october 2005; 23 days of flying in

bank account extracts "Save Cabo de Santa Pola"

I started this diary just a year ago. So this means twelve months of daily uploading, what we did during the day. I count 270 days of flying last year. This should be a guideline for all who want to come over and fly with us. I think this proves that DOYOUWANNA is run efficient and professional. We are always out there when there is a window to fly.

It is a guideline to choose your time to come down and fly with us. Down in Alicante with DOYOUWANNA you don't have to be lucky to fly, no you will just be unlucky if you can't fly.
We are just a spot on earth, so of course also dependent on the weather. But the climate we live in is amazing. Why do you think grandma still dances and has fun down here in nearby Benidorm. She was never stupid, that's why she choose the best climate in Europe.

I hope to see you. And also, I hope more guides put in a dairy on their website. Because the feedback I get from pilots, repeated or new visitors is good. And it can only benefit their bussiness. What do you think ?

monday 31 october

Small window today. West wind, and good at Peña rubia. Local pilot even flew little XC. But when we got the message it was already too late to get up there. We checked Orito, but there it was too windy and gusty. Very tempting, but finally decided to head home and enjoy the sun. It was pretty warm today, 25 degrees clear blue sky from afternoon onwards. Everywhere else in Spain it was raining.

Andy, it was nice having you around. I am sure I will see you again, if not here surely somewhere else on a hill. Keep it up and stay sexy, so shave !

sunday 30 october

A day at Cabo. Sea fog, giving us nice photo-shots. Lift was higher than usual, easily got to 275 m. You could easily climb in the cloud and pop out in the front, overlooking the sea. First seein the gliders shining in the sun, below and before the mistbanks.

saturday 29 october

Southeast prevision, not in a hurry. Knowing it flies the best at 3 pm. Got in the air at 2 pm, but still too much western winds coming from over El Cid. So most of the pilots waited till it was more on the hill. You could easily see the breeze coming in, looking in the valley. More and more haze, which meant cloudbase lowering.

Gini, Swiss female pilot in the air as very low airtime, two months of flying paragliders only. But she got it. After guiding her in the thermals she had low safes, got above all the others, again and again. Smooth turns. Lots better weightshifting than days before. What can I say. I am not here to blow her trumpet, but she is a natural.
It is early in her flying carreer, but she glides in the air as if it is the most natural thing.. Some very good pilots, are sometimes not the nicest fliers to watch. They have a "hooked", "nerveus" style, there is something artistic about them.
But once in a while you see somebody flying in such a natural way, you think they were born with wings on.

Tom is leaving us tomorrow, back to the U.S. , flying at his sites near San Fransico. Hasta luego Tom, un abraso.

friday 28 october

We all were in the air today. Smooth conditions, peaceful flying at Cabo. Clouds pretty low, see picture. Had a check flight on the brandnew Airwave Sport3, Ian bought. Fast glider my friend, and it feels so good to fly it, soon you will be throwing it around, resulting in lots of confidence and great flying with your new toy. Next days it will be on your doorstep !

It was a bit chilly today, the sun wasn't out. Next coming days are gonna be iffy. Maybe flying, maybe not, it feels like autumn arrived. But that doesn't mean we are not gonna fly. It maybe will mean we will have to go to our more nothernly, westerly sites like Peña Rubia, C de Rates etc... .

thursday 27 october

Feel ill, have fever, Hope this foto's tell the story of today. Goodnight.

wednesday 26 october

Relaxing day of 5 hours flying at Cabo de Santa Pola. Some strong gusts withheld lots of pilots from taking off. Once in the air, some 30 km was measured. Some french pilots, germans and british. Late in the afternoon when we all were packing, going home, a couple of dutch pilots arrived with funny paramotor helmets on, and paramotor harnasses without reserves. We don't know what they were going to do. Hope they are not gonna fly, hope they just came to enjoy the view. Scary.

tuesday 25 october

- My best flight by far - almost 3 hours, and one of the most beautiful spots in the world, from the ground or the air ! (Tom, California USA)

- Challenging scratch up + top landing at Cortina, followed by a fab flight at Calpe ! Post euphoria or what ? (Andy, England)

- Another great days flying while other local pilots are sitting on the wrong hills. Thanks to the expert guidance and good time experience from doyouwanna (Andy, Mazarron Spain)

monday 24 october

Well, sir Bob had it wrong today, we liked this monday !

We got to Palomaret fairly soon, around midday. Up high we could see the clouds still moving slowly from the north, which is from the back. But thermals were already starting to kick off strongly in the sunny bits of the early day, up the hill. I got in the air, and soon felt that conditions were not the best. Once in a while sink plus 4 m/s, so then I knew I still flew in the lee at times. I asked my pilots to wait it out, till more southern breezes would take over, and thermals would higher up the base.

Not long after that, it started to get better. All pilots in the air, Andy actually kicking ass by hitting cloudbase at 1700 m ASL. Once in the thermals it was nice, you could hook 'em in, almost holding your 45 degree angle with your thumb in carabine and coring the thermal playing with the outside break. Once bounced out of them ,you needed to concentrate a bit more.

But as usual by 3 pm all got smooth and everybody was flying so much more relaxed. Lift all over, ridge runs to Maigmo and back.
Otto's Advance Sigma6 was tested before handed over to him. A good buy Otto, glider looks sexy and you'll definetely have lots of fun with it.

klick on it and you'll see the Advance Sigma6, first flight

windsheer at take off, bit shaky at times

sunday 23 october

Strange day, In Murcia we could have flewn. But once a year we love flying near Almudaina. It is a drive, but worth it. Only top landing, no bottom landing there. I had the pilots who would have loved it. But no chance, winds didn't get down and were veering more towards west instead of north. So hey, missed that one.

There is a pilot from Iceland around, Skarpehdin or something. He is lost somewhere between discotheques in Benidorm and finding his car I guess, hope he is enjoying him/her/it.

saturday 22 october

Early afternoon at Peña Rubia. Winds were west, almost none at take off, thermals were in the valley. Cloudbase for some of us 1500 m ASL, and at one point flying with twenty or more buzzards. Later when the sun was not that strong any more, local pilots arrived. Most of them (too late boys), bummed out, but some of them still had the valley thermals for them and climbed up.

On our way back, there was some relax flying near Novelda, at La Molla. Just evening breeze which permitted us to do some soaring.

Peñia Rubia

La Molla

friday 21 october

Missing Bo, Andy, Midge, Kevin and Per. Hope you guys had a good time this week with us, we did.

Today we left for Toix near Calpe. A bit of a wait till conditions were allright to soar the rock. Only later in the afternoon, seagulls were soaring just above us, laughing at us.
Time for us to rig. Soon Andy, Steve, Allen and Gerhard in the air, with other local pilots. Take off requires some technique, and landing on nudist beach always is a bit of a surprise. It was sunny, 25 degrees celsius, blue sky, blue sky.

I flew the Tequila Skywalk, the wing visiting pilot Simon just bought. Congratulations, you won't regret this buy.

Spanish grass	Tequila in the bag

thursday 20 october

Caudete, near the windmillfarm. Yes again. I was pretty sure cloudbase would be high inland, although at the coast there was smog over Alicante, and big inversion towards are nearer mountains like Palomaret. But somehow , the time of the year, the approaching cold front from the west and the still strong sun, promised a good thermalling day. Caudete was my site to go to today, away from the seabreeze that eventuelly would kick in again like every afternoon.

It was not easy, especially not for those who only have experience at Palomaret to find the good thermal and then stay in them. Gerhard who only flew at Palomaret before, thought and said it was a lousy day.
Why weren't we at Palomaret, he asked ?. I had to tell him that on this site more skills and technique are involved than on our lovely and great site Palomaret. Because Palomaret is mostly thermal-dynamic, and is a lot easier to fly. It is a super site to learn how to thermal and make first steps towards ridge runs, like heading for Maigmo and back.
But the kick you get from finding a thermal in the valley and go with it to 2200 meter ASL is something else. Ask Allan, a not so very experienced XC pilot from UK, who flew his Airwave Sport2 24 km further direction Valencia.

