I tried the Summit XC today. Long long lines, the canape very high above you. Thin risers as you can see. Very thin risers. Deadeasy to launch, deadeasy to handle.

Just a glimpse of the fiestas that are held every night till sunday. Shouldn't miss it if you're in Spain this time around easter.

Windy day, and expected. Not so good for lots of spanish pilots who have this week off. It is Semana Santa (the holy week), known for its huge fiestas and processions in every village, city of the country.

Above our new assortment of T-shirts. They're sold at 12 euros a piece. Girlie sizes as well.

Max Stek at cloudbase, Carrascoy last week.

Max Stek, Holland, under my demo wing SummitXP.

Max Stek, chilling at Playa del Pinet. There are worse places to ....

Nasty day, I didn't like it at all. Unfrotunately for Geerke and Wim who spend their last day in Alicante. But it was too rough, and we were flying under the westernwind, which is gonna kick in strong tomorrow.
Already at take off, your nose tells. The winds were too strong, gusts too wild. But Jose Luis was in the air and said it was fine, not too bad. I think his balls are bigger than mine so.

There were only a few of us flying. Big time pilots like Jose Luis the Argentinian, Toni from club +7 and others wisely had a chat at take off.

It was west today, but it was gonna veer to the south later in the afternoon. So we took a rough ride on our 4x4 and enjoyed the scenery near Maigmo, driving through the canyons.

I prefer to stay in the valley than getting frustrated and nerveus at take off. Because a breeze or better THE breeze, the one we needed today, was gonna come in from below. From the sea. So first to notice in the valley and not at take off. You would notice it by a sudden drop of temperature, en more hazy view of the surrounding mountains, and of course in a change of wind direction, hah.

At 4.30 we all felt it, and I was pleased my pilots noticed as well. All eager to get their last flying in, because tomorrow most of them were gonna go back to colourfull Belgium.

These photo's of this afternoons' flying. Enjoy !

Lande-biere, last drink before our belgians leave, salud !

Last nights' party, no special reason. Kath just got her cooking skills out to serve some Italian food. Cheers you all !

8 months of summer. That's aboput what we have, today for instance more than 25 degrees.
And kinda officialy the start of summer season. Because today, this weekend the 'fallas de Valencia' are held. A 200 year old fiesta, the biggest in Spain of its sort.
Huge statues, pieces of art are shown in every parish of the city of Valencia.

They expect again 1500.000 visitors. It is the biggest, hugest fiesta I have ever seen in the whole world. It goes on for days and lasts 24 hours a day. Not to be missed. So our belgian guests drove up there to enjoy this typical Spanish outing of pleasure, fiesta.
If you want to see more of this fiesta check link below :
http://www.aitana.com/fallas/fallas.htm

A warm front made us lazy today. No wind and all of a sudden gusts from the west. Better not to fly, so a day off.

A very very good day today.

And although 1750 m above sea level shouldn't effect the oxygen level for breathing, those who got that high and talked to me afterwards were still breathing hard. But that was sheer excitement.

No food bars needed, no performance drinks needed, just a spanish tortilla and a pleasant café con leche did it. We were all in the air, with one local pilot Dudo. Most of the group reaching cloudbase at 1750 m. Which is appr 900 meter, (2700 feet my dear) above take off.

It was a pity that most local pilots only arrived later when the best part of the day was gone. It would have been lovely if a whole group of about 10 foreign pilots and at least 5 local pilots would have made the ridge run and for some of them even the triangle - Palomaret / Maigmo / El Cid.

Less stress at take off, better take offs, pleasant flights, good landings. All finished with a beer at the old man's bar in Agost.

Today we saw how good the belgian pilots were in the air, not only the belgians, but very much so the skills of Jette from Denmark. For years she has been coming down to Alicante to fly with us. She has a new glider a Gradient Golden2, and man what a change. She handles the take off so much better and looks 100 prodent confident under her new beauty. Nice one, Jette.

Also Toni is having a good time. The man retired last week in Ireland, and treated himself a three month stay with us at Doyouwanna Alicante. I tell you what, he's flying his tits off.

