Reconco and coastal flying

Afternoon at Reconco gave us a splendid winter thermal day. And always glad to meet the Juan Pedro gang.

A german not knowing what the hell is going on. A bit worrying seeing them take off on our fragile hill, not using a local school or guidance. Lack of skill, and hopefully this, not resulting in harming our precious site Cabo de Santa Pola. What can we do, we can only ask not to come down by yourself and use our sites just like that. Be respectful, appreciate the locals and don't come down and do things on yourselves. We do not come into your garden and have our BBQ's, flipping our bratwurst ourselves.

Morning flights at seaside.

Oyvind, back home by now. Beachcomber.

Two sites today

We had a blown out Cabo after we flew it this morning. Strong easterly winds, white horses didn't allow us to fly longer than till midday.

In the afternoon some of us had a flight in Palomaret. Mike hit the mountain a bit hard, after his great flying to El Cid, and is in good hands in the hospital now. Unfortunate.

We should all think about the consequences of smaller or bigger mistakes, accidents. Be carefull out there, all of you, everywhere.

Cabo de Santa Pola paragliding

Cabo at night, famous shot already by Carmen.

We flew it this afternoon untill it was too strong. Nothing new there eh. We had to take our chances today, being there early and taking every opportunity to play.

Below a shot of Markus, flying back home Air Berlin, looking down at Benidorm with the ridge Sierra Helada on the right.

Hondon North

We flew Hondon North today, a site rarely flewn by anyone. The road up is a bit long, that is maybe why. The views though are spectacular. Once above the ridge, flying with norhtern winds, you can peep over the other side and see down below Crevillente and the salt lakes of Torrevieja.

Foto of spanish take off, mostly near antennas and spanish grass, better have a bullet proof take off when you come and fly in Alicante, otherwise you will loose flights. So start groundhandling, and do lots of situps, pushups and be fit.

Robert, Austrian Addict2,m hi Fatima how are you ?

Rolf, Swiss Gradient Avax pilot.

Thomas, Swiss Gradient Avax pilot. Ian, under his brandnew Artik2.

Couldn't happen twice. Cloudbase wasn't that epic any more like yesterday. Only 1300 at the most.

That's why we checked northern Hondon first and flew it.

Later back to Palomaret where we had hours of mostly soaring. Meanwhile others on the radio flying at the coast.

Hats off

A long day behind. Knowing cloudbase was gonna be high, we left early and tried Peña Rubia to go XC. Didn't work too well, as winds were cross and most of the group didn't quite fance the take off. No worries, we'll work on that (again).
After midday we left for the coastal sites, where convergence, as seen on the maps were gonna give us excellent climbs, and higher cloudbase than usual. It all worked.
2250 m ASL, which is about 1450 meter climbs above take off.

What happened ? Well we have those few days in winter, when northern ice cold air is still present, and a high pressure is forming after a cold front passed through. In spring, forget it, it will be way too strong. But in winter these are the days we are on the outlook for.
Guess what, only a few locals were present, most of the pilots were visiting pilots, and left the hill as it was theirs. Well done, hats off.

Mike's foto above, him heading for El Cid.
More foto's of our XC day today by Alex - Cayenne3 , local pilot you bet.

Cunimbs today

Cunimbs today and ice cold air coming from over our mountains.

Tomorrow looks very good, XC day some of us believe. But lets see tomorrow, its only february, so wait to see how thermals develop, and at what time.

Lighthouse on Cabo de Santa Pola

All foto's of lighthouses, one is ours near Cabo de Santa Pola. Others from neighbouring countries, Morocco Sidi Ifni, Tunesia Zarzis, Lybia Bengasi. Lookalikes, I would think so.

No flying today. Too much westernwind, dying off way too late to have flight. So off for a stroll in Alicante, where once the sun is out, you feel like speeddialing model agencies, all these gorgeous women, or is it me ?¿

Dream team

Absolute excellent, don't have foto's of everyone around. But guys, you are stars. We have been flying the last 4 days, every day different. No stress, big fun.

We had great flights, again today. And a lot of good vibes.

Great times, so thanks being here.

Caudete

Caudete flying.

Big mountain, windmillfarm behind take off, winds cross southwest. Only gave a few of us some airtime at this lovely Caudete site.

The Swiss were allright with the conditions, like the Alps they said, but for most of us, too daunting. Very right.

Winds were veering more and more to the west, so not permitting all of us enjoying the flight over Caudete. Still not a bad move.

Better move was to go fly Palomaret later in the day, were a couple of us flew their personals' best. Although it was already late in the day.

Advance Sigma8

Advance Sigma8 and the Nova Mentor2. Couldn't get the Ozone Delta in the foto, behind or in front ? Take a guess. Tomorrow final test.

The only thing guys, these are very good gliders of course, but I personally worry about the wearing out of the rigid leading edges. It all makes me think about the Apco Keara. Once, twice, a couple of times a drag with the leading edge, a heavy landing, a not so good controlled take off, could take all the fun out of the glider. These leading edges are so fragile.
But again flew the gliders, have seen them flying, and they are all amazing machines. As proven today again on our hills.

Marcus Swiss pilot went XC.

Barbie or Ken

New wings in the air today, Ozone Delta, Nova Mentor2 and a Sigma8.
All good gliders, no preference. It just up to you, I like Barbie, you like Ken, something like that.

Superb winter day in alicante, thermals for about 5 hours, and BBBB task accomplished by several pilots.

Skies

Beautiful skies, but not flyable. We knew that. We went for a roadtrip, visiting some sites, foody foody of course and some local herbal drinks. Skies looked even better.

Sleep tight.

