We have won our bid for the organisation of the World Paragliding Championships in 2011. On Saturday afternoon in the CIVL Plenary meeting in Hall, Austria, we presented our bid against Turkey (Kayseri) and Italy (Feltre). Our Delegation from Piedrahita included Federico Martín Blanco (Mayor of Piedrahita and Deputy of the Provincial Government of Avila), […]
I have just recieved from the Mayor the plans and budget for the imrovements at take off. The plans have been drawn up by an engineer of the provincial government, and things look very promising. For the upper launch two graded runs 40 meters wide are planned. These will be covered in GRASS. The wire […]
Today I spotted my first stork, fresh in from Africa and inspecting the state of the nest on the building behind our house. It has been a severe winter here, and continues cold wet and snowy, and if I were a stork I would hang around a little longer in Africa. However, there are so […]
For many many years I have been considering a bid to organise the World Paragliding Championship in Piedrahita. We have now had 33 international events here, including the Category 1 European Championships which I bidded for in 1996 and ran in 1998. I think the time is now right, with the resolution of many of […]
A Good Season With An Unpromising Start At this time of year when getting out for some quality flying becomes more and more difficult, it is a time perhaps when we spend more time reflecting on the good flights over the past season and planning future XC adventures. The 2008 season in Piedrahita has been […]
Gentle thermic conditions with very light northerly winds. The morning flight had Rob and Ian duelling for an hour, and Bob catching a great low save over the town. The afternoon flight was actually hard going due to sheets of cirrus cutting out the sun. Nevertheless, most stayed up for over an hour, with Rob […]
A bit breezy from the east at Peña Negra so we went to Alba , a low site, but it was even windier there. Off to Salamanca for a bit of tourism and a big dinner, Suckling pig for many. Later, after seeing the famous arm in a box, we did a little late soaring […]
After a successful early flight the XC flight took us towards Villafranca. With base only around 200m above the top and with a strengthening westerly we chose not to try for the pass, the whole team landing around Villafranca, with only Rob taking a climb at the quarry to land at the Cemetery near the […]
The days forecast was lght winds and stability above take off height. However, during the XC flight we found plenty of climbs over 6m/s probably reaching 3000m. Simon left and myself left one before 2800 as it was getting very rowdy. There were wave bars set up over the Gredos, but the valley winds remained […]
In the friendly comp between Rob and Ian (reminiscent of Keith and Rod – See August), Rob today came out winner with a flight to Barco, and Ian dropping out at Santiago de Collado. Ian made the better flight yesterday, so Rob is only marginally ahead now. Rob should thank Catherine who marked the thermals […]