On a 1100 meter of a peak of a mountain, standing in the wind on one leg on a topographic pole. Pieter our fire chaser from Belgium.
He said tonight he was gonna show more things that he can do on a pole, I just hope he is not gonna put a wig on ....

Hondon south. a pathless walk up, but worth if it is working.

Thermals up to 3.8 m/s and this for the end of november. Great climb, but had to get out of the thermals not to get in airspace. Egi flew for three hours, was all over the place. At first he was taking pictures of lots of trees, we were afraid he was gonna do it again..... winning the cup for tree landings......

It would have been easy to fly XC to El Cid I guess, as I said we had to get out of the climb to be hassle free of airspace. I am sure pilots like Rafa, wouldn't have cared and go all the way.

I hope the spelling will be as good tomorrow as we're all off to a flamenco night tonight.
Concha Buika and band.

Many many many guiris flying at Peña Rubia. All the way to Biar and back, even with the tandem it wasn't a challenge. Hours of november flying, loving it.

Today's shots.

Peña Rubia flying, but only for some of us. Winds strong and cross.
Left for La Zafra, but there again, winds too cross. Egi tree landed after struggling to get his glider flying, Pieter with his new Ozone Ultralight, sup'air light harnass and UP light reserve was testing his new toys today.

Windy northwest, gusts from north, forecasted up to 70 km pèr hour. Bigger alert than yesterday. Boats were not allowed to go out, so we were grounded as well. I think the most safe it was.

Hector under the yellow glider, who invited us, is nearly 75 years old.

You should wish you'd be that fit at that age. Respect.

Brilliant. Weather forecast was scary, gusts to 70 km per hour ! Jesus.

Isobarmap was looking nasty as well. And northern winds, usually gusty and strong.

But around midday, nothing came out. All these expensive computerprogrammes analyzing satelite info had it all wrong.

No strong northern winds at all.

Flew at Agres. Invited by Hector who had permission to drive up to take off.
I called Hector to see how the wind blew this morning in his valley. He asked if we wanted to use his special permissions to drive up the hill. Great Hector, thanks.

The view during flight on this hill is astonishing. You fly above the old village Agres, and like some of us did, you thermal and circle above the castle. The sun was doing the rest. A beautiful day.

Agres is protected nowadays by the ecologists of some kind. You are not allowed to drive up no more. It is a natural reserve.

Lots of wind, and temperature dropping, not so nice, just a lazy sunday afternoon.

Too much wind, northern winds, temperatures dropping. Not the best news eh

Planeo, plouf, top to bottom, nothing else. Windy, very windy this afternoon.

Oh well, had a rum, uploaded them twice, no worries eh ?

Were at Carrascoy, some good flying. Northwest, smooth later in the afternoon veering to east. Enjoyed the carpeted take off, and the huge landing field. What an effort these guys from Murcia make to look professional. We should learn from them, us Alicantinos - Illicitanos.

Chechu with his Niviuk Ice Peak left XC, have no idea where he landed.

Some personal best for Chris, and last flights for Paul. The lovely lady is Isa, Andy Mazarron's girlfriend.

The 'franco' pencil-moustaches are dissapearing,
the eau de cologne smell, hardly on the streets any more
but here and there still a 'Virgin' posted on a truck

calendars with those 'Virgins' on it, will soon be collectors items

Rainy, no flying.

The end of the year is near, so we are receiving lists of demo gliders sold at ridiculously cheap prices.
You don't need another glider, or just bought one ?
Get a second glider, go crazy !

Here we go, only some prices, we have more :

Ozone Mojo 2 M DHV1, 1450 euros
Skywalk Mescal2 M, DHV 1, 1450 euros

Ozone Rush Small DHV 1/2, 1450 euros

Ozone Addict M, DHV2, 1350 euros

Tell your buddies, as you know we sell ALL brands, gliders, harnasses, electronics, etc..., at spanish prices, it's Europe.

We had to squeeze out some flying during this bad period of weather. So we went high, and in time, before the drizzle came in.

Together with Pepe, Rafa from Caudete flying his Skywalk Chili.

And above left, our fab 4, Paul singer/guitar , Carl drums, Chris bass, Helmut guitar. What a cover eh ?

Now chill, relax, after all it is a holiday as well ain't it.

Chris, Helmut und Carl from the region Baden-Baden Germany.

Foto's of today's flying below, it was Toix today with landing at Calpe.

There's the boat

where's the boat ?

there's the boat

lets follow the boat

and land in Calpe

November thermals. Waiting for the sun to get out, to get sufficient wind to have a safe take off. 45 minutes for Karl, it ain't bad.

Very cloudy at the end of the day. All Spain already had bad weather, luckily we were still flying. I hope tomorrow same thing, we need a little bit a help from the weather 'cause it looks iffy.

Sad news. Belinda, girlfriend of Suby, has passed away after a long illness. Although we knew for some time we were gonna get a phone call with this news, it stills saddens us a lot.
Those who have been here, definetely remember Belinda. She was always at take offs, waiting for her window to fly.
We are gonna miss you Belinda, you were one of the nicer and always friendly pilots you could meet on our hills. Always eager with a helping hand.

