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.

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »