graphic of the last 5 year, temperature wise

Feels funny when paramotor pilots are flying around your head and you cannot take off. That was this afternoon.I was alone on the take off, nobody there. Probably all Xmas shopping, sleeping before the big nite with the family.
Winds were weak and there were paramotors hopping around the beach. Windlines on the sea though, so soon game over.I waited a bit, but gusts came in more frequently and agressive. Another day. Soon paramotorists should be landing --- I thought -- .
I couldn't take off any more anyway.
45 minutes later when it was blowing 35 k per hour, waves on the sea, seagulls screaming. And they all landed, safe !

Yes, nowadays powerfull engines and GT, revolution etc... gliders, specially made for 60 km per hour flights. I drove down to see them, because I recognized some gliders. And bingo, yes the belgians from Liege. They are here on a trip with there paramotors. Sometimes they try a free flight with us, and then those who look the most professional under their engines, look the less confident under our lesser forgiving wings.



We are all in the same family though, and we all love flying. They have one advantage, they always have a mecanic with them, helping them out, checking the engine.

While we ... we have nobody, nobody, but nobody to help us out when landing in a bush.

oh by the way, you can contact me on skype now, my name nickdoyouwanna

Abandoned beaches. Top photo is 12 km from base. Playa del Pinet, one of my favourite places to go when not flyable. Old fishermen's houses, near the sea, time stood still.

Below, where time didn't stand still, 30 km from base, the high rise of our Las Vegas, our Blackpool, is called Benidorm.

If yo prefer the soberness, you go to Playa del Pinet, if you prefer bars, blues, disco, people Benidorm will definetely be your choice on a non flyable day like today.

Main thing is that we all have a good time.

A dry day on a rainy forecast. In the morning too strong or soaring, but in no time all died off, and no wind at all for the rest of the day.

While I was chilling I got a phone call, Nick what the .... are you doing, you lazy ..... , there are two gliders sky-high over the cliffs !
Damn, looked out with my far-lookers and of course .... paramotors.....

Had to wake up good old Jan, because he didn't want to miss this. Cabo was flying from early on. At 9.30 he was already rigging to break his soaring record of 5.30 hours, not landing in between for pit-stops. He broke it with an hour, 6.30 hours no turns, left-right left-right, left-right - left/right... .
Meanwhile we had breakfast, lunch, and were ready to take a shower when he called : I landed - can somebody pick me up ¿

Local pilots asked me if he was allright, if he needed assistance to come down etc.... . No, no worries, it's Jan, Belgian¡s famous soaring pilot.

Ready for winter Jan ? Hope you had a good week, as you said you flew 4 out of 7 days, at the end of december. Chill now.

Oh, on the foto not Jan, but Geir from Norway, two hours and a half was enough for him, he needed a smoke.

Cloudy and windy today, forced shoe shopping ....

Probably a 'primeur' ! This must be the prototype 2008 everybody is so worries about.

Windy today.

Winter weather today, winds from the east again, kicking in strong at the coast, no flying.

Nose blocked, cold shivers, winter arrived I guess. Always severe when you are not used to it. But ! We gotta fly !

So sheltered in my truck I looked at Jan and Geir rigging for flying Palomaret.

We had time till the rain came in at 3 pm, Jan had the better flying and had to come down to get warm. We went for silk gloves in Decathlon afterwards .... .

Funny news today again from my home country Belgium. Now all flemish are upset because our new Miss Belgium only speaks french and not flemish. I thought we should be happy with that. You don't want a Miss to be talking anyway, do ya ?

Soon we will know how far we got, defending our most precious soaring site in Spain, Cabo de Santa Pola. I'll let you know through this blog, believe me, you'll be the first one to know.

Today the winds picked up, the wind called the levanter. It is called levante, because the Moors had come from the Levant (old spanish for east), the eastern end of the Mediterranean. They came and conquer Spain, long long time ago.

This levante is good for the cliffs of Santa Pola. But only by sunset it was good for a little bit more than a top to bottom. Tomorrow winds die off again, better chance to fly.

This must be the truck to discover Africa and paraglide. Urs, Swiss pilot, left Alicante and is on his way again, this time you can meet in Morocco. Hasta Luego, see you in spring.

Today's mountain hidden behind the fruit trees, Peña Rubia. I know my pilots and some locals were flying. When I left for my son's birthday party (I am knackered...), I saw them over the antennas. How high they got, how long they flew, no idea. But one things is sure, wings were used.

14 of december, almost the shortest day in the year. Daylight at its minimum and still 4 m/s thermals up to 900 meters above take off.

At first ambitions were high, we were all gonna take off and fly in group, getting high and trying to achieve some XC. My nose told me, today was special for flying. Ice-cold at take off, warmer in the valley and it was only 12 am when we arrived. So the sun still had to do its job properly. Clouds were forming, although we could see as well some lenticulares at first, ahum. But that could be the weather coming in from tomorrow onwards .... so lets be positive.