Too bad not more pilots found the nice thermals that got them up to cloudbase, flying in team would have certainly resulted in a bigger XC flight. Next time.

wednesday 19 october

Early start at the forgotton mountain El Cid. Years ago it was a frequented mountain, where the local school Looping used to take his students early morning. I love the drive up there and take my guests to this hill. It is 1150 meters high and top to bottom 650 meters. When the sun is on it, it triggers off thermals early morning.
Down below lays the village Montforte del Cid. More left in the distance, Agost.
We have three take offs, two south and one western take off.
When I am on my own, cleaning up the take offs for season, I love to sit on top of the mountain and look around. It has astonishing views all around, you can almost see all the sites from here, it is one of our highest mountains near Alicante. On the top there is a (guest)book in a little cage hidden near a small statue of the holy Mary. Actually there are two books already, dating back from the seventies.

Steve and Allan easily got to cloudbase, and Kevin did.

Later when all landed, we went to Palomaret. Local pilots Jose Luis, Rafa, Belinda already flying. Cloudbase was not high (see foto), but still Gerhard, Steve and Allen managed to get to Maigmo and back. Most impressed with Andy's flying today.

Back home at 7, I think all pilots forgot already the two non-flying days we had before.

foto taken from take off El Cid, Bo in the air

tuesday 18 october

Couldn't fly today. We went out for a mountain bike ride in and near Benidorm. My friend Marco from Marco Polo Expediciones in Benidorm gave me a hint where to go, it sounded very promising. But I think I took the wrong turn with my guests. We ended up in fields allright, where we could easily bike, nothing wrong with that. But the main obstacles were dumped matrasses, dumped fridges etc... . Painful, what a shame. Civilisation I guess.

Oh Andrew wanted to be mentioned in this diary. Lets see, he hit the charts top of the pops on number 50, years back as a bass player in a punk band, AND he carried our sandwiches this afternoon. There was something else, he once sat on Diana Ross' lap !
Everybody famous for 15 minutes, was that Andy Warhol ?

Tomorrow that warm front is passed, then back to normal and flying again. Away from towns, up on our hills, lots better. By the way, the Airwave sport3 DHV 1/2 is out, we can get that glider for you at 2250,- euros, all in.

monday 17 october

Flying guide has no stress ? Well you are wrong. Several pilots waiting to fly, eager to go anywhere as long as they can spread their wings. But no call, all over no wind, and very low cloudbase, little rain inland on our hills. The coast windstill, no soaring possible and that was our only chance today. So a day off for all of us, although we are not tired yet this week.

sunday 16 october

Started the day pretty lazy. No sun at all, but very warm and sticky. Inland same thing. We drove out but soon got phone calls not to bother inland either. W had a wait at home, till Bo send us a message that eastern winds were starting to kick in. In no time we were at take off, but no wind, hardly a breeze from the east. At 5.30 pm all of a sudden the sea became a bit more nerveus. Usually the mediterranean is pretty flat, with its green/blue color. In the distance there was wind for sure, we could tell. It picked up gradually and we could fly till the full moon was rising above the horizon, soon after the lighthouse was switched on. Groovy.

saturday 15 october

Skygod Kev, with such a grin on his face, I thought his head was gonna fall off. We all flew at Palomaret and it was awesome.

friday 14 october

Like roasted chickens, today. Grounded because of the bad weather. Big effort, driving around hoping for a window, but it didn't happen.

thursday 13 october

Today we didn't go out to fly. To me it was too tricky. Gusts from inland, west wind up to 40 km per hour. Sometimes when it is strong west, we go to lee sites to go fly. But I decided not to go to these sites, today. To me it was too tricky. Above the forecasted gusts from inland, we also had thunderstorm alert for the afternoon. And that instability worried me the most. So even when you fly on the lee, it could change in no time. Especially the landing fields get very rotary, and tricky. Better be safe than sorry no ?

