A great forecast today and most of the pilots dotted around Avila, with Richard the furthest at the windmills at 70km.  Great The Goya fiesta starts today, and lots of competitors are arriving.  The take off is not finally finished (will get topsoil and grass over winter), but is still pretty good and BIG. I […]

A cool change and some nice thermal soaring around the valley, reluctant to cross the pass.  We made 2 flights, but by the evening a strong SW came in. The take off is shaping up.  I hope it will be finished by Sunday.

Due to a late cancellation we now have space for 1 person (possibly 2) this week. This comes directly after the Spanish Nationals and right bang during some of the historically biggest XC days.  This is for pilots who want XC kms, so no beginners for this week please.

Like yesterday a forecast with a lot of southerly wind…..and a high chance of back winds at Peña Negra.  However, both today and yesterday the wind was on the hill quite early.   Just like yesterday we decided not to over the pass (the winds in the Avila valley are often stronger and conditions more turbulent). […]

Today we had some strong conditions.  Very nice this side of the pass, with most of us climbing to 3500m just after take off in light wind.  With a climb to 3700m at the pass we moved into the Avila (Ambles valley) and picked up a strongish tailwind (groundspeed of 70km).  Massive areas of lift, […]

Friday turned out to be a classic looking day with an amazing Cu-scape.  Unfortunately on our second XC attempt Andrew made a landing error around the bottom of the big spine, going in tailwind and clipping  a tree.  He was knocked unconcious and fractured his humerus.  With the good access we soon had the ambulance […]

After a rainy Tuesday, Wednesday has turned out pretty epic with nice Cus, very little wind and perfect climbs. The recently fledged storks have been out in force around the valley taking climbs to near cloud base and generally getting flying fit for the big migration towards the end of July.   Laura and I had […]

With a terrible forecast (strong back winds and storms), Monday turned out to be a super day.   Three flights from Peña Negra (though we stayed local for the XC flights as the clouds were big) with a classic out and return to the zigzag/coral restitution flight in the evening.  Great flights for Laura and Martin […]

Well it was quite big, and very lovely flying.  Not much blogging this week but I have been spending all my time trying to teach our builders how to read blueprints and do a basic carpentry cut during the non flying moments. We have now stopped them so our house is on hold again, but […]

That is the end of our mainly Dutch week.  We got to fly all but Saturday.   Friday we managed to get in a flight early in the morning before the Cus grew to big and the rain arrived.  We spent Friday afternoon in Salamanca. Whilst the guests were Geocaching in Salamanca I made an impulse […]