I started this flying diary on the 12th of october 2004. I wish and hope other guides will do on their website. It can only give you guys, the most honest idea about how the flying is in the region operating. Pass the word to other guides, why not ?
wednesday 3 november 2004
Sad day. But no politics here. Got back from a four day trip to Valencia. Today brits and Swiss pilots arrived. Left for Murcia this afternoon and had a window for about two hours. Nice and smooth thermals. The only problem was the alpine launch (?!%&?!). Most of us got up way above take off at 1100 meters. Again sunny and in their twenties (celsius). Some locals didn't believe in flying, and stayed home. Luckily Rafa and Antolino joined us, and acted as wind dummies to show our guests where the thermals were.
Thursday, friday 4/5 november 2004
Bad weather. It is even raining in spain.
Saturday 6 november 2004
We flew at Cabo. At first too strong. Big cloud development inland. But later in the afternoon all in the air, till dark.
Soaring boring ? Not if your technique is excellent for taking off in strong conditions - feeling great, make the perfect wing over, do SAT maneuver (not me !), topland nice and smoothly controlled, practice nice spirals. And like today, watch the sunset, flying above the lighthouse near Mediterranean Sea. How about that ?
sunday 7 nov 2004
Flew all afternoon. Some of us flew 4 (four) hours at Cabo. Some of my pilots landed and went for a swim in the Med. I did some tandems, together with my fellow colleague Toño who is running the local school Sureste. Good times, sunday afternoon feelings, lots of locals, laidback atmosphere, drinks afterwards, happy faces. Flying whenever you felt like it, toplanding, new pilots coming in, pilots going home unfortunately today. Thanks Jeremy, Max, Simon, and welcome Bo, Henrie, Tim, Paul and Keith. Nina, you as well, must have landed safe back in Brussels Belgium, I hope you had again a good week ! See you soon.
Monday 8 nov 2004
Bo did it again. 4 hours in the air under his new Gin Zoom. 1.5 hours flying in the Jalon Valley and then 2.5 hours flying at Calpe. The whole day it was cloudy, with few sunny spells. It permitted us to fly with cloudsuck and getting to base quite easy. For those who weren't used to fly with clouds, it was a bit nerveus at beginning. But big boys don't cry ! As the flights went on, all my pilots got more used to this cloud-flying and did very well. You just needed to bigear your wing to get out of the cloud. And of cours you better fly with a compass, a GPS isn't enough. So if you come down, bring along your compass (Sup Air Compass ar the best ,I do sell 'em)
Everything was controllable and safe. Thanks to local knowledge, weather forecasts etc... everyone had a another safe day of ultimate flying in Alicante.
tuesday 9 nov 2004
Bo, Henrie (marking his territory everywhere he goes !) walked around half-naked on the top of our mountain, and it was NOT a sight. Anyway, it was 20 degrees up in Carrascoy at 100 meter.
Light wind at first, so I had to be the wind dummie. Asked if anyone else would volunteer, but all of a sudden they looked the other way. So hey, it's a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.
Once in the air, it felt great, but too smooth still, after all it was still "early morning", 12 am. Thermals only started kicking off at landing field, so it needed a bit more time to kick in nicely up higher. Jose Luis, Tim, Bo, Henrie, Paul, Keith (skygod lately !) and Martin took off and showed me how it was done.
Then as weather forecast predicted, wind started to kick in. We had a break and waited for the winds to calm down. A bit later, I took off, but immediately felt it was not so nice to fly. I went up in kind of a wave, lot of lift and no forward speed then sink and again, holy ! , no forward speed. I kicked in my speedbar, but had no luck. I re-installed my speedbar just before take off, as it broke off just before, but forgot to put the lines through the pullies. So no speedbar for señor Nick. Madre Mia. Lucky I got less wind after some time, and got down with big ears. Once above landing field I had to work to get where I wanted to land, gusts were not permitting me to play around. I landed on both feet, advising my guests not to fly. It was too tricky and unsafe. Some other hard-core local pilots took off, but it was so obvious that we didn't choose this sport to practice it in such conditions. So back home now, all had a nice flight above Murcia. Safely down, happy faces, sunburned redish noses haha.
