Friday, morning flying till too strong, till overdevelopment crawling in from over the back,. (from the Pyrenees so).
Went swimming in the lake to cool down. Siesta, and last minute flying over the valley of
Ager, landing at the camping near the village.
Excellent week, flying EVERY day. It doesnt' get much better !

Last day of roadtrip before airport transfers. We are in Barcelona, visiting the famous city. Before heading back home.
Foto's will be on the blog soon, check it out.

We had fantastic weather. Every site had its own tricky bits, we were informed by local pilots who I contacted before. They were all very helpfull and welcoming.
We stayed in budget hotels, guest houses, ha breakfast together and planned they day. Every afternoon there as need for a little siesta, because the flying, the sun, the heat tired us out. After the siesta there was loads of time to get back on the hill, join the locals and fly again. Many days for hours !
There was no plan for XC, there was a plan for lots of flying in safe way on different sites. And we succeeded, to fly two days at the three sites we planned. Berga, Organya and last Ager.

This was the first time I organised this roadtrip, and it was a succes all over. Next year same time, you are invited to join us as well. Let me know your email address etc... if interested, ok ?


Well off to the Ramblas again in Barcelona, street animation etc... . Funny enough you hear more foreign languages than Spanish on the street nowadays.
But off the tourist track you still find the good old man's bar, where chilled vino tinto is served and a good tapa at reasonable price as well.

Soon foto's from all of us, a top ten of foto's which will give you an idea how much fun we had.

We started off with a last flight in Organya- bye bye magic mountain- we will all be back!
Then we had a very nice drive westwards to Ager where the 1500m high ridge welcomed us with a fantastic 2h flight.
At 9.30pm Arvid still had 3m/s lift on his Hook with his big ears on. Yes, time to spiral down, straight to the landing field next to the camping. Check in with the office, calling in the days report and off to the bar, beero'clock!
Big thank you to Ramon from Entrenuvols for providing us with the local weather report.

It's just a fabulous week!

Yesterday's report
1500m climb above take off with an average of 3 to 5m/s.
The magic mountain didn't steels his name.
High up we could see big thunderclouds over Berga in the distance.
Today we leave Organya for Ager, the forecast looks like 'pure' thermals.

On the road again...

It looks like all is going to like we've planned it. Two days Berga, two days Organya, two days Ager, and one day of choice.
Today will be our second day of Organya.
This mountain is usually packed with Acro pilots, but they all are in Vos Norway for their competition festival.
So we have the whole mountain for our own ! Just a french couple Axelle and Teo, and top Acro team hungairian pilot's girlfriend.
It's lovely.
Morning flying till it gets too strong, we're off.
Temperatures are 25, winds over the back slightly from the north so. We will get valley breezes as usual down here. So this mix of ice cold north wind from over the tops of the Pyrenees and the southern breeze in the valleys, channeling through the valleys, along the lake and the rivers, we'll be very very fine.

Organya

What's wrong with this picture?
11pm I'm sitting here in the office- feels like a sauna, trying to figure out Nicks text messages, writing his blog,
He's having a beer n some olives n 'jamon' while waiting for his main course, joking around with the boys.
I wonder if I need a talk with one of those mental trainers or what's the name- need to get more bossy?!

Just kidding- here's the news form up north, 'eat your heart out guys':
"At cloudbase all day. Nice thermals 4m/s. Everybody is a skygod today. We flew in the morning till it was too strong, Spanish life spanish ways, time for siesta, then back up again on the magic mountain, flying til 10pm, leaving knackered. There's a french pilot still in the air when we're driving off. Everybody's over the moon, but for now: a shower, food and drinks. Mañana más, I wonder what's desert?
(Heya Paraventure Paul, down in Wales- the boys wonder how your day went?)"

That's all folks...

We arrived at Organya- the magic mountain. Today Hendrie was the Skygod, he outflew the local buzzard. Tomorrow more, we're all happy but hungry...
Bring on the crema catalana.

Here we are, on our roadtrip in northern Spain. We arrived late last night in Berga, Stevie had his first flight in this early morning. From the take off at 14oo m.
But winds were not spot on, so we drove down to meet Oriol from Espais Pireneos, to check other sits.
We used his private site, called Marie1, he owns the take off and the landing. So thank you very much !!!
Just arrived back at the hotel, all knackered, also 30 degrees up here, and almost two hours of flying for most of the group.
Gottogohaveabeer......

Last day for Ziggy and Graham. Can't complain I guess, flew every day during their more than a week stay, hours of thermalling mostly inland Alicante, and some days gentle soaring at the coast.
Today again bingo ! Although most pilots preferred to stay at the coast, we couldn't resist to play the real game and get into the thermals.
It doesn't get much better.

