Mads ! There are no more bananas ! We picked them all last week ! Get down !

Hours of flying in not so smooth to very smooth conditions. Surrounded by clouds, but harmless. In the beginning gusts at take off 30 km p/h, later in the day, smooth and only dynamic.
Still hot down the coast, cooler on the hills. So a nice breeze, strengthened by the thermals, let Per and Allan and Ake fly towards the village Agost, with climbs all over in the valley.

Later lesser wind at start, ready for Johan and Mads to get some airtime in. Here and there some cloudsuck, but all controlable. It is just that time of the year, where at moments it goes up up up up everywhere everywhere.

As babies we were wheeled around in prams, looking at the sky all the time. Baby cloudspotting. And later when we were asked to make a drawing of a house, we drew a house with puffy cumulus in the sky, no ?
If you close your eyes now, and think of a cloud, it will be a cumulus as well. Although there are ten sorts of different clouds, in different shapes and colours.

Today it looked different in real time. It was hot, 27 degrees, but all cumulus were embedded. Grey sky, a sky I do not trust.
So we flew this morning at the cliffs, but soon felt too tricky. Big ears, speed bar and down.

Watch out if you drive around, you know you are looking up, spotting the clouds. You baby.

You could go climbing, hiking, watching the Volvo Sailing Race, you could do lots of things. Also snake hunting, check it out.

No flying, too windy and thunderstormy inland.

http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=10395

If you click above you can see the wide view of Alicante harbour and on the right the cliffs of Santa Pola. Click with the mouse, zoom in zoom out, en avant la musique et tout le monde sur le piste, bougez bougez,
I am going downtown tonight !
Because tomorrow we can all sleep in, again the winds will be too strong.

Thanks Jamie for sending us this gigapan foto.

Volvo Race, the biggest world race sailing is held in Alicante, by the end of june 2009 it is supposed to have passed South Africa, India, Malaysia, China, Basil, USA, Ireland and finishing in Sweden. It is called Volvo race now before Whitbread race.
Alicante is packed with fancy, clean shaven, blond, well dressed, rich ladies and gentlemen from all over the world. Alicante is visited now by the worlds' jetset, the most rich in the world shaking their jewelry. You can tell, the streetview is different. Near the harbour, all is cleaned up, dodgy bars had to go, expositions hall of Volvo, banks and insurance companies came instead. Not my cup of tea, but for lots it is the event of the year. It is the tourist attraction of the year for Alicante. Boats are 'shipped' in by plane, huge russian Antonov airplanes. Helicopters hoovering over town, surveilling, the spanish royal family maybe visiting.
Two more days and they are off, first part of the race down to South Africa.

We ain't flying, it is rainy, and very bad weather, our little Katrina is passing through, lucikly no damage done yet.

No flying today, an alert due to the 'gota fria'.

The sea is still warm and we have eastern winds, which brings the warm air from the sea on land, it climbes to the very cold air we are having above the region of Alicante. Resulting in a huge drop of temperature, resulting in huge rainfall, subtropical rainstorm, which caused huge damage last year in Alicante and surroundings. The worst bit is to come tomorrow and friday.
N good for flying. Lets hope this freaky side of nature passes quickly.

Foto, sunset in Alicante, foto by Jan Bernaerts, very regular guest

You NEED a guide !

Front approaching, winds west southwest. A good excuse to go to our highest hill near Murcia. Sierra del Carche. With its limitations, max 10 pilots flying, no schooling (but that's no problem, because all my guests are autonome and do have proper licenses), and no competition may be held any more.

It is a fantastic hill with splendid views. And a classic amongst older pilots who used to fly in Sella, Maigmo, Carche, older pilots like me so, well ... , ok, yes so.

We arrived at midday, and could fly as soon as we reached take off west, which is a 15 minute hike. Frans was eager to go first and showed next pilots where to soar before aiming for thermals in the valley.

On the foto you see Ernst, Frans, Pepe local pilot, and Martin another pilot from Stuttgart.

by the time Ann was finishing pickings berries, the window was closed, gusts too strong at take off....see you again my love !

It is a special feeling flying near the moving windmills. In Spain we do have lots more sites now thanks to them. Roads lead us up to the take offs, and from distances we can tell how the wind direction is. And how strong.
If blades are turning clockwise we know the winds are on the hill. If they are anti clockwise winds from the back. And this is not only interesting on these hills, but as well interesting to look at when flying on neighbouring sites.