Reconco, near Onil. Onil the village were playmobil originated from. It is the valley

beyond Maigmo, heading for Alcoy. I love it up there. More green, higher trees, and also more pure flying.

When the winds are cross from the east, I think it is at its best. Today it was southeast, although prevision was east.
It was rock'n roll at first, smooth thermal, untill all of a sudden a wake up call. We were climbing to 1250 m ASL first part of the afternoon.
And it lasted rocky till later in the afternoon, when all of a sudden winds veered, and breeze settled. Most of the pilots in the air, well those who could take off..... . By then Dudo reached 1400 m ASL.

I was not at all impressed by the take offs. Pilots, I am talking to all of you who are coming down soon. Get some groundhandling in please. Take offs today were awfull. Gliders in the trees several times, way too much break with strong headwinds almost stalling the glider. It all looked too opportunistic. I do not know who decides who gets licenses, but those instructors who do, must be the most lousiest groundhandlers themselves if they sign off their students as club pilots the way they handled their gliders today. I mean it.
When you come down be fit, do as much groundhandling as you can. Make sure YOU fly with the glider, and not THE GLIDER with you ! Very important.
I happens so much that pilots brag about them taking off in their own countries with strong winds up to 30 km per hour. Huh. And then down here in lovely Alicante, they are a danger for themselves not controlling anything at all.

Sorry to be so straightforward. Sorry ?

Lots of foto's eh ? Well hope you like em. It's summer !! Damn hot today I mean. And flyable, yes sir.

Topfoto is a shot when Dudo, Max and Stefan were flying in Carrascoy today. In front the new bulletin board of our friends of Murcia. As you can tell, more restrictions.
We left Alicante with lots of winds. When I was briefing at the meeting point before leaving, I saw them all looking at me, thinking : you know Nick, we trust you, just bring us to the right site.

Ok, stress on my back, had to make a good decision. So off to Murcia, a bit of a drive, but if anywhere flyable it would be Murcia. Lots of western wind, with widening pressure lines, after the front that rushed through, hm, had this before. Lets go.

One there, shit, eastern winds. Where did that come from ? But bit by bit it got better. More and more on the hill. And you could tell who were the regular pilots. Dudo local pilot, Max dutch pilot trying out my demo UP SummitXC, and Stefan german pilot. Max got to 1800 m ASL.
All the others looked good at take off, but were not trained, or were rusty, were not turning skillfully into the thermals. It was easy to notice. But doesn't matter, we all were in the air today, and that'swhat counts. It is not about having the biggest one, it is about having the most fun with it.

Later in the day, it all became more easy. Soaring, Alhama de Murcia. Gentle breeze on the hill, watching the sun go down. A nice and relaxing flight before heading home, thru heaving traffic.
Also restrictions on that hill, max 6 pilots in the air.... nice guys and girls around, lets hope tomorrow is good as well, it should.

Very hot, summery feeling, 26 degrees celsius. But that type of weather was not enough to let us play in the air. Western winds and strong till the end of the day.
We just had to chill in playa del pinet having Gaspacho (cold spanish tomato soup) and grilled sardines.
There are worse ways to spend your days, but there are better ways of course as well.

If we have a spell of non-flying days, pilots always ask me, but when is the best period then to come to Alicante.
Most honest ? Last week, or maybe from tomorrow onwards. Because we do fly all year round. But as a spot on earth, we can have a couple of bad days in between.
Costa Blanca is known for its superb climate in Europe on the continent. Why is grandma living in Benidorm you think ?
Just bad luck, these couple of days.

Foto of last saturday, me stretching my neck to see Wolfgang flying high in the convergence near Peña Rubia. Top foto is from Michael with his Advance Epsilon5, soaring late in the afternoon.

Today bad warm weather. Winds from the west, supposed to be very strong. They weren't, but too strong though to play in the sky.
From tomorrow afternoon it looks like things will die down.

Meanwhile Wolfgang is getting lots better.

