After 5 days Steve finally went under the knife and now remembles more his white van, bodged, and hopefully with a few years left to go.

We hope he will be back home on friday.

Saturday turned up to be a classic day with very nice cumulus clouds everywhere and strong climbs in the Ambles valley. The Spanish league had a task to Villacastín.

On sunday a weak cold front pushed the winds too high to fly for the new arrivals. Monday was a nice day although very low thermal tops but Kathryn still managed to get to Barco and break the camera, radio and mobile phone in the process so she was unable to communicate with us and took a while to find her.

Tuesday was an improvement in thermal quality which for some turned out to be a bit too rough whereas Nigel, Simone and Howard had a lovely valley flight. Good evening conditions, with Bill and Liz getting a good 600m above take off.

I had an unfortunate accident friday afternoon, dropping very fast onto a slab of concrete near our home, breaking my right forearm in three places and dramatically changing my inmediate future life and plans. With three weeks of our season to go, Puri and Jorge will show how dispensible I was whilst I am on my little holiday in hospital.

Yet another epic day starting from Lastra (this time with light winds and an easy climb out). Some struggling over the back on the ridges N of the road, then a big climb to around 3500m where the wind was SE. The convergence line swept to the NE, but determined to reach Salamanca we (Mike and I on the tandem and Eldad, Anton on there solos) ended up low and then down to the N of the convergence into a headwind. Chino turned back to the convergence then flew an out and return back to Piedrahita getting to near 4000m. Usi, whose radio went down carried on along the convergence line to near 100km on his Epsilon.

Light S wind and a Lastra start. Mike and I went tandem with the idea of seeing Salamanca. Chino tested the air and demonstated that it was a good lastra day. Unfortunately there were some early bomb outs, and Mike and I on the tandem almost landed behind the hill, saved by a very low save. Flat clouds at around 3800m and some strong climbs (to 6.5 average). When we got to the Lake the wind had gone more northerly (the other side of the convergence, making it slow going and with weaker climbs in the Blue. We finally landed at Alba, though a very scenic 3 hours of flying. Alex broke his first upright of the week at take off so did not get to fly.

A fantastic day. Chino and Guy flew to Barco and Back, then chino kept on going to the pass then around the valley with climbs to 3600m. Our evening flight, myself on Tandem with Julie, met up with him (now 6 hours plus into his flight) in a huge evening convergence/restitution. We flew right across the valley looking or sink at around 2800 to 3000 m with the Sun sinking and no sign of a fast easy decent. The strong catabatic from the SW was converging with the NE and the restitution to make the whole of the Corneja valley an area of lift. We finally all struggled down in near darkness in the hang gliding landing field in the middle of the valley.

Very nice early conditions and a shame to land for lunch (principally since there was nothing to eat as all the shops were closed for the fiesta and my ham and cheese had been thrown out in the weekend turnaround and cleaning). Anyway, second hop was just as easy and the Israeli group worked well together in the scratchy condtions near Santiago. I took a climb to around 300m above the inversion near La Aldeanueva which set me up for an ice cream in Barco. Sometime later Anton and Usi arrived. Easy evening stuff, though a little light. I gave Jorge another go at piloting the Tandem. Alex managed a safe landing on his hang glider. Phew!

Saturday with the approach of the cold front it finally came onto Peña Negra for a bit of a windy and crossed soar.
Today, Sunday, for the new group things were very nice with light to mod winds directly on the hill. Cool after the front so a late start. I flew Jorge on the tandem, then 2 further tandems. The new boys all had a few hours and Alex got to fly his Aeros Target HG after a 3 year of not flying.

A big day for the brave (strongish SW, high base and convergence). We just did the evening flight. At seven thirty I soon took a climb to 3000m which gave me an easy glide back to Piedrahita loosing only about 500m on the glide (at around 65km/hr). Dave, Pavel and Winnifred did not get quite so high, but managed to get close to home too.

Great conditions with a light NW and blue climbs to 3300m. Stejn dropped out over the other side of the pass, but myself Jakob and David grovelled along till finally getting high. Jakob had a remarkable low save. I though I was having a miraculous save at around 100m up, then saw that Jacob seemed to be about 80m below me and still struggling up.
We turned back a bit at Avila due to the usual headwind. Tomorrow more SW so maybe something special.