Thanks for this one Julia.
Last week we had the pleasure to host many good pilots. One of them was Bernt, a german pilot. From day one we could see he had the skills.
When he was trying out my Artik, he was throwing it around like dirty washing. On this photo he took it for a ride on a waste container. Looking very sexy.
And now to be honest Bernt, this kind of glider suits you so much better than the Omega6 you are flying. Bernt, get rid of your mercedes and get a spitfire !

Family photo : Jeanie, Martin, Michael, Elisabeth, me on top, Armin, Etienne, Suzanna
ready to fly Reconco.
Where Dudo made XC, and got 1800 mASL.
No wind at take off, and cross from the east. Always a good cocktail for Reconco. As long as the clouds don't screen the sun, and of course as long as you don't wait for the breeze to kick in. So an early start, not waiting for soaring conditions, no get in the air and check what the valley gives. Give it a shot !
Imre first, sink sink sink, then beep beep beep up. Dudo chasing Imre, then Imre chasing Dudo.
Up to the clouds.
Martin, Jean, Michael, Etienne, Armin didn't make it to cloudbase, but had some thermals, untill the breeze killed it all.
We felt the breeze at take off, we were getting more laminar wind and colder wind. No warmer thermal breezes. Soon pilots were hitting sink, all the way down to landing field. Shame.
Meanwhile Dudo left for Banyeres, met northeast, so flew southwest direction La Solana.

Bits later we were flying at Cabo de Santa Pola. A nice picture of a lonely pilot named Martin above the lighthouse.
Hardly anybody else flew well at Cabo, just Martin and Jeanie with their Gradient Golden2's.

Thermals and some authentic soaring to end off the day.

Sofia, you're looking cool.

un abraso de España !

A day off today. My guests decided to visit Valencia. Valencia is about one hour and a half away. Worth a visit, the inner city, the museum of science, its beaches and port.

Above a photo you can find on my flickr page. A foto taken during our roadtrip to the Pyrenees last june. This year we go again, with 6 pilots, end of June 2008. The idea is to visit and fly Berga, Organya and Ager.

Car wet, low cloudbase. Mediterranean relax while is was jogging (well having a ... ). Flags not moving and if they were, it was offshore like every day. Smog over the city of Alicante.
No hurry, no stress.
Calls coming in, where shall we go today. Relax, have a good cafe con leche, meet at 1 pm, earlier no sense, ok
Met at 1 pm, take off looks ok, but just ok, not a lot happening.
Took my Artik demo out the L. Took off and amazing in seconds at cloudbase.
Left right, you had to look for it, but more and more thermals were kicking off where they usually are weak. Not that they were strong, not at all. In the cloud, out of the clouds. In the clouds max 2.5 m/s, big fun. Luckily not too many pilots around today, so we could play in the cloud. And I love that.

I was thinking of lots of pilots who visited us the last 8 years. For most of them this would have been an excellent day.
Scratching at times, easy minutes later. Experiencing flying to cloudbase, entering the cloud, experiencing cloudsuck. Flying in the valley, hopping from one cloud to another one forming.
I think I flew 2 hours, and that's been a while. It was just so relaxing, taking foto's, getting cold in the cloudier areas, just get down and feel the warm air rising.
It felt like real paragliding should be.

Not an epic day with XC possibilities, and huge cloudbase. No, just a very enjoyable day to remember, olé !

Midday at Palomaret. Already local Federico and Vincent present, nice. After half hour in the air and this till 5 pm.

I had to do tandems with some friends of visiting Canadian pilot Etienne.

Most of the pilots go home tonight, or tomorrow morning. It was a very good week, it felt like real paragliding should be. Searching for the right spot and window to fly. Thanks all of you for coming down (again for most of you).

We are sure you enjoyed these last four days of flying in excellent conditions. For those who arrived from germany and switserland, it looks like we're in for another splendid week.

High pressure, breezes southeast. Nice to go to our Sierra del Carche, Carrasqueta, or maybe why not, Guadalest. Lets do the touristic tour of Costa Blanca but from the air.

Oh, yes, Benidorm from above looks stunning, quite a change when you know it from below.

