It is FANTASTIC to do tamdem flights. As you are always remembered how it was to fly for the first time. Each time you fly tandems you encounter the same feeling again you had years ago. You feel like a kid, sharing your toy.
The response in the air, you look at the view, the relax, the peace, you are reliving it with a passenger on your lap who's loving it.

And I tell you when the feedback is great you get a buzz.

Antolino my friend under his Aspen.

Catarina, tandem passenger from Germany

Dolf, Anne, Anna and Amber. If you are looking for something special, something out of your mainstream, maybe check their website : http://www.sacarest.org/

Don't know who.

Matheus, Catarinas' father, german fellow enjoying it. After his daughters kinde 'forced' him to have a go on a paraglider.

Too strong today, too strong breeze from the east, which is on-shore.
Great to watch and enjoy the topfit bodies of the young ones, kite-surfing.

Norwegians on the run for the nasty weather up north. Down in Alicante. And wrong yesterday, they managed to soar an hour before sunset. Today we all drove down to Palo, and had some good flying late afternoon.

We had the window right, from 4.30 till 6.30.

Cecilie, from Norway is leaving tomorrow. Cecilie I hope you had a good time with us flying in Alicante. See you again in the near future. Un abrazo.

Last 48 hours we have been living in a bowl of hot air. A bowl of hot air, it makes me think how fish must feel. You cannot escape out of the bowl. Everything is being pushed down.
Whereever we went, whereever other pilots were, all over same sensation.

Feels like a fish trying to get out, trying to escape out of the bowl. That's how it feels, paraglider besides you, but no way josé, there is no way out.

No temperature difference, everywhere low or high 30 degrees or more.
One of the biggest inversions I have seen and felt in my life. The air is pushing all and everything down. Not the best feeling for somebody who wants to escape, who wants to fly.

We left for Calpe. As the only site to have a break in this inversion, a late afternoon southwesterly, like normal in summer. But not, the inversion was too thick. Almost fog-looking like. There was no way to fly decent today. Too bad for the visiting pilots, we all had to do with huge ice creams to cool down.
It felt like Africa, Morocco. Long time ago I was there in August, in Morocco one of my favourite countries, with a bike and a tent. Todays' weather reminds me of the first time visit in Morocco. Sahara winds, sahara air in Alicante, micro dust everywhere. God I need a beer.

El Cid, this morning. Looking for a high mountain, trying to take off above the inversion. Because another extreme hot day was promised. Thermals were absent, all day. Some guys went to other hills and experienced the same. No lift, all air was hot. 40 degrees celsius. Nice for summer evenings and dips in the pools and sea. But today it wasn't so nice to sweat your butt off for a glide down. We're optimist, we have flewn, and if you look at the maps of europe, we shouldn't complain.

Morning soaring for the early birds. Early birds like Alfred, who loves one thing, flying. Another three hours for him today.

In the afternoon tandems booked, Marcus and Cecilie present.
Could only do one tandem as winds died off in seconds. Rolf still loved it though and his three daughters are booked for next days flying.

In the air it wasn't smooth. Before the eastern winds died off, we had winds from north, and south. Punchy thermals on our cliffs, and having not enough height, better be safe out there. Especially flying tandems, you have to respect a bigger margin of safety, taking people up than you would flying for yourself.

Inland it looked nasty, embedded clouds. And with the forecast that thunderstorms could occur, we stayed near the coast. More Sahara air is coming in, temperatures are rising again. Tomorrow we'll have strong winds. Lets see if we can do something early morning.

Thanks Remi sending me this foto's. Seems in France you guys are having fun, sun setting over the sea, so Atlantic ocean flying no ?¿

Novelda fiesta.
Every year in july, we are all invited to fly over La Molla. Just above the church cathedral of Novelda. There a procession is held, bringing the statue of the holy Mary from the village down below to the cathedral on the side of the hill.
Yearly our local club walks up the hill (walk ? its a damn marathon !). On an improvised take off,m rocky and bushy, we take off and fly over the procession.
While we are flying fire crackers are shot at us. Smoke bomb hit us meters away from our gliders. With a sniper sound, crackers are fired up in the sky.
We are asked by Toni not to fly too far to the left, because some things are fired up from the mansion near the cathedral, watch out !
You fly, and imagine such a fire cracker hits you, would it burn a hole in your glider ? Thing is, it is part of the game, you know why you fly here today, it is a yearly tradition, and all the hardcore pilots from the club mas7 are present.

