summer day but windy

A summer day, great to have a stroll on the beach, a walk in the park, having an ice cream, a hike on the hills, but not a flight. Too windy today, western winds.







Foto's this time, not so nice and inviting. Foto's from procession caterpillars, on our pine trees. Last few years we have had an invasion of those procession caterpillars on our pine trees, and each year we see more and more nests on them. With result, pine trees completely destroyed on our hills. A very sad view.



But even more, these caterpillars are very harmfull and even poisonous. Little kids in hospitals, dogs die from it. It is their little hairs that get in touch with your skin, causing severe itches, resulting in wounds like little burns. It is horrible. These caterpillars walk out of their nest, on the ground, back up to their nest. Everywhere they have been they have left their poison. So if you even touch a branch where they have been on before, you're stung.



This year the amount of caterpillars around have been devastating. Horrible things, so do not ever land near a pine tree in Spain.

via ferrate Villena

Always outdoors, things to do. Via ferrata near Villena, for many of us an alternative if not flyable like today. Winds were too strong, so off the see some sites and climb a little.

All shots from Heike, well I had to choose the most happy face don't I. Our german pilot visiting, climbing up the Via Ferrata. Wonderfull day. Thanks Marcel, Toni, Harry and Heike joining us.

Toix, Cortina flying under a deep blue sky

Flying above Benidorm, under a deep blue sky. Lovely. Toni, Harry, Heike, Marcel and me, two other swiss pilots didn't want to come along. Too far, too much wind, ... , well, see how it goes, you win you loose, tell you what, gotto trust the guide .... .

This morning we were at Toix, see bottom foto, Marcel is to be seen skyhigh aiming for landing. In the afternoon after we decided to have paella in the mountain village or Sella, we saw that the winds veered near Benidorm. So up to Cortina were we stayed all afternoon.

Heike and Harry from Germany.

Marcel, the iron colonel from Belgium.

Marcel up high above Altea.

Alicante airport checks

Ok, some guests do encounter more severe airport checks down in Alicante. When you arrive just be aware of this man.
When he got his rubber gloves on, be prepared for a thorough search.

Rainy and windy today.

kite surfing Alicante

Clark Little, former surf champion, has a hobby. Shooting waves.

Surfing on the net, reading about other nature sports. Paragliding, surfing, kitsurfing, climbing.

Winter time in Alicante

End of stock 2009.

Flightsuits, sup'air, U'turn, Just-Acro, Apco, all on sale.
And AVA and some sup'air harnasses on sale as well.
For instance sup'air Altix for only 450 euros all in.

More on offer is a whole paragliding set.
Niviuk HOOK, sup'air Altix, helmet, radio and vario. Pilot stopped flying, equipment hardly used. Email us if interested.

It was bound to happen.

Belgian terrorist attack. Attacked the tower of Montparnasse Paris, with his hangglider. Result, one person dead.

lazy ousy day, sunday afternoon ....

Paramotors doing their thing over the cabo.

We were just doing some groundhandling waiting for the strong winds that were predicted,

but n0ne of that,

it stayed calm and we had drizzle later in the afternoon,

so we just chilled and were lazy, lazy on a sunday afternoon.

El Cid

There were only two guys flying today. Bartual and Pepe. They left at dawn for the via ferrata en El Cid, and hiked on the eastern face of El Cid, to find a spot to take off from. Both landed in the garden of pepe's house.

Extremely well done, the via ferrata of El Cid is not for beginners to say the least. They both did it unsecured and with paraglider bag on their backs.

Andtalking about wingspans. As you see on the photo from the eighties, nothing new under the sun. Even in those days they flew banana's.

pescado vendido

We flew till 'todo pescado vendido'. That's a spanish phrase, we flew till 'all fish was sold out'.

Indeed till winds were catabatic. That's how eager we were today.

A lovely winter thermalling day. Not strong, but excellent to fly it without instruments, and core the smooth thermals, hitting the inversion just above take off.

