ARCHIVED NEWS - FLYING IN 2008 |
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| CHRISTMAS EVE Took off from Ceret North at about 1.30 and had the whole of the valley to myself. The air was calm, great for taking photos and Mount Canigou was looking impressive as I came in to land. | CHRISTMAS DAY - went up to the ski slopes at Les Angles with our friends. This photo was taken not far from take-off, and shows one of the ski-slopes below. |
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| 7 December. Alex, on his yellow Niviuk, was flying at Peyrepertuse and the wind was very light. He top-landed and was telling me about the time when he took off from near Axat and flew east, landing at Montner, an epic flight for an early-days pilot, as he was at the time. Others flew on to do over 80 km that day and land just short of Ceret. This photo was taken by Erik Hortala on New Year's day this year. Eric and Patricia run a B&B called Embellie Cathare in the village of Duilhac below the castle. | 
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| Pre-Christmas Break. generating new ideas for next year. Some of our plans so far are: ** Any time - Two centre holidays e.g. The chateau of Peyrepertuse and another depending on the wind direction that week. ** Road trip to Organya ("Magic Mountain") any time. ** In January we want to explore a site to the north of here called Argelies, beyond Peyrepertuse, Tuchan and Leucate. FOUR OF OUR FIVE MAIN SITES ARE FREE OF SNOW ALL YEAR and we look forward to showing you round. (Left: Udo's mum, "Miss Elly" and Andy, a glider pilot from Wattisham days.) ** March - Snow, fly, swim week. Here it is possible to ski in the morning, fly and swim in the afternoon and have supper in front of a log fire in the evening. ** May onwards - A week away in Port de Lers (Six photos on gallery page) |
| Sunday 16th November - Santa Brigida, west of Girona in north-east Spain. | 
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| Flying by the hermitage of Santa Brigida, the first flights were on the light side but the second time round it was easier to stay up. You can top-land there or fly to the bottom. Above - Jason from near Sydney. | Butterfly and Uncle Richard. |
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| 11 November - Udo had a surprise phone call to say that "Uncle" Richard and "Butterfly" Dave were in Perpignan and were we out flying? They came down to Ceret, where we were flying the north take-off. | Above - Dave taking off, practising what he used to preach about running without crushing eggshells, when he taught us to fly on the Isle of Wight. |
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| 15 November - Ceret N - Rob ... | and Ruth from Winchester. Jason was flying too, his first flight in the Pyrenees. The wind got stronger while they were in the air. This made landing interesting, but they managed well. The strengthening wind also enabled them to stay up longer and some of them had over an hour in the air. |
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| 10 November - We were at Targasonne. After a quick refresher course from the experts, Jenny, Rob and Ruth took off in gentle soaring conditions. | Above - Jenny (Gradient Golden). The magic moment came when the wind picked up a little. I had been scratching low for a while, not far above the horses, cows and walkers on the slope. Then the vario started getting very cheerful. A zig, zag, and zig took me back to take-off and higher. Flying near the snow is such a beautiful experience. |
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| 9 November - Udo had a few hours to spare today between taking people to Gorona airport and picking up others. He went to Santa Brigida, a few kilometres west of there and met up with our flying friends, Geoff and Judith. Paragliding dance, good for bringing soaring conditions. Udo on his Vibe. Thanks to http://www.judithmole.net/blog/ for the use of these photos. |
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 | 8 November - (ABOVE) The last day for the Swedish pilots, and also the sunniest and the day with the best cloud streets. Per began the flying, taking off at Tuchan on his Ozone Buzz. Christer joined him, and Bernt. They had a great flight: Christer top landed and had a second flight, exploring the length and breadth of the ridge. Above left - Bernt's Aspen, above right Lennart heading east. Left - Carl's U-Turn. Later that afternoon we drove to Peyrepertuse where Christer and Carl soared the castle ridge in the last of the evening lift. |
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 | 6 November - ABOVE Per landing at Ceret and playing with Seedo . It was a cloudy day and the sun didn't get through as much as we had hoped, to warm things up and to generate some wider thermals. Still, the whole gang flew and we hope to go back another day so they can have longer soaring. Christer had three flights and skillfully avoided all trees on take-off and landing. |
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| 3 November - Carl from Sweden, on his U-turn Obsession, who went on to have a good soaring flight over the castle of Peyrepertuse. He was followed by Bernt, Per, Lennart and Christer. | 4 November - An overcast day and we expected rain, but set off for Targasonne to make the best of things. In the afternoon it was flyable, though not much lift around. Here's Bernt. Take-off is at at altitude of over 2,000 metres, so it's chillier. The snow has come early this year, but the route to take-off is still open at present. Otherwise we take off in the valley below and thermal upwards. Top-landable. |
