october 2006; 22 flyable days in october

Doyouwanna ? Of course you do, it doesn't get much better !

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tuesday 31 oct

Years ago I was visiting Oaxaca , Mexico at this same date. I enjoyed the freaky procession, youngster carrying skeletons around town. Drinking beer with the locals, having fun, around the most beautiful 'zocalo' , (city square). Locals dressed in costumes of the dead, freaking you out in the dark. Haloween at its best.
Oaxaca with lots of indians, coming down from the mountains, Chiapas, where they were expelled from their fields and villages to live in the mountains where it is always foggy, cold and rainy. Being invited to drink their tequila, the only thing I remember from that night is that there's nothing like their posionous homebrewn tequila, I tell ya.
But no procession and fun there today. Police and army moved in to 'restore order'.

Today we flew at Peña Rubia, not all of us because it was strong at take off. At first once in the air smooth dynamic conditions, sooned the thermals were kicking off with the prevailing wind. It got too strong, so back home where we enjoyed the beach, vino tinto y tapas on a terrace. How nice.

We have to profit of the two upcoming days sto fly. From friday onwards it is supposed to be cloudy and rainy inland, windy for two days at the coast.
So tomorrow hay-hi hay-ho, off we go to the mountains again.

Viewing Biar in the distance. Biar is one of the most beautiful villages around. If it was in the touristic area of Andalucia, surely it would have its mass tourism. All its houses would be painted white, flowers everywhere, postcards stands. The authencity of this village is amazing. The pace of life in these villages. Its castle, the narrow streets to keep the shade, the old folks. Imagine flying above it, circling above the castle. To be honest, we didn't get that far today, winds didn't permit us to do the transition and get back to landing field. Peña Rubia takes northwest, and the valley sometimes is cooking, kicking off big fat thermals. One of my favourite sites.

monday 30th oct

Caudete, and then Reconco. High pressure, subsiding air. Low inversion. Hot, hot ,hot.

Dear God, for flying we need a bit of instability, a little bit of bad weather. And if you can sort out some southern breeze by the afternoon, we'll be thankful.

sunday 29th oct

Man, what's wrong with this weather, we do have sahara air coming in, 29 degrees today. Inversion so cloudbase was not that high, well champ Yvan got to 1600 m above sea level, which means still 800 m climb. It was nice, but scary sometimes. Tricky take offs, good flying, dodgy landings, but isn't it always.

We all had fun, enjoying the spanish weather ,the views, the flying. But it's october so we have to profit from the central hours to get in the air and enjoy the booming thermals.

Tomorrow, southeast again, we go different places, a we love to see some of the region from above.

Helena from Ibiza, we took tandem today. What a runner, take off, landing she ran her pretty bum off, I wished all passengers were like here.

saturday 28th oct

Almost november and still very very hot, 28 degrees celsius today. But you want to know if we flew right ?

Of course we did. Again at Cabo, because inland too inverted, no good. We had to wait though. Those who stayed at take off had an hour in. Those who left for lunch were too late for the window. Later in the afternoon flew again, but winds 30 k per hour a take off, so not all of us flew. Long day.

High pressure coming in, so tomorrow we will be flying thermals inland.

friday 27th oct

We had the choice. Or go inland and hoping for the clouds to burn off, fly thermals, or making sure we get the window at Cabo and get some hours of flying in.

We choose for the second one. New pilots from Annecy arrived, mountain pilots.
Mountain pilots, so it was interesting to see the take offs, because it was getting stronger by the minute. Some good, some bad, but no damage done.

The air was pretty dense and take off was at times tricky. But we all managed to get good flying in. Untill ... untill, the wind all of a sudden dropped, as if they turned the fan off. So groups of waiting pilots down at the beach, too far from the beach-bar to get refreshments right away in this, again, hot day.

Sky-god of the day ? BO, after his rough landing a couple of days ago, he's in good spirit again, smiling laughing being positive. He says : "I'm a boxer, if you punch me, I don't go down".

