German visitors this week, flying on arrival day at Villena

Villena, La Solana today.

Klaus, Moni , Danny, Diethmar and Marcel, german pilots this week. I'd better buy a 'zeitung' and practice my german. Welcome guys.

Peter and Alex, father and son

Thanks being here again Peter. And pleasure meeting your son, Alex. Funny feet Alex !

All the best.

Inland flying while the rest of Spain had a weather alert ...

While the whole of Spain was under a weather alert, we had good flying in this afternoon.

Very strange it was, when we left the coast completely in fog and met the bright sun in the afternoon. Burning off some cloud, heating up the ground, kicking off some thermals.
Peter and son Alex tandem flying over our hills. Marcel, and the other Marcel doing the same.

Quite a bit of local pilots we met at Palomaret. As there was a meeting this late afternoon about Cabo de Santa Pola. Yes again. As soon as I got some news, I let you know. If no news is good news, then I can already tell that this is not gonna be the best news.

Toix Calpe

Not the best flying day today. Lots of winds in the morning westernwind, and then totally dying off in the afternoon. Few drops of rain in between. We need those strong thermic days, should be here soon. Temperatures are nicely rising, just have to get rid of those low pressures over the azores.

Tomorrow we expect a meteorological bomb, which means pressure has to drop more than 24 mb in less than 24 hours.
More about this phenonemom on this weather site
Northwestern parts of Spain, like basque country, galicia are having a red alert warning. People should stay inside, very strong winds can cause lots of damage.
Down here near Alicante, it'll be all lots smoother, flyable even.

thusday flying - scorpion

Went scorpion hunting when winds were strong. Easy to find. Roll over a rock, and see if there are ants around. You will find these creatures, tail up filled with poison, ready to pinch if you would be near. Careful kids.

After the hunt, drove back to the coast were the extraordinary happened. No wind at all... so we drove up to Orito, our central point between flying sites.
Late afternoon we had some better flying in than we ever had thought today.

Paragliders' design

That's when paragliding design comes in. To save lives of pilots who have lesser skills than others to fly.

This was put on You-tube with very offensive, off the topic remarks. And of course some 'top-pilots', found it necessary to mock at the pilot. Sad. I even strongly oppose to the insulting titel of the film. ( note - meanwhile the title has been changed, whoevers' movie it is, whoever changed it, it is much appreciated)

When I look at that video, and I see these things in real life quite often do you mind, I think differently. I see a very well behaving, forgiving glider. A glider that actually would suit lots of pilots.
And of course the pilot is not piloting his wing well, of course it looks like he wants to stall it. But do you laugh at him ? Mock ?
NO.

You don't know the pilot. Maybe he lacks practice. Maybe too early to have him in the air.

You talk to the guy. Talk and listen, check if this is the sport he wants to do, if this is the sport he should be doing.
Remember our schooldays, there were always kids who couldn't handle a ball, but they were best in running, and vice versa. Same for flying, some of us are made for flying, some of us are not. I don't say the pilot on the video is not made for flying. But if he isn't, well maybe he can outswim all of us. Respect.

Maybe paragliding schools should approach their students more that way. See if it is really the sport the person should do, screen their students better.

Flying is so much more than business.

And on the side, hats off for the designers, not only making hot wings, but also these fantastic forgiving wings. Hats off, chapeau !

windy weather

It was best to have a beer in these sunny temperatures and see the world go by. Way too windy.

Helmet sticker arrived

At last we agreed on asking a bit of money to pilots flying our sites near Alicante. We needed it to pay the bills, needed to maintain our sites, to clean up our sites, to defend our sites.

So for a lousy 5 euros you get this helmet sticker. Voluntarily, we ask you to buy one. I do hope all pilots, especially visiting pilots will make this little tiny effort.

C.V. Parapente stands for Comunidad Valencia Parapente, Province of Valencia -Paragliding.
Each year you will be offered a new sticker. Thanks contributing !!

Palomaret did it again

Alex, our youngest one this week. Amongst many pensioners ... .