So for lots not a good day, as cloudbase wasn't sky high, and thermals weren't kicking 7 m/s. But for lots an excellent day in the sun, january flying thermals. Toplanding for the better ones. Scratching till hands got sore. I loved it, so did Marcel and Toni.

Down below Antonio from IBI, most friendly and helpfull.

Help Haiti

Help Haiti,

As rich westerners flying our precious, pricy wings, we know we can donate, so I think we all should.

http://www.cruzroja.es/preportada/tv/index.html

http://www.oxfam.org/es

http://www.icrc.org/

http://www.unicef.org/

northwestern winds gave us a play at Villena

Dimitri, Vladimir, how more russian can be your name ?, Marcel, now how belgian can his name be ?, and Toni from Ireland.

Were flying at Peña Rubia today. Alone, no local pilots, the whole site for us. It looked strong at first, but lulls in between made it nicely take off-able.

Later in the afternoon some more magic lift gave Marcel room to go for Biar, the ridge more northernly. Superb winter flying this was.

I love that house at the foot of our hill.

Crevillente South

Foto is taken of a Moorish wall, aging since 1400. Stones piled up, one after the other. Rain , erosion, storms, for centuries, and all still intact.

Is this gonna be our new big landing field, see top of the foto above good old Toni ? Who knows. We climbed up the southern faces of the ridges near Crevillente. After having a Moroccon harira of course, can't be missed.

We were looking for a proper landing field, taking off on the other side of take off Hondon North. It has a 15 km ridge facing south southeast, but no-one flew it so far. So before we adventure this, we had to see how the 'topography' (hm) is near landing areas. It looks good and bad, we could meet some strange windchannels, and meet some lee thermals coming down. So have to try it in smooth conditions. Problem is retrieval, about an hour. So I don't think it is gonna be someones favourite. But we have to try it though, flying a brandnew site always is satisfactory.

Myanmar paragliding ?

Hola pilots,

did any of you consider flying in Myanmar ?

West : thousand kms of the Rakhine Yoma mountains East : Boyo Yoma mountains - Bilauktaing Yoma Knowing Myanmar has a long rainy season from May till October, maybe better for winter breaks.

Anyway, through my dear sister sho visits Myanmar quite regularly, I know of excellent guides in Myanmar that could help out, if anyone wants to go pioneering in Myanmar. They are not paragliders themselves, so all research meteo, authorities, sites etc… have to be done by yourself. It would be a huge adventure.

Anyone done it ? Been there flying ? Here are the addresses : http://www.guideinmyanmar.co.cc/
http://www.thuratrips.page.tl/

Or did I miss any of John Sylvesters' adventures ? I remember a pilot visiting us, who lived in Myanmar for a year, and he praised Myanmar for his people and nature. Sorry I forgot your name.

Cabo Santa Pola paragliding

Bef0re we put Darran on his flight back home, he enjoyed Cabo for his last morning. At last we had some eastern winds. Just a taster as it didn't last long today. Soon it veered north and got very weak.

All Cabo-addicts were there, Jose fireman, Alex and Carmen both cabo junkies, and Manolo who now lives near the site. Marcel was his ownself, trying to make as many top landings as possible in the shortest time.

See you in March - Darren.

And wauw what a hype about the BBHPP, BaBy High Performance Paraglider.

Here is a video shot by good old Russel Ogden, him testing the glider, click !

Peña Rubia northwest

Darren's last day, Darren from Ireland. Thanks being down here, hope we'll see each other soon.

When we arrived at Peña Rubia, Kike from Banyeres was already flying his Artik2 above Biar. Still another hour in for Darren, flying his Skywalk.

Winds were strong northwest, antenna's were humming, once in the air it was deadsmooth. Flying till sunset again, and as you can see, Darren in shorts. It was 20 degrees and more today, felt very pleasant.