I know a Swiss school is visiting the region and took their students up. Everybody should do what they think is best of course. No local pilot was out flying today, we were all on the phone, calling it a day after consulting the weather forecast this morning. Tomorrow better !

wednesday 12 october

National holiday, all off work, so loads of pilots at the meeting of the club Monte Toix. We had a splendid very Spanish day. We all made reservations for the famous paella, our pilot Pedro was gonna cook again. Bu first we had to fly. Southwest winds, so off to their local site Toix, early morning. There were swiss pilots, swedish pilots, british pilots and about 15 local spanish pilots. At one time it looked like Picadilly Circus at take off. But all went smooth, all respected the rigging on the side, and lots of others were giving helping hands.

We flew till we got hungry. Once down, again we realised that you don't let a Spaniard organise things, it is always chaos. First, who had the club paella pan the last time ??? When that was found, the cook headed for the mountains to start cooking at one of our many picknick sites. But, and we all knew actually, it is forbidden to start any fire anywhere on the mountains till november because of the extreme drought down here. Risk of bush-fires. Surprise, surprise.
Where is the gas-cooker, you Pedro ? Or you Nacho ? No maybe you Maria ? Who had it last time ? Aaaargh, but so typical, I love it. At 4 finally all was found, Pedro and Julio were in charge to make the paella.
Two hours later the paella was served and was EXCELLENT !!!!

We had other flights, more music at landing field, more drinks for the not flyers. An absolute splendid, very typical Spanish fiesta afternoon, with the buddies. It was by times warm, very warm, then a little rain, the sunshine again, late in the afternoon at 7 pm, cloud cover, but lovely flying in and out the clouds, .... . What a lovely way to spend a national holiday.

tuesday 11 october

Not a flying day. We flew just a little bit near Elche, at Buenos Aires. Had lift, could stay up a while. But not enough room on that small hill for all of us. Inland and higher up, nasty clouds. It's all over in the news, at last we had some decent rain, just inland west of Alicante. We had the most dry year since thirty years. We did have 39 percent less rain than average over the last 30 years. There is a slight panic down here. But even the rain will not solve the problem, with all the new golf terrains and houses being built.

Something else, I had an important phone call from somebody with a phonenumber from Torrevieja. But my mobile phone shut off. I couldn't get back to you, don't have your number. I hope you call again.

monday 10 october

Just got back from a walk to my village. Through the orange groves, hearing the crickets. Also the ever barking spanish dogs in the distance. The fiestas in my village ended yesterday. They lasted for a week, every day loud music till 4 am or later, parades, fireworks, a paella contest, sangria, carajillos, and beer served in a deepfrozen glass. I wouldn't miss it for anything in the world. Long live our saint Franciscus de Asisië, good man.

My village back to normal life again, old men playing domino on the street. Ciosco Susy, our pilots meeting point, with its early morning coffees. Tourists have gone, the only ones who are left, are living in their ghetto like urbanisations, all fenced up. Enjoying their own karaoke's. quiz nights, Dick Turpin bars, sky-TV.
I don't mind at all, but I sure do prefer the laidbackness of my village. The friendliness, the smiles, the beautiful girls and women. You know why I tell you this ? Because today, again somebody asked me if I never get homesick. And each time somebody asks me I have to tell them , - I don't - , because I do feel so much at home amongst the spanish.

But you want to hear if we flew right ? Well yes we did. All day ? No. From afternoon 2.30 pm onwards till early evening 6.30 pm. At the cliffs, giving tips to my guests for instance about more efficient weight shifting, soaring with cross wind, how to fly upwind, downwind. In the morning it was looking nasty and it was very cloudy. But soon the sun burned through, so we had blue sky and 25 degrees celsius. Another reason not te be easily homesick I guess. Hope to see you soon.

