it on days when everybody shows up, like today the first of May. You meet the pilots, again, from Madrid, Barcelona who came down to join us.
You fly it at night with a full moon, sssssst don't tell anybody.
You fly it with pilots who don't have the luck to fly a lot, due to family, due to work. And by the way, these pilots put you back on the ground. Because it is not all, about hunting for XC flying, taking risks, looking for the highest cloudbase. It is about winning the lottery every day you fly. Because only one out of a million has the luck to fly paragliders in our world.

I know, I think I have said this all before, I don't remember. Hey, I feel great after a superb day at Cabo de Santa Pola. I hope you had a superb day as well, sincerely.