I am sitting on my terrace in shorts and T-shirt, even this late in the evening it is in the upper twenties.

More good news ? Tomorrow is flyable. More ? I heard airfares to Alicante are pretty cheap these days. More ? Bo's better !

What are you waiting for ? Salud.

thursday 26th oct

Low cloudbase. Southwest wind. No good today, not even at our southwesterly coastal sites. Tomorrow we get the good old easternwind back. Adelante !

wednesday 25th oct

Personal records for lots of pilots. Too strong at take off for some of us.

Cabo de Santa Pola at its best for lots of pilots, who master their take off skills. Because winds were up to 25 k per hour. No grassy comfortable slope, but 25 k/h on our spanish grass, which seems to be different for everybody.

I had to take care of my friend Bo, who came down quite hard yesterday. Lets hope tomorrow, things go better for him.

tuesday 24th oct

Reconco, near Castalla, Onil. At first southwest, so we moved up to the old take off, up the hill. Good flying by all of us.

The day overshadowed by a rough landing by Bo though.

monday 23rd oct

Scary sky, too much southwest wind. Even in Calpe it was not possible to soar. Only seagulls laughing at us, rolling in the winds, speedbars on.

Tomorrow we get good old southwind, dying off durin the day. Our new arrived swedish guests can't wait to get some sun in and some flying those excellent thermals we have in autumn.

sunday 22nd oct

After a good day of flying, after hours of thermalling, you forget the two lousy days we had yesterday and before.

It was sunday today, so lots of weekend-pilots in the air.

It was 'regular'. The whole afternoon, it was not the sweetest hangover you would have wished for, after partying hard on a saturday night.
Every other ten minutes it got rough for a couple of minutes.

In between, excellent thermals, you had some windsheer, some colision between southwestern prevailing winds on height and the ever strong southeastern breeze when the sun is out.

Lots of buddies from Valencia joined us today, nice one.

Nicest bit of the day, low saves by many pilots.
Ugliest bit of the day, the SAT try out by Sayo.

Tomorrow Palomaret is closed. What a pity. No " Not at allm, it'll force us to go to other sites and give them a good try-out, can't wait.

saturday 21st oct

Lots of parawaiting. Waiting for the promised strong southwest, but nothing like that today. Beautiful spot though, at take off Calpe, in the sun. Shit.

friday 20th oct

Lenticulares, gusty winds. Warm enough to sit outside, but no flying today. Calpe was not on.

thursday 19th oct (merci remi)

An incredible, fantastic, epic day.

We got up and saw the lenticulares over the mountains inland. Shit. Winds already strong southwest. Shit.

Lets go for Calpe and fly at Morro de Toix. How optimistic.

Once there Gerhard had his briefing about how to approach landing at Calpe in the lee-side of Morro de Toix. As he was my only pilot, I was the taxi of the day.

Soon he was in the air and got 500 m ASL, but decided to land at the official landing area in Playa Mascarat.

Meanwhile Rafa, Antolino, Suby, Dudo arrived. Gerhard wanted to fly again of course. So up we went to take off, where winds were picking up to 25 k/h. Still ok. I was taxi again, why not, I flew this hill so many times already and above all it is my job !!

Something amazing started to happen. While Dudo tried to go little XC towards Sierra Bernia, scratching and fighting to get lift, Antolino didn't get nothing but smooth lift over the sea.

The rock itself where we fly from is at his heighest only 300 m above the sea. He got, 1100 m above sea level, in between Calpe, Peñon Ifach and take off.

All followed this amazing lift, and soon 5 gliders were way up in the air, 1100 m ASL. I was already down having a café con leche, and couldn't believe my eyes. This never occured to anyone of us, this was magic.
They worried a bit how the winds were gonna be at the playa where I was, where they were supposed to land. I had to convince them there was absolutely no wind.