Again an early morning, and flying till 1 pm. We had to be aware, to be in the air before the winds from behind (west) were hitting us.

Very funny though how we got caught with southern winds at our northwestern hill. Strong western winds were forecasted, and you could tell by the isobars that the winds were gonna be strong and indeed coming from the ocean, Portugal, over Castilla La Mancha, bang on our head. But the forecast's timing was off as lots of time. It gave us some playtime in the morning.

Jacinto Benavente - San Eulalia

Near our northwestern and now southwestern hill Peña Rubia, there is a small abandoned village called St Eulalia. In that village there is an old liqueir and flour factory surrounded by old little tine workers' s houses. On a side street you can find the old ruined theatre Cervantes.

A jewel. You can peep inside, by the old box-office. Inside the decoration is fading away.

I have been visiting this place with many of you guys, just to kill time in between flying, or for your interest.

Inside there is a wall painting of Jacinto Benavente. He won the noble prize literature in 1922. Nobody remembers him, and many do not want to remember him, because his prize were very much opposed by his fellow theatre-writers.

At first in his works he mocked at the catholics, spit at the aristocrats, and critisized corrupt politicians. His carreer made a 180 degree turn (paragliding !), he got very mellow, and started supporting Franco's fascist regime, a compromise he had to make being homosexual.

I know this has nothing to do with paragliding. But we do travel with our wings on our back, and for me it has always been interesting, knicking some culture, whereever I was, flying abroad.

Prior is flying at Doyouwanna, being interested in these things is up to you, no stress.

Bright blue sky

Peña Rubia for the early birds. Until winds got too strong Marcel had his flight.
Cristal blue sky.

Milna unfortunately had to pack up, winds got too gusty at take off.

Milna, thanks bringing your friends along, hope all was well organised, take care you crazy Norwegians !

Weird weather

Grey day in Alicante, and rain in the morning. No flying at all. Tricky with tornado's and flooding in more southern spain. Weird winter we are having, one of the wettest month for years.

Maybe you wanna watch our friends' website, of which in due time more info. Lets look at Antigravity Acro Team

Family destination Alicante - doyouwanna

This movie gives you an idea why visiting us is to be considered if a non-flyingpartner would like to come along. It is one of the best, what do I say, it is the BEST destination for paragliders to take their family. Beach, island, flying, chill and fun. Say it ain't so !

Flew at Cabo today. We were all present at 11 am already, making sure we were flying before winds kicked in strongely. Oyvind was quite amazed to reach 450 m ASL, which is not the sites' personal best, but still.
It got too strong in the afternoon, after a couple of hours of flying Cabo.

Peña Rubia southwest - scorpion hill

Villena, Peña Rubia southwest. New site, just the one we needed. Especially this time of the year when southwesterlies kick in. Usually strong at the coast, but lesser inland. A 20 min walk to take off with a 20 kg weighing bag on your back. Catch your breath.

Norwegians, English, Belgians, we were all there. Technical take offs, between bushes, rocks. And here and there a scorpion between the lines. Yihaah.
A bit of a 'decollage sauvage', our new site near Villena. Southwesterly faced.

No cookie Trevor.

Crazy Norwegians.

Cato Bakken, looking up at his friends.

We were exceptionally flying for hours at the cliffs. Never thought the weather could improve when we woke up. It was all drizzly and grey.

But with a bunch of crazy Norwegians, so eager to fly, the weathergods had to obey !

They took off in some drizzly rain. Crazy Norwegians. I told them to be careful not to fly with a wet glider. Crazy Norwegians. But it got dry-er and dry-er, so the glider dried out flying.

Light norht-eastern winds, and clearer skies. as a surprise. Not the usual bright blue sky, but dry-er and dry-er. Freak of nature. Lucky us.

Foto's of Norwegian pilots visiting.

Vidar Halsnes

Edwin Dones

Elan Faber

Milan Lindauer
and below

Trond

French flying chickens, soon in Alicante

Rainy weather at the Costa Blanca

Niviuks' HOOK2 is out, soon to be tested, soon to be bought. Although I do not deal Niviuk any more, I still believe their products are top.
If you need more info about their product, get in contact with Raul from Alicante parapente .