After a good hour, it is time to go land, on the again improvised landing field. Rocky, terraces and bushes.

Alfreds' quote, it is good to feel alive !

And this after an aperitive flight near Palomaret. Sorry, but again, an excellent day.

It is july, almost august. Weather is guaranteed good, that's what Spain is famous for. And what do you need to fly paragliders. Good weather and a hill somewhere. Well, climate, weather is gauranteed, as we all know we have the best climate allround in Europe, summer and winter. What do we miss still ?
A hill, a ridge .... we have lots.

Today we just used the ridges near Santa Pola. With lots of visiting pilots from all over. It was fun, hours of flying for Marcus and Alfred. Tandems for Cecilia's family.

Local pilots just got a bit stressed by mistakes some not guided pilots made on our precious but fragile site. Coming in too far back to topland, disturbing the 'private' lives of our neighbours ....

July and August are a bit stressfull for us. Some visiting pilots, just come down and do their thing. Sometimes ok, but lots of times, just as if they want to prove something to us. Don't prove anything, just mingle with the locals, respect the site. Just don't come down and consume the site, collaborate with us saving the site for next generation pilots, for our kids.
Ask locals what to do, or read the information board put up lately at take off. If you do not want to pay the very democratic fee to a guide or a school, that's your right. But imagine once, we would come to your garden and use your trampoline.

Peace, love, kisses, flowers, hug from us local pilots ...
keep our sites hassle free please

we all hope you come along

Weather back to normal. Temperatures not so hot anymore. Normal weather 28 degrees celsius, blue sky, not a cloud. That's why we are here.

And we are here as well to fly, like today, near Alcoy, Monte Cabrer.

A lovely huge mountain, easterly faced. Protected from the strong eastern breeze that was kicking in at the coast.

Juan made his little XC to his house in Ontinyent. Marcus, Alfred and Cecilie stayed and played on the mountain itself.

Excellent choice today, all happy.

I think this was the hottest day in my life living in Spain. Honestly. I wa swith our vespa cruising around this afternoon and had 45 degrees celsius.
I was exhausting hot, again hot air from the Sahara coming in.
Tonight eastern winds, veering up to 40 km pr hour at midnight.

Pedro called it was flyable at Toix, Pepe called it was flyable at Palo, we noticed the winds were ok at Cabo, but it was all too late to enjoy, to late in the day. All day it was hot hot hot.

In the bars in my vilage they said, ese no es calor es fuego !
(this is no heat this is fire !)

My blog didn't come through yesterday. Well Marcus and Alfred did their thing at Cabo. They loved the soaring, while Cecilia and me were chatting along with some locals to fly minutes later. Damn it picked up, so we missed the flying.

Today we left in the afternoon. Conditions in summer are too strong at noon and around central hours. Some local pilots fly these hours but complain about the roughness etc..., no cloudbase etc... . So better wait till conditions are more flyable, more safe. In my opinion it is also more flying. In the rough stuff, it feels more like dealing with it. Especially if cloudbase is actually higher later on in the day.
Alfred didn't like it, he thought thermals in Spain were like 8 to 9 m/s .... . Marcus on the other hand loved it, as always he likes the summer flying. He likes to have the day off, gym, beach, drink, food and then fly his 2/3 hours in the later afternoons. Cecilie, I haven't sussed out yet. I don't know, coming fron Norway always difficult to suss them out. Give me a couple more days.
One thing is for sure, she had a very good instructor, because her skills take off and flying are outstanding.

Alfred and Marcus German pilots. And Cecilie from Norway.

We had thunder this afternoon, inland, hail and rain, heavy cloudformations, and still 30 degrees celsius. I can know as I was caught on my Vespa visiting my buddy Juan Pedro. Juan Pedro takes his BMW off road motorbike through Morocco once in a while, is one of our better paraglider pilots, and is one of the first hangglider pilots who started flying early eighties, and does trialbike tracks every other weekend. He is also a climber and a hiker. And he is injured, he tore his ligaments and ripped his meniscus.