They soared Peñon d Ifach for a while and came down. Amazing.

Left the famous rock of Calpe, 300 meters high Above it, a little stip, Antolino, arriving as first pilot all the way from Morro de Toix, crossing the sea at 1000 m ASL.

Very hard to explain, and difficult to understand for those who have been here and have flewn this site.

The only acceptable explanation to me, is that the sea is still warm (28 degrees celcius) and the colder upper air created suck. In those almost 8 years, I have never ever seen pilots that high. And just that day I was playing taxi for all of my buddies. God allmighty.

It feels like it's weekend. So extraordinary the day was.

wednesday 18th oct

Sky angry, raining inland. Near Alicante, no safe posibility to go out and fly, still hot and enjoyable weather near the beaches. Chill.

For belgian pilots, watch this blog of Serge, visited us a couple of weeks ago, http://mystair.skynetblogs.be/

tuesday 17th oct

A crap day ? It was supposed to be.

Early morning, Cabo, an hour of flying, but my belgian guests were still partying in bed. No worries.

We left later for onland sites because it was getting way too strong at the coast. First La Solana. Good wind, dust devil, back wind. Lets go, no good.

Good old Palomaret gave us what we needed. Smooth thermals, no strong winds at all. What a pleasure it was, seeing our belgian buddies, being happy. This, after making a big effort, looking for their last possible flight of the year. Because from now on up north it'll be no flying till lots later in the year.

After enjoying day AND night, they look knackered, they actually look as if they need a vacation. See you again.

monday 16th oct

No flying today. A low over the Azores, as usually not what we want. And we are in for another couple of days no flying.

Eastern winds allright, good for soaring at the coast, but till last minute too strong. Cloudy to very cloudy inland, sure bits of rain on the higher mountains.

sunday 15th october

It was gonna rain, it was gonna be very cloudy in the afternoon.

No rain, and not too cloudy. Flights were made at Onil, Palomaret, or soaring at the coast. We went to Hondon.

I think that was the wisest decision. I bummed out !

This must have been my shortest flight in long times. And as the danish pilots know very well, it is a pathless climb to the take off, a bummer.

After me Dany did the same thing, also my spanish buddy Sayo. Then Bart, all down in seconds. Look who took off, skygod Joel from 'sky-ducks belgium'.

He managed to climb out over the ridges and had a terrific flight. That was the plan, well done skygod Joel. Dany, as huge sportman, went back up the steep hill.

Hondon is a place where only a couple of years ago, it was only a valley, a beautiful valley with vineyards and farming. No houses, just plain nature. Now there has been an invasion of british pensioners, who buy the low-quality, high-priced new-built houses in the valley. Vineyards are left to die, so there is more place for houses. It is a pity, but it is civilization. It is funny and sad at the same time to see that the old village is now more and more a british enclave. Old bars now owned by british, organising quizes, karaokes, and no more tapas, but sunday roasts.

Living in Spain, hoorah !

And instead of dogs on the loose, you see more and more Lady Di look-alikes with their puppies on a leach in the midst of nature. It's funny.

It is still a beautiful site to fly, rarely visited because of the walk up. I take you there next time. And after flying we'll have a cup of tea with a butter shortbread cookie in the village with the wonderful name 'Hondon de las Nieves'.

Down below a shot from in the valley arriving at Hondon. Sky looks great, but the site is restricted by airtraffic. Airplanes fly right over take off, a 500 m above. So if you see the moustache of the airline pilot, beware, you're too high, too close.

saturday 14th oct

Alone with our American girlfriend at take off. Nobody out. When I called, I heard grumpy young men, not on this planet yet. But understandable, it is paradise for young boys in Alicante on friday nights. There's great nightlife, no hassles, no drunken ... , just pure fun and dance and drinks and pretty pretty ... .