Wednesday 10 november2004
Too windy, and that'll be the verdict for the next coming days. Northern transmontana winds, do not permit us to fly. Sheltered from the wind, we can still go beach On the bottom landing field area near Santa Pola, it is still up in their twenties. My latest guests flew the last four days consecutive. I don't think they will fly before they leave next saturday morning. Bummer. We do not need heating yet, but late in the evening a blanket feels better watching TV, sounds familiar ? Hasta luego.
Thursday 11 nov 2004
Got up with a lot of wind blowing through the eucalyptus trees near my house. Went inland a bit and it got worse. So my friends went for a town visit in Elche, the very "spanish" town with the most palmtrees in the country.
During the afternoon bit by bit the winds were dying off. So I called them to come up to take off Santa Pola, if they wanted to take their chances. After a little wait there was only a small top to bottom. Feet off the ground, nothing else. We checked if we could do something on the old take off (south) near the village. but the winds were too weak by then.
My Swedish friends Bo and Henrie left, they'll be back in february. Paul, Chris, Keith, Tim and Luc are still around. Although Chris and Luc are having such a good time, with their wives visiting the region that we haven'tseen them a lot.
Friday 12 nov 2004
Wet and windy.
Saturday 13 nov 2004
Sunny all day, nice temperatures, but wind from north too gusty, and too strong. Paul, Tim, Keith, Chris and Helen have left, cu later !
Sunday 14 nov 2004
Sunny all day, very nice temperatures (up in the twenties), and no wind in the valley of Jalon. One hour and a half of smooth thermals. Cloudbase pretty low, but nice to play around on an autumn day. Again as usual, house thermals to be found above the village, circling above the church until you're dizzy... Tomorrow looks even better.
Yesterday my fellow Belgian pilots flew at Maboge in the Ardennes.
Monday 15 nov 2004
Local pilots left early for Almudaina. A lovely site, but only toplandings, no bottom landing at all. So I cannot always go there. But I didn't mind, I had to wait anyway for my new customer(s) this week, who got in at 1 pm from Sweden and two German pilots who gave me a call at noon to go out flying. So we went to our valley near Biar-Villena. Wind was on, but weak. At first Martin took off, and with succes. As soon as he was airborne winds were east, so almost 90 degress off to the right. Luckily (I didn't know how experienced he was, first day you know) he soared the eastern bit of the mountain quite superb.
Second take off for Henrie, who managed to get a low safe. He got way up over take off after almost joining Martin down below. Even asking if he could go to the other near mountain for little XC. Be my guest !
And this just after he landed from cold and rainy Sweden just an hour before. Third was Conrad airborne, who didn't have the best conditions any more to stay up. But pretty stubborn and fighting for every inch of lift (inch sounds better than centimeter now).
Strange when British pilots all of a sudden use kilometers instead of miles when talking about their XC's no ? Wonder why. (Thanks Keith).
Three new pilots, looking promising for the next days. More British pilots will join us tomorrow.
Tuesday 16 nov 2004
Ok, every month has its topday. I think the one today can't be beaten. At first we had too much west on our southern hill. I had seen and analysed the weather forecasts and was almost sure it was gonna be a superb day on the site we were.
Most local pilots, left though for a nearby western hill, where we flew on yesterday. I didn't believe that was a good decision, because I had info about that valley.
I was just hoping I was right. My pilots looked a bit funny when they saw all the locals leave. Just Dudo and Pepe (SAT-man) stayed.
And that's when stress comes in. What if my prediction is wrong ? What should I do ? For those who know me, I am not the most diplomatic chap, and a bit impulsive (my wife says). But I stayed cool and patient (ahum).
It paid off: After a little half hour "sunbathing", the wind smoothly turned towards the south. Still coughing and blowing my nose, recovering from a cold, I asked Pepe if he would be so kind to be my wind-dummy.
