January 2005

Photos on :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doyouwanna-paragliding/

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This month we flew 22 days out of 31 days. Come on, face it, this is a lot. January is by no means a bad month to come down and fly with us, but this month has been better than previous years. Lets hope february will bring the same. Cold nights, warm afternoons, weather balancing, that's what we hope for next month.

monday 31 january 2005

Topday today. 1900 m cloudbase. 3/4m sec thermals. Bit rough at times, but not too bad. Last couple of days we had cold winds from up north so. Now pressure is rising, blue sky, january sun heating up the valleys. The difference between the upper and lower airlayers is better than on an average summer day.
XC for Dudo, who left for Jijona, then aimed east to land on the beach but was caught by the breeze and landed near the road heading home. The topday this month was today, no doubt.

sunday 30 january 2005

Danish in the air ! Cabo was the site, nice smooth themal dynamic conditions. Good for pilots from up north who haven't seen the sun for ages, and haven't flewn for months. Hours and hours.

saturday 29 january 2005

northwest, lenticulares, no flying today.

friday 28 january 2005

Lenticulares early morning, sunny day, very cold, too much west wind all day.

thursday 27 january 2005

In the afternoon we had southeast, in the end east. It was a flyable day inland, or at the coast soaring. Nobody of the locals went out flying, neither did I, too cold. It was just 10 degress celcius, and our long-johns ...

Pilot friend PPeixon put a movie on his page about last saturdays flying at Calpe, you can find on : http://personales.ya.com/ppeixon/parafotos.htm

wednesday 26 january 2005

Same thing, too cold and too windy. Till friday, then better. A three day cycle again.

tuesday 25 january 2005

This country isn't made for the cold. Bataclavas, carrajillos, freezing cold, northern winds, ...
Feet up, relax, a book, town visit, tapas, nothing to do with paragliding today.

monday 24 january 2005

Spain is in alert. I read the paper this morning, watch breakfast TV news. A cold front (ola frio) is approaching, very low temperatures and lots of wind, from today onwards. For Alicante this means 12 degress celsious during the day and maybe 2 degrees celsius at night. Which is cold. And this all with strong (up to 60 km/h) northern winds.
So wasn't planning to get some flying today. But nevertheless drove out with David and Malcolm to check Alcoy. A bit inland this is, no wind early morning there.

We arrived and started rigging immediately. Warned my pilots to be careful, if winds were gonna get strong to get low and land, speedbar etc... .
Malcolm took off and what looked like a damn top to bottom soon changed into a thermalling flight. The whole valley with the town in front of us was in sun. When it got cloudier, thermals kicked off big time.
Warned by the forecast Malcolm decided not to stay a lot longer in the air, and left the thermals. He felt it was started to get a bit too lively.

After a "cafe con leche por favor", we drove back up, and still light winds. This time less lucky and bumming out. David launched but unfortunately hadn't seen the 12 meter high pine tree just aside of take off. My god.
It took him (us) more than an hour to get his glider off the tree. A bit ripped and lines definetely to be sorted. Bad luck, no injury nada de nada.
Meanwhile getting a phone call that my friend Jose Luis was flying at the Cabo Santa Pola.

sunday 23 january 2005

Conditions in Calpe were strong. 30 km an hour at take off. White horses on the sea. It wasn't gonna die off, so my guests weren't very happy to fly this site for their first time. Knowing all the tricky bits of the site. So I took off, and soon was flying over Altea Hills. With laughing seagulls around me. Clouds were forming just above Sierra Bernia, and moving eastwards. time to make a decision.

Got a bit cold, and asked if they could pick me up at the beach of Calpe. So flew over the sea, direction Penon d'Ifach, an amazing rock sticking out in the sea, most beautiful.
Had to lower height over the sea, so spiral dived down over the sea, not to end up in the stronger winds at the beach. I landed on the beach in front of the blues bar. Nice to land, and make your final approach, amongst the kite-surfers. Watch out though, lines !
If you want to see a video of our day find it on my friends website :

http://personales.ya.com/ppeixon/parafotos.htm

Too strong at Calpe, and after a call from a friend too weak in the mountians. But we went anyway, so my guests flew some bit as well. A bit of a lazy sunday.

saturday 22 january 2005

Left home at noon, just in time for flying. Arrived at 1 pm, thermals started to kick off. Many pilots on the hill today, 15 I counted. It was lovely. Cloudbase was higher, all could topland. Made some tandem flights with rock-climbers, they were very happy, I asked them to put some trousers over their lycra's leggings though, before I took off. Hey, in the end they are sitting on your lap ain't they.
So high pressure, some sea breeze helping us, blue sky, sunny, what else is a traditional flying day for Alicante. (I should work in the tourist office I know)

Got to go, I invite my family to tapas and red rioja wine, worked hard. Hope you have a wonderful saturday night. Cheers, salud !