Tandem paragliding Alicante

My new poster for 2011. From may onwards Scott Mason is joining us with his parahawking, famous already 10 years in Nepal.
Using this non flying days to get things going when our tourists season starts soon. Hope you guys had a great flight.

Ikarus not dead

All images of Icarus, on a stamp, the horrible 'flight of Icarus' by Iron Maiden, please don't listen to it, and an old drawing of Icarus son of Daedalus flight.

But ... ! In the harbour of Alicante there is an interesting sculpture by Esperanza d'Ors entitled Icarus Returns with a surfboard, arriving after his fall in Crete. So he didn't die, he arrived in Alicante on his surfboard.

Joined doyouwanna and lived happy ever after.

Western winds suck

Western winds that don't die off, nothing strange having a spell of warm winter weather. Temperatures in the twenties, clear blue skies, bright sun, but for flying it is just too damn strong.

Very strong winds

Windy day. Not a day to be on the hills, better stay at the coast and and enjoy the summery temperatures sheltered from the wind. Later in the day spectacular clouds forming, mamatus etc... included.

Altea Hills paragliding

I can post a hundred foto's of pilots hesitating to fly our site near Calpe. Just like this one.

There is always a scare, a nervousness.

It is not our favourite site. It is our site where everywhere else it is blown out. Then this site is mostly flyable because it is protected by the strong westerlies due to the Aitana ridges.

What is stressing as well is flying over the sea to reach landing beach.

But once pilots are in the air, the flying is smooth, dynamic.

Even if you permit me, a bit boring for most pilots. As it is a soaring site with nothing much to do if the cross to Bernia Hills isn't working.

But, and this is the bonus for this site, it is quoted in books, magazines in the top5 of most beautiful paragliding sites along the European mediterranean coastline.

And that line is looooooooooong.

Later in the day, there was some little flying at the most laidback site in the world. Relaxing at Cabo de Santa Pola.

We had a fantastic week down in Morocco. Stevie, Marcel and me went off for a bit of a roadtrip. Left Marrakesh to fly in the Atlas, Aguergour. A ridge, on the footstep of the Atlas. Huge take off, huge landing field. We flew with Michel Didriche, from AirOne Parapente. French pilot, you can call him the pioneer of paragliding flying in Morocco. Very nice chap, professional, give you all the info you need, shouldn't miss it. He also explained us about the license you have to get soon to fly the sites around Marrakesh. I would say please contact Michel before you leave for Morocco, not to be in for a surprise. He is the man for Morocco.

There is another pilot, english pilot called Toby, but he wasn't around, he was back home in England I heard.

Left for the coast to fly at Tiznit, Legzira Beach and Sidi Ifni, but were only lucky to fly Tiznit. And it felt, looked just like we were back home, a cliff overlooking the sea, exactly like Cabo de Santa Pola. We were staying with Nigel, nextdoor Nid d'Aigle who is ran by a french pilot. Nigel gave us all the info we needed as well, don't go fly without his guiding. It would be rude. He owns the take off, and if you stay in his house, his wife treats you with the best moroccon dished you'll ever have in life.

Last bit of our roadtrip was into the mountains, the anti Atlas, to find the sites near Tafraoute. But these sites looked a bit dodgy, narrow valleys, lots of rotory aereas. In Tafraoute itself though there is a moroccon guide who can help you out. We didn't manage to find him in the village though. Winds were off anyways, so we just kept on enjoying the lovely country by itself on our 4 wheels.

Back in Alicante now, and this week doesn't look so superb, western winds. Hopefully dying off by late afternoon for us fliers.

If you look for doyouwanna on facebook, you can find lots of foto's of this trip. Having an idea what we do on our roadtrips, so maybe next time you feel like coming along.

Morocco trip

Had tree days' flying in Morocco. Aguergour, near the atlas and the beach sites near Tiznit. Great time in the air, but undoubtedly also a awesome time spent in this lovely country with its beautiful friendly people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355220/Paragliding-HAWKS-Breathtaking-new-extreme-sport.html

Off for a break

I am not in Alicante till next week sunday, off to Morocco. To have some tajine, couscous and lots of teas. Hope to fly the Atlas, or some dune soaring.
I hope to get in touch with Toby, passion paragliding, who will guide us through the region.
A nice website about Sidi Ifni, with foto's of how it all looked before, on
Roberto's site

Any emails will be answered by Kath.

From a fruit vendor to a day of departure

Buenos Aires Elche, yes it exists. A not knows site, mabye for the better. As it is too close to urbanisations and greedy hunters. Both gave us a bad time at one point. But since a couple of years I try to fly this site again. Especially in winter, when breezes, be it valley of sea breeze don't grow strong enough to fly our regular sites.

So Marcel and me, left as soon as southern breezes kicked in at the coast and choose this site, close to where we live.

Best winter days

Best weather so far this winter. Western breezes all day, mostly at the coast. More inland hardly any wind.

To see what wind does inland there is a very good weatherstation from my friend Jordi, check it out meteobanyeres

Peña Rubia, heading for Biar.

Weak northern winds.

No guests today, so didn't drive out to fly. Flyable though, at Peña Rubia at least, and probably even Hondon North. When I passed by, flags were gently pointing north.

I was busy in the house with CNN, Al Jazeera on. Feeling sick about the sleezy, disgusting tactics politicians use to oppress their own people. It toughened my inborn disgust to all what is related to police, army etc...
Sorry, had to spit this out.

I am sorry

I am sorry. It was flyable again today, inland smooth western winds. I am sorry for the guys who cancelled their stay in Alicante. The forecast looked crap, but again Alicante showed how unpredictable the weather is down here. We do live sheltered from a mountain range, and have a warm mediterranean sea nearby. The topographically mix, does sweeten up the weather forecasts quite a lot.

But of course so difficult to guarantee.