Last week we had Geert and Jan, Belgian pilots down here, look at this, very nicely done, gives you a taste of what we did last week, un abraso !

http://users.pandora.be/zw04/Alicante%202005.wmv

sunday 9 october

We flew at Onil, strong thermals took my british pilots all the way up. In the distance, direction sea we say clouds being formed. Sea-air was gonna kill the height soon. And at 4 pm, it did, thermals were not that nice any more, and it was back to soaring the mountain cliffs till 5 pm.
Good decision to leave early, and getting in the air before the locals.

Shot taken from the antenna's. Blue glider, I think is was John up there, and the sea-breeze clouds coming in on the horizon.

saturday 8 october

Cloudy and weak conditions. Only foreign pilots and one local Ismael at the nice site of Caudete. At first nobody maintained height, just Suby and Rob did well. Winds were off to the southwest instead of the forecasted southeasterlies we should have had.
Later the clouds burned off and conditions got nicer, but nothing real special. Last flights actually were the best, you could stay as long as you wanted with the eastern seabreeze kicking in.

friday 7 october

I can be short today. Jan, never stops flying, he had about 4.5 hours in the air today. From very cloudy too bright sunshine weather over the mediterranean. There were about 30 pilots in the air. Some old friend from England came down, cool to see them again. Some belgians leaving soon, I hope they will have a good after season at home.

thursday 6 october

We flew over Guadalest. Guadalest is the most visited village in Spain, down below it there is a huge lake. You land on the banks of the lake. It is not a XC flight, neither a huge thermalling flight, but definetely a flight with spectacular views. Later on heading back Jeremy's did his best soaring the hills near Benidorm. Tired looks, I think all pilots need a rest and lets hope tomorrow all fit again for a whole day of flying.

wednesday 5 october

Again a good day, but not as good as yesterday, in terms of height cloudbase.

All in the air, early afternoon, strong conditions. Then coffeebreak at the hacienda El Palomaret. At 4 pm, all ready to get back in the air. By this time the locals arrived. At 7 pm when we were leaving, tired and happy, there were still pilots in the air.

I looooooooooooooooove Palomaret.

tuesday 4 october

Today is my day. Very cold in the morning, blue sky. I checked Jose Luis Segorb' software programm meteografica and saw that cloudbase could be 2000 ASL today. So early start and off to Palomaret. The sky was cristal clear. No seabreeze yet, no humidity yet, cloudbase would be indeed high. I was gonna try to go XC, that was my plan.

Took off and had to struggle to get up at first. But once in a thermal, it was looking a promising day. Jeremy got the biggest lift and I told him to go to Maigmo get some more height and then of XC. In the mean time Sean, with his DHVI GIN Bolero plus was flying over El Cid, very well done Sean !!! I left for Maigmo myself and tried to get Jeremy's height. But in vain, I couldn't find the thermals I usually find on my homesite. And Jeremy all the time 400 meters above me. Then he left for take off again, trying his luck at the other side. I didn't give up and got a 5 m/s thermal up to 1800 meters ASL, appr 1000 m ATO. I lelt myself drift back towards Castalla, but soon found out that there was too much sink on my glide downwind.

The strong conditions and the turbulence obliged me to ask the pilots to fly in this strong thermalling conditions, only if they had enough airtime under their belt.
No Jeremy near, no other pilot near any more. I saw several pilots scratching way down low near takeoff. A bit later I heard that our local champion Suby had bumped out. So it was all or nothing. At cloudbase it wasn't smooth at all, here and there collapses and very "bailando" still (dancing). I decided to go for Los Ventos ahead of me, then Agost, then join my gang at Palomaret again.