Soon he was almost out of sight, aiming for El Cid. Dudo took off, same thing. Then my guys, same thing. All circling with a lonely eagle above Palomaret, up to 1600 , 1700, 1770 ... This is cloudbase Dudo let me know.
Wrong ! My Swiss pilot Martin (Ozone Vibe) let me know he reached 2100 meters.
This day was epic, and it was predictable with the charts and the local knowledge. Thermals 4/5 meters pr second, it is november yes. Don't pin me on it, it is not always that great in november, but so it shows ... I looooooooooooooooove Palomaret.
Wednesday 17 nov 2004
Again all afternoon flying at Palomaret. Cloudbase at 1500 meters (means 650 meters climb). Sunny all day, warm in the valley, a bit nippy at take off. Big fun.
At landing all big smiles, still nobody has enough of this, asking me already : "how about tomorrow nick ?".
Allright then, meet you at 11 at kiosk susy in el altet !
Thursday 18 nov 2004
11.30 ciosco Susy El Altet, coffee and chat about the weather forecast of the day
12.30 arrive at Palomaret
13.00 all in the air
16.30 all landing after more than hours of thermalling
17.15 old man's bar Antoniet, calamares and beer for all
Friday 19 nov 2004
It's summer !! Well at least it looked and felt like it. Inversion low, high temperature. We went to Benidorm. A flight with a view. In front of you the skyline of Benidorm, Peacock Island in its bay, undeneath your feet the theme park of Terra Mitica. A group of 10 pilots in the air. At start a light breeze, gradually picking up until it was too cross from west. At that point we had radio contact with our buddies from Calpe señor Pedro and don Moncho who werebraging about their flight at Toix.
Tim, youngster and novice pilot did very well. Stayed in the air with our champs and toplanded as if he had done it loads of times before. Well done ! On the way back Chris, Henrie and Sean went to visit the climbing routes in the valley of Sella. Always worth a visit. It looks good till wednesday.
Saturday 20 nov 2004
Palomaret. Today saturday we were joined by local pilots on our favourite hill. All afternoon the thermals were there. Cloudbase was at 1300 meters, and thermals were all smooth. At 5 pm, clouds came in. Eastern winds brought in the humidity from the sea. Again some pilots were happy to top up their airtime with 2 to 3 hours of thermalling.
sunday 21 nov 2004
Just got back from Cabo. It was sunday so lots of students and more locals than on weekdays who were waiting at first for the eastern winds to kick in. Inland pretty cloudy, so we had to be patient. We were rewarded by an hour of soaring above the cliffs. Can't complain. Tomorrow we should fly all day at the cliffs. Good to get some maneuvers in. Have a great night.
monday 22 nov 2004
Left at 11 am, to pick up Henrie (swedish) to bring him to the airport. When I got there he decided to have one more flight, so he managed to fly 8 out of 8 days. We all joined him. Chris, Tim, Sean (british) and Jon Erik (Norwegian) and most of our top pilots (Suby, Dudo, Antolino, Toño, Conrad,...) flew at Cabo. There was no other playground. Inland too cloudy, so coastal soaring in the sun. I saw lots of us, sorting out there toplandings, wing-overs etc... , taking off in stronger winds than normal. Confidence building. At 5.30 I left, see you all tomorrow, we are gona go inland and get some thermalling in, that's for sure tomorrow.
tuesday 23 nov 2004
Onil gave us what we needed after two days of soaring. Jon-erik (Norwegian pilot) had two nice flights over the village of Onil. Two times he managed to get a low safe and got up to cloudbase. Cloudbase was not too high though, it got just above take off, as all was inverted. All together he flew for a good hour in our november thermals.
Suby and Belinda flew at Carrasqueta, some other at good old Palomaret.
It was funny when we arrived. We left the very inverted area along the coast to enter a complete sunny valley near our site. Driving up to take off though, the valley behind it was covered in a sea of clouds. the caslte of Biar and the take off of Villena were sticking out. Great view, hope the digital shots came out.
wednesday 24 november 2004
Golden necklace and a fake Rolex. That's all he had on. Damn, why didn't he put a swimshort on or something. It was a bit embarrassing, almost uncomfortable, folding my glider on my knees, answering his FAQ's.