Murcia Carrascoy. Long way from home, an hour drive, but you have to make an effort sometimes.
Winds were blowing strong in Alicante. Typical november days. So left for the more southern hills near Murcia.
Once there, shit, we need wind ! So we had some flying, but nothing to tell mother about. We had lack of wind, very freaky when other pilots keep sending messages that in Alicante it is still blowing a gale.
But feet off the ground, and saved the norwegians flying trip by having this flights at Carrascoy under the belt.
Tomorrow we leave for a couple of days for Belgium. Conquering the rain, cold and political silliness. But enjoying the food, the chocolate, the best beer and the company. Do you know it'll be colder than inside a fridge ?
See you monday you all !

Reconco today. Foto take from take off, but not today, some weeks ago.
But same sky, you can see the inversion in the valley.
Maximum half hour flights, fighting in the weak thermals to stay up.

And today without vario. If nothing big will happen anyway, I prefer to fly without vario. Because (but maybe this is personal), if things are weak I tend to concentrate and fly too much on my instruments. And then in the end, I haven' enjoyed my flight. Also I could easily be trapped with the given winddirection my XC trainer gives me. Not usefull when there is hardly any wind. I prefer to feel it, and I believe it's closer to real flying.
Another reason why I think it is good to fly without vario, to get to know your glider better. You will concentrate more on the pressure in the glider, rather than the annoying beeps once in a while. And to tell you the truth, it is nice to fly without instruments, if you see the others are not doing any better with vario's on !
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I did get some phone calls and emails from mainly british pilots, complaining they pay too much in their country for paragliding equipment. I understand, so I give you this price so you have an idea what prices are like with us.
For instance :
Ozone Ultralite dhv1/2 - 2000 euros
UP emergency light - 499 euros
sup'air harnass Escape - 390 euros
Total : 2889 euros
If you come and pick it up in Alicante and fly within our formula DOYOUWANNA GUIDING for a week, I knock of another 300 euros. So you only pay 2589 euros for the whole set, simple.

Oh yes, we do have a couple of Gin rebels demo at 2000 euros as well. Please yourself.

Southeast Spain you have to look for. Bottom right of Spain, that's where we are.

On the first chart you can see where you do not want to be, cold fronts, ocluded front, lots of wind, rain, lots of pressure gradient as soon as you enter France, Italy and this all the way up to Scandinavia.

In the southern part of Spain it is still summer with lovely temperatures. No pressure difference of any significance. But ! The sun is warm, but not hot anymore, and we have to deal with inversion (1020 mB). So thermals are weak and cloudbase is low.

As I said yesterday this is what we usually get in november. Do we fly ? Of course, but not very good. We prefer to have some instability coming in, so we can play more sportive.

Maybe from tomorrow onwards, definetely wednesday, the weather looks worse, so strangely enough better for us to have good flying in.

On the second chart it is easier to define how the winds will blow, and choose the better site for the day so. Definetly an eastern component, although not strong enough to soar.

Michael, Elisabeth and Armin from Switserland, yesterday sunday at the take off Carrasqueta. Enjoying the last bit of sun before heading back home.

SchuSS !

West veering to south. Weather forecast (usually) right, but timing sometimes off.

So we left for Carrasqueta, where westwind is not bothering us too much when weather is high pressure, inversion so. And indeed we flew. Tricky and sporty at first, then smooth and better later. Not epic, but nice, having to fight for the thermal.
But this is the weather we have in november. Or it is westwind and we have to find the right spot either Peña Rubia, Carrascoy or Almudaina. Or we have high pressure and very nice temperatures ( 20 - 25 degrees celsius) and blue sky, but inversion. Then we have to look for the best spot to fly thermal-dynamic. I think we made the best choice today, a high ridge, with possible thermals popping through the inversion.

Later I heard Raul and friends were at Peña Rubia, and Moncho and friends at Calpe. We all choose our sites.

It looks a bit like Bretagne in France maybe, or like Normandie, bu then the sea would be on our left, so it is Cabo de Santa Pola. Although the sky looks more norhternly.

Anyway, hours of pure coastal soaring today. Which pleased a lot amongst us.

Judith, Jeff, Jenny, and Martin, thanks for stopping by in Alicante, lets hope we see you all again.

Ohlala. Eastern winds kicking in strong today, from early morning onwards. Although not a lot of pressure differences in Spain. But that was on the coast.
So we flew as long as we wanted over the town of Alcoy today.
On the picture almost all of them.

30 sites, here they are, Col deRates - Cortina - Lloma Larga - Serella - Guadalest - Almudaina - Monte Cabrer - Agres - San Jaime - San Antonio - Biscoy - Reconco - Palomaret - La Zafra - Peña Rubia - Villena - Caudete - Hondon north - Hondon South - La Mola - Sierra del Carche - Carrascoy - Cabo Santa Pola - Calpe Toix - Plantio - Sierra del Buey north - Sierra del Buey south - Carrascoy - Alhama de Murcia - Fortuna - El Cid - ... - actually there are more to discover ...

Waht a strange day today weatherwise. Yesterday I told the guys not to worry, we were gonna have a traditional Alicante thermalling day.

Yeah right. You better don't predict such a stupid things like flying, never.

When I woke up this morning I got myself a .... no no I looked out the window and the eucalyptus trees were swinging. It was not my hangover, but the wind.

Ho ho, lets wait a bit.

On my phone asking Ismael, Rafa, Dudo what the winds were doing in their valleys. That's why we left for Hondon, and hope for a breeze. But once there it looks too cross to be good and after arriving on the take off, after the pathless climb we had catabatic wind. Shit.

Waited half hour and then took off running like Ben Johnson on EPO.

We left for El Cid, for at least some late afternoon flying. So we had a flight with a view. I hope you enjoy the pictures.