How ? Stepping off his van during work.... Damn. Feel sorry for this so active man, to be grounded. So the only thing we can do is visit no ?

But you want to know if we flew. Well told yo already we had thunderstorms inland. But this is Alicante, so the sun is strong and later on it all got smoother. We hiked up to Hondon de las Nieves and had some flying on the eastern faces of the ridges. Not the best, as Marcus unfortunately bummed out and had a walkabout of about 6 km in the heat. But hey exercise, we all need it.

Hondon is not a place where you meet other pilots. Last years I have been flying with my guests there alone. Only maybe once or twice I met a local pilot from the nearby village who soares above his house. But he is to be thanked for cleaning the take offs (we have two) and putting down a net, taking care of our precious gliders. Thanks.

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Bottom foto from Yelmo this year. 10th edition and again a huge succes.

Raul Rodriguez, after Eddy Merckx my ultimate hero. No bullshit, just doing it, no poses, just loving it.

Best of both worlds. Coastal flying, mountain flying. Take your pick. Today it was all possible. We choose for relax, after all we are on holiday aint' we.

So coastal, some beach in between en enjoying the spanish life. Lemon granizado, helado, cerveza, paella, siesta, volar.

Another splendid day. But lets be critical, not too impressed by some take offs, and top landings. All could be improved I guess, not used to take off and land in thermic conditions, don't know.

Although living in mountainous countries, does not mean you master your take off well everywhere.

Lots of take offs are done in nul wind, forward launches. Landings on huge football pitches in wide valleys. Never in gusty, thermic conditions at take offs, like in Alicante Spain. Thermal dynamic conditions. But that makes flying in Alicante so much more challenging. You can learn a lot down here, to become a lot better pilot once back home.

Again take offs have to be bullet proof, let there be no doubt. I insist in having a bullet proof take off, result of hours and hours of groundhandling.

So we can all learn from each other, and keeping our ears and eyes open.

We also had two visitors from Holland enjoying tandem rides.

On the foto, Rafa and Jasna, what a lovely couple eh.

It was 35 degrees, the sun was burning, the sea was cooling, the flying was ... Alicante.

This is what I call American hospitality ! We had to do five tandems today, with young people who have been cruising around the world for the last two years on a sailboat.

Three Americans and two Russians, Joshua C. a jewish carpenter whose birthday it was, his beautiful girlfriend Julia who organised the whole party, Tim, Boris and lovely Natasha.

Nice to enjoy such an enthusiasm again. Call it typical American. There is sure one nation that knows how to throw a party out of nothing, its the Americans. Lovely people from Santa Barbara California, flying with us on this gorgeous day at Palomaret. Where lift was free, where sink had to be looked for.

A 'boat'-made chocolate cake with fresh cherries afterwards and a couple of ice chilled champagne drinks with it.

A birthday song, joy and fun.

And yes you noticed well, the birthday boy, wore a skirt.... . It was my first passenger ever that took off his clothes after landing, never happened before !

Foto down here is not what you think. The whipped cream had to passed over nose by nose, honestly.

Its all part of the job eh.

What a succesfull day, swiss pilots Evita and friend Lukas, first some soaring over the cliffs at noon, some lunch, a well deserved siesta, flying again in the cooler breeze on the hills. Awesome today.

You know what I am gonna do now. I am gonna have me a bottle of ice chilled extreme dry white wine, Bach seco, cooling down on my terrace with the night breeze And I am gonna listen to my favourite radio station, loud enough to feel the vibes.

This station :

http://www.jazzradio.fr/?p=1

Swiss pilots arrived, more swiss pilots arriving this sunday. Just in time when the weather approves.
Today again hot hot hot, sea temperature 28 degrees, inland cu-nimbs forming southwestern winds. So we all stayed down, although last hour maybe there was some flying possible in Hondon.
Our buddies who weekly fly in Biscoy let me know things were gusty and clouds suspicious.... .