Meanwhile I see and hear that our norwegian friends are doing well at the comps in Piedrahita. Hopefully the training down here helped them get the rust off, and helped their confidence, keep it going and keep me informed about the resulst Ovind and friends.

See you later guys, I am packing for my roadtrip to the Pyrenees.
See you at Barcelona airport tomorrow, Henrik, Winnie, Allen, Stevie, Scott and Arvid.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8485938506798317970

Raul and friends at Bassano, hope you enjoy it.

Best day of the month for sure.
We flew at 6 pm, best time to work the thermals. Last one down at 8.30.
Thermals up to 4 m/s, some pilots this amazing day at Palomaret.

Before Rafa, Jose Luis, and Ismael were fighting the heavy stuff. Not my cup of tea, sorry. With gusts up to 35 km per hour, conditions were not nice up there. They were all complaining about the windgusts, about the hard work to get into the thermals. And, important, they didn't get higher than later at 6 pm. Especially after Ismael's take off we could see how rock'n roll it was.

We had salsa, bits of rock'n roll still, but nice .....

A very very very very good day.

We were flying in Alhama de Murcia today.

I am sure lots of you remember this fantastic site, south of Murcia.

three happy bums, no four !

Above Rafa, down below Me !




Some rough air at first. Thermals died off soon unfortunately. So for the pilots with less airtime, a bit frustrating. They got in the air when things died off (too quickly).
But it is good to know that not one day is like the other. Keeps us going in this sport.

Thanks for the foto's Toni, I hope you get some flying in up there.
Cheers.

Get ready for a break, too hot.

Later flying again in the afternoon.

Thirsty, have a swim in the sea, watch the ....

Faro, the lighthouse of Santa Pola of course.

Ergo XC handles by Niviuk, suitable for all brands. I can really recommend this handles. No more sleepy fingers, relaxed still after hours of flying, excellent for acro.

Good day of course again, but some of us had to much of the spanish life last night I guess .... .

It looks like all week no doubt, flying wherever we choose to.

Also some flying inland today, but a relax soaring day in between thermalling days is always nice.

Cloudbase not as high as yesterday, but flying of course. What else would we do on a sunny sunday afternoon.

The usual busy-ness on take off and in the air. Schools bringing their students to the hill.

Lets hope those students keep on flying and are eager to join us.

At night in Alicante these days.

The hogueras, the whole town is in fiesta for two weeks. Every day there are different parades. Huge statues of over 25 meters are put up in every parish.

At the end of the forteen days, the best piece of art is chosen. All the rest is burned down.

Huge flames over the city, fire brigades from the whole region will cool down the surrounding buildings constantly to make sure no house burns down.

Under the cheers and shouting of thousands of spanish, the statues are burned down one by one. Accompanied with music.

During the forteen days, there is room for huge paella contests (all free to tate and the best one wins), best cocktail, miss Hogeuras, daily bull fights etc... .

Can't miss this.

Maybe an idea for those who like to combine flying, and spanish real deep culture. Next year, again held at the end of June.

I will blog about our flying of course, but this is such an amazing time down here, I will inform you little bits about the fiestas as well, ok ?

Yesterday's site

Girlie pilot with a tattoo.

Norwegians were here still, came down from rainy Piedrahita where they had some comp going on.

Good for them they drove down, they enjoyed hours and hours of thermal flying inland Alicante.

Most of them on high performance gliders, Tycoon, Up Trango3.

But on the Swing Argus, Katalena (tattoo girl), did great as well. Amazing how this 'classic' glider still does the job. Meanwhile such a classic, like driving a volkswagen beetle, midtown manhattan, amongst ugly Seat's.

Anyway Graham arrived, Joel flies his unknown glider, Pegasus or something, and Ziggy on the GIN.

Meanwhile the big fiesta time has started in Alicante, Hogueras. Lots of people on the streets, brass bands, processions, street animation. Fireworks, live bands, all outside on the street. And if there is one nation that knows how to party it is Spain.

No fights, no drunks on the streets, just loads of fun, young or old, fat or skinny, hippie or mod, dancing in the street. Bars full, tapas a volonté, en avant la musique y dansez !

I was sitting at a terrace last night on my own, and four blind persons came up and asked me where the nearest ice cream parlour was. They were laughing their heads off, one having a can of beer in his hand. It kinda struck me.

Toix was a bit flyable today. A bit because it showed its sharp teeth again.

Damn site. We got there right in time, but some wind lines in the sea already. As long as conditions stayed equal we were gonna have a good time.

Stress, pressure on my back, I have a whole group of norwegians who were supposed to be at Piedrahita, but it is raining there.... . So they drove down to sunny hot Alicante, where the beaches are pure, the girls are nice, the terraces are cool, the flying is epic.

