Unstable weather. A good day out though. Visiting several sites, enjoying the views, the climbs, the hiking. But no flying, too tricky.

At the end of the day we were at Hondon North, but decided to leave it. Too gusty.

Early evening we spotted the eclipse of Venus by the waxing crescent Moon, clear to be seen.
And just above it, Jupiter. Spectacular, you had to look southwest in this clear evening sky.

We were watching this , sitting in a desert like landscape, the sun setting, and the Moon, the stars so bright. Arabian nights, Ali Baba you know. Pass the dutchie.

We need a break. We need a high coming in. It'll give us cristal clear blue skies and smooth thermals. But for the moment, grey in the morning ,afternoon sunny spells, but very unpredictable with the wind. No wind, gusts, all day long.

Another spell of bad weather, fronts, lots of winds. As far as I can see this upcoming week will have its windows to fly, but it won't be like usual.

Sierra de Aquilas, between San Vicente and Busot, no-mansland. A bit of speleologie in the abandoned coppermines, a hike on the hills, an improvised BBQ, that was our day. No flying, winds way too strong from norhtwest. But pleasant day though.

Pressure dropping, winds strong,
temperature max 18 degrees celsius,
and maybe some rainfall in Spain next upcoming days,
not the best time to be here this week

We knew it was gonna be blown out today, so we took off to visit some castles, some villages.
Rain and snow on the mountain tops, and it got very cold, ice cold northern winds.

Video sent by belgian pilot, never let your hands off the breaks...

http://vimeo.com/2332983

Man, I love it down here. Ooops.

No, look at the foto's, this is not photo shop, not at all, these were the real colours today. Fantastic blue sky, and look how this mirrored in the med.

It was great to fly good old Cabo de Santa Pola again, after weeks flying inland. And the hard core Cabo-flyers were there, Raul, Alex, Antonino and Kike. Good fun.

Although the day started very windy. Palmtrees swinging, seagulls playing speedbar on. Euh chicos, maybe not today. But wait, sometimes in the afternoon that wind dies off and we get a window to fly at the coast, don't count on it, but be there at 1.30.

(oh my god what did I promise)

Yes ! Westernwinds were starting to veer to the north. It was just before midday.

Come on, a bit more. Yes ! Benidorm had eastern winds now, it is midday.

12.15 yes, Playa de San Juan just north of Alicante had a change in wind as well. But not down here at Cabo yet. Steady.

12.30 quick lunch, never know we have to go fly soon, winds are dying off, so maybe maybe

12.45 first eastern breezes, in between the still gusty western wind.

13.00 yes, that's it, the sea starts to look different, no more white horses, a change in colour even

13.15 wait, it is east for sure now, but where have these strong gusts gone, are we flying in the lee, and can we be in for a surprise, lets wait.

13.30 In the air, rig guys, lets have Santa Pola for us today. Halelujah.

When I drove home I saw this,

I love it down here.

Belgian pilot, Filip Peeremans, also helicopter pilot, under his personalised Skywalk Chili.

Today it was too windy to fly. But luckily we could enjoy the sun, which was absent in other parts of Spain. A huge cold front, polar air is gonna hit us this week. Time for putting some heating on at last, vino tinto on the side.

I have no idea what this book is about. But what I know is, that this is a foto of our take off at our precious site Cabo de Santa Pola.

A story from New Zealand with a foto of a spanish soaring site, funny.

Pretty proud we are !

And I am especially proud, because it was my nephew Robin who took the shot.

It was chosen to be used as a cover of a book. More foto's of this art-photographer on next link (page 10 , 11 )

http://www.arcangel-images.com/bin/angel.dll/go?a=disp&pt=1&t=sr-loadersearch.html&si=6108EC3EE231445B9DE9C07897289E&usp=0&_spb=0&_spe=0&_spw=0&mw=2&se=39&searchtext=vandenabeele%20robin

Hope you enjoy them, well done Robin.

Arvid triumph after his epic flight over Peña Rubia, after he just got off the plane.

Rafa and local beauty, supporting.

Brilliant today. This must have been the better Peña Rubia day of the year. Cloudbase at 1800 m ASL, which means a 1000 m climb for some of us. And this means thermalling for hours in november.

I was happy to see lots of buddies flying on my favourite site in Alicante, Peña Rubia. Some went XC, some stayed near the hill. But all got great climbs in the valley. And that's just the secret when the wind is cross. Yes, I really believe Peña Rubia is working at its best when winds are cross. Then pilots are forced to fly out in the valley, and not do the dynamic thing near the hill.

And this valley works. Due to its structure it cooks, and when it is flyable we need cold northern winds, best cocktail.
But something else now. Alicante is known for its flying, its several days in a year. Maybe not known for writing postcards to mama that your first 100 km XC is done. But perhaps writing postcards to friends, that you are filling up your boots in Alicante, having visited lots of sites, and having flewn hours. That's what Alicante counts for.

So lots of pilots, local pilots, have hours of experience. Mostly though flying in thermic dynamic conditions, and this later in the afternoons, at our several sites.
Today all these many hours, was proven very good exercise to fly in todays conditions. And today I saw some very good flying. And it pleased me to see pilots high up in the sky, enjoying the thermals, coring them right, and reaching cloudbase with the better pilots.