New site. Southwest. Just what we needed. 20 min walk from take off Peña Rubia, but worht it. Easily soarable, and if there are gonna be any thermals could be promising for XC, direction Castalla.
Take off hardly needs cleaning and landings are huge.
That's what we explored today. At first Marcel and me had this plan, but soon some of the locals were surprisingly happy to follow us. It felt like real paragliding, exploring a new site.

And now an aperitive on my terrace watching the sun go down. Amazing sunsets again in our southeastern region of Spain, Alicante. Although sun wasn't present during the day, last hours he or she was there again. Lola, she's called in flemish. Lorenzo en Spanish. Rare in English ... .

Peña Rubia flying

After Spain was battered yesterday by more than 100 kmn winds, today we could fly it. Although late afternoon on this friday.

A bit of parawaiting till the antenna at Peña Rubia wasn't singing any more, and 1,2,3 we were off for late evening flying as photo's tell.

Marcel, the iron colonel from Belgium.

Darren, an Irish Rambo visiting.

Good friends, good fun, no hassles.

Arabs in east africa, enjoying the eclipse of the sun today, together with Indians and Chinese.

paragliding humor

No flying, strong winds. But I have something for you, watch this, it is hilarious.

British humour at its best, and ... for pilots .

Orito near Monforte Del Cid

Orito, lets see if you fly it next down you're down here.

Paragling near Monforte del Cid

Spending a day out with friends on the hills, and it felt great.

Driving from Orito, heading for Peña Rubia, waiting, watching flags, looking for smoke. Taking foto's, chatting. Aiming back for the coast, checking Orito.



We walked up to our brandnew take off at Orito. Wanting to open up this site for next spring, I have to fly it several times, in different conditions to see if it will be suitable to really call it a site.

First we explored (again) the rough terrain down below to find a good landing spot suitable for everybody. Hm, not so easy. But we were gonna try the field in front of the old 'tower'.

So off we went, hardly any wind, just enough to pull your glider out of the nasty bushes still there at take off. No knots, no branches, turn around and go over the ridge. Smooth ride, winds a bit weird, south or west, dodgy feeling. Landing quite fast coming in. And another sharp turn, and another one. Skimming the lower pine trees trying to land behind them, on that before explored spot. Oops just overshot by 15 meters. No wind, had to do a Ben Johnson on dope not to fall over. Behind my shoulder, merry screams by Darren, also airborne.
But soon after a scream like holy shit ! Air got catabatic, slowed glider down too much, and pilot floated like a leave, bang luckily right on a bush. No damage done. And luckily it was a Skywalk Tequila, with flaps, no spin at all, just a float down from 15 m above ground.

Everything ok, just a scare and a reminder never ever to make mistakes. Especially not on unknown grounds.
Not done yet. Jan managed to reverse his car, that close to a ravine. Another stamp backwards and he would have rolled down the hill.

Another guardian angel with us. And all this on the camino de Santiago de Compostella en Orito. Lit a candle ? No. We had a beer.



Spending a day out with the friends on the hill, and if felt great.

Ozone gliders, harnasses

Rumours got confirmed. Niviuk got kicked out of their factory in China last november, where they were making their gliders together with GIN. They are moving factory, which causes huge delays in the production of their renewed HOOK glider, the HOOK2.
But good news for Niviuk is, that Aljac Valic is joining his brother Urban Valic, as Niviuk comp pilot. They both will be giving a hand to Oliver Nef, one of the mayor paraglider designers in the world.

Today the Ozone Oxygen2 harnass came in. Ian, see you soon, your baby is waiting.

Ozone, the hippie gang, right on track ain't they. Felix Rodriguez, John Silvester, Charlie Picollo, Russel Ogden, and many other - check out their blogs .

bulls in spain

We drove out as winds were getting lesser. But no chance. So what did we do ? We just climbed bulls. Huge bulls, scary bulls.

Clouds of cotton.