It wasn't paradise, but close to paradise. Best pilots got to 1580 m ASL, means almost 800 m climb, max 3 m/s. Paradise no ? Well, nearly, ... , ok .
We got on the hill at midday, and flew. At first, definetely in the shadow of the northeasterlies. Tricky flying. But we knew it was all gonna get better. And it did. An hour later, we still had to active fly it, but cloudbase was climbing.
The technique was heading out towards the little hills in front of take off. Once near to the hill, it was better to head out again.
The cooking valley (up 20 degrees), and the ice cold northeastern air up high, did the rest. It was better not to fly to close to the ridges at first, as it was obvious that by moments we were flying under the wind. But the valley worked perfect.

After fighting to stay in the thermals, you reached the inversion, air got warmer, special feeling.

Result, loads of good flights untill 5 pm. 5 hours of big fun, of real thermal flying. November it is.

Before we left we met at my place, where good old Robin Airtopia's hangglider is waiting for a new owner. The guys from Newcastle England wanted to have a look at it and try the harnass as well. Auch. Our 68 year old John, had no luck, the support broke, auch !
But he is tough. A good hour later he was one of the lucky fliers over high up in the valley.

Swiss, german, belgian, french, english pilots, and a couple of spanish pilots, Kike and Edu, Dominique and Eva. Other locals that usually fly with us, are having a weekend off near Valle de Abdalajis.

This week looked like we were gonna have to do with lousy top to bottoms at first. Now look what we got out of the hat this week.

Again a fantastic day this time near Onil, where we kinda occupied the take off of our dear friends Juan Pedro and co.

Second picture is Olivier Legrand from Belgium who has several records, XC distances on his name, in Piedrahita as well as in Belgium. Also german pilots Wally, Julia, and skygod Zorro Brent (I think I spelled it all right...)

More french, english were all joining the sky today. 1800 m ASL, meaning 700 meter above take off, not bad for a november day no ? 4.5 m per second thermals ?

It feels good, although I didn't have the time to fly myself. Too many pilots, too little drivers. But no worries, it feels good.

We choose the best site, and at the best time. Lets not be too humble. When we arrived it was spot on, winds breezy, just enough to have a perfect reverse launch.

I asked not to linger on near the hill, but get to the valley to find the valley thermals. I probably didn't need to say that, but hope it helped anyway.

After everybody took off, winds just veered and were catabatic. Locals who arrived (as usual) too late, could only just watch 15 foreign pilots circling sky high, up and in the clouds.

I lend my Niviuk Artik to Brent, who throws his gliders around like dirty washing. Well he did with my Artik, and loved it. Juan Pedro with his brandnew Artik will show us and many locals the way to more XC flying with his new toy, that's for sure.

When we all were down, we headed for the coast to do some 'floating', some soaring after the 'flying', thermalling inland up to cloudbase at 1800 m ASL.

But it was too strong at the coast. I looked around at the pilots and sensed no regrets. We got good, skilled pilots around, who preferred to get some real flying inland, rather than the (although the usually very amusing) soaring at the coast.

I think the pilots around are just the perfect league to have.

Love you all ! Oh god, I'm getting sentimental. So what.

signed Nick

good friends, good flying, no hassles, I love you all !

Most frustrating days for a guide. Excellent weather forecast for the day. Northern winds dying off by the afternoon, blue skies, end of october so still warm valleys in our region, which is all promising to take the pilots to a special site. To put their flying where their mouth is, epic flying, big fat thermals, XC-stories.
But shit, the winds dies off to quick. No thermal activity. More moaning. Aaaaarrrrghhh.
What can you do. Keep calm, make another effort and find a site driving home.
Did it, drove up to La Solana. Cross wind, hey not MY fault !
Some can have it, some can't have it. Some take it as it is, some have to get rid of their frustration. And as a guide, you wish for one moment you weren't living your dream. A job as a paraglider guide, making visiting pilots happy, taking them into the sky. Damn !

ps : foto's of todays' flying at La Zafra north. Yes I know, blue sky, sunny, gorgeous weather. Still ....