But you know what else ? The bullet proof take offs of them, on our 'nature' launch as some foreign pilots tend to call the take off of Peña Rubia.

Flying is easy, landing as well, having a 'bullet proof' take off to me is so important. Here is

a foto of our nature launch, small, on rocks and spanish grass.
Give it to me !

Most of the pilots today, left for inland flying near Peña Rubia, Sierra del Buey. But all in vain. Strong winds inland, and no wind at the coast. Teasingly veering to the south, to the east at times, but never consisted enough.

I stayed put, checked the coast. Enjoyed my day off, with a fantastic sunset in the end. Temperatures were in their twenties, it was overall very sunny. Next week temperatures should drop a bit, and we should get windy days. Lets hope its gonna be a three day cycle as usual and not more. Because I have to pleeeeeeaaaaase lots of visiting pilots.

Flying near Villena, Peña Rubia. The famous Peña Rubia I heard Eva say But it wasn't that famous today. Winds were weak, and thermals were not present. Still enjoyed the hill, the flying and the company.

Later on my own, I visited Orito again. Drove down to search for an adequate landing field, since the paris-dakar road in the valley is not blocked any more. Soon I'll have my first flight up that one, southside. Just to check if we should use this one for everybody. I cannot see any harzards, but prefer flying it in still conditions, cross winds, and strong conditions.

On the left is the pelgrimage site Orito. Where believers hike up on their bare knees for penitention. True, I saw it with my bare eyes. In the near future, lets leave this for the believers, just walk up with our shoes on and fly it, happy ?

Weather change. Colder and wetter in the morning. Late afternoon, it all cleared up. And flying was possible, alhtough just gliding down. El cid would have been my choice, a 650 m top to bottom from one of the highest mountains near Alicante.

Didn't go out though, as only from saturday onwards we'll have visiting pilots again.

Foto from the site El cid, two take offs, two southern take off, one western take off.

No flying today. Bad weather came in. Dark and cloudy inland. Eastern winds and temperature dropped.

If you are looking for a Xmas present, why not a flashy helmet of ICARO. Check this website and let me know what to order :
http://www.nac-inter.com:80/

Pepe helping me out launching tandem. 1400 m ASL today, smooth thermals. Later in the afternoon, cloudy, but still floaty.

Pepe, Rafa and Ismael got to Agost village and back, pretty good.

November, nothing too strong, just central hours of the day, good for 3 to 4 hours of paragliding.

Inversion didn't get us too high, nvertheless we had a good day thermalling up a couple of hundred meters above take off. Ron flew his 2 a 3 daily hours again.

Alberto's site, Carrasqueta near Jijona. Needed a change, another view, another kind of flying.

Carrasqueta is quite different. Take off is at 1100 m ASL, and only 12 km crowflight from the sea, so pretty close to cloudbase on a weather forecast like todays.

When there is a high pressure, an anticyclone, cloudbase is not at its highest. In our region it is easily to be spotted by a thick inversion, and a very peaceful sea.

Then you choose to fly from a lower take off and use the lift which can only bring you a couple of hundred meters above take off, and feel like a pinball. Or you choose for higher hills like Sierra del Carche, Monte Cabrer or Carrasqueta for instance.

And that flying is different. Once in the air, you know you are hitting the ceiling. It is a bit of a game, trying to find that trigger point right above the wooden house on your right, or just outside where the roads get together and vehicles trigger off the thermals.

Hoping and fighting not having to land on the smaaaalll landing field ..... but topland.

Cold air, better wear gloves. Views sharp, as northern winds were prevailing up high. Towards the coast more 'bruma', more foggy air. Super to thermal up 3 m/s in november. You had to catch them though. Because first flight, must have been my fastest top to bottom for a long time. I was just fiddling about with my vario and camera, and before I realised I had to scratch on the lower ridges to get back up .... didn't. I was looking up and saw everybody even from a distance with a big smile on their face looking down .... .

Revenge, second flight, stayed up untill my hands frooze off, because then I forgot my gloves. Brilliant day.

It was pretty busy, as lots of pilots from Valencia and Alicante had to do their final tests to get their pilot license. Also Felix Rodriguez, no not the world champion acro, but his and Raul's dad was here. Everybody knows Raul and Felix, because they are super guys, down to earth, etc... . Well you haven't met their dad yet, he's a star.

Kike and Cristina, Dominique and Eva's little stars, Lea and Theo cuddling.

As promised for the girlfriends, the boyfriends back home, a foto of all the pilots flying today near Peña Rubia. They all leave tomorrow, I hope and I am sure they had a good week.

Excellent flying this week, 4 different sites, which can count. Palomaret, Caudete, Carrascoy and today Peña Rubia.

I hope you all will be back, it was nice to have you around. Stay sexy !

Oh, jus Ron isn't on the fotos. While taking them he had his 45 min flight at Peña Rubia, the only one, except for local Ismael who made something out of the day. The weather forecast looked great, on the spot, blue sky, norhtwesterly, but thermals never were strong enough to get cloudbase at reasonable height. But we flew it anyway !

http://picasaweb.google.com/jasna.parapente/Palomaret#

Jasna, Niviuk Artik tool these foto's last weekend, nice ones. Thanks Jasna sharing this.

Today we took it easy. Not driving out, relaxing, beach weather, more than 20 degrees celsius still. Lots of things to do, siesta, relax, chill, feet up.