Juan Pedro, pioneer in hangglidingm, paragliding in our region.

Lots of sites flyable today, but definetely the best must have been near Monovar. Again we saw the red glider Apco (Juanma ?) flying over the village. Each time I think it is a paramotor at first, but then having a closer look it is him flying over Monovar, coming from behind.

Not a very popular site, as it is a 45 min walk up and almost half of it pathless.... .

We just stayed at Peña Rubia, met the locals of Ibi and Onil, celebrating with Cava our 10th year of guiding.

Everybody flew.

Flying till late, till the sun was gone gone gone.

Cabo for us, tandem flights with enthusiastic lets hope future pilots. Others waited till 5 pm on Palomaret, for winds to die off.

Knackered, still gotto go to flamenco concert tonight. Get out the castañettes, et bouger bouger !

Hondon east it was. 30 km gusts at take off, but mellow intervals in between. So easy take off for Marcel and me. On our own, no local pilot felt like joining. No worries, we had a siesta in the sun, waited for our window to take off. I think the bloody walk up to take off is withholding lots of pilots to fly this one. Come on you youngsters !

If you clean your monitor you can spot Marcel flying, just under the cloud.

Marcel landing his new Niviuk Artik, together with his sup'air Vamp harnass, a harnass which I really recommend for pilots who wants comfort and performance.

Hey reader,

Its been 10 years today, since we arrived in Spain to start up this paragliding business. Unfortunately I cannot meet up have a drink with you. But I will raise my glass tonight and have a good one, on your health.

To all of you I know, who I will know in the future, who read my blog :

I love you all, and take care !

Inland, western winds as usual in the morning, but they seemed to be stubborn and didn't want to give way to the more eastern winds heading from the coast. Later on plain eastern winds, great for the cliffs. I told you last week, we were gonna have an excellent week of flying , and we do. I think our buddies from up north could fly on Col de Rates. That's probably were we should go tomorrow. Or Agres, or Monte Cabrer, or Sant Antonio, or Hondon north, even La Zafra could be working.


For those who are interested in some meteo next images.
Images comparing the jetstream maps with the isobarmaps.
Jetstream flows are present on high altitudes lucikly, approximately 10 km above us.
Due to the curves in the jetstream, some of the air is pushed together from various directions. This 'converged' air, results in an increase of the weight of the air on our surface, results in more pressure on our planets' surface, meaning higher pressure. That air is descending, so pressure is increasing. Very obvious to see on these maps.

But, action an re-action. Under some other parts of the jetstream the air is dispersing, going in different directions, causing lower pressure, causing cloud formation. The effect of this on our planets 'surface, is causing fronts. In combination with our satelite images, we can easily spot where these fronts are situated. We hate them don't we.

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Hey guys. Look at that, sounding at 12 am today.

South-southwestern winds at surface but veering to northeast upper winds, at 850 mb which is appr 1500 m ASL.

Flying at our southern site like Palomaret would mean turbulence, once nearer to cloudbase.

It is very very interesting to know how to read these charts. It gives you more knowledge about what's going on. And more knowledge is more safety isn't it.

This chart lets yo calculate cloudbase, what kind of clouds you'd probably meeting that day etc... etc .... .

If you are interested and understand/read Spanish, you should definetely have a look at my friends' Jose Luis Segorb's page, he is our meteo-star.

http://www.luisso.net/index.php/meteografica

If your spanish is not so great I advise this one :

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/loginForm.php?urlPath=mesoprim/skewt

My son had a bad tummy this afternoon, so I had to pamper him. Marcel, Rafa, amongst others, flew and both said it was turbulent especially at the beginning of the afternoon, then later the breeze took over and all got mellow.

Headstart at the cliffs, eastern winds, nicely in the sun. Tandems, and throwing the glider around.

Later on we moved inland. The nearer we got to the hills, the more dark clouds, totally different scene than at the coast. But Dudo was flying them, no stress.
More and more sunny spells, and thermals, smooth thermals were present.
It was not my best day, I just couldn't manage to get a toplanding in. Tried hard, but 6 kg above the weight range, maybe wasn't ideal. No pancakes for a couple of weeks.

Spain paragliding, on a sunday afternoon. Eastern winds, clouds inland, but still playtime at the coastal sites. Soaring, after all it is sunday.

A bit of a rough night last night .... see you again soon Toni.

Interested in learning about meteo, here is a great website for it :
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream//atmos/atmos_intro.htm

Well, lots of flying, springtime thermals. Nice and easy all afternoon. A step away from heaven it felt.

Lots of pilots, it was saturday after all, lots of pilots eager to get their wings out, after that winter spell we had. Lots of Niviuks in the air, obviously one of the better sold brands all over.

Alicante at its best, you'd love it.

Rafa overflying Cocentaina.

Roadblock driving up to take off Monte Cabrer. Surprise, surprise, huge rocks fell off the mountain and blocked the whole road. After menpower we could continue on the deteriorating drive up.

Once at take off a slight breeze from the northeast gave us opportunity to fly at Cabrer for the first time this year 2009.

The charts this morning showed us a clear convergence line.

Northwesternwinds in the morning , with eastern winds pushing from the coast. But realizing it is still winter, it wasn't gonna be XC. But low cloudbase especially at the coast, were eastern winds were bringing in lots of sea air. So we choose for some thermals at Monte Cabrer. Cloudbase at 1350 meter, Pepe saying it was difficult to core the thermals.

Oh, almost forgot to say. Marcel had a late flight with his brandnew Niviuk Artik. Congratulations.

I still do have an Artik Medium for sale at an incredible cheap price. It has 10 flights ... .

