gracefully defeated, accept and learn from it, move forward

We should have been lazy, do a beach walk, have a swim, some lunch, siesta and then go fly.

But we left early with the promising 2500 m cloudbase. But, but, but ... you hear it coming.



On Carche winds were too gusty from norhtwest-west, no way we could have flewn it safe.

On Fortuna winds were not southeast as they were forecasted to be around 3 pm,

so no XC for our friends, neither an epic one at Fortuna,

it would have been great to finish the stay of most of them,

I hope you'll all be back sooner or later,



gracefully defeated ... by weather
we got to accept it, learn from it, move forward and keep the style trying to have better, longer, higher, safer flights whenever possible, I'll be there

Thunderstorms

Some foto's of the thunderclouds that were coming in. Awesome, although it didn't let us play for a couple of hours. But the energy of it, you can only imagine.

At last mission accomplished, Cabo flying, for the visiting pilots. Always nice for those who have never been here before.

All Belgians down below, and one Brit. Cheers.

Xmas flying

Hola

We are gonna be closed this winter from 30th december till 10th january 2011. So we are open around Xmas.

Escape Xmas at home, and fly ? Well we'll be happy to host you. It is midwinter, case is, if you are lucky you might have excellent thermalling weather. But as we are a spot on earth, of course we cannot guarantee. One thing's for sure, any window to fly, you'll, no better, we'll be flying.

Rock 'n roll in a mild way

Breifing at landing Palomaret. Flying all afternoon.

Conditions ok, but to me not perfect. The BBBB task at first wasn't easy to do. Thermals died off, things still all had to settle.

Later in the afternoon, lift everywhere and gusty at times. Didn't really like my good old Palomaret, it showed me his ugly face.
We do take turbulence very often, but this was flying under the wind at times. But no stress, we all were fine and had our traditional lande-biere.

Sky Eagles and friends this week.

Irish passengers

Our Irish passengers Jean and Karen had to wait with all other pilots for the right wind. Howling from the west it was. Nobody at take off. First time visitors looked at me at times as if asking if I knew what I was doing. Always giving me some kind of stress. But that's good, that keeps me sharp.
At 4 pm, colder air was coming in, breeze kicked in. Clouds got more grey-ish, more moist from the sea. Playtime ? Better not rush. Wait a bit more to fly in gooooooooood conditions.
So we all did, we played in good conditions, the whole gang and loved it.

Thank you all being so patient. Tomorrow more.

Murcia paragliding

We chose for Carrascoy. We love to fly those nothwesterlies at this high near Murcia. As norhtwesterlies usually are too strong to play with near Alicante, we have to drive a 100 km from base though.

But we managed to fly some unforgetable hours.

Our Irish friends are leaving tonight, together with our Swedish and Norwegian pilots. Thanks for being here, hoping you had a good time.

A whole new group of Belgian pilots came in, and were airborne after recently arrived at Alicante.

Cloudbase was high enough for the locals to have their classic XC flight to the beach from Carrascoy, Murcia.

Lets see a happy Jan !

Mazarron Parapente

Magne ready, down below our landing beach near Mazarron.

Boys at Mazarron.

Big effort today. First with the howling northwesterly winds driving down south to Carrascoy. But too strong. A wait. Winds getting stronger, thermals generating the wind, gusty.

Oh well, lets take our chances a bit further on the beautiful coastline of Mazarron. Rest is history. Seabreeze was kicking in south. Unbelievable change of wind, but not totally surprised as it happened before on my visits. So up the hill, the steep hill, walking, sweating in a 30 degree celsius hot midday sun. Hard.

So we flew near the sea, and visited the canons of Cabo de Tinoso. A splendid day out and flying !

Cabo de Tinoso with his big canons, is not the same as before any more. It is all restored, and everywhere there are railings. Befor you could wander around, use torches to go into the tunnels, check out old artillery rooms etc... . Now this adventurous paths are all blocked and everywhere there are warning signs. The canons are nicely painted and brandnew concrete floors everywhere. It is not like nosing in the past any more. Surely the british people living in the near villages have had their influence, everywhere warning signs, railings, all too dangerous, be careful, don't do this, don't do that, people could stumble and fall. Nanny was here.

Even the old basketball court, almost near the 150 m cliffs is gone. Now it is a cleaned field with young trees on it. A shame. Next year you'll have to pay to get in, doyouwanna make a bet ?

Reconco - Onil paragliding

Ok sign with Willem, Belgian pilot.

Down below Jan Bernaeerts' foto's of yesterdays' flying. Reconco, Onil.

Reconco, Onil

Yes you see right, Reconco was working today. I think it was the only blue hole in the whole of Alicante where you could fly thermals. It was magic, all pilots, big and small, fat and skinny, red or white, they all hit cloudbase at some point, which was at 1550 m ASL.

