Since qualifying as paragliding Club Pilots at the end of May, we had an enforced ‘no fly’ time of about two months whilst choosing and assembling a package of gear and then waiting for it to be manufactured and shipped. We then spent August getting to know our new wings on the ground at Windy Knoll and the Rec in Bamford. Finally, towards the beginning of September we plucked up the confidence for our first UK flight, tracking down Ash, the Derbyshire Soaring Club Head Coach, to give much needed guidance and advice. We each managed two top to bottom flights off Rushup Edge to Windy Knoll, finally breaking the flying drought. However, by this point (mid-September) the weather in the UK was starting to become less flying-friendly, so we decided to head back to Algodonales and the Paragliding Spain team to build up more air time and familiarity with our new wings.
We co-ordinate with Clive, Rosie and James from our EP course and meet up again with Erin who has since moved to Algo to get more flying time. It’s like we’ve never been away! Yet when we drive past the Poniente landing field where we ground handled on our first ever day, it feels like that was an age ago. Time eh? Weird construct!
In the end, the weather in Spain isn’t perhaps quite as friendly as we’d hoped. We fly every morning bar the first Monday when we are grounded all day – although we’d been expecting this from the weather forecasts which we’d pored over in the weeks and days before. Each morning flight is from the Algodonales Levante take off. Beck opts for the Goldilocks method of flying, undershooting the landing on day one, overshooting the next (ending inches from a barbed wire fence – giving instructor Pablo heart failure) but finally nailing it on the third flight. Launches and landings are definitely her priority for the week. By contrast, Ben takes on the challenge of thermalling, bagging two flights of 1hr30 and 45mins respectively (the first of these he covers 50kms – most of them ascent and descent!) On the first of these, all but one of the rest of the group have landed with Ben showing no sign of being anywhere close to coming down. Pablo radios up to ask him if he wants to come down and get a lift back to the town. The response is a firm “leave me up here, I’m having fun!” Or words to that effect. So off we go. Back in Algo we tell Erin that we have left him up in the air. “Wowowowowowow” she says. We are in the middle of lunch when he rolls back into town with a massive grin on his face. “Wowowowowowow” he says.
Each afternoon becomes a tour of various sites in search of suitable conditions, with briefings at landing and launch points, only to abort after a bout of parawaiting. Twice we try to experience “the magic of El Bosque” (a flying site we missed out on during our EP / CP training) but on both occasions the weather fails to play ball. This is the only site which requires a walk-in to reach, so off we trek up the gravelly / rocky track to a small take off area, already crowded with pilots. Our group makes twenty people waiting – getting through that many launches would need a significant window of stable weather. But the clouds are huge and visibly growing – like a time lapse film of the weather that needs no speeding up. No-one is flying. We sit and wait for the weather to decide what it’s going to do. It decides. Thunder, cumulus clouds and then the wind switches 180 degrees – completely the wrong direction for take-off. It’s dramatic to watch but not quite what we’d hoped for. We resign ourselves to a flightless afternoon and head back down the track just as the rain comes in making the rocks slick with wet dust. Instead we hit up the excellent and jolly El Bolli for their speciality pollo bolli and free shots.
We also attempt to fly at Ronda la Vieja, perhaps our favourite site. It’s such a lovely place – similar in character to our home terrain, with a long ridge for soaring and fields all around. This time the fields have been cropped so the scenery is now varying shades of brown rather than green but it’s still beautiful. Sadly the weather is against us again; not a breath of wind, and then, when it does come, it’s 180 degrees in the wrong direction. It’s still an interesting afternoon though, especially watching the CP students setting up to fly. We silently telegraph the answers to Jose’s questions to them, as they struggle to remember seven points of checking over gear before flight. We still have A LONG way to go in building our competency, but its easy to forget just how far we’ve come.
The third of our afternoon attempts is the Algodonales Poniente site. We have a briefing at three potential landing sites, one of which, we are told, is the plateau. Plateau sounding a bit like plato, the Spanish for a full meal, so we christen the handkerchief sized landing site tapas and the medium site, media racion or half portion. All the landings are complicated with choice obstacles including major power lines to cross close to the landing field. So, this time, when the howling wind prevents take-off, there is little disappointment amongst the group. After an hour waiting for the wind to die down, we all decide we are not going to fly, and instead head to the landing field bar for a beer – we are on holiday after all!
Even with some unsettled conditions, its been another great week in Spain; as enjoyable for hijinks with friends as for the flying. When it’s time to leave, we are already making plans to return.