10h30 Nicks first call- everybody was ready for take off high above Berga. A few hours later his first sms everybody had a 2h flight in, in company of a few vultures, and was happy as can be. Who wouldn't? If you ever been to Berga, you know how beautiful the area is, nice green valley's, soft slopes... if you can fly there in the company of a few big birds...I'm green with envy

Lunch and a small siesta later they were back up, this time on one of the smaller hills around Berga. By 19h30 they were having their first Clara- beer with a light lemonade- it's going to be a long night, so better start off easy. Because they're all happy, on holiday and flying already 2 days and maybe tonight they share in the fiesta, because whoever wins it will be a fiesta.

All over Spain you see the red yellow colours, cars driving up and down the villages waving the flags n singing, and this only because they're playing the final, if they win...

Paco is in front of the tv wearing his Spain shirt, the streets are empty now, all is quiet until the first goal...

Spain sings ' podemos' and with such a positive note I can only join them waving the flag!

PODEMOS...

Yes, here we are again. Just had a phone call from Nick.

They had a brilliant day. Unfortunately a few delays in the airport this morning but minor ones, so they headed out early afternoon direction Berga.

A bit of lunch and a few cool drinks- apparently Catalunya is as hot as Alicante today- and off they went up the hills. They all got their first flight in- all happy faces and voices!

Here's last year crowd with Stevie at the front who joined Nick again this year.

Tomorrow, saturday morning I am gone with a group, up north. Checking out the sites at the feet of the Pyrenees. Flying in the morning at Berga, Organya, and Ager. Knowing the local pilots out there it'll be a blast just like last year. I'll let you know. Last years' foto's of this trip, you can check out on my flickr.
I'll write as soon as I can, I will be thinking of you all, kiss.

Quiet life. No stress. Dag, Lasse, Marcel, Egi, Carmen, Alex, Fordu, all at the cliffs. Early morning flying till 1.30, hungry so lets eat, tired so lets siesta, yes time to fly again.

As a guide you have to sense the needs of your guests. I think this week was perfect for all of them.

A very hot week, no XC days. Just lots of flying in the afternoons, different sites. We choose the best windows to fly. It is so different than flying in the alps etc... , it is a lot more laidback. Donw here it doesn't need to be done right now, this time, not a second later, this window etc.... no relax, have a coffee, we'll fly. No worries.

We just wait for the wave, jump on our boards and fly .....

damn hippie !

SI, si señor. Had a great night watching football after a great day flying. What else can be said of today. Well, thermals were there, blue sky, hours of fun.

Our two norwegians and Marcel went for Maigmo. Etienne with his lightweight equipment looks so more confident than first time he visited us in november last year. He spent all winter flying and partying, all over Europe and Morocco. And you can tell.

More news. Well down here it can't be missed. Spains' young team, powerfull and driven, kicked out the poor Russians. Final game on sunday, lets hope they can teach this boring german team a lesson. Viva España. (that's how you feel after living down here for 9 years and loving it ....)

A happy Toni, leaving tomorrow morning, expecting a baby shortly. Enjoy this new part of your life Toni, always nice to have you around, well .... . Un abrazo !!

Today it was hot, but what else is new. Nothing actually. Just flying again. This time on the cliffs, a couple of tandems, solo flights, a chat, a toplanding, an ice cream, another flight, a chat, the usual thing. Nice and cool flying in hot air.

Rafa was inland, checking it out, but nothing convincing going on. So we all enjoyed a gentle afternoon.

Most interesting paragliding news today :

http://www.niviuk.com/eng/glider_product.asp?prod=f-gravity

What do you do at night ? Well, there are fiestas for instance. The Hogueras in Alicante, not to be missed. These foto's, a taster of last nights adventure.

Most enjoyable flights we had over Hondon, great views, smooth air, just what we ordered.
Super. And the whole hill for ourselves again, just a little step from heaven. Very very enjoyable day. And it ain't over yet, tonight we go to the biggest fiesta day in the year downtown Alicante. The fiestas are called the hogueras.

Two norwegian bodies, Lasse and Dag

Flying in the morning, flying in the afternoon. It doesn't get much better.

Toni, napping ....

Strong winds at the coast, but again we found a spot to fly. Hours in thermals which peaked to 5 m/s in the morning, later in the afternoon lots smoother.

That's how we celebrate, all invited. Huge paella pan, ready for lunch.

Today some flying at the coast, untill I got my Airwave Magic out, and had to fly it with full speedbar to get 5 km/h groundspeed. Too strong to play so had to wait to soar inland when winds died off. Doug, Norwegian pilot, had a 40 minute flight, unexpected flight at Palomaret.

Take off Santa Pola. Lots of pilots. It felt and looked like years ago, lots of pilots having a splendid afternoon, all together soaring above the mediterranean. No more hassles with the neighbouring urbanisation. They had to leave the gates open.
This take off is for everyone, the access is for everyone. All of you are very welcome down here, to enjoy this flying. And this is absolutely not a site privileged to some school, some club, no it is all ours, yours. No doubt.

As you can see, smiles all over. This is me with Peter Kronhom.
This is Andy, struggling at take off, with the 25 km windgusts. Once in the air though time to even have a phone call, that smooth it was.

Soon we will celebrate the absolute win we had over the saving of our dearest site Cabo de Santa Pola.

This tent above was placed today on our landing field near the Ermita, just meters from the Chiringuito (beach-bar in summer on the beach).

If we would celebrate the victory in this tent, more than one third of this tent would be filled up with foreign pilots, you pilots who flew with us the last years. One third of all the money that needed to be raised came from you guys. You guys, pilots from Norway, Sweden, Britain, Belgium, Holland etc... etc.... .