Road up to Caudete, rawhide !

We flew at Caudete today. Taking off under the windfarm.

Winds were a bit off to the right, southwest. But still managing to get thermals in.

Then weak cycles, everbody down.

Again later, waiting for the breeze to help it out.

In the end, had to ask to come in and land and aim for the front of the landing field, because the breeze kicked in strong strong strong.

Excellent day, at for most of us a new site.

Briefing for the competition. Lots of pilots from Valencia visiting, super. The task was a triangle flight of over 30 k.

Soon the comp pilots rushed to startpoint, headed for El Cid, back to Maigmo, bridge Palomaret, then towards the village of Agost. Not so many in goal though.

Cloudbase was high enough, you just had to get through the first inversion where most pilots got stuck. Once there, southwestern winds, not too strong, and the air was lots smoother. Actually that's what I thought.

Later at take off again, other pilots found it rough today and smoother yesterday. I thought the other way around. Strange sometimes, think it all has to do with your nerves, your spirit of the day. I found it excellent today.

Also on tandem, sometimes rocketing up, sometimes nicely coring a thermal, nothing too rock'n roll.

25 degrees, warmer than yesterday, flew again with shorts and no gloves. Yesterday it was too cold for that.

I don't know who won today.

red sky at night shephers delight.... see you tomorrow

Competition day at Palomaret. 13 pilots in goal, near Banyeres. Who won ? Good old Dudo. Cracking day.
Northern cold air up high, a cooking valley, a slight southwestern breeze, the recipe for succes in Palomaret. But I tell you, only for top pilots, experienced pilots. And who organised this competition again, of course Jose Luis Segorb. He managed again after previous years to organise and set a task, able to be flewn by many pilots. Good spirit for the competition.

Strong thermals, windy take offs. Look at the bottom foto, Doug and Julie, a hug and a kiss. All week flying their tandem, Niviuk Takoo. It was their first abroad flying trip. And I guess they loved it. Tonight they are flying home.
John, thanks for being here again, I had a lovely week, although my bum still hurts a bit.
Willem and Rudy, Jan, Ann and Marcel belgian pilots, Ernst, Volker and Martin german pilots, Toni yes the Irishman, he's back !!! Samson german pilot heading home tomorrow. Samson take care, you are flying your 15 year old rag, like I am flying my brandnew demo gliders, you're a star.

First foto Col de Rates, second foto Palomaret. Two sites flyable yesterday. Only later in the afternoon, because we had to wait for the winds to go down. A front gave us gusts to 50 km per hour in the morning. White horses on the sea, palmtrees waving.

Boys preferred a huge beach walk, fresh mediterranean fish soup, some went shoe shopping.

I think all of them a bit tired after four days of flying.

Tomorrow saturday the competition which was cancelled last week is held. I don't think it's gonna be flyable for the competition site. Maybe late afternoon. As fas as I see the charts, maybe western site for us tomorrow.

Ok, her I am. Gonna tell you what happened two days ago. Landed hard on my butt, still hurting, taking aspirine as a pain killer. Ellen passenger is still sore and stiff. Luckily only these discomforts. Dificult to sit !