Later in the day, some more flying at the cliffs of Santa Pola.

Rudy missed his landing unfortunately and had to get some medical help for his foot, but it all looks ok again.

Huge flights

Early leave this morning, to enjoy the morning thermals. Before the breeze kicked in.

And we did, all pilots were carving the sky, touching cloudbase. Till cloudbase looked too tricky, then we had a cafe con leche.

Stef, our only girl flying this week, drove her Swing Argus6 up to cloudbase. She is always a bit nerveus at take off, althought lots of pilots could look at her controls to do copy.

Our Irish friends had one of their longest flights, and were happily surprised about the conditions. Some of them, had their best flight thermalling.

Later in the afternoon, a little cherry on the cake, flying till it all died off. A winner, today.

No flights today

We didn't fly today as our gliders would have gotten wet and muddy. And as my guests almost all fly with the brightly coloured Skywalks, it would have been a shame.
Tomorrow the weather back to normal,
sunshine and southeastern winds, heaven.

Viva las Vegas

Flew with Elvis today, Vivaaaa Las Vegas.

All charity for fundraising for cancer, or against cancer now my english fails. It was fun, a group of friends were cheering at take off, and at landing there was a big choir singing us in, we could see when approaching there was kindofa line-dance. Excellent.

Some foto's as well of Stef and Paul. Our Irish just arrived friends flew as well, but dissapeared when their game of Irish football was on. Jeremy, fins are in the house, if you want to go diving tomorrow give me a shout.
That was it for today, 6 to 7 bloody hours of flying. Knackered, could only have one beer before writing this. And few spelling mistakes so far.



Gunther leaving tonight, see you again buddy.


I wonder how much GIN would give me for this shot.


Goodnite, see you all tomorrow, sky looked gorgeous, but fear it is gonna be blown out tomorrow.

Crazy take off, nice ....

Once again, the crazy take off at Yelmo, thanks Ulli reminding me this video. And see you down here in november.

Sierra del Carche

Jeremy unfolding his brandnew Aspen3.

Off to Carche today. A bit challenging take off if south, and a bit of a less challenging take off when west. And it is not gonna be your choice, we have to see how winds will be at take off, up high. At Carche you never know.

And it was west with a touch of north in it. Small take off, rocks and bushes, sighs from just arrived pilots .... but in the end all took off great and search for the thermals.

I already put my pink-tainted glasses on, and even with these I had doubts if thermals were gonna kick in good enough to get us our XC flight in.

A spectacular sky, cumulus everywhere, but ... thermals were absent. Here and there, now and then some gusts rushed through at take off, but that was it.

We all had an adventurous trip to one of our most high mountain with huge XC possibility. It is never a miss, it is a gorgeous drive up, and an amazing view all over.

Thunderstorms around midday

Huge storms today over Spain, especially in the west near Portugal. We do live on the other side, and had some torrential rains around midday. Now just before sunset everything settled down, no more wind, no more clouds.

And weather forecast looks all promising for tomorrow. A couple of locals plan a trip to Sierra del Buey, hoping to break the XC-record of 148 km, just before the distance cup season is finishing next week. Next week when competition is held in Palomaret.

Pilots who are boarding tomorrow shouldn't worry, you'll fly and fill your boots.

Good morning

Shine your boots,

lets fly fly fly this afternoon

Press articles

Alicante was well represented today, when I received Skywings, British paragliding magazine and Cross Country, worldwide's largest paragliding magazine.

Not only a 4 page article about us in Skywings, see below, but also a foto of Pepe who won the run and fly contest at Yelmo, and last but not least, publicity for Carmens' products : http://www.blauvent.com/

Eva Junior -* photographer of the day

I had to take those pretty foto's away of our little 4-year old photographer of the day. On demand of her parent. I didn't mean no harm and thought the little one would have loved it seeing her foto on the blog.

Oh well, you'll have to do with foto's of me....

Exciting

That's what you see at cloudbase, fog, mist, cloud, nothing. Still it is the most exciting part of our flight.

Nobody on the hill today except Arvid and me and a couple of locals. Not only monday blues, but september blues I guess.

No worries, soon they'll be out, soon competition will be held.

It was fun inland. Was iffy if we were gonna fly today. Strong wind at the beaches, and the coastal sites were blown out. A pity because I would have liked to go to Toix, Calpe with Arvid. So off inland, where winds were not so gusty. Great afternoon, loved it to bits, felt great in the air.

Paragliding Onil

Yoo probably recognize it. Reconco Onil, one of my favourite sites.

Arvid showed what he got learned in his last couple of years competing. His skills got so much more refined since last met him. Arvid you're a star. Outflying local pilots is already an achievement on its own.