Flying
Archived posts from this Category
Saturday, 18th December 2010
Posted by Judith on 19 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying, Party, party, party...
We’re catering for 15 tonight, so I thought I’d better make a start with pastry cases, etc. in the morning. By the time I was ready to go, it was too late to contact the HG pilots to see about sharing lifts up El Mont, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.
There seemed to be wind on the way, but when we got there it was too light to stay up. There was also a lot of cloud around. Geoff gave it a go anyway and promptly went down. He got a lift back up with Enric and Marc. By the time they were back it had picked up a lot and had become quite gusty, but the sky was also breaking up and the sun was starting to poke through. Marc did mention that he thought it would be very unstable and that any sunshine on the ground would trigger a thermal. The temperatures where certainly cold, but you could feel it rise as soon as the sun hit you.
Once we got in the air, it was very thermic indeed. I got a consistent 3m/s to 800′ ATO and then pulled out… too cold for me, despite my six layers. It was possible to get much higher and I watched Marc core a real screamer. He was rocketing up. On the ground, the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Geoff and I both had several goes at top landing, but were unsuccessful. It was too windy to go far behind the trees and anywhere near the edge had you shooting up again, and it was rough near the edge too. After four goes and nearly and hour in the air, my hands were frozen and I decided to bottom land with everyone else. Apart from the cold, the conditions were really spring-like. El Mont would have been a good choice too. The hang gliders had a great hour and a half in strong thermic conditions.
Party in the evening went well, with friends, neighbours and parents coming. And the food was a success too.
Monday, 13th December 2010
Posted by Geoff on 13 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: after another couple of hours struggling with our accounts, we finally set off to Santa Brigida, where, given the ongoing tramuntana, we were pretty sure it would be ok. And so it was. I was first to launch, doing my worst launch for ages, but getting off ok. Very sloppy though. In the air, it was a fairly typical day, rough and broken at first – lumpy really – gradually getting smoother, with some OK height gains to be had, and able to push out in front, followed by smooth ridge soaring at the end of the day – followed, inevitably, by a beer in the landing field, provided by Johnny – who had had a great flight on his Zion, where “she really showed me her knickers” – not exactly sure what that means…
See photos of today.
Saturday, 11th December 2010
Posted by Judith on 12 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying
The forecast was perfect for Santa Brigida again, until they changed it at 11.30am and decided the wind would be west, rather than north. We did toy with the idea of going to Bellmunt, but decided that there would be time to switch if necessary, so headed to Amer first. At Santa Brigida the wind was on, and there were lots of cars, so we stayed put. Lots of people that we haven’t seen since last year were there, and it was lovely to see Enric, Edu, Albert and Quini. Geoff was first off but it wasn’t that good, so he came in to top land. This triggered a collective parawait, until Edu took off and went down. Then Geoff had another go, went down; Marc had a bit of a fly around, but then went down, etc. In the end, everyone without a car on top flew down. The remaining few stragglers had a sunshine beer on top before driving down. A very sociable day, if rubbish for flying.
Friday, 10th December 2010
Posted by Judith on 10 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying
Good forecast for Santa Brigida today. Sunny, north at the coast and with the cold front going through yesterday, it was probably going to be unstable. We went out early-ish and were the first there. Jordi and Patri joined us soon after, bringing two and a half week old Oriol with them. Strange to hear tiny baby screams on a paragliding launch.
We had a nice fly. It was very thermic, although the thermals were not completely smooth to start with. We top landed to have a chat when John and Johnny arrived. All flew, but I decided it would do me good to have a ground handling session, so I did that for half and hour and then had what I assumed to be the end of the day flight along with John. I got really low and thought I’d have to bottom land, when I hooked a weak thermal and got back up. Very satisfying.
It wasn’t the last thermal of the day… John and Johnny did the same trick 20 minutes later, when they both got a low save too. At the real end of the day, Johnny flew down the new Niviuk Zion.
Thursday, 2nd December 2010
Posted by Judith on 03 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying, Holiday
We thought the forecast was for flyable weather in the morning, but stronger winds in the afternoon. However, we’ve been having problems finding a reliable forecast for here and there may not be one – it seems you need a significant amount of local knowledge to get it right. We called Marcus and Duncan who pointed us to El Cuchillo. We met Marc there at 10.30am and walked up this fairly crappy looking hillock, only to peer over the edge and see this amazing half crater. What an amazing flying site! It would have been lovely to fly there, if it hadn’t already been too windy.
Next we tried Mala. There were quite a lot of hang gliders there already and it was perfect HG weather – i.e. too strong for paragliders. I asked a German pilot about the conditions and he told me that it was just getting to the point where there was enough wind for us to stay up, so I ignored any advice he tried to give me, including trying to explain to me how a wind meter works. He clearly thought wanting to flying paragliders equated to some sort of mental deficiency. I did get a marriage proposal from him as well, but I am not sure he was entirely serious.