Thanks Stefan, I really enjoyed this, this is brilliant. Music, movie, shots, the whole mix, the feel, no bullshit, this one is outstanding guys. Check it out.

www.domestic-fly-zone.be

Strange weather day. But flying in. Although forecast was again very bad and didn't look flyable. We managed again, hey Alicante no ?
Cabo de Santa Pola and later on in the day small flights at San Antonio.
The sky was cristal clear, dry western winds gave excellent views today.

We got out today inland, checking sites near Carche, Sierra del Buey, Jumilla.
And we found a new one to play on.
After visiting the monastery of Santa Anna near Jumilla, we searched for a ridge facing the gusty northern winds we were having today.
And just opposite the village of Jumilla, known for its red wine and castle we found it.
A 50 meter walk up, kicking away the stones for a convenient take off. Fine, we're of in the air.
Big fun, and glad the guys wanted to make the effort.
One of my life motto's is, that pessimists always are right. Of course they are. So I try to be opposite and positive. Many times it helped us finding a site, and flying on days like this. I am sure lots are gonna be amazed about us being in the air today.
By the way, Alicante was under orange alert for having huge rains and possible thunderstorms today.
We just checked out where the best area would be from afternoon onwards, inland away from the coastal northern winds. At the new site we checked and checked if it wasn't too gusty, if there was a escape route if winds were gonna kick in fast and strong. It felt like paragliding should feel like.
Bernt, Julia, Wally, Stefanie, german pilots, Christophe, Radu, Julia french, Olivier Legrand le petit belge. Good pilots, I can take 'em anywhere !

Not a day to get the glider out. Very strong northern winds. Bad luck for the newcombers down here.

But there is always something to do. Like last night the fiesta in Elche, yes again.

'Bestias del Foc', beasts of fire. Fire spitting beasts cross the street of the town, you just have to make sure you are out of their way. Just join in. Enjoy the crowd, the fun. Spanish, they love their fiestas, and so should you. After the beasts, the tapa-bars are packed, with families, group of friends. Chanting, drinking. A nice way to spend the night.

And it looks like we are gonna have to look for alternatives tomorrow as well. A huge 'gota fria' is expected again. This year we had floods already up north of Alicante, and there is a red alert again, for people living near Calpe, and surrounding mountains. It never rains in Spain !

Lots of wind predicted. So off to the coastal site, early on time. But no wind. Having done the thing I hate most, parawaiting for over two hours.

Info from inland : no Nick don't come here, it's strong north and clouds are black. Ok, pretty convincing. Waited again.

On the sea we could see white horses (goats for the spanish, schaumkronen for the germans, ducks for the scandinavians), but no wind at our coastal site right near the beaches. The wind was just blowing parallel along the seashore, north so. And it never veered to the northeast as we all wished. Funny, strange, awfull, boring.

Ok enough time for a long chat with the visiting pilots, this time from Germany, France, England, Sweden. Interesting. they asked me what keeps me going, doing this job for more than 8 years already down here in Alicante.
I told them, at one point I sometimes need to disconnect and watch a damn football game. But then days like yesterday do recharge my batteries quickly.
So, like today, I was so greedy to get in the air, even if it was only gonna be soaring, just getting in the air, getting my fix I guess. Still love to fly.

Yes clouds have gone. Although near Alicante it look BAD ....

So we left for more southern sites, like at first Hondon. But back wind for gods' sake. So left for Fortuna. And ? Bingo !

Spot on - all afternoon. Smooth thermals climbing more than 500 meters above take off.

Thanks Juan Pedro, Ismael, Carmen, Alex and the rest for the info, sorry to have bothered you, but we needed to fly !!!!! Un beso !

aha !

Last bit of clouds that grounded us today. Tomorrow we get to good old sun and warmth back in Alicante.
Meanwhile I have been updating my webpage with the new dates of our roadtrip to the Pyrenees next spring. Check it out.

This is a photo from above, just imagine being under it.

I am ill, foto's have to tell. This was our flying today tuesday. See you tomorrow.

Hey Juan Pedro, your Niviuk Artik came in, 24 hour service, told ya.