Good news, good old Wolfgang, more German a name can't be, is better. He is not jumping around yet, but ok.
He made a wrong move coming in to land yesterday and came in hard. Brought to hospital etc... his friends visited him today, etc.... , and he's gonna be ok.

You could keep this secret, but I prefer to be open with all of you guys and learn each time something happens.
First after an accident I have some 'reflexions'.
I approach the happening as follows.
First I check how everybody feels about the accident and talk to the present pilots, who witnessed the accident, or were flying in the same group.
Secondly I analyze the accident, and try to learn from it.
Thirdly is trying to find an even better way to minimize the margin of possible accidents in the future.

First talked to the pilots, the friends who witnessed the accident. I think it was clear that the conditions had changed, but were foreseen on the hill already and briefed.
Secondly analysed the accident, and I sensed that all found the approach 'strange', and not in accordance to the possible approach on this big and wide landing field.
Thirdly, I think this accident could have been prevented, by flying with a radio, we could have suggested a better approach than the one followed.

But ! Some pilots do not have radio's, or do not want to use them, or think these are a nuisance. But I tell you that (even) comp pilots visiting me now and then, mostly all have a radio, and are not too proud to use them. (just one example ...)
Radio's are used for safety, and not just to chat. So valuable info is exchanged. Wind change, pilots going XC, hey down here better thermals etc... .

So from now on, I will only guide if you have a radio with you. If you do not have one, I will rent out radio's at a rate of 25 euros a week. And I hope you can give ME info too, of what's happening in the air. I think an interchange of info can only benefit in minimizing even more the possibilities of accidents as we had yesterday.

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Next is for the local pilots who read this.
I think it is also a good idea for our federacion to use their time and energy, giving more attention to previous accidents, to benefit from the mistakes pilots have made.
It would help the lesser experienced pilots to understand more about aerology, meteorology, convergence, all of it - and give them better knowledge about the sport they are about getting into. So we all fly safer and with lots more knowledge.
Our 'protagonistas' in our federacion should use their reunions to improve the safety of our sport. To improve the image of our sport. Instead of imposing rules and laws which are absurd.

I am straightforward, always been, if you have another opinion let me know. We'll see each other soon on the hill.
Soon I will forward some messages on this topic on our forum down here in Alicante. I hope you will speak up. Speak up, because it is your sport, it is your region, it is our responsibility to help each other out. Especially when the matter is safety.

Not all of us flew. But those who flew had an outstanding flight like Michael had. 800 meter above take off can't be bad. And this all with the convergence again at Peña Rubia. For some cloudbase 1800 m so.

We decided to stay at Pena Rubia after most locals preferred to fly with the breeze closer to the sea. Conditions were too strong for a while so we had to kill some time untill winds died off. At the end of the day it was the best.
Unfortunately someone made a bad landing and hurt himself. Keep you posted.

" Esta turbulento " - " Esta guaro " - " Tenia una plegada, mas que la mitad de la vela se ha ido, hostia ! "

This is the info we got from some locals guru's flying this afternoon.

Hmm, should I stay or should I fly. I respected their info, and waited a bit. Especially surrounded by not too experienced pilots this afternoon.

(ok, ok, I translate, it is turbulent, fucking mess, I just had half of my wing gone, holy shit... well something like that anyway)

Got in the air with a brandnew glider, just out of the bag, better have a good in-flight check in these conditions. Everything looked fine. And indeed we were flying in 'sotaviento', lee-side conditions. Rolling, but mainly pitching of the glider, in and out of the thermals. And low near the landing field, sink, climb, sink, climb, and a final approach looking towards the hill as if it was catabatic.

Ok, it should get better with the breeze more on the hill.

So it did, all in the air after 4 pm, untill we had to scratch to get the last lift.

Interesting day.

Probably the best shot of the day. Christophe and Simon, both Belgians flying over the cliffs.

But only for a short while. Freak of nature, all of a sudden we had eastern winds, just for over 20 minutes. Although strong northwestern winds, just 5 km more inland.