Took off though, and it was immediately clear that the higher the worse, so flew a bit, got down a bit, flew over the back to the beaches of Calpe. Over the kite-surfers, aiming for the bar La Morena.

Many parts of spain under rain. Pilots in Castejon complaining about the weather, pilots in Piedrahita as well.
Some of them actually came down to enjoy the heat down here.
But we will have our share as well, look at the picture, this was taken late afternoon flying at Palo.
Weather coming in from the southwest, huge instability.
Today winds were strong, but we managed to fly over an hour in good thermals.
Ziggy, Andy, Joel, Rafa and others.
Not so busy, most of the regulars have gone to Castejon, this weekend there is some spanish comp.

Fortuna. For those who have been here, they know the take off. You are rocketed up the cliffs when you reverse launch. But ! You know what ?

The pilots from Murcia, it is their site by the way, so thanks for letting us use it ! Well, they have a new take off at their site now, lower than the one before, already carpeted and very user friendly.

Early afternoon, Jose Luis showed us how it was done. He thermalled up to 1500 m and went XC. It was the first time he flew here, so still looking for the good route. He managed to fly over 20 k, then being hit by the strong southwesterly. Enhorabuena !

Later in the day, it was still thermalling but lots smoother. After asking the locals how the route was to get to the furthest point fighting the crosswind conditions, it was a piece of cake.

During the strong hours we were lazying at the pool.

Pool with heated water, yes, 30 degrees. and outside of course, and jacuzzi's, nice.

You didn't want us to wait in the scorching heat did you ?

Isa's tandem flight.

Bit worried at first

Hooked in, ready to go.

Flying late afternoon, all smooth.

Unfortunately no foto's of the huge wingovers done with her. Not a scream, no. Very brave girl, she loved it.

Last picture, well deserved hug from the beautiful Isa, girlfriend of my friend Andy.

Cheers. Isa I hope you'll be back for more.

Toni insisted. He insisted in putting this on the blog. This was his treelanding at Palomaret. How you can miss this huge landing field, ask him, I don't know. It is about half a football field.

But he learned from it, today he said thermals took over, he didn't control his approach. So next time he'll be spotlanding , he promised. He choose an almond tree, which luckily are not very high, but exist of very old dry branches with lots of knots and nuts (almonds ...) on it. So not easy to clear.

If you have to choose a tree, go for an olive tree. Leaves are smooth, oily leaves, easy to get your glider out. And they are planted more than 5 meters away from each other.

Today, good flying again to end his trip. Early at Cabo, but south, and too cross to be good, later on at Palomaret, got way up in the valley, probably his best thermalling flight ever. Thermals were smooth, but the wind was gusty at times. And so although I have my Niviuk Artik a couple of weeks now, it felt like good practice.

Good practice for next week's adventure with the lads in the Pyrenees. Rawhide !

Thermals up to 5 m/s, but I wasn't in the air at that time. We took off later, when it died off, still having another three hour window of flying.

Today two tree landings, and one landing way out of the landing field. Ajajaj.
But Dominique who has been groundhandling lots of time, was having a great flight aiming for one of his first XC's to Maigmo. Eager to learn, eager to get better, obvious.

Cabo ?

No, this is a shot of a soaring site where my friends of Denmark fly.

Some houses are blown under the sand near their lighthouse. Amazing.

We didn't fly today, conditions were marginal. A warm front passed us, winds weak, no thermal activity, no soaring posibility.

Foto by Hans Henrik, Denmark. Thanks.

Thanks Jan Bernaerts for the foto.

www.janbernaerts.be

Lots of people love Spain. And that's probably because we have a lot of days like this.

You get up in the morning and it is already 25 degrees and sunny.

You get bread and have your cafe con leche in the local cafe. You join them reading the paper, listening to their comments mostly on football, merely the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

You go home, have breakfast and go for a swim in the sea. Looking up, you notice there are cirrus castellanus clouds forming inland. So you know these could develop into cumulus nimbus clouds which are too big for us, too big.

You call your guests and tell them we're gonna stay near the coast to fly, and enjoy the cliffs.

At noon already, breeze is kicking in, but is well disturbed by the active air, so it is rough in the air. At two you take a break, a bite and a siesta. At 5 back on the hill till 7, to do some more gentle soaring. Looking over the back and seeing the huge development inland. Nasty.

You go home, ready fo a night out having tapa's, with Toni, because it is his birthday.

The evening breeze cools you down.

Another flying day in Alicante. But something else on foto's. This is one of the snakes we drive over almost daily. There are every day on our roads up to take off. Unfortunately you see them just too late and you run over them.

