Monday, March 31, 2008

Cold front above us, we knew it was a day to chill today. Luckily temperatures were high, blue sky. So lots of things to do, or just chill.

And of course on such days, as a belgian I am asked to name famous belgians, just as if we don't have any ....
.... so here we go, first those who we are proud of :
Jacques Brel, singer
Eddy Merckx, best cyclist ever in history,
Adolf Sax, inventor of the saxophone,
Pieter Breughel (father and son), flemish painter,
Pieter Paul Rubens, flemish painter,
Jan Van Eyck, flemish painter,
Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, tennis,


Toots Thielemans, world famous jazz harmonica player


Hercule Poirot, Jean Claude Van Damme, , Plastic Bertrand, Lucky Luke,
and TINTIN !!

And of course those we are not so proud of :
Marc Dutroux, pedofile monster,
Bart De Wever, contemporary politician,
King Leopold the 3rd, collaborator with the Nazi's during wwII,

So, how about you now !

Looks like we are gonna fly tomorrow afternoon. In the morning looks windy, but should die off. Check tomorrow.




Sunday, March 30, 2008

Mirko under his Axispara Vega2 glider.


Also beautiful is the Sky, Matts is flying, black !


Above, our assistance team, down below part of the club Morro de Toix.


Joined the club of Morro de Toix today. But to see Gordo, Mirko etc... was not the only reason.
But also because this week I have lovely pilots, but low of airtime. So I felt the need to take them to the most safe site today, where we could easily do our thing without being too stressed. And with a view of course, also important as you can see on the foto's.
We did have an approaching front, and this front could have giving us strong winds from midday onwards. So stayed closed to the beaches, flight with a seaview. I think nobody complained, all in the air on this sunny sunday afternoon.
We flew with the southern breeze, untill the winds veered to the west. In the back we saw the clouds coming in, which was the forecast of colder temperatures tomorrow and offshore stronger winds later on. This could have caused more active air inland, that's why we stayed local.

Saturday, March 29, 2008






Swedish, germans, english, belgians, what else are we missing.
And a shot from the morning flights at Cabo de Santa Pola. Later it got too strong, and didn't die off for arriving pilots.
But everybody was so active, madre mia. All of them, even lazy Henrik, was groundhandling. Fantastic.

Friday, March 28, 2008





Pedro's, Nacho's, Moncho's, Mani's, Julian's 'private' site I can say. They take care of the site, because it is pretty fragile with Warner Bros at their feet. And now even more with Terra Natura as neighbours of the landing field. Lions, tigers, elephants nearby who could get nerveus us flying over them. Lets hope we can keep, or better they can keep this site open for more more years. It'll be difficult. Because this site could be easily lost, if somebody would land wrongly on the property of Warner Bros. Fingers crossed.


On that hill we all had hours of flying, a 4 hour window in conditions that for some were very smooth, and for others (Dudo and me, two locals no ? ....) were not that smooth. Winds were gusty, and at times way off to the right, southwest. But we managed to topland, have a bite, fly topland, have a chat. 3.5 m second thermals.

Thursday, March 27, 2008


No, not us. But Winnie and Allen in Denmark. So yes Denmark is flyable and beautiful as you can see on this one. One day, I'll be there.

Down here, it was way too windy to fly.


If you feel the Tibet case is important, check this out :



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Too much wind to fly today.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Hey Scotty, your glider in the bag. I'm not gonna open it, it is so nicely packed, it would be a shame. Luv to your mom.



Two of our main pilots on foto. Pepe, first one who did acro in our region and buddy of Raul, THE Raul yes. Under him Rafa, no need to introduce him, he flies his reserve better than us, our certified gliders, a master.
They both took off at Carrascoy and landed hours later in Guardamar, near the sea, 61 km.
Just hit that day in between fronts, got cloudbase at 2900 m, thermals up to 3 m/s, so all smooth untill landing. There they met the famous seabreeze, kicking in strong, having to land backwards on the beaches. Enhorabuena, means congratulations for the two stars.
Down below a shot of Carrascoy. It was a very sunny day again, with lots of wind in Alicante. But today the isobars were spreading, so Carrascoy was the plan, actually if you read my blog yesterday it was plan A. Best choice.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Henrik, if you read this, get ready for flying when you land at Alicante airport. We'll pick you up and go straight for Murcia. I already talked to my buddy down there and we'll meet at midday.


Because down in Alicante it will be windy like today. Lets hope plan A works.


Put on your shorts, or maybe don't, get a tan first. It is more than 20 degrees and sunny.


I know you will be blue coming from Sweden, so lets hope you will be white soon and nicely tanned going back home next week. With lots of airtime under your belt.
See you tomorrow.



Sunday, March 23, 2008

Angry skies above the Costa Blanca. No flying weather for the moment. A huge front all over Europe is also affecting Spain this time.