Got to be sporty, had to get the bike out, sweaty though.

Alex, Alejandro, Jordi and Carmen got their wings out. At the cliffs. While northwards the clouds were dark, with Mamatus underneath.
Not the best day, especially not after 10 tornado's hit the region yesterday, and an alert was on for more heavy weather.
It was all filmed :

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20090708/las-altas-temperaturas-del-mediterraneo-provocan-diez-tornados-oliva/284133.shtml

Watertemperature 27 to 28 degrees celsius, above the Costa Blanca, a cold bag of air. With the eastern winds helping out, we got the unavoidable collision between those two air masses. Resulting in mini 'hurricanes', same what happenes a lot in Louisiana USA in autumn, but luckily less radical.

It is cooling down a bit. Winds from the sea, from Levante. In the morning flyable at the cliffs. In the afternoon up to 40 km per hour.

I was waiting for my tandem clients to have a go, but even when a full moon was brightening up the sea in front of take off, we still couldn't take off.

Tomorrow looks the same, have to get up early I guess.

Last nights' foto of the moonlit garden.

Ozone Octane FLX acro glider

Playing around at the cliffs. Wish you were here.

I have been flying an Ozone Addict2 last week. Yes, no more Niviuk...

After some backstabbing emails from the british importer of Niviuk, Niviuk decided it was better to cut me off as their dealer. And on top of that they refused to send me my ordered glider for personal use the Artik2. Never mind.

But if there is a thread again about buying gliders abroad, I will not shut up any more, as there is a huge can of worms to be opened. Sadly enough, I am victim of lies, greediness and unfairness. But we will stand firm and always be on the side of the pilots, let that not be a worry.

So flying an Ozone Addict2 last week. In Ager mainly had a big testflight on it. Ager is best flyable with a southern southwestern wind. Well later in the day we flew with some locals on a strong westerly wind. No problems everything seemed fine, even boaty soarable at times. Untill on our left, east, we saw lots of humidity coming in, in forms of fog. I flew out in the valley not to be caught in this changing wind near the cliffs of Ager.

Once out it quickly became 'rough as fuck'. From a 25 km westwind, to a 30 km eastwind. Thrown around like in a washing machine with a glider hardly knewn was not what I expected.

Locals always warn you about the 'marinada' later in the day. Which can result in a strong restitution or a windsheer to say hello to.

Well we said hello to it. I big eared my testwing, to have it charged, preventing collapses. Under this big ears I was thrown left and right. Backwards and forwards. Coulp impossible reach one of the two landing zones. Was flying backwards at times, looking at the trees down below waving about.

Once low, kept big ears in and weightshifted to a clear field, as far as I could from eventual rotor. Came down, stall the glider, and was glad to be in one piece.

Stevie still in the air with his Sigma6. 'Rough as fuck' is all he could say to the other pilots still at take off, warned to pack up.

After some minutes we were on a walkabout to find our retrieval van.

So the Addict2 passed the test I would say. In very turbulent air, could control it, although it was lots of times at the verge of collapsing, it felt charged with the big ears on.

It is sunday, first day back from the pyrenees, back at base Alicante. Most pilots are gone, some to Yelmo where the anual festival is held, others to the competition in Piedrahita.

It is extremely hot for the moment, and only flyable later in the afternoon. If I would had to make a choice today, it would have been Caudete. More inland than our usual sites, to get some higher cloudbase in. Because the inversion at the coast is very thick, thicker than inland.

Top foto, flying over the Ager valley.

When is the best time to go to the foot of the Pyrenees to go fly ? Same question asked weekly down here in Alicante. Difficult to answer, but last week of june beginning of july surely ain't the worst.
We have been organising these trips now for the third time, same time of the year. And each time we hardly missed a days flying.
Funny thing is, that we are there alone, except a few local buddies I know from the schools/clubs.
And lets thank Paco and Oriol for the local knowledge in Berge, then Miguel and Jordi for Ager, and last but not least Micky from Parapente Pireneos to keep us updated about the flying in Organya. Thanks to those local pilots, we were flying in safe conditions, were at the right time at their sites. Without them local info, our trips wouldn't have been so succesfull.