We drove back down to the village and debated what to do, when I spotted paragliders flying at the Mirador del Rio. Looking through the binoculars, we spotted over 15 people there, so rushed up. The road to the site is terrible and our low Citroen hire cars couldn’t make it up the track, so we walked over, only to find the wind had gone off and local guide Fritz advised us against flying. We drove a car down to Orzola for them and got some excellent advice in return.
After a spot of late lunch, we drove back up the hill, while the group of German pilots stayed at the landing field in Orzola and tried to kite up and then soar to the top. We found the wind spot on and lighter, so got ready fast. I was first off and climbed up to 500′ ATO, where I could see the entire island of La Graciosa. I headed out to sea, climbing all the way. Max altitute I got was 1165′ ATO and the views were spectacular. Marc and Geoff were also playing around flying out along the spine of the ridge in front and flying over Orzola.
It was getting late and I needed to take off my sun glasses to see properly. I decided it would be a load of hassle if all of us landed at the bottom and have to collect the car from the top, and as I had launched a while before the others, I top landed to get the car. Getting in on top was easy. Probably more easy than bottom landing in a car park full of cars, which Marc and Geoff wisely avoided and went to land on the beach instead. We all met up in Arrieta for a beer, pleased to have got a great flight after so much driving and chasing around.
Wednesday, 1st December 2010
Posted by Judith on 01 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying, Holiday
A gorgeous sunny day and the winds seemed lighter, so we were optimistic that we would fly today. Problem was that we were unsure where to go, so we phoned our old hang gliding mate Duncan, who phoned a mate Marcus, who reported paragliders flying at Famara, and getting along the ridge to the Mirador del Rio. We have always wanted to do the Famara ridge run, which is many kilometers, probably a quarter of the island, some of it over unlandable terrain (read: the sea). It wasn’t to be, by the time we got there the wind had picked up too much. A couple of local guys pulled up in the landing field, kited up and then soared up to the launch, but they were being flown, rather than flying, and only the most skilled went on along the ridge. Two of the guys came back from the mirador, tried to land, couldn’t, resigned themselves and went back to do the ridge run again.
For us, it was far too windy the whole time. I am a firm believer that just because there’s people flying, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily flyable. The locals know what’s what and the rest are tourists who have paid mega bucks to bring their gliders on Ryanair, so will fly just because of that, regardless whether it’s safe or not. At home (UK or Spain) I would not have taken off in those conditions, so didn’t here, despite seeing a few others doing the ridge run and looking on with longing and envy.
Enough parawaiting, we went to look at Teguise, which is the nicest town we’ve seen in Lanzarote. The old capital, it’s got lovely squares, churches and a very chilled ambiance. At 4pm, we went back to take off and eventually got off for a flight. It had turned further north, so worse for getting onto the higher ridge, and still windy. I managed to jump a couple of bowls and tried to get onto the hill with the English take-off, but despite getting past the two sets of power lines, I realised that I was between a rock and a hard place… soaring up the ridge would put me in rotor, flying out would make me mix it with power lines. It wasn’t dangerous – it’s easy to fly out and over the powerlines, but I decided that there wasn’t much point trying to make progress since it was late and I wasn’t going to get far. So I turned back to a bowl that was into wind and soared there, taking photos and enjoying the view. I top landed to get the car and chat with Marcus and Duncan, who’d had a fantastic day on the hang gliders. If we lived here, I’d certainly still fly hang gliders!
Saturday, 27th November 2010
Posted by Judith on 27 Nov 2010 | Tagged as: Flying
Predictably, when you really look forward to something, a spanner gets thrown into the works. As soon as we finished the conference, I started to feel uncomfortable and soon after I succumbed to the worst period I have had in years. Forget the partying, I spent the night in agony, with the painkillers not really having much effect. Or if they did, I dread to think what it would have been like if I hadn’t been eating them like smarties.
A lie in for me this morning to make up for the lack of sleep, while Geoff finally closed down the conference for posting. We really wanted to get out, so I offered to drive for him, not being in much of a state to even think about going flying. With a warmish, sunny, SW forecast, people were going to Santa Brigida, Sant Pere de Rodes, Bellmunt and Orgassa. I was leaving it up to Geoff where he wanted to go. Top of the list were Bellmunt and Sant Pere de Rodes. We didn’t fancy the strenuous hike up Orgassa and wanted the flexibility of other things to do that Santa Brigida doesn’t offer. A call to Matthias confirmed that we would go to the coast, and if it wasn’t much good, we could at least spend some time at the beach. We met Johnny to go up Sant Pere de Rodes and despite some cloud, the launch was clear. By the time we had walked up, cloud was spilling over from the north and the north side was completely clagged in.
Because of the strong north wind, the lack of sun and the fact that even here the temperatures have taken a dip, it was pretty cold. We huddled around until the north side cleared and eventually, Geoff and Johnny launched, hoping for some ridge soaring. The best lift seemed to be out from the hill and both landed in strong winds on the beach at Port de la Selva.
Nice to be out, although we all wanted a hot coffee, rather than a cold beer, after packing up.