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.

Monday blues

Arvid, Kath and Kike in the air, monday blues I guess, not a lot of pilots out.

Ok thermals, smooth, no sharp edges. At noon it was too strong for our attempt to go XC, although cloudbase was predicted at 1800 m ASL at Reconco. But at take off, it was howling and impossible for launching. So we waited till late, till things smoothed down and flew till very late... .

Life stops at times

Life goes fast, you fly, you enjoy, your son gets older, another year, you fly, you enjoy and so on and so on. Life goes fast.

But then all of a sudden life stands still. Like today when you hear the most sad news about a friend.

Pilots visit us and fly with us, they come back, you start to know them, there is some chemistry between you and your clients, and they become friends. You fly with them, and there is a kind of relationship growing.
As I blogged before, thermalling together in the same bubble can become something very intimate. Or am I the only one who feels this ?
Client becomes pilot, becomes acquaintance, becomes friend.
When out of the blue, as a sudden strike of lightning you hear that someone passed away, no matter how now, it all stops.
Someone you liked, who was young and beautiful, strong and sportive, always smiling, always happy with a after flight beer, it's not fair.

If only I could do something for you and your family. I can only give you my friendship.

I cannot put colourfull foto's of todays' flying on my blog today.

Cabo Santa Pola

Topsporters flying tandem with us today. Family Bouwmeester from Holland were booked to fly tandems with us today. Sailing family, and not only on a sunday afternoon. But competitors at worldcup racing, and the olympics.

Daughter Marrit Bouwmeester now number 1 in the world ranking, sailing Lazer Sailboats. Son Roelof working-sailing hard to make the Olympics. Top-athletes. I wish them all the luck, and thank them for flying with us. We'll see you later on the sport channel !

Cheerleaders banned at worldcup

I am besides a paraglider pilot also a big fan of basketball. And tonight USA is playing Turkey. USA will smash Turkey for sure.

But annoying news is that the islamic lobbying has succeeded in banning the 'poorly' dressed cheerleaders to perform during the wordcup. Food for thought.

Cool runnings

Nice and smooth air. It was a saturday, you could tell. Lots of students on the hill, first toplandings, first wingovers, first reverse launches. Nice to watch, all well trained. It looks actually as we do lesser and lesser mistakes than before, before meaning years ago.

All credits for Raul's school and Café's school.

Cabo was full of pilots today. As I said lots of low airtime pilots. A new wave of new pilots came in this spring/summer. Then they dissapear and go fly inland after a while, searching for thermals, searching to do distance.

Flying over the mediterranean

Summer is not over yet, it was hot again today. So hot a dip in the sea was very welcoming.
Winds were too strong to fly anyway. So we had to chill untill last hour of the day. All flying at the cliffs. Before it was better to go kite-surfing, diving, .... .

Back from Mallorca

Small landing field possibilities , gotto be precise .....

Kath booked us a trip to Mallorca and we loved it. If I heard Mallorca was gonna be our end of summer trip, I had my doubts. I was thinking about Palma de Mallorca, playa del flamencos, Alcudia. But luckily there was so much more.

Port Soler, the hikes in the mountains, the Mallorcan landscape, the villages in between the resorts, Port Colon with its flying site near the castle, the numerous white sandy bays, the crystal clear waters.

Back home so and ready to kick off our new season after a hot hot summer. Well it is not quite cold now, it is still 30 degrees, which is a bit warmer than it was on the island.