When things got strong and thunderstorms were approaching we were already having our ice chilled beers, ready to go jump in the cristal clear lakes nearby. Although some were still in the air, we decided to chill.
Bottom foto, whilst clouds were developing rapidly, and Cunimbs were visible behind the mountain, a couple of pilots still were in the air. Not for us though.

We had a fantastic team again this year. Good friends, no hassles, lots of flying, lots of swimming, lots of siesta, lots of food, it doesn't get much better....

Below foto's of the participants on our third roadtrip to the pyrenees, sites Berga, Organya and Ager.

StevieG hugging his baby -Advance Sigma6

Ann, Ozone Geo, belgian pilot

Scott, Niviuk HOOK, mr wingover

Marcel, the colonel, Niviuk Artik, belgian pilot

Hendrie, dutch pilot, ex international rugby player for the dutch team, Advance Sigma6

Toni, the Boomerang from Ireland, Niviuk HOOK

Retrieve car. My ever lasting "6 euro"- hat.

'our last flight at Organya an awesome way to end our trip'. These are Stevie's words under last year picture and I think he'll write something similar today!!!

Although it didn't look like it today, the last few days we were really monitoring all possible weather forecast hoping for that break, that small window that would make it possible to fly in Organya 'the Magic mountain'- but no, no luck. The forecast this morning didn't give any hope either. Nick checked every day with the locals and every day they would say 'No Nick better stay in Ager, no flying here' until this afternoon, when Mickey (from Parapente Pirineos.) said 'yes, it kinda looks like we might have a little chance here, why don't you come over'. So Nick pulled all out of the lake, put their clothes on (they did- although he 'ld do it for you if you didn't hurry enough in his opinion) and off they went.

After having 2 flights again at Ager in the morning, with a litlle crosswind and some turbulence, they had thought the flying for this trip was over, but weren't they in for a treat! When they arrived the younger crowd had already taken possesion of the sky tumbling up n down, that's what they do those young guys, (love to watch him doing crazy stuff when I'm steady on the ground, can't watch them do it flying, makes me dizzy.) And so they flew around for an hour an half , enjoying the magic of Organya.

The general comment tonight "While the elderly did Baby wingovers, the young ones tumble around'.

'rough as fuck' that's Stevies comment for the day.

Fortunately for me Marcel was a bit more talkative.

" 2 small flights this morning, 1 just top to bottom, the second one nice n easy thermalling, little over an hour, followed by a cool dip in the lake and a nice salad in the hippie bar. Then when we came back there were some gliders in the air, up to the take off but it was very very windy, after a while it did ease down and Nick and Stevie managed to take off, however it did look quiet turbulent, the wind by then had picked up some much we decided not to fly, when we arrived at the landing the wind was really blowing hard and had changed direction. Nick and Stevie finally managed to come down with big ears in another field, both happy to be on the ground."

When asked if he had a good week, his answer was: 'ofcourse, the women working while we get to fly and have fun, what more can I wish'

hmmm I've got a few ideas, Marcel but I'm sure somebody else will explain all that to you next week!

H3 checking on his network

Happy Toni in the bar at the lake.

Ann taking off at Berga last year-unfortunately she hurt her foot at the landing 2days ago and decided not to fly anymore but as a true roadtripper won't go home before saturday!

Stevies message today: 'Just had a great morning flight, got to cloud base 6900 ft, asl 5mps, 32 C, 1h45. Time for cold beerand siesta before evening flight, hope you guys are getting a great flight in too'

Tony' s message was even shorter but never the less enthousiastic: ''Screaming thermals, really high above take off, couldn't believe it! Eventually landed next to the pig farm and I'm as happy as a pig.''

and then a Happy Ann: 'started easy with a litlle half hour flight, gentle and easy thermalls then went up again and took off for a second flight, amazing views, got about 600m above take off, really beautiful. After that it was time for another nice cool swimm in the lake and a large siesta, it's really really hot here. The afternoon was a bit of the same as the last few days due to the heat thunderstorms building up in the distance. not flyable, but had a terrific day and we're just having a nice drink and then we'll go out for good food again.'