friday 21 january 2005

Early morning western winds, bit too strong to have an early start. At midday winds died off, and we had good info for Palomaret. As soon as we arrived we could fly. Malcom, David, Gerd, another Gerd, Martin, me and some locals were ready to fly. Soon it became clear that this wasn't a sunny spring day, but a warm and sunny winter day (20 degrees celsius, blue sky, believe me, incredible).
So thermals were weak and windsheer (always west on altitude) was low. Some of us managed to topland, most of us had a hard time struggling for the bits of lift.
David surprised me with his skills. Met him yesterday for the first time, he was very modest about his experience and skills. I was very impressed by his reverse launch, his weightshifting, working the small thermals, good work David ! Stayed in the air with the local skygods, as a very lowairtime pilot quite an achievement today.
Isobarmap of Europe speaks for itself, we are stuck with a high again. Monday, tuesday colder ???

thursday 20 january 2005

Sea nerveus, lots of wind in the morning. sjupposed to die off in the afternoon. But at 1 pm, still windy at the coast. so we went inland. And winds died off. We flew at Villena. But not epic, no, no way. Just smooth thermals, very hard to stay up. But sunny, 20 degrees, felt like summer. Still two months to go, we should get colder days, we haven't had any yet.

wednesday 19 january 2005

western winds, too strong. Cloudbase looks pretty high, promising for tomorrow, vamos a ver...

tuesday 18 january 2005

Some western winds today, prevision was pretty strong, but winds died off nicely in the evening.
If this is the usual three-day (winter) cycle of strong west wind, we will fly again then with first guests who will arrrive on friday.
And I can't wait to test fly the Advance Omega6. A good thing about being a dealer is that you get all gliders to testfly.

monday 17 january 2005

Sunny and very warm on this "winter" day. Waiting till afternoon to fly at the cliffs. Not a lot happening. Barely toplandable. Almost no pilots on the hill. El Cid would have been an option, but no guests, so taking it easy and doing some gardening. I want my neighbours to stop thinking Stevie Wonder is my gardener. See you soon.

sunday 16 january 2005

It was easy today. From 11 am, eastern wind kicking in, excellent for the cliffs. When I looked up at 5 pm, they were still in the air. Lots of sunday-flyers having the time of their life at the cliffs.

saturday 15 january 2005

Smooth thermal in the mountains or soaring at hills near Calpe. We had a choice. Again cold at night, in the norning low inversion, mist, then 17 degress and sunny during the day.

Friday 14 january 2005

This afternoon, our good friend Pedro called us, asking if we wanted to come along flying at "his" site. It is a bit "his" site, as he is always flying on this hill, every time it is on. He is a farmacist who lives in Calpe and with binoculars watches the birds and windsock on the hill. To see if it is flyable (and I do call a lot !), he just has to look out his shop.
It was on the hill, so flying over the mediterranean. The site is called Toix.

To be honest, I do not go there very often with my guests. The landing is a bit far away from the take off. And in between take off and landing there is no option, just the sea underneath you. So we have to take off in strong wind, and make sure we have lift, otherwise we are fucked.
One thing is for sure, once airborne the view is magnificient. It is in the top 5 as most beautiful sites along the Mediterranean Sea (Oliver Guernay, german book).
If you want to cross to the mountains inland, you have to be aware of few obstacles (high power lines - venturi ). Later in the aftenoon when sea breeze shuts off, western winds from inland can start giving you a rollercoaster of a flight. It is always better to fly the site, with the locals, never ever with somebody who doesn't know the specialities. Be my guest.

Oh, next five days, I think we have to stick to the cliffs of Santa Pola. It looks like we are gonna fly with our eastern winds for five days in a row near base.

thursday 13 january 2005

Up to our mountains, smooth thermals. Nothing like spring or summer days of course. But hey, a couple of hours a day keeps the flies away. Or rust neversleeps, whatever. As long as we can fly and the sun is shining, we're all happy down here.

wednesday 12 january 2005

Lazy flying at Palo for some of us (weak thermals) and fighting to stay up in Altea Hills (dynamic, sea breeze). Hours of flying at both sites, but more practice than anything else. It was difficult to catch the right thermal. Only locals were flying, nobody bumped out. Where are you guys ? Any luck with flying ? I hope so.

tuesday 11 january 2005

Again flyable on our high mountains. A choice of sites available. Smooth thermalsm, cloudbase up to 1300 meter. All afternoon. Very sunny and max temp of 19 degres celsius. At night pretty cold.

10 january 2005

All day sunny, high pressure. Flying from this afternoon till 5 pm. Different sites available. Southern breezes. Not a lot of locals wanted to fly, a bit tired after flying 10 days consecutive I guess.

1 - 9th janaury

I was gone till yesterday. So not here from the 31st of dec till the 9th of january. I asked several locals what they have done. And as I could imagine they flew EVERY day. For january this is of course very good. EVERY day thermals inland.

Today I could see them flying at the cliffs, pretty high. From tomorrow on again, I'll fly, and can't wait.

I can only hope that in the upcoming weeks, when new guests arrive, that the weather will be as beautiful as it has been the last weeks.