EN B gliders

This week three EN B gliders on our hills, EN B or the old DHV gliders.

There was a time that other pilots looked down on these gliders, and didn't want to be seen with them. Times have changed. These gliders are not parachutes any more, but really fly. Proof this week. The Aereos glider from Ukraine, the Mojo3 from MOJO, and the NOVA glider, all performing absolutely great in - at times - bity thermals.

Excellent for low airtime pilots, it is giving them so much confidence, refining their skills in thermals, in rougher conditions. Their next glider will probably be an upgrade. I can almost believe they'll have a headstart compared to students flying a Dhv1-2 from starters.

Hoy, today, thunderstorms and heavy rains over Alicante.

Out of the hat

Rainy all over Spain. But Alicante was different. At first very very cloudy, and thinking about flying little bit, untill it got 100 % overcast. But it all cleared up and we all had a 4 hour window to fly.

Out of the hat I would say, but not totally surprising as this is Alicante. Still a hot sun, near a warm sea. Tomorrow looks different, then we share the cake with the rest of Spain. It's gonna be a wet day tomorrow, we know.

Wicked, epic, awesome

wicked - epic - awesome

Words of several pilots at the end of the day, you know your day at the office must have been succesfull.

It surely was today, some roughness, some strong thermals, good cloudbase at first, great views, superb site. 1400 m ASL till breeze kicked in at 2.30 pm, cloudbase then immediately 200 m lower, belgian pilots flying from "Fou d'ailes" till cloudbase was knee-height, a succesfull day for all levels.

Wicked conditions, epic flights, awesome company, ... , at least that's what I understood ....

freshmen, sophmore, juniors, seniors

Freshmen, first flights, instructor keeping an eye on them, first reverse launches, buying a way too expensive kit, first trip abroad , shy ...


Sophmores, left schooling, socializing, feeling confident, nothing can harm them, looking for buddies to fly, here we are !!

sophmores, parawaiting, though soaring, vario, new harnass, maybe GPS, crazy, open for all info, thermals, a plus 5, here we are !

Juniors, on their own, always thermals, been fooled by and sick of buying too expensive gear, having been on too expensive trips, ripped off, first scare, too much wing to handle, tempted to go XC all the time

Seniors, looking around, nothing can fool them any longer, if weather is not on, insjalah, XC on good days, there's more than flying in life, sharing experience, flying is part of their life, part of it, sharing it.

I guide from sophmores onwards

Cockpit Airbus

Have a look around with us

cockpit Airbus

Hondon de las Nieves

Bingo. First parawaiting, which I hate ! - at Cabo. It never came on, although all charts gave us strong easterlies.

We all tried hard but most of us bummed out. Off we went for Hondon. Site south or east, there was a choice. It was a little gamble, it was hard to be sure it was gonna be flyable. But Bingo it was flyable and all had a marvellous flight over the whole mountain.

Another hot day under a blue sky.

Oh, the photo, yes. Found it at breakfast this morning in our newspaper. Translated, the man of your life is out of your life, sell the ring ! Due to the crisis more and more people need to sell their jewelry, gold. Everywhere there are signs saying 'compro ORO', we buy gold. I thought it was funny. Talk to yo tomorrow.

Blue Alicante skies

Blue skies over Alicante. Strong, too strong winds at the coast. Didn't bother us, we went inland and flirted with a 1600 m cloudbase. Mr Per again for instance, who we suspect having helium in his bones. But more best efforts by Marcus and Dave, Adam. Good old Ernst with friends Volker, Werner en Ernst. Felix and Gunther from Berlin. And our friends of Belgium, with Thierry Moreau in charge.

Drove home couldn't resist taking this shot. Orographic clouds above the sierra Maigmo. Beautiful. Back home when dark, winds were still over 35 km per hour. Northeastern wind hitting hot air inland. Yes indeed, tomorrow could mean feet up, sure hope not.

XC in Alicante, Dudo 85 km to be confirmed

Our pilots with lowairtime, had their best flying ever today. First flying at Caudete, later on at Palomaret.

And it was XC day today. Per, who arrived yesterday made his 40 km light from Caudete, more pilots from Palomaret made 85 km, almost cross to Valencia. Cloudbase was predicted 2000 m at Palomaret, and more inland. Tim can tell, he screamed in his radio from sheer pleasure.
So all came out.

Unfortunately part of the group was not ready for this stuff. Crosswind at take off, and here and there a collapse made them hesitate to fly. As a guide you should never ever push anyone to fly in sportive conditions. But it was typical Caudete flying, winds bit from southwest, opening thermals in the valley and XC along the highway of Valencia.