Took off to check but winds were too west to be good. Ok, lets wait.
Half hour later another try. Bad ,bad, bad, too much westwind as soon as you were somewhere out in the valley. We need a breeze but it was getting late.

( If we have westwind at Palomaret, we have to be careful, because there is a windchannel from the right (rincon bello) and this westwind could kick in nasty, especially low, near landings. )
Of course we could always fly the Palomaret-way and wait for the dynamic thermalling lift, but there was more in the air, my nose told me.

Should we wait, or move sites. More info coming in, northeast at the coast, west near Banyeres, damn strange. Luckily we were a little bit patient and took off after 2.30 pm.

Soon Jose Luis and Arvid were gone, leaving for Maigmo. Super, so maybe there still was something special going on today.

And there was. All of a sudden a steady but strong breeze was kicking in for over 6 minutes, gliders were dissapearing up to the forming cloud right above take off.

On the side, Arvid and Jose Luis were struggling to get some height near Maigmo.

That was the window. Later Urs (Swiss) told me, as soon as he left cloudbase at 1700 there was nothing big happening any more. Today was a matter of luck and skills. And we can only applaude for Urs, who was skygod today.

At 5 pm, Carla (dutch) and Arvid (Norwegian) landed in Agost. Luckily they made the best choice and landed before arriving in Agost. I mean soaring the church ... I don't know, the park in Agost is not so big to land in.

Damn good flying all of ya !!!! Good nose !

One nice part of my job, as a paragliding guide, is that you meet lots of people of all kind, of all nationalities. Which is terrific.

After all, I must admit that after almost 9 years down here, I cannot call anybody my real friend. Yes, lots of acquaintances, and some you know better than others. But culture defines these relations different down here. There is no social habit, of for instance having a beer together, a chat, a home visit. Watching a video with friends. Strange, different culture I guess. Different humor also. Lots of people on their own, more family-bounded maybe.
Maybe it has to do with the job I do, meeting people, meeting paragliders. Dealing with the kind of people, persons, individuals that are into a very 'achieving'-sport like paragliding as a whole. And when the day is finished, each one goes his own way. I don't know.

But on every cloud there is a silvery line. A what a silvery line this one has !
During the years I have met very interesting persons from all over Europe and beyond. Plumbers, surgeons, cooks, artists, hippies, etc... . All with their own story, adventures.
Fantastic. Great. Some of them had amazing stories, no matter how experienced, good they were, because that's not my point. And I am so happy to have met so many people already, which I wouldn't have had in any other job. It keeps me going, and not a bit.... for years.

Tomorrow looks windy in the morning, afternoon flying so. See you soon.

One of the better days in the year at Cabo. Up to 350 m ASL, and the cliffs are only 120 m ASL, so more than soaring. Cloudsuck here and there, 20 km winds at take off. Awesome.

Before we were at Reconco, where we hoped (so you hear it coming ...) to get some thermalling in. But the cloudcover was too much, and the december sun was not getting through enough to give us playtime. But all of this was soon forgotten, when we arrived at the cliffs and had one of the best soaring flights at Cabo for ages.

Steve and friends, you just missed it.

Weather forecast was weak northern winds. I knew the southern valley breezes were gonna take over by noon and wanted to try something out. I have Carla and Arvid, not low airtimers, so we can get on with some other sites than usual. Pepe joined us as well, as Federico and Lee.

We climbed up Hondon, and hoped to get the usual thermals up there, then to fly direction west, and make some distance.
Meanwhile getting messages that of course Palomaret was working as well, that was no surprise.

The surprise was that the wind was all of a sudden schrinking to the left, yes eastwards. Damn, no fun, plan A failed.

So plan B, joining the usual suspects at Palomaret. A bit too late to fly in the best conditions but we all managed still to get to Maigmo. Thermals 2.5 m/s still, and cloudbase at 1250. Before 1500 someone said.

Good day, fantastic for december, just imagine we had these conditions in Hondon.

Mañana mas.

Windspeed this afternoon, between 25 and 30 km at the coast northeast.

Direction east-northeast.

Inland, valley breezes kicked off the lee thermals, especially on our sites near the coast, where they were protected from the lighter northern winds.

Three days of strong winds we had, today al was gonna die off in the afternoon. And it did. After visiting Alhama de Murcia, having a typical regional paella with snails and rabbit, we flew at Carrascoy.

Steve, Stevie, Mike see you later.

On the photo Arvid from Norway, the motorbike racer, the helicopter mecanic, the HOOK pilot.

Not flying today, too much northwestern winds. Just message to you all, I want you to feel at home with DOYOUWANNA.

Beach weather, not flying weather,
nice and summer temperatures, but 50 km gusts of wind.

This is how the risers and the brake handle looks like of the Ozone Ultralite.