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| Late October - Brushed up landing techniques at Estavar, near Targasonne during the week (photo below). At the weekend we stayed overnight near Port de Lers, three hours west of where we live. One of the mountains behind TO is smooth enough to launch so we walked two-thirds of the way up (photo above) and laid out our wings to fly. | From there you can arrive at the plateau where the official take-off is (lower right in picture, near the white car). You can also land at the bottom of the valley by a stream, a few hundred feet below that. Port de Lers is one of the locations we will be using on our road trips in 2009, including July and August. |
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| Mid October - This week we discovered a new take-off for practising (above). It's near Targasonne. Ian and Udo share a birthday and here's the cake. There were not enough candles to do justice to their combined ages. | Below - Ceret's been working the best for the last couple of days. The image on the left shows Andy coming in to land after a successful soaring flight and the one on the right is Martin, heading upwards. Below is the motorway into Spain and ahead is the Alberes range, whose hightest peak is Neolus 1200m. Both Martin and Andy came earlier in the year too, and have been topping up on a bit of autumn flying. Later in the week they went on to have high flights over Targasonne, reading about 1800 ft above take-off. |
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| 10th October - Udo enjoyed an hour or so flying the castle at Peyrepertuse and testing out his new Gin Race flightdeck, or "cockpit" as they call it out here. Ian from the Lake District took off just after him and had a good flight with about ten local pilots. We took off at around 5.30 pm, having waited for the conditions to become smooth. The maple trees have turned red and the vine leaves in the valley below are any colour from plum to gold. Have a look at the work Ian's done on the site guides for cumbriasoaringclub.co.uk - lovely maps and photos of where the take-offs and landings are. |  |
| We've just received some video links from Peter, one of the guys who were out flying with us at the end of August. We'll post live links to them on our gallery page for ease of access. We love the editing job they've done and think you'll enjoy them. They give an excellent picture of what it is like to fly at Ceret and Peyreptertuse. Don't know where they found all those famous actors to star in the production, but many many thanks to all involved: Peter, Jair,Oli, Dave and Rob. | The DVD is on Youtube, in three parts due to the length http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfRZBdJlmeg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZ71VGk80g&feature=related http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OZwKoAxJ0e0 and also on Vimeo as a whole video which can also be downloaded in one piece http://vimeo.com/2205796 |
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| 4 October Johan arrived from Oslo, our first pilot from Scandinavia. He has made several good flights this week from Targasonne and Peyrepertuse. Johan took these pictures from the take-off at Targasonne. Another day he flew above "the castle, see above." |
| Late September / Early October - The end of the week was a mixed picture. We had more days of good soaring at Targasonne and at Ceret, but one pilot landed hard, resulting in a broken arm and sprained ankle at Targasonne. The landing field here is large and grassy and used by the local PG school but there are rocks in the top right-hand corner: avoid flying low over these. | The day was lifty and the pilot successfully dealt with lift two or three times, low to the ground. The final time ended in a sudden landing among the rocks. Happily the pilot seems to be making a good recovery. |
| 29 September Targasonne. Picture shows Richard and Evan setting off to explore the valley. Everyone flew. Chris reached about 900 m above TO and was up for ages. Ginette did a lovely landing, dead centre. |
| 28 Sept We took of from Targasonne Mauroux 2067m not far from Font Romeu. This was a day when Udo was busy as a retrieve driver - Richard flew to Enveitg (France) on his first flight and Age (Spain) on his second. Mike, Tom and Jenny all landed in the Spanish enclave of Llivia. For some of the time the lift was strong enough to make the vario squeal and you could just fly out in a straight line. 27 September - Flying at Targasonne and Peyrepertuse. |  |
| On 15th September we were at Santa Brigida in Spain with Steve Dean and friends (Alex, Dirk, Doug, Eddie, Ian and Guy, Clive and Linda), flying near a hermitage perched on a rock face, which is often also used by climbers. Here are Guy, Ian and Steve making the most of the afternoon's lift, after two days when the wind wasn't right for flying. (Ian is flying above the hermitage in the photo on the right.) The guys invited us to a memorable BBQ at their gîte, with Dirk as Pyromanic-in-Chief and Ian and Alex producing sumptuous spuds and tomatoes, baked and drizzled with olive oil. Some of them braved a dip in the pool which was almost warm enough to swim in, after an evening at the pizza café, where they conversed with some of the residents of the village, we are told. Don't ask. Please see Beyond Extreme forum if you want more pictures. |  |
