I won’t be going, but I think I would like to so that I could be at Calvo´s final comp as a Meet Director.  If you are new to the British Open series you may not know that Calvo has been involved in the organisation of British Paragliding and international events for around 20 years.  Some of the Key members of his team are with us next week (Alan Horsefield and Phil Mackereth).  During the 2000s they made the British Open one of the most popular european paragliding competitions.

Calvo was also a long time rep for the UK at CIVL and the chairman of the CIVL competitions committee for many year.  I was impressed and amazed at how he handled those meetings.  During the Worlds of 2011 in Piedrahita Calvo was our safety director.  He was also team manager for many of the British Team CAT 1 events.

He is now living near San Andre spending his time hunting mountain sheep with his bow and arrow in the nude (I think!) and harvesting freshwater prawns from the lake for his Gamas Pil Pil (bloody orrrible´….sorry).  The french peasantry are also learning a lot about luxury plumbing, getting a fresh turn on some worn anecdotes and being amazed at how much Jack Daniels he can drink without any apparent effect.

If there are any Civl Servant, CIVL or Royal AeroClub types reading this, then see if you can arrange a nice little gong for him.  MBE, OBE, knighthood or  Aeroclub medal.  Go on……it would be really nice.

Here is my design for the T shirt of the Open featuring Calvo.

Still very unstable which will continue through until tomorrow.  Moderate SW winds, a bit top end for Lastra even if it was not for the threat of storms.  This evening the wind should veer to the West so we may be able to do an evening flight at Peña Negra.

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Here is the english text for a french translation Johan.  Not word for word, but basically the same.  
The video is here:

This is for one of my San Hillarie festival entries.  If the weather is as bad as we expect tomorrow, perhaps you can help me with it.

Sir James Mallinson.  Lord of the Himalayas.

Ok, so we are here with Jim Mallinson and he is often called Lord of the Himalayas.

Yesterday was an absolute classic day with perfect Cu and a marked convergence with strong smoothish climbs to 4000m.  I did my PB for carrying a 100kg passenger (Juan) to Avila on the tandem.  A bit of a taxi service now as the day before I took Adrian there too.

Tricky staying low for the airspace After Avila.  Hand landed at around 80km due to this.

Today, Friday good conditions early on from La Lastra, but overdevelopment by mid afternoon.  Ethan still managed a 70km flight though.

The approaching fronts has made today flyable but nowhere near as good as it has been.  It is unlikely that we can safely fly tomorrow, although the winds are still fine.  Today the winds have moved more to the south.  It is likely that it will come onto PN but we will go earlier, before 11am to the southerly site as I do not expect to be flying after 3pm.  There is an early ground inversion to 1600m, but once the temperature reaches around 30ºC then the thermal quality will be good but the upper level instability will lead to the quick formation of Congestus clouds and CBs.  You can see on the map the trough line running along the Sierras from around Segovia onwards.  You  can also see from the hirlam surface winds that the convergence runs many Km to our north, but the perfect direction to avoid the airspace!

We will leave around 10.30 to 10.45 if possible.

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1pm

conditions along track over time

down wind track

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My XC mag just arrived and here is the illustration I did for Ed Ewing at XC mag last month during the X Alps.  If you were following the race then you will recognise the situation.  When Chrigel was penalised for going the wrong way up a track and had a moan at the sponsor Red Bull and said that Coke was better.

Chrigel Cola

Superb conditions yesterday with the whole group over the Pass and at or near Avila and back some.  PB for Graham and a local PB for  Hans who made 92km of the return from Avila.  Even I managed to stay of the tea and biscuits for long enough to do a Tandem flight with Adrian to Avila.  (below).  Once again excellent conditions.  Transition conditions today so should be epic, tomorrow and Saturday less so depending upon the speed of the arriving cold fronts.

On the photo  below you can see the convergence south of Avila.  The fact that it set up to the south is the reason we landed at Avila rather than continuing into the quartering headwind which would have been slow.  The best option in these conditions is to fly back….or land for tea and biscuits!

This is the day before a frontal transition which are usually the epic days.  Friday and Saturday will not be so good, Saturday probably unflyable with a cold front going through.  There after for the DSC group I have arranged for it to be suitably epic!

Today there is an inversion at 3800, so climbs to there and a bit beyond with some Cu in the convergence which will probably be quite south of Segovia and Avila again…. the only thing  that stops this being an easy 200km day.  Winds are light, thermals are strong and convergence for sure for the first 60km.

A big day for Johan!  don’t forget your tracker, radio, vario etc.  ….and don’t bomb out at the Villafranca transition.

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Wind at 2400m

conditions on track to Segovia over time

5pm

2pm

This week we are blessed with nice easy XC conditions, though the light winds tend to give us convergence and often a quartering headwind in the Avila Valley. Most of us opted yesterday for a circuit around the Piedrahita Valley.  Laurence went over the Pass for a 4 hour flight on his Ozone Buzz 3 to Avila.

Johan at T.O on Monday. Epic skies

Laurnence on his evening flight after his PB with my doggie on the right

Another excellent XC soaring day which could be a Segovia day, but it is likely that the ground level winds will be against us after Avila.  Once again a circuit flight between the two passes would be appropriate.  Convergence in the Avila valley will be much to the south.

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Conditions along track

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Avila track