I soon found out it was a fight to get to Los Ventos, getting through very gusty air, and hammering thermals. But I got there. Flying near the ridges of Los Ventos gave me some weird flying. Like a jojo up and down, so I couldn't figure out if I was flying some lee. My XC Trainer told me I was still flying on southeastern winds. You cannot rely all the time on instruments, I always had my instincts telling me other things. So I figured, winds roll from over the back, so be careful. I got myself some distance from the ridges, and found some nice themals who took me up high again. But it got rough, very rough. So rough that I lost my whole glider but 5 cells. Leaned into it and opened it up. Big relief, but in no time, my glider began to spin, faster and faster. So fast I couldn't get my bearings. Had no idea where my glider went, had no idea where the hell I was. It was accelerating too fast, couldn' t do shit. There was only one solution, throwing my reserve. As I was thrown around at such a speed, I couldn't reach it. I had to let go of everything and work my way to the right to see the handle, then only I could pull my reserve.

As soon as it popped out, I got my glider in, by pulling with all my strength on the brakes. I had to fight. Once it was on my lap, I was still circling around. And this was the first time that I looked down to see how low I was. Before there was no time for that nor anything else.
The ground getting nearer. Seconds later I landed on rocky terrain, and thank god I only bruised my but.

There I was, safe. I called Rafa, he was near and on his way to Palomaret. After a rough walk I got to him. It felt good to see your buddy.

I was flying a Gin Zoom DHV2 medium. I usually fly my glider a Airwave Magic DHV 2/3.

This is not a show off, for anybody who would have doubts. This was a scary experience. Very scary. I hope it will make me fly more cautious, and I hope it will help us all to keep on focusing on safe flying. And remembering that we practise a not so "not-dangerous sport".

I threw my reserve three times already, NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF !!!!!!!
First time with a DHV 1/2 glider, second time with a DHV 2 glider. Do pilots, me for instance, tend to fly more attentively with those DHV 2/3 gliders. It is just a thought.

So be careful out there.

As you can see, max height 1805 meters, climb 5 m/s, descent 12.2 m, must be the spin in the end.	Later in the afternoon, so smooth like flying in cotton. Seabreeze killed the strong thermals as usual. Cloudbase lot lower.

monday 3d october

One of my favourite sites today. Autumn is coming so soon we will be visiting this one more regularly. I am talking about Peña Rubia. Take off rough, a bit technical, cliff edge, bushes and rocks. But if the winds and thermals are there, it is a great site.

Lucky to take off with nulwind, and catch that thermal up to 1366 m ASL, thermals 4.2 m/s. Not an easy day to catch those thermals but always fun to cross to the other hill on the right, direction Biar. I wish we had access to a take off on that hill, it would be more friendly for most of us.
Almost all pilots flew today, for just a couple it was a bit too much. But appreciated as it was their decision, about their skills, so better be safe than sorry, always.

Some locals flew at Palomaret. I knew this was the option too, but changing sites can never harm.

sunday 2nd of october

Go up early at take off. But too strong in five minutes. A pilot took off, without speedbar. Not one of us, we stayed on the ground. His helper was shouting to make big ears, because he wasn't moving forward and soon was flying backwards. To me it would have been better to let him gain height. And then fly backwards, downwind towards the open fields.

If you ever get caught by strong winds and are flying backwards, there is not a lot you can do. Best way out is as I said just before. If the terrain permits, get high, high above any possible obstacle, and fly downwind (will be very fast), and choose your field. Of course not if you are soaring on the coast in front of huge buildings .... full of cranes ... oh god.

Before it got strong, we could see those "cellulite" lines in the sea. This means winds picking up very strong very quick. It is different when white horses appear first, then winds are gradually getting stronger, we can still fly, maybe even still with speedbar for a whole bit.

So it was a lazy sunday afternoon and we all needed it. Jan, Sean, Jos and many others looked pretty tired after many days of lots of flying yesterday. Tomorrow we will be back on the mountains again, winds will be weaker, thermals should be there.

saturday the 1st of october

Caudete, where the windfarm is. Flew all afternoon, never got too strong. Just in the end when the seabreeze started to kick in. Sportive landings needed.

Cloudbase at 1600 m ASL. Just another 200 meter and we all would have gone XC. Maybe a XC flight of 20 km was possible, but not really worth the hassle.

It is nine o'clock in the evening and still 23 degrees celsius.

If you want to check other months click on them, and choose your time to join us