When we are gonna raise our glass I am gonna tell all local pilots they should not forget your input. Again a big thank you all for helping out.

Todays' flying ? Hours in the sun, luckily in the air some colder breeze so we could manage .... .

Canadian pilot even amongst us, or not Canadian but Quebec-ian, british and good old Marcel.

Filled up their boots.

What do you do. In the morning you see the inversion all over, you checked your weather sites and saw cloudbase was gonna be low. You check winddirection and you're off to a soaringsite.
A soaringsite with kilometers long ridges. You wait till the afternoon, so the rough bits are off.
Still strong at take off, limited probably for most pilots to take off.
Once in the air though all is fine. Relaxing in the air, the odd thermals here and there. No illusion, cloudbase low, so just having a float along the ridges. Looking out for birds, who point out the odd thermal. Try to get a little bit further, getting to the part of the ridge which is cross into wind. Check it out, try to get as far as you can. A little challenge you need.
Awesome, relaxed flying and all for our own, just the four of us, nice.
Two chilled beers, get you in the euforia of having had a splendid day. As I said so many times before, good friends no hassles, good flights no hassles.

I had to search in my archives to get some foto's for you guys and girls.
Each time I wanted to reach for my camera in my jacket pocket, I met some strong thermal or some turbulence today. Not so easy, to take easy shots.

We flew early this morning, inland to taste some spring/summer thermals. But soon it was clearm, this was not the right time to play around. Gusty wind, crosswind.
Later on, when locals arrived it got more laminar. Still punchy with over 4 m/s thermals coming out of the blue. So hands on the breaks and flying active. The convergence of the breeze and the thermals, or the collision better said was not the nicest way to get to know the Alicante air either. All of a sudden, air got rough at times and the air got lots cooler.
I reckon when your risers begin to vibrate it means something is going no ?

It all died off though, so we could enjoy a later, or better early evening flight with smooth air, cloud formation here and there.
Ask me ? Fantastic day, it had it all, adrenaline, skills, all the way to smooth flying.

Toni Brown, the very smiling brit from Cardiff.

Relaxed flying today. Tandem, pleasing Nathan, who loved the experience of flying paragliders. They all do actually. I must have done some 500 tandem flights now alltogether. I remember two passengers who asked me to go land, because they didn't like it. So 498 passengers loved it, and I hope some of them picked up the sport after that.

Not so many pilots around, the usual suspects of course. We could fly all the way to the southern side of the cliffs, with Alex making it to Torre del Moros in Santa Pola. Just to play.

-hey nick, ain't yo out flying ?
- no
- why not, too strong ?
- no, it's perfect
- then why ?
- nobody around, Marcel went to the market with his wife, Chris doesn't like small landings, and Peter is out with his family chilling
- oh, nobody else out flying today
- no, I think they are all knackered after the last couple of days flying
- ok, you'll be out tomorrow though ?
- sure am, Toni Brown is arriving tonight, Marcel, Etienne and Peter I hope will join us as well
- where at ?
- first days for most of them, lets get some rust off, do a coastal site I guess, then later on hills inland

- what do you do if your clients take a day off ?

- oh lots of things to do, waterfalls, beach, chilling, hiking
- ok, love ya
- love ya too

Lots of pilots flying today, schools as well. Conditions as we know in Palomaret, punchy at times, better to be awake at all times, although nothing radical.
Most of the pilots came late, cloudbase wasn't the highest anyway.

Above the inversion we saw clouds appearing, could be a front coming in, could be strong tomorrow, could be fantastic with high cloudbase, lets see.

Fog over the sea this morning. Eastern winds kicking in first hour. Off to the cliffs and flying with the clouds. Tandems, solo, all you needed.

Later after our daily siesta, during central hours, we flew inland where thermals were bity. Not a smooth day, due to the inversion.

Foto of Kath and Ronny who is leaving tomorrow, hopoe you had a good week !

Foto below, foto of the flying near Palomaret taken from the backside.

Very hot today, beaches crowded, flying over the sea in the morning, lunch and siesta, flying inland on our mountains till late.

No need to be stressed and rush to the site to fly. On days like this the climb is even fenonimal late in the afternoon. Ronny landed at 8 pm, after being flying thermals for more than two hours.

Before, earlier in the day, when thermals and conditions were more strong, Federico, Jose Luis, Kike and Ismael made out and returns to Maigmo.

Hot, inversion, summer conditions. Climbs, cloudbase not excellent, but conditions last for hours.

Ronny our belgian, and Chris our british pilot, who is always trying to let us try his horrible juice,
bwaauk. It is even smelly.

Both in the air at Palomaret. In the morning untill the clouds were getting overdeveloped. In the evening at 5 pm, again flying, some smoothly soaring.

Midday site then today was flying over Benidorm, La Cortina. This foto was taken by Jan Bernaerts, pilot is Frans Dechaene.

A good day so, some kilometers so pretty tired, but we had a flight, a laugh, a flight, a laugh. Good friends, no hassles.

Checked two reserves today. Both could have been installed better. This 'mailon' above was all rusty by the thread and doubled the riser going to the shoulderstraps. It was bought in a regular hardware store. It was also not taped. I changed it by a maillon 7 mm., see foto below.


By another pilot I saw the maillon and part of the riser sticking out of harnass. The chute was packed recently in his club, and he installed the chute in his harnass himself. First the bag, then on top of it the risers, including the maillon. Of course it got all bulky and came out every now and then. When threwn it could the riser and maillon could easily have blocked the deployment. Bit scary how careless we are with part of our equipment which could be our life saver.