If you look for lightweight equipment, this is the best choice,
- Ozone Ultralite 2.6 kgs
- sup'air Escape airbag (reversible rucksack) 1.9 kg
- UP emergency chute 1.4 kg

All together 5.9 kgs !
I can get you all of this for only 2889 euros.

(And if you buy before february 2008, I give you a doyouwanna stay of 325 euros free)

Foto send in by Egi, who was here last week. Taken near the cliffs of Morro de Toix. Nice one Egi !!
And qll week he proved that even with a UP Summit3, he could compete with the faster gliders on the market. Enhorabuena.

Today second day of strong winds, tomorrow same thing. As usual we have a three/four day cycle of bad weather in this period of the year.

No flying today. Too windy.

Warm though, but a front coming in which will not permit us to play, I think till tuesday.

Another fine day inland Alicante where december thermals invited us to fly for over three hours.
Cloudbase at 1100 m ,enough to easily cross towards Biar.

Pilots from Madrid, Basque country, national holiday.

Sky today, and bottom foto shows you how warm it was today, 25.9 degrees celsius. Fantastic, I still love it.
Lots of pilots ask me why did you choose Spain. Well climate has to do with it, but this becomes relative after a while. But when you are in december, flying and then having a drink on a terrace when it is 25 degrees, you feel you made the right choice, and part of this is the climate. It us just so damn nice to be in the sun all the time.

But lets talk about the flying today. Southwest, strong por la tarde, strong in the afternoon (which in spain starts at 3 pm !). So off to good old Toix.

And good we did.

At take off, ready to go, but hesitating, because I had the impression it could be better with some more wind. BUT there were 'jonathan livingston' seagulls in the air !

So Pedro, gaviotta of Calpe, told me to get going and start. You damn Pedro !

I soared all the way for about half hour, but had to fight to stay in the lifting band of air. Meanwhile surrounded by laughing seagulls, héhéhéhéhé´hé,,,,,

A flight with a view for all of us, foto's tell you what I mean. Top foto is for those who have been here before years ago. The can tell lots of building has been going on, all with proper swimming pools. Bottom foto for those who are under a blanket watching TV ...... turn head left .........

A good thing about a young democracy and/or a catholic country is that they have a lot to celebrate. Tomorrow again national FIESTA, tomorrow we party because it is the 'day of the constitution'. Vamenos !!

group : Ian Brit, Pia and Robert Sweeds, Egi half-legal Austrian/Italian living in Norway, Francoise and Charles French, Eric Californian USA. Landing beer.

I don't know how and why we deserve this. Amazing weather. Temperatures in their twenties. Two sites flewn today. Magnificient views.

We left early for Benidorm, and had some flights 'with a view', overlooking the high rise of our local 'Blackpool - Blankenberge - Le Touquet - Las Vegas'.

Sea was getting nerveus though, so we hoped for a seabreeze that would get us higher, playing. But no, half hour later all was too smooth again. No breeze.

Message from Dudo, inland was working. Yihaah !

Lets go, pack up, lets join them.

Once arrived we saw Dudo, Imre, Pepe, Alex and Cordian already in the air.
But the big time was over. We all had our flights in, soaring above the crest, but the best time to fly had passed.

Dudo enjoyed a 6 m/s thermal (december !!....) and got to 1600 m ASL, which is almost 800 m ATO. Fantastic.

NW-TM !

ASL = above sea level

ATO = above take off

NW-TM = no worries - tomorrow more

Western winds too strong today. Cristal blue skies, 20 degrees on the terrace, but 40 km wind offshore.

The group, the take off, the wind dummy, the flying, and the inevitable gaps in the mountain on our way to take off in Sierra del Carche.

A sunday treat for all visiting pilots. Doesn't get much better.

20 degrees a take off, and this was 1400 meter above sea level. Still nice weather, bit surprisingly to be honest but not exceptional.

Ok, maybe not interested, but I am.

Lately we have been meeting each other, us and local pilots, at the house of birth of Jorge Juan. Ok, it is not Hendrix, nor Rory Gallagher or Ronaldinho, but !

But a little bit more interesting than meeting each other at a gasstation, or a junction.

Here we go, look at the foto's. A fantastic mansion (finca...) where Jorge Juan was born. Inside the 'finca' full of old tools, several olive presses, carriages.

It just gives you an idea where we are situated. Lots of culture, history, tradition. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, left aside by the ignorant, beachcombers, only knowing our region because of the fish'n chips in Benidorm.

I love it.

Now who was Jorge Juan, well nowadays we have wikipedia no ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Juan_y_Santacilia

Down below one of the landing fields of Peña Rubia. Big, no stress on that one.

I didn't believe we were gonna have a good day of flying today. But we had. Again for Egi, more than three hours in the air.
Northwestern winds, spot on, all day.
Andreas, kom bald wieder ! or something...

Spelling is good, concert yesterday was great, maybe spelling bad tomorrow, gotto dive downtown tonight.