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 one of our best since we started in the early nineties. For most of the season we were fully booked and blessed during summertime with very consistent weather with only a few days lost to inappropriate weather. However, saying that, May was uncharacteristically poor, with all the rains which normally occur in April falling in May, and in such a way as to break all recorded rainfall records for that month going back over 100 years.

There were some very difficult weeks during that time, and the extent of the rainfall made even our normal non-flying springtime activity of White Water rafting and Kayaking difficult due to the torrent of water descending the River Tormes. The Sussex group had a particularly bad weather week and were taken almost beyond their limits for Cultural/ historic tours. However, all members of group came back later in the year to enjoy the more normal central Spain conditions. Our special thanks to Catherine and Garry from Lewes who came back twice more, spending a total of 3 weeks with us over the season, only topped by our star client of 2008, Colin Hughes, who over 3 trips spent 4 weeks with us.

Epic XC Days

The year provided us with many epic XC days; curiously most seemed to occur on Mondays or Tuesdays. On Monday 30th of June Bruno Croué made 247km from Peña Negra, beating my old site record by 3km. One the same day Mike Thomas, with Catherine and I on the tandem, arrived at Avila very high and early in the day. We decided to land as Mike was bursting for a pee, and there was a new airspace restriction 5km after Avila which gave us some concerns (now no longer a concern). A shame as a 200km on the Tandem flight would have been probable with the amazing conditions.

July and August gave us the usual high cloud base and reliable flying conditions. We made plenty of flights to Avila, perhaps the most noteworthy being John Kingsley from the Malvern club flying his DHV1 glider. It was also a day when we could have gone a lot further if only John had flown with replacement batteries. Another very memorable day was with the Dunstable group when Adam and I arrived over the City of Segovia at 120km at around 7pm. I forgot my camera that day, but Teclas made a good sketch to capture the moment , and also one of Graham, who on the same day had a wrestle with a cravat on his new glider preventing him from also reaching Segovia .

September gave us good reliable conditions right through to the end of the season. UK pilots may have recognised a photo by Peter Myles (our resident photographer for much of August and September) of the Manx group flying in Chia at the end of the month in the two page contents spread of the November edition Skywings Magazine. Many of Peter´s photos are in the gallery on the web page, and also we have all the group photos for 2008.

The End of the Season

By the third week of October the bad weather arrived, but of course our season had finished by then. As you may know the rains here generally fall in October/November and in April. This year there was a weather pattern shift in May, but hopefully that was an anomaly, because for me May and early June are the prettiest times to fly in Central Spain.

During October I have taken my honey harvest and am now preparing Mead and Orujo de Miel (Hot Cross bun Snapps) for next seasons group meals. Our house project is advancing very slowly, but we still hold out some hope for our move next spring. Now the worse of the rains and snows have gone, we are trying some walking routes (see Puri´s walking page for weeks in 2009: and investigating some other possible southerly take offs for next season. The scenery at the moment at its most spectacular, with the peaks covered in snow and the forests with their autumnal colours.

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 and Simon managing a small out an return along the valley.

A quick evening flight in the decaying conditions, notably with Chris getting a little soaring in, after having flown the earlier flight with me on the tandem.

So that is it for another year for us.  For sure our best ever year with almost every week fully booked and no serious accidents (just a few strains).   It was especially nice to have this last good week (6 flyable days) with the Sussex group who had such poor weather with us in May and who are such good company through bad and good weather.

Tomorrow we will be moving back into our house which will be nice, and have the hope that by next season our house at the bottom of the big spine will be ready for us to move into.

For a week or two over the winter I hope to arrange a tour to La Palma (Canary Islands) or maybe Andalucia depending up on interest.  La Palma works a little like Tenerife in that it is a very high island which blocks the strong trade winds.  It is also much prettier and unspoilt than Tenerife.  An Andalucia trip would be as other trips…no set itenery, just going to the areas or Andalucia which have the best weather at that time (There can be a big differnce between East and West).

Next year I will probably be organising the Spanish nationals in early July and the XC Open World Series the first week of September.   There is also a posiblility of the British Nationals here for the 10th time in either August or July.  By December we should have our calendar sorted out for 2009 bookings when we have confirmation of competition dates.  We will send out an e mail to our client database when we do this.

Thanks one again to all who came this year, and hope to see you all again next year.

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 at Alba.

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 pass.  No evening flight due to strong wind.

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 light, though above 2400 the wind was around 25km/hr.

Jan and Chris both made good morning flights and I made the strong thermic flight with Chris.

Catherine test flew the Sport 4, and after getting her highest altitude is now reluctant to let Pedro have it back.

An exceptional evening flight with abundant smooth lift.  All landings were made well after sunset.

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 all the way for him, as well as one above here final landing fiels some13km along track.   Fluffy also had a good start, but ended up in a tight field after Santiago.

Also today Chris and Jan had some good flights.   They are new CP pilots, and have done nothing for 5 months after completing their CPs with Rob Mansley down in Algo.   Both had good morning and evening flights, the latter with a little soaring.   On the XC flight I took Jan to Barco on the tandem.

A nice start to the week for our Sussex group.  Catherine, Gary, Emily (Fluffy) and Ian were also out in May, which coincided with the worse rains in over 100 years.  Catherine and Gary came back for some good flying in July (Along with Rod and Nick of the same group), and I am glad the forecast is looking good for them this week.After an early flight at Chia the wind came on lightly at Peña Negra and we all managed to get off for a local fly around, Simon and Rob managing strong climbs in the valley.

For the last flight we set a goal in Barco with only Fluffy, Simon and Ian really getting up.  Simon and myself flew to the usual bar in Barco and Ian and Fluffy managed over half way along the course in the light conditions.

Strong east wind and low cloud so no flying today.

The final day of 6 consecutive flying days for our Manx group (and one Cumbrian) group.  Today the wind refused to come in onto Peña Negra, so a trip to Chia.  Two nice soaring flights with good thermal climbs and some good circuit flying especially by Colin.

This was a week with initially an atrocious forecast, yet every day was flyable and of good quality.  All the bad weather stayed in the south.  Lucky us.

A day very similar to yesterday, with climbs to 2500, and some climbs near 5m/s.  On the XC flight once again we went to Barco, trying to get beyond, but failing to get the decent climb after the river.  Watty and Pete in Barco the others at Santiago de Collado.