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| Below: Dirk and Doug in front with Guy, Eddie,Ian, Steve and Alex. Queribus castle on the horizon and the village of Duilhac below. | Below: Clive at Targasonne Cereja. Linda in the forground, taking a break from mountain walks and September scrumping. |
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| Clive landing after a flight at Peyrepertuse castle. |  |
| Dennis and Caro live in the Auvergne. Caro is perhaps best known in the face painting world and has published books on the subject. Dennis showed us how to soar at Ceret and loved his flight over the castle. |
| Below: Kath's red Niviuk, over Peyrepertuse She and Nick from Doyouwanna in Alicante stayed nearby for a few days at the end of their holiday, camping with Paco. It was great to see them and we enjoyed a few wines and beers together. | Check out these if you've not yet flown near Alicante. www.doyouwanna.net/ http://paragliding-doyouwanna.blogspot.com/ |
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| Late August - Joel from Belgium was with us for a week and flew at Tuchan, Ceret, Peyrepertuse and Leucate. This photo shows him landing at Tuchan and if you'd like to see some of his own pictures, try these links: 1. Udo's Ozone and Jen's Golden flying at Leucate: http://joeltje.info/webvideo/udo-jen2008.wmv 2. Rob and friends at Leucate (see below): http://joeltje.info/webvideo/FilmVinca%20Pirynnees.wmv 3. An artistic mixture of holiday photos http://joeltje.info/webg/index.php?gallerizedir=./vliegen/2008/ VincaPirynnees | 
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| End of August 08 - It was good to meet Bill, Piers, Michael and Nikki this month - hope to show pictures of them another time, Steve, Emma and family too. Rob & Co came out as a group. They met while learning to fly with Northern Paragliding. (Our thanks Northern: we also gleaned a lot from Ian's "Touching Cloudbase" while we were learning to paraglide). Photo left shows Rob, Dave, Pete, Udo, Jair and Oli at Ceret north take-off. It's been great weather for flying, plenty of sun and thermals of various strengths to improve your techniques. The guys made full use of them and it was great to see how fast they progressed during the week. Below left - Dave taking off with commitment! Below right - Oli setting out in search of thermals. |
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| Below: Rob at Peyrepertuse, turning left to gain height in the bowl. | Below: Pete and Jair in formation near Peyrepertuse take-off. On horizon - Queribus castle. |
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| End of August 08 - Rod Taite from south London is a photographer, and took some gorgeous photos while he was here, including the one on the opening page of our web site. Thanks Rod. Here he is, getting ready to fly at Ceret. |
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| Early August - Gordon (ABOVE LEFT) and Andy flew nearly every day. | Their faces show what they thought of their flight over the castle of Peyrepertuse. The castle in the background is Queribus. |
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| End of July - ABOVE Lewis and Andy from Kendal, looking north-east | ABOVE Ken's Nova and Ian skying out at Tuchan, looking south. Aberdeen Ian's already booked to come back in October with his family, Karen Handstand, Kieran Semi-fish and Ailis McHamish. |
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| July - Chris was back yet again. We've known him since he was our club coach on the Isle of Wight in the year 2000. He got well high over Ceret this time. Take-off is at 850 m and I think he was between 1700 or 1800, exploring the peaks behind. ABOVE RIGHT, Chris heading towards the motorway which leads to Spain. This time Jackie came too. She's a keen swimmer. The photo RIGHT shows the stream below Peyrepertuse, which they dam in the summer so that everyone can keep cool. Matthew and Gail were here too, from Sussex. They are great travellers. ABOVE RIGHT is Matthew, with the lake where we swim on one side and the Mediterranean on the other. | 
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| July Right: Toon from the Netherlands flying at Ceret. Above left, Sabine from Germany. Co-incidentally Sabine comes from a town just down the road from where Udo was born and where his brothers still live, Kleve. Anne of Cleves came from there too! Above right: Ken from Belfast, who flew down in his self-build RUTAN VARIEZE, which cruises at 160kts, to Perpignan. After that he went home via Corsica and the Alps. |  |
| Last week in June - Philip and Els were here, from Belgium. On the first day Philip flew Tuchan, with Dennis from Yorkshire, who was camping nearby that week. Both of them made good take-offs and landings. Leucate was more useful for ground handling than flying that week, except for those who were already at home in coastal conditons, but it was useful experience. Right and below: Philip takes off from Ceret North, with the normal landing field below his feet and the reserve landing field - caravan park - above his head, Dennis at Ceret about to fly over the swimming pools of "Ceret Heights", Banyuls beach, where we went one non-flyable day. Banyuls has a platform