Later in the day we left for San Antonio, evening soaring ... no, didn't.

Alex went to Peña Rubia, howling winds west ...

Sayo took his mother in law to Hondon north, lots of wind and in two minutes down to zero and cross....

Well there are worse things in life I guess, like Seville and Real Madrid being kicked out of the champions league soccer. Oops, why do I tell this, I am probably the only paraglider who likes a game of soccer. Yes, I do like to watch a good game, feet up, glass of wine. Untill I see Kaka showing his undershirt saying - I BELONG TO JESUS - what the fuck .... there is some truth in Groucho Marx quote : I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set , I go into the other room and read a book.

See you tomorrow.

Howling winds today, and temperatures dropped about 10 degrees .... All of a sudden winter arrived, and it doesn't look very good for the upcoming days. And this after so many days, weeks of consecutive flying.

Can't beat the weather. So chilling.

There is a high above the Middle East and a high ready again above the Azores. The Low Pressure in the Med and Italy is bothering us. If it doesn't deepen, we will be flying in the next few days. But I do have my doubt.

Simple forecasts like windfinder tell us that the winds will drop by tomorrow afternoon, and I hope so, I hope so, I hope so. But other charts don't give us that view, like Theyr from Iceland, these charts still give us lots of wind. We'll see.

It was supposed to be strong, but it wasn't till 1. At 10 first pilots in the air, soaring at the cliffs. Toplandings, good take offs, enjoying our lovely coastal site, today.

Cold front approaching, westernwind forecasted. So off to Peña Rubia, where indeed the winds were on the hill. But smooth.
A quick check, a call to Ismael in Caudete and it was clear. 16 km north. Just being patient was the clue.

There were some other things that convinced me that we were at the right site. First, I flew out, and already felt the air was active, small bubbles ok, but teasing. And it was only midday, so on our northwestern hill that early, was a good sign.
The traffic on the highway Villena - Madrid was clearly hear-able, so winds were northwest, also smoke was indicating northwest. Just a matter of time till the sun was getting to the face of our hill, heating it up, generating that wind, together with the front approaching. Already lots of contrails in the air (contrails = condensated trails but you knew all that already), here and there a cumulus at the horizon, front approaching, so tomorrow a couple of days windy unfortunately.

It was like a meteo-textbook.

In the air, most of us, bumming out, some getting to Biar and bumming out there. Chill. Yes, at 3 pm, winds were finally more 'encarada', on the hill. Dave, Mark, Ken, Rafa, Ismael, Helena, Julian, Nanda, Rien, and more finally above the antenna. Ready to make the transition to Biar.
Smooooooth. That's when the foto's were taken.

Untill the air got very cold all of a sudden, and lots of lift, not strong, but very constant. Temperatures dropping fast. Up to 1500 m, and winds getting stronger. We were having conversion climb, breezes northeast were kicking in, making it quite turbulent. Collapses here and there, even on my demo-wing Niviuk HOOK.

We all landed thumbs up, what a day.

Ismael landed in Elda, and was very excited. Not once had he seen (1700 mASL), such a clear convergence. He could just see the line of breeze moving in, him in clear blue sky. So he was riding this convergence all the way to Elda.

Thanks Alex giving us a hand today.

Some shots of our favourite hill Palomaret. All in the air, for hours.

Lowairtimers getting their first thermals in. Good take offs, dodgy take off, but happy landings.

It was a typical sunday afternoon. Lots of flying in the sun. All noses burned.

Max +3 m/s. Lots of demo's tested, mainly Niviuk gliders. Also new harnasses, as if everybody can't wait to go the extra mile soon. Happy bunch.

Calpe today, we flew it early in the day, bit turbulent, southeast on our southwestern hill.

Cafe con leche and ice-cream, and then back up.

Meanwhile at take off it was gusting up to 30 km per hour, but laminar. It was nice to fly on top of the orographic clouds, always special.

Who said soaring was boring ? Not on our site it ain't, with its spectacular views of Altea and Calpe.

I hope the foto's tell you the story.