Yes, for those who have been here, I am talking about the nudist beach near Calpe. Exactly, that's where we land after flying over Toix, Altea Hills, Sierra Bernia. After season, the only nudists are gay, male and old. So no more beach volley by youngsters.
Don't get me wrong Dubya ! I still support gay marriage.
High pressure, inversion, smog over Alicante. Anyway, left early and at 11.30 take off with my only guest Jonerik (Norwegian). Immediately in the air, we had great lift, up to Altea Hills. Some strong, punchy thermals woke us up each time we tried to go for Sierra Bernia. Later in the afternoon, when we had enough and enjoyed a coffee our friends Suby, Belinda, Antolino, and others arrived. A bit late we thought, but they as well managed to get good flying in.
It was very sunny and warm (20 degrees I guess), but chilly near cloudbase. Jonerik flew far over two hours, and was pretty knackered. Not only by the flying, but also by the late night BBQ yesterday night.
Sean, Collin (splendid chefs), and Tim left today.
thursday 25 nov 2004
Left for Palomaret and arrived at 12. Rigged, got in the air and bummed out. Although Jonerik had a good thermal taking him up to cloudbase at first, 1270 meter asl. Conditions were improving by the minute. Here and there little cumulus forming. Maybe till 4 pm, some good thermalling flying ?? Lets see.
Got back up in the air. Nice and smooth thermals this time. Toplanded, just to make sure there was at least somebody down to bring a car down. (4 more locals arrived)
Wasn't necessary. Jonerik landed at 5.30 pm, conditions were super smooth, superbueno. Beer at Antoniet in Agost.
Tomorrow Jonerik, our Norwegian guest is leaving. He flew 4 out of his 4 visitingdays, and topped up his airtime by 7.5 hours. High pressure is still here, subsiding air, low cloudbase, Rafa and Jose Luis local pilots got to 1380 m ASL this afternoon.
friday 26 nov 2004
Didn't fly today, day off. Checked with the locals just to inform you: They have been flying in thermalling conditions till 5 pm. Same weather as yesterday. Not an early start due to low inversion. But when the spanish sun bruned through, it was again allright to up the mountains in Alicante.
saturday 27 nov 2004
Same weather. Early morning , cloudy. High pressure still over Spain. By 11 pm,. sun burns through and cumulus start to form. Time to call my friends and go out. All afternoon at Carrasqueta. Suby flew all the way over his house near Torremanzana, but then he is our champion of course.
sunday 28 nov 2004
Scottisch pilots around, always nice to have. Palomaret, litle XC's to Maigmo and back. Thermals were there, but you had to fight to catch 'em. About 4 of us managed to get the little task in, the otehrs had less luck and bummed out. An enjoyable sunday afternoon.
monday 29 nov 2004
Today no flying. Just late afternoon the sun burned through the sad grey clouds. But no wind at Cabo, maybe a top to bottom, but didn't bother. Inland, on our (where the wind blew norhtwest) it was rainy, misty, ugly. Fingers crossed for tomorrow, looks a bit sad as well.
tuesday 30 nov 2004
It looked shitty, very cloudy this morning. I was on the outlook for the cliffs, eastern winds were supposed to kick in.
I had my daily coffee in the village, chatting with the old men, playing domino. All were happy that maybe, maybe, we would have some rain today and next coming days.
Realising that we live in one of the most dry and sunny regions of Spain, it is a nice when it rains a bit. At least for the locals, they will tell you it gives them better air, it helps their garden, it clears the dust from the trees and houses.
Pilots visiting do not share this thoughts. We met at 11 pm a take off. Guess what, just arrived and the wind kicked in. We flew under big clouds, with in the distance over the mediteranean Sea the rays of lovely sunshine. Pretty ! At 2 pm, some locals arrived. Too late, winds died off, it got more dark, more clouds, lower base.
Today I was very impressed with Bridget's take off ! A lot of pilots could learn from this scottish girl, taking off in strong conditions on our rough terrain, well done.
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