Today I made my choice after analyzing the charts at www.theyr.net

Chris Wileman is back, and was top of the stack today at Hondon North. Got up to 250 m above take off, which was quite an achievement.

It was a bit of a chase today. Inland too much norhtwest wind and gusty. But winds were supposed to die off during afternoon. We got phone calls from buddies that there was a slight breeze kicking in at the coast, so headed back towards the coastal sites. But no inversion was too be seen, all looked too clear, the air was still looking too 'west', dry air, no sea air. So doubted, and took the Paris-Dakar road up to take off Hondon North. Bingo !

Simon, who regularly flies with Extreme Paragliding, visiting the Alicante region, welcome Simon.

And I checked weather forecast. Listen if you want to escape winter, check out your Air Berlin, Ryanair, Easy Jet websites. It looks like you will be flying daily for a week. So worth to get out here, for a winter break. It'll be good for flying.

After the sail yesterday, we were gonna have a chat about emergency chute deployments and the importance of airbags, pro and contra.

We went downtown, had a tapa and later in the evening, had a drink in downtown Alicante, in the Coyote bar. Unfortunately the slot machines made too much noise, and the chat had to be postponed to a later date. Lucky me.

So windy, the cats were sheltering from it in waste bins. We went for a sail to the island of Tabarca today.

Some foto's of our activity today. If not flyable, as you can see, you shouldn't be bored. There are always things to do. Like sailing for instance. We'll take you on a sailing trip to the islands, or whereever suits you. And this for only 10 euros a day, minimum 3 persons. Big fun.

Windy weather, nice and warm, but that's about it. Good enough to chill and sunbathe, but not to fly. Toni arrived, yes boomerang Toni.

Via ferrata for the Fenix club. Too windy, too tricky with the CB's surrounding us by afternoon.

See you later guys. I am off to the hot springs in Archena for the weekend, gotto relax in hot baths once in a while, outside in the open amongst the mountains.

Talk to you next monday again. Nice to have had you guys, hope to see you all back. Un abrazo.

For swedish pilots visit : http://www.fenixflyg.se/

Another taste of Alicante. All over Spain, warning weather forecasts. Strong winds up to 80 km per hour, and severe snowfall. Not for us fortunately. We had some good hours of flying under our belt, when sun was setting.

Sweden happy.

First part of the day. Arriving at Toix, briefing, lets go.
All in the air, most of the pilots above Sierra Bernia, epic.

Second part of the day,

why not go soaring late afternoon, done.

Strangely enough there were local pilots at take off not taking off. Too strong winds. It didn't feel that way, but hey listen to them, they're my buddies. But I had the impression that one was making the other one more nerveus than needed. And that happens amongst humans, we have that 'sheep' attitude don't we.

But after some waiting, it really felt good, so all in the air.

Third part of the day,

yes beer o'clock, this is the swedish group present, who all had a fantastic taste of how Alicante can be.

Below Lars who organised this whole trip.

What impressed me the most, was the excellent handlings at take off. Swedish schooling, so obvious.
It needs to be said, part of the local pilots could do with some more groundhandling. Local pilots, yes friends of mine, who fly since years, sometimes still fuck up at take off. Or maybe they shouldn't fly that class of glider, maybe they should downgrade their glider, and have more fun, and confidence.
Anyway by this, probably upsetting a local buddy, but it is all about safety.

Who I am not gonna upset today, is good old Dudo, who flew from Palomaret to Almudaina, XC in february, respect !

Even our parrot-pigeons weren't flying today.

One female pigeon let loose, other male pigeons have to try to score. The best scorer winds. Weird game, lots of money to be won though.

Again Spain under alert this winter. Madrid has never seen that much snow in a long time. Malaga down south suffered from a tornado. We were all warned by repeated weather forecast, that weather was very unstable, and heave rainfall, snowfall could cause severe problems.
Didn't fly.

Lets drink to the hard working people, lets drink to the salt of the earth !

Always the same guys, always the same guys who are doing this for paragliding. I guess this is everywhere. They need all our respect.

Yesterday morning already they were workin their ass off to smoothen the take off of Palomaret. Today with shovels and tools they were flattening and hardening the new put earth, gravel. A bit thank you guys. On foto top you see, Toni our president of the club and his best friend Jose Luis.

Below Antolino, with a sneeze and Miguel.

Group : Miguel, Pepe, Antolino, Toni, Raul, Toni, Jose Luis, Eduardo and Antonio. Guys, pilots who don't fly every day, because they have to work. But passionate pilots who are always there with a helping hand.

This week, I will renew the bulletin board and cement more, to install proper windsocks, take off and landings. That'll be my share.

I hope you all appreciate this. We work hard to maintain our sites hassle free, and I tell you it is a though job to clean' em up and make'em accesable for all pilots. It is not easy. With the drought, the erosion, it is difficult to keep them usersfriendly. Lets not talk about the rewardless efforts that Toni (our president of the club) makes, to achieve permits to keep the sites open.

I especially address (mainly german, austrian) pilots, who should think twice coming down to Spain and using the playgrounds, just as if its theirs.

They should be aware that this involves a huge cost, by clubs, local pilots etc. A huge cost and effort in labour and money.

I address especially them, because as no-one else they should show respect. Because if we go to their sites, we often have to prove we can read and write, before we may even think about using their sites.

You know me, straightforward, expressing myself whenever I feel the need to. I hope I made some people think.

Welcome Lars and friends by the way, thanks for the present you brought from the Skarmflyg club in Stockholm Sweden, appreciated. It'll keep me warm this week.

Their webpage :_ http://www.fenixflyg.se/