The parrish of Santa Cruz, always worth a walk, uptown Alicante.
And you can tell where the 'ordinary folks' still live, yes in the parish of Santa Cruz, where you can still see the foto's of Camaron de la Isla. Camaron, the Elvis, the Lennon, of flamenco music. He will never be forgotten, he introduced new instruments, steps in flamenco, equivalent what Dylan did with folkmusic.

Further on today ...





...funny dressed men, with skirts and sexy socks carrying the virgin Mary in the streets of Alicante.
Almost the end of the processions of Semana Santa (the holy week)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Lots of western winds, no flying today. The only thing that was nice was the sun shining brightly and giving us 27 degrees celsius temperature, which eases the pains.

Friday, March 21, 2008




Carrascoy, oranges, Alhama de Murcia later on.


At first, Carrascoy was too cross to be good. Later at Alhama de Murica too many pilots at take off.

As you may not know the Murcia pilots have a lot of restrictions on their sites. And they do a lot to make sure their sites stay open. They have meetings with local officials, local farmers, local hunters, local ecologists. Just to keep on practising their beautiful sport paragliding they need to make compromises over and over again.

This also, at their southern site Alhama de Murcia. Where it is since years forbidden to fly on the left side of take off, birds nesting. And this tim of the year it is absolutely forbidden to fly with more than 6 pilots, so maximum 6 pilots yeah.
"Especially take care of these rules today, as it is Good Friday and everybody is on the street, so we'll be easily spotted if we 'misbehave'."


I feel sorry I told my fellow local pilots from Alicante where it was flyable later on this afternoon. I guided them to the site of Alhama de Murcia, where they had never been before. I, who am I ??, told them again that the locals would appreciate us respecting the agreements with the local community not to fly with more than 6 pilots.
Just minutes later, of course, 7 pilots in the air and someone flying left of the take off ..... for years already forbidden terrain for paragliders .... .
Down below some local pilots from Murcia gave me the evil eye. Luckily they know me, and knew it wasn't anybody of my group doing this. I cannot understand that these adults of +40 years cannot show any respect for their fellow pilots of another region. I didn't even think driving back up again, to fly with my guests, too embarrassed, too gutted. So dissapointed. I just hope this didn't interfere with the good relationship I have with all the pilots of Murcia.

But above all, I hope this behaviour is not gonna result in more problems for our fellow pilots of Murcia.



Conditions were fine, southwest in the afternoon, just what you needed to enjoy the lovely soaring hill near Alhama de Murcia.

Below the board they put up near the landing field in Carrascoy.




This is surely more important :

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK


Thursday, March 20, 2008

Bad weather, windy and very cloudy, even a few raindrops over the coast of Alicante.

But good news as well. Some german pilots asked me how it is with their fellow native Wolfgang. Well he's good. He is home already and already talks about flying again. Take care guys.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008



We had to fly today. Next coming days could be windy. Front all the way from Poland stretching to the most southern bits of Europe, Spain Italy. Not so good.

But brilliant today at the coast. Nice and smooth: In between the more active spring days it was nice to relax, wingover, spiral, topland, chat, take off again, relax.

Look at Toni's face, yesterday the Irish celebrated St Patricks day.

I tried the Summit XC today. Long long lines, the canape very high above you. Thin risers as you can see. Very thin risers. Deadeasy to launch, deadeasy to handle.






Just a glimpse of the fiestas that are held every night till sunday. Shouldn't miss it if you're in Spain this time around easter.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Windy day, and expected. Not so good for lots of spanish pilots who have this week off. It is Semana Santa (the holy week), known for its huge fiestas and processions in every village, city of the country.

Above our new assortment of T-shirts. They're sold at 12 euros a piece. Girlie sizes as well.
Max Stek at cloudbase, Carrascoy last week.


Max Stek, Holland, under my demo wing SummitXP.


Max Stek, chilling at Playa del Pinet. There are worse places to ....


Monday, March 17, 2008

Nasty day, I didn't like it at all. Unfrotunately for Geerke and Wim who spend their last day in Alicante. But it was too rough, and we were flying under the westernwind, which is gonna kick in strong tomorrow.
Already at take off, your nose tells. The winds were too strong, gusts too wild. But Jose Luis was in the air and said it was fine, not too bad. I think his balls are bigger than mine so.

There were only a few of us flying. Big time pilots like Jose Luis the Argentinian, Toni from club +7 and others wisely had a chat at take off.

Sunday, March 16, 2008





It was west today, but it was gonna veer to the south later in the afternoon. So we took a rough ride on our 4x4 and enjoyed the scenery near Maigmo, driving through the canyons.


I prefer to stay in the valley than getting frustrated and nerveus at take off. Because a breeze or better THE breeze, the one we needed today, was gonna come in from below. From the sea. So first to notice in the valley and not at take off. You would notice it by a sudden drop of temperature, en more hazy view of the surrounding mountains, and of course in a change of wind direction, hah.

At 4.30 we all felt it, and I was pleased my pilots noticed as well. All eager to get their last flying in, because tomorrow most of them were gonna go back to colourfull Belgium.


These photo's of this afternoons' flying. Enjoy !

Lande-biere, last drink before our belgians leave, salud !