Ok, back to flying. Tandem-day, typical for a Cabo day, and especially on a weekend day. Weather was very cloudy inland and up north. But the sun was strong again, and showed her warm side at noon. Winds were dying off again later on after the paella and vino tinto. Flew till dark, couldn't fly longer. Great stuff, all belgians amongst some of them, do loooooooooooove soaring.

Bridget was our American guest, who was with us all day yesterday, and I couldn't deliver a tandem flight yesterday But today everything was delivered. The promised figs from the tree, the tandem flight and on top of that we all had a great lunch outside in the open. Bot oh, what evil eyes I got, when I asked if she favoured señor Bush. I was almost sure she didn't favour señor Bush, but you never know, so excuse me lady.

Be back soon, Bridget !

friday 13thg of october

All day out for flying. Early morning leave for San Antonio wher we just could do a top to bottom although clouds were racing.
Bits later at Monte Cabrer, we saw our local friends flying. Bart just managed to take off, then winds veered to the north too much. Soon we saw Bart over the valley, high up.

When we got down at landing field again, we moved to San Antonio again, where at last we had some nice evening soaring in.

Bridget from the US, all over from Valencia came to do a tandem flight. Didn't work out. Luckily tomorrow she'll be around again, and we'll do anything to make that girl happy.

After all a very nice day with some flying. Bart had a great flight hope the rest enjoyed the day and the late flying.

thursday 12th of october

foto taken from take off Carrascoy, Frans Deschaene belgian pilot

'Prachtig' said the belgian pilots. Just like the other week I took the group to Carrascoy and later on Alhama de Murcia.

Same story and there was a comp going on. Because today all spanish speaking countries in the world have a day off. Big time for our friends of Murcia. A lousy day became an excellent daym, with three in goal.

Climbing out over take off, going west to the valley of Alhama de Murcia, gasstation, church, bar, bridge and land on the one and only landing field. Sounds fine, just come and do it.

Most of us didn't even get above take off. Winds were weak and off to the right (east). Thermals were broken by the sometimes gusty intervals in the valley. No worries, safe it was.

Later all of a sudden a grey cloud was forming over the back. As locals we knew soon the window would be closed to fly at Carrascoy. Winds would be coming from over the back, sea breeze. Time to have a drink and go to the other side. Done !

wednesday 11th of october

I know it is early (6 pm) but I am writing this with a ice chilled beer on the side. It has been very very hot and dry. We've been to the dry-est area of Jumilla, Sierra del Carche. I am thirsty, dried out, full of dust.

Sierra del Carche looked very promising this morning with the weather forecast southwesternwinds.

But too gusty at take off. So the long drive and the walk up in vain. No flying today, grounded and admiring the cloudstreets that would lead you to the beaches of Alicante. Where a dip in the still very nice sea water would have been a great welcome after the XC.

Knackered after a day of heat, sun, wind and now this one beer ... .

tuesday 10th of october

Soaring at Cabo de Santa Pola. For some pilots too strong. Although it was only blowing max 20 km per hour. Everyone needed to get his take offs under control, it is of such importance.

Later in the afternoon, rainy clouds inland. Tomorrow we are gonna get clouds early morning, maybe some raindrops. In the afternoon it should be sunny again. If there is gonna be a day not flyable, it's gonna be tomorrow.

Winds will be blowing west, in the afternoon southwest. Fingers crossed.

monday 9th of october

Fortuna was the place today. It is a not very frequented place. It is hidden behind some more ugly villages near Murcia, oh God I shouldn't say this. It is a poor part of the region where before nobody wanted to be, live. But nowadays more and more Brits and Germans buy their new built houses in those hidden, lost valleys where buying terrain is cheap.
It starts to be so unspanish that when you enter a bar, you may encounter a waitress that only speaks English and a barkeeper only talks German. Places I try to avoid, but when thirsty, there is less and less posibility to find a good old spanish bar with café con leche and tapas. A shame, but that's probably the price of civilization in these valleys.