Adam and mom

Charity paragliding

As tandem pilots we are often invited to help out with charity. It wasn't different this time, flying with Terry helping out raising funds against cancer.

Each time there is something organised like charity events, it is always the British. And it is a good thing.

West is the pest

West wind, we knew it was coming, too strong to fly today. But hot for the time of the year, 28 - 30 degrees celsius, still summer feeling.

Morro de Toix

Morro de Toix waiting for us in the distance. Meanwhile hoping for the too strong southwestelies to die off. In vain.

Educational paragliding video

This is possible much more worth than lots of expensive SIV courses.

Riss my friend had a little accident on his english hill near the coast. Riss you are such a funny man ! You should be recovered by now. Hope to see you again.

Cometition paragliding Alicante

Competition at Palomaret, task was Maigmo, back and land near Castalla. Not a lot of pilots in goal, cloudbase too low, but a very nice flock of pilots. A gaggle of about 30 pilots racing.



Good fun, and also good fun for the belgians who arrived this morning, new belgians, together with Thierry Moreau, one of the pioneer instructors of Belgium I was told.
Good fun.

Thursday Palomaret - friday Carrasqueta

Yesterday thursday was a marathon for most of us. Thermalling as much as you wanted, for hours. It was your choice if you wanted a break and topland. Or you just had a quick bit and went off again, as it flew from midday till 6 pm without stop.

Today we choose for another hill and found Carrasqueta. Southeasterly facing ridge at 1050 m above sea level. Some liked the hard work, some didn't. That's the way it was.

Tomorrow competition at Palomaret, we'll be there if conditions are fine.

gracefully defeated, accept and learn from it, move forward

We should have been lazy, do a beach walk, have a swim, some lunch, siesta and then go fly.

But we left early with the promising 2500 m cloudbase. But, but, but ... you hear it coming.



On Carche winds were too gusty from norhtwest-west, no way we could have flewn it safe.

On Fortuna winds were not southeast as they were forecasted to be around 3 pm,

so no XC for our friends, neither an epic one at Fortuna,

it would have been great to finish the stay of most of them,

I hope you'll all be back sooner or later,



gracefully defeated ... by weather
we got to accept it, learn from it, move forward and keep the style trying to have better, longer, higher, safer flights whenever possible, I'll be there

Thunderstorms

Some foto's of the thunderclouds that were coming in. Awesome, although it didn't let us play for a couple of hours. But the energy of it, you can only imagine.

At last mission accomplished, Cabo flying, for the visiting pilots. Always nice for those who have never been here before.

All Belgians down below, and one Brit. Cheers.

Xmas flying

Hola

We are gonna be closed this winter from 30th december till 10th january 2011. So we are open around Xmas.

Escape Xmas at home, and fly ? Well we'll be happy to host you. It is midwinter, case is, if you are lucky you might have excellent thermalling weather. But as we are a spot on earth, of course we cannot guarantee. One thing's for sure, any window to fly, you'll, no better, we'll be flying.

Rock 'n roll in a mild way

Breifing at landing Palomaret. Flying all afternoon.

Conditions ok, but to me not perfect. The BBBB task at first wasn't easy to do. Thermals died off, things still all had to settle.

Later in the afternoon, lift everywhere and gusty at times. Didn't really like my good old Palomaret, it showed me his ugly face.
We do take turbulence very often, but this was flying under the wind at times. But no stress, we all were fine and had our traditional lande-biere.

Sky Eagles and friends this week.

Irish passengers

Our Irish passengers Jean and Karen had to wait with all other pilots for the right wind. Howling from the west it was. Nobody at take off. First time visitors looked at me at times as if asking if I knew what I was doing. Always giving me some kind of stress. But that's good, that keeps me sharp.
At 4 pm, colder air was coming in, breeze kicked in. Clouds got more grey-ish, more moist from the sea. Playtime ? Better not rush. Wait a bit more to fly in gooooooooood conditions.
So we all did, we played in good conditions, the whole gang and loved it.

Thank you all being so patient. Tomorrow more.

Murcia paragliding

We chose for Carrascoy. We love to fly those nothwesterlies at this high near Murcia. As norhtwesterlies usually are too strong to play with near Alicante, we have to drive a 100 km from base though.

But we managed to fly some unforgetable hours.

Our Irish friends are leaving tonight, together with our Swedish and Norwegian pilots. Thanks for being here, hoping you had a good time.

A whole new group of Belgian pilots came in, and were airborne after recently arrived at Alicante.

Cloudbase was high enough for the locals to have their classic XC flight to the beach from Carrascoy, Murcia.

Lets see a happy Jan !