We were having a super day at Palomaret. Brilliant climb, easy flying. I was doing tandems. Lots of pilots in the air. When I was approaching to topland I saw an austrian pilot with Sigma5 approaching as well to topland. Twice I shouted in my best german to be careful not to get in each other way.
Each time (two times) I got the right height to soar towards the toplanding area, he was cutting in in front of me. Each time I turned away, safety first. No worries.
Third time I had the way clear, so I flew parallel to the ridge edge towards the landing area, to make a 90 degree turn into wind. As it should be done always in Palomaret. (Before I actually saw my friend local pilot Kike landing, winds were straight on the hill, perfect landing.)
The moment I approached the cars where to turn right into wind, I saw the same pilot from before again cutting in in front of me. I shouted, this time louder, as I was on a point of no return, to get out of the way. He looked backwards, saw me, ignored it, and I saw him trying to land in front of me. His breaks down, slowing down his glider, instead of moving away and giving me room to land. I could do two things, one : make that 90 degree turn and most possible fly into him. Two : try to make the best and land in the rotor zone behind him (for those who have been here, in the back of the take off, where cars are parked). Seconds later rotor pushed my passenger and me down and we hitting the deck hard. Damn. I was allright, I knew my bum was gonna hurt, but Ellen my passenger was not so good. We called for an ambulance to make sure all was gonna be allright.
I could not believe the guy, when he told me just after, that he never saw me. Minutes later, he changed his opinion, and said that I had to get out of his way. I know one thing, I am never ever, never ever gonna fly near to that pilot again. He is a visitor and came on his own. I cannot imagine (of course not) he did it on purpose. But I can well imagine that he is not used to fly in these conditions, and doesn't have the knowlege about the special toplanding technique involved in Palomaret. Nobody briefed him adequate, There is rotor area, and you cannot, may not, force anybody to fly in it, imagine forcing somebody to land in it. (I think that shouldn't even be mentioned) As locals we never come in to topland simultaneously, as we know the possible danger of that.
To me, the guy didn't show any respect to other pilots, endangering them. Pilots who were at the spot saw it all. When guardia civil came, spontaneously three pilots volunteered to witness. Even my passenger said while waiting for the ambulance, that she couldn't understand the guy was constantly trying to fly right in front of me. She is unknown to the sport, but sensed stupidity as well.
Afterwards I heard the pilot is an austrian pilot, with instructor license. Doesn't matter.

I have been awake at night, hurting. But all could have been worse, one meter higher fall and we could have had a nightmare scene. It is not worth it. What I learned is next. I will never trust a pilot flying near that I don't know.
Alicante is put on the map for paragliding. More and more foreign pilots do visit the area. And I do speak in the name of the local pilots. Please be careful, and don't just come and 'consume'. Have respect for the sites, the rules, the priorities, the locals. This is not your home site, fly it as a visitor being welcomed by us.
You can fly with the local schools, Kasana or http://parapentealicante.com/paginainicio.htm . Or fly with a guide.
Now I have to translate this in Spanish for our local forum, because everybody is interested in what happened of course.

Four days, four different sites. What a luxury for Rudy, Willem, Jan and all the rest. We flew at Toix today, near Calpe. Winds southwest, and laminar. Excellent for take offs on the steep hill. No stress.

Almost all of us flying over to Altea Hills. Good friends, no hassles.

(bum still hurts ...)

Brilliant today, although ended up with a sore butt. But later I tell you about that. I have to find the right words, not to offend anyone, but to make sure my statement is clear. Aiming that those kind of attitude on foreign hills as a visitor, is intolerable. A list from paragliding365 with the coordinates of the sites is not enough to come down and just CONSUME the sites. Hence endangering local pilots. The visitor was not from our group, and surely NOT from the visiting school from Sweden. Later.

Brilliant so. Yes, early on the hill. Thermals kicked in as soon as we arrived. Palomaret at its best. Second half of the afternoon, clouds came in as usually in autumn. All up to the clouds, and then all, about 20 pilots, making big ears. On the foto you can see how blurry it went. Well in a cloud you can¡t see shit. So big ear it and get down. It was fantastic, brilliant.

Summershots no ? It was summer, back to normal again. Decided unanimously to stay at the coast today. Soaring at the cliffs of Santa Pola. Nice easy going, tandems and hours of relaxed flying with a view. Don't forget, soaring and soaring are two. One is soaring which can be boring, two is soaring with a view, able to topland have a drink a bite and enjoy the company. That was what it was all about today. Good friend , no hassles again, and big smiles at the end of the day, beer o'clock.

Inland Dudo and friends, made XC. Cloudbase 2200 meter, predictable after the cold spell we had lately. Thermals up to 4.5 m/s.

Beautiful day. Above Doug and Julia with their brandnew Niviuk Takoo. Down below Willem carving in the air with his Sol Ellis.
Forecast was pretty bad, but we went for it and found a window at Col de Rates.
We climbed up to 350 meters above take off, touching clouds. Thermals were sweet, just like we love 'em.
In the end some humidity came in from the sea, so clouds got bigger and darker. Knowing it was just humidity (aint' it always ...), and no nasty clouds, everybody tried to get as close as possible to the fog.
For Rudy and Willem, first time out flying under clouds they said. Tomorrow more, here we go Alicante, oh gosh I am sensing some patriotism here, not a good sign.