One good thing are the mountains surrounding though. Very very dry area, it never rains, it looks more dry than anything in Arizona. Too dry even for cactuses to live in the wild.

But the flying is great. It needs a southeasterly, easterly breeze. With some sun it is cooking, and thermals kick off like rockets.

Today it was (luckily maybe) a bit cloudy, so the flying was smooth, was splendid. 600 m above take off for Frederico with his old Apco Simba.

sunday 8th of october

Hot day, blue sky, blue mediterranean sea, 15 km per hour wind all day. What do you do ? You enjoy the most known soaring site along the mediterranean. You love toplanding, have a chat, meet the others, fly again, have a drink, fly again, untill dark.

Inland, where we flew all week, Felix Rodriguez and Horacio Llorrens were doing their tumblings, infinities, etc... .

It doesn't get much better.

saturday 7th of october

A bit of a slow start today. Winds were west early on so we went to Penia. However Nick frantically on the phone as ever pulled us to a screeching halt near Petrer where we headed into a coffee shop. Palo was reporting favourable winds so the whole convoy headed through the mountains up north. From a distance we saw already a pack of gliders dangling over take off. Indeed a get together was going on in Palo. Conditions were similar to yesterday, thermals all over the place. I went to 1300m without much effort, evantually fighting my way down because I was getting thirsty... We counted 28 gliders in the air at one given moment. The fun went on till late in the evening when we headed down to Antonieta, a value as sure as the base thermals over Palo... Marcel@freeparagliders

Dear Yuste, Valencian friend, showed us how it is done. Got to 1800 m ASL, meaning 1000 meter above take off (ATO), 5 m/s thermals. And this is october the 7th. Alicante thermals all year round.

Later in the day, big boy Horacio Llorens came to visit our site, and did his tumblings, infinity-s etc... . Google if you don't know him ..., he is world class acro pilot.

One of the better days in Alicante. Although in the morning, non-believers were sceptical and negative. Euh, too much offshroe wind, no sun, cirrus clouds ... .
You got to know your sites and local meteo though.

Polish pilotes arrived, belgians have gone. Welcome, and hope you will be back.

friday 6th of october

Boy what a day !

A lazy start at 11h at the good old kiosk Susy !

When we arrived at Palo Subi was already in the air. We started shortly after and were treated with a great thermal flight.

Skygods in our group were Lode and Fre who climbed to 1800m or a good km over take off and went all the way to Maigmo. My good old Brauniger recorded a + 7 m, correct?

Any way Nick decided we all looked in need of some rest and we had a rest at the good old hacienda Al Palomaret.
Airborne again at 4 pm for more great flights.

Nick borrowed me an AxisPara Pluto for the evening, my Sol Synergy is still in for a total check-up ...

Good old Marcel made not less than 20 top landings... Great, great day !
today written by Frans@freeparagliders

thursday 5th of october

Hi you gang, we got back into the game today.

Alicante was its usual self again with great blue skies, bright sun and paraglider friendly winds. Though north west is not the most common direction. Nick took us along to one of his more distant sites, Carrascoy which is a good hour's drive away from Alicante, being a bit past Murcia. This is also one of the higher sites in the region with takeoff at 835m or more than 600m above landing. I had not been here before on any of my 8 visits to Nick.

Winds were strong in the valley but suprisingly not up on the mountain - I never get the hang of this climate...
Actually winds were that light that we had to wait for the right moment.

Nick explained that site is a very sensitive site, which always tethers on the edge of being closed.

No landings off site please - read on !
Some did real well on the first flight, one guy in the group made it all the way to the coast landing 75 clicks away from start !

Not me - after scratching the mountain for a while I bummed out with some of the buddies in a waste land cornered by power lines and barbed wire, hey this is Spain ! We hitch hiked our way back up with Lode and did much better on the second flight.

Jan, Fre and Marcel swiftly climbed 800m above take off and got to see the sea.
I was glad I made it to the regular landing having missed the Big thermal moment of the day... And is was not over yet !