Weather is damn bad, rainy. And no fun in an outdoor country having to stay inside.

Late afternoon flying at Cabo.

Milans' group of Norway, waiting for conditions. Waiting to soar the cliffs. And after several top to bottoms finally the sea got a bit more nerveus showing us a sign to rig and play. It saved the day for all.

Skills

Flypa 2008, not new but so lovely to watch their skills. Our spanish friends showing how it is done. Horacio Lorentz and of course the other family member world champion acro : Raul Rodriguez.

Gliders for Cuba

Concerning my previous post 'shocking', I received some reaction by pilots who have their project, providing pilots in Cuba with paragliding equipment.
Chris Arnu is one of the pioneers of flying in Cuba, so if you understand german, it could be interesting what his project is about. Article of Chris in DHV-magazine, CUBA .

For Siwss pilots their contact is Toni Mahler from Liechtenstein, his page weitblickend - rund un die welt
and for French pilots their contact is Catherine Mouligne, Des ailes pour Cuba .

I know Chris Arnu from being my guest last year, and I have no doubt in his good intentions to provide adequate equipment to our fellow Cubans.

shocking

TANDEM PARAGLIDING INDIAN STYLE - directors cut from bearnie bechter on Vimeo.

Shocking video about paragliding in India. Please if you donate paragliding equipment, make sure your gear is still in good shape. Don't give anyone equipment you shouldn't even give your mother in law.
Try to pass it on through professionals, who deliver it to pilots abroad, making sense what they are doing with it.

Coastal flying

Is that a white horse ?

We had our afternoon flying in today. Nice and smooth it wasn't, winds were cross and at times gusty. But nevertheless a couple of jolly good hours under our belt again.

Trevor and his cookies. And lower Jose the fireman launching.

Movie !

Movie about Alicante flying. Shot by our fellows from paraglidingtop100 from Poland, whom we regularly guide in the region.
Enjoy.

Hiking Le Cati

Went hiking as winds were not gonna die off today. And on our hiking trip we saw 'arrui'. A mountain goat specie imported from Morocco in the 70's, for hunting.

In the beginning they were put in Sierra Espuña near Murcia, 80 km more south, but recently some colonies were spotted behind Palomaret, in the natural reserve Le Cati.

It is lovely to spot them, when flying. In the late afternoon they start moving, so flying you can follow the 'arrui', mainly between Palomaret and Maigmo when thermals are sweeter, when you are flying lower, its great. Also spotted near Caudete, Carrasqueta.

Did you know that Spain was one of worlds' top destinations for hunting ? Don't you wish 'em a bullet in the but.

Marcel and a shot viewing El Cid.

Lebowski's bowling team - Marcel Cerdan

At this point you wish you were on Lebowski's bowling team ,and let the creep roll. But then we're talking US and not Spain.

This winter spell is hitting us again, so we are looking for indoor activity. And knowing this country is build and shaped for outdoor activity it ain't easy.

I think I have to go to the bar of Marcel Cerdan, Edith Piaf's ex-husband. Marcel Cerdan was world champion boxing. His son owns this 'french' bar downtown Alicante. Get waisted amongst story telling black and white foto's.
Lovely to crawl off a barstool late at night. Salud !

flowering almond trees

It is always a big thing in southern Spain when almond trees blossom. It is not only a beautiful sight of course, but it is also the beginning of a new season, a new warm season with high temperatures, bye bye winter.

Aha. Today it was indeed 20 degrees celsius, nice and warm out of the wind. And there's the clue, out of the wind. Because the wind was strong again coming from the land of Don Quichote, Castilla La Mancha. Flatland Castilla La Mancha, where thermals just fire up the wind some more, winds coming from Portugal linked to that low above the Azores. Nice temperatures, feeling summer, but too windy for us.

Brandnew U-Turn Thriller, idle ....