The other foto is a take off, where usually some gusts rule. Thanks Remi.

Tandem today with Olga, some nice smooth thermals got us up high, very enjoyable thermals for a passenger who never had seen a paraglider before.
Not a lot of pilots on the hill, most of them left for the competicion this weekend up in Valencia.

Bougainville. It's an island near Papa New Guinea. I wonder if the name if this plant comes from this island. Maybe I spell it wrongly. Anyway, it is the time of the Bougainville down here, before summer then the colours fade.

Every season as its specialty. Soon that typical Spanish smell will conquer. The sent, the smell of pine trees. The thermals will blow through the pine trees, giving us that special noise, that special dry pine smell.

And it's almost there.

We know, as we fly later and later. Yesterday some of us flew early, andwere already in the air when we arrived at 5.30 pm.

But even when we took off late, it was strong. Thermals were ok, but the inversion was low, only 1200 m ASL. And up there you didn't know where the wind was blowing from.

Flying without instruments for a while, I think this is good, especially now that I want to get really used to my new glider the Niviuk Artik. If want to feel everything and compete with others in the thermals. See if I do less or better than them, without instruments. Bit of a challenge.

Some people never will be good at take off. We have locals who are flying for years now, and still can't take off. We have beginners and they can take off like sky-gods.

It is all a matter of having the rhythm, good coordination, in combination with hours of groundhandling.

Toni, straight from Ireland, didn't know how to reverse launch. This morning we taught him some tricks. Step by step, nothing radical. He practised for over two hours in the heat.

This afternoon, his first reverse launch was bingo. Enhorabuena !

He flew for hours at the coast. In shorts and T-shirt. The airtime today was the equivalent of two months flying back home he said.

This is Toni Davis with his Independence Avalon.

One of his first thermalling flights being a low airtimer of Ireland.

Today winds were too strong from the east. Maybe flyable way inland at M Cabrer, but maybe too little the landing field for Toni. Tomorrow we probably try out La Fortuna.

It got very strong today. Although this morning it was grey and cloudy,

it burned off by midday, time enough to heat up the valleys and let kick off huge thermals.

And the inversion blocked all of them, resulting in pitch, roll and yaw whenever you climbed up just about 250 meters above take off.

At 6 pm, we still measured gusts up to 40 km per hour. So a wait till 6.15 and in the air, rocketed up and let everybody wait till 7 pm to start enjoying.

But flew till 9 pm, very special for Jamie who was leaving with a 11 pm flight, back home to England.

Toni, was waiting all week for this. As a low airtimer, he managed to fly every time we flew, but had to wait till all died off. Today he still had over an hour in thermals, and what a flight. Managed to get over the crest and peep over it to see the nature reserve of Cati. Awesome flight with awesome views.

On the foto's, left cleary the inversion line to be seen, foto right is Kath flying under her Hook.

Some shots of Remi's new glider, the Niviuk Hook with personal colors.

He had the chance to test his new baby over his favourite site, Cabo de Santa Pola.

Lots of tandems today. Always nice to have cheering passengers up in the air.

By times, especially early in the day, booming thermals, and gusty winds. We reached the top ridges, peaking over into the nature reserves. And amazing flying with royal eagles and hawks nearby.

Foto taken, not today, by Jamiroquai. Yes Jay, for those who like music.
He was here now more than a year ago on tour, and his whole group was here flying tandems with us. Something y0u never forget, although I wished it was good old Keith ........ but then the foto would be blurry ...... but the smokes would have been wild..... imagine Keith on your lap........happy......always wanna make you.... happy !

A day at Monte Cabrer, near Alcoy. Eastern site, better to fly late in afternoon. And again it was so.

Lots of happy faces, nothing epic like huge XC, but nice heights, up to 700 meter above take off for the better pilots.

Pictures tell the story. It is a

very pretty part of our region. Greener than the coast, higher trees, more grass. It makes a change from flying in our Arizona type like sites like El Cid.

Picture below, evening sky on our way home.

British pilots going home today, after their alternative trip to Alicante, being stuck in the rain in Annecy France. Thanks for coming down my friends, hope to see you again.

Eh bien aussi pour mes copains de Paris, j'espere que tout va bien ! A bientôt !

En voe de belgen t zelfste.

"So not only gliders are lots cheaper down here, but also harnasses, helmets and all other equipment ?"

Of course, check it out, it's Europe. Olé !

A mix of foto's today.

As I told you lately, a day at Cabo shouldn't be missed when you visit us.

Done.

Morning till it got too strong, huge siesta, late afternoon till it died off. Very normal.

Relaxing, flying above mediterranean sea, tandems, no stress.