Somehow Nick wanted to get away from mowing the lawn and doing the shopping as he took us along to the rarely visited soaring site of Alhama de Murcia another site none of us had visited before. The highest soaring site I have visited so far, overlooking the city of Alhama de Murcia.

This was the right setting for some great shots, with the buddies flying over the city, the sun setting behind the mountains on one site and the full moon coming up over the other. All in all there were some 20 gliders in the air. I decided to follow Jeremy for an early landing after some 30 minutes of great Niviuk Hook soaring as I wanted to avoide the rush of all the gliders getting into the small landing field at the same time.
All went well in the end, and we had another great day, sadly the last with the Hook as my own Synergy is back from check tomorrow...

this section of today written by Frans@freeparagliders

wednesday 4th of october

Too much wind, northwest. Very warm when the sun was out, and chilly when the wind was blowing. Easy to get a cold.

Tomorrow looks like Carrascoy, Murcia.

tuesday 3rd october

Nick promised it would be windy today and windy it was. Saw the palm trees shaking around the pool early this morning and that is not a good sign. We set off for Morro de Toix which is the only site that can work in strong southwesterly conditions but wind went in 15 minutes from nothing to almost too much.

Also gusty rather than the required laminar sea breeze. We decided to call it a day. Wind got stronger and stronger through the day and beautiful lenticulars started drifting in from inland on a westerly wind. Always interesting to see them as they are a very rare sight in our low countries. Temperature got up to 34 c this afternoon with a dewpoint of 10 c, desertlike conditions.

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After Frans left for the bar with his brother buddy Marcel, a fire started near the landing field. All our hope of flying later vanished. Soon helicopters were gonna put out the fire. As happened. So a stroll on the 'boardwalk' of Calpe, enjoying the spectacular view of Piñon d'Ifach, I tell ya, there are worse places to be. Today desertlike conditions, extremely hot and sunny, but hey too windy. Thanks Frans for doing my today this week.

monday 2 october

Hi gang, since we got Nick completely stressed out today with our relentless drive for more, and even more flying - I have offered to help him out and write his 'today'- section.
Hehe... Got off to the lovely site of Carrasqueta, somewhat more inland. On the way up there, I was a bit sceptical on the wind, but once again Nick was spot on.

Parked the cars on the famous 'landing by the gas station' and headed up with the more sturdy vehicles. We got off for a whole day of flying in mixed thermal and soaring conditions, more of the latter as the day progressed.

The landing proved demanding as ever with shifting wind conditions. As the day progressed we were able to make more and more toplandings. I had the pleasure of flying three different gliders throughout the day, my own Synergy, the lovely Niviuk Hook and the Independence Dragon, the latter giving me some difficulties at take off - Hehe....

By 1700 the wind died down and we set off for a beer in the Venta Theresa on the way down. First day started really well ! Frans@freeparagliders.be

sunday 1st of october

Sierra del Carche, take off 1350 m ASL, nice climbs which can take you all the way back to Alicante. Later Hondon, do some soaring to de-stress.

That was the plan.

Well what happened. Visiting pilots complaining about the conditions, too smooth, sink all the way, all of a sudden steep climb - no time to assess the thermal, etc... .
Meanwhile locals, and many of them very low airtimers, just getting to cloudbase, some of them XC 30 km to Monovar.
Don't know my friends, maybe it has to do with skills. I think there are only two options.
One is, having the urge, the passion, the greed, to get better and learn from more experienced pilots.
The other one is, and there is nothing wrong with that, stick to your skills, but please don't blame it on the conditions.

When I bum out, the last thing I do is blaming it on the conditions when everybody else is up there sky*high. No, I look up, I re-fly my flight, I think what I did wrong. Where did I make a mistake. Did I have to fly more upwind ? Look for thermals in the valley ? Did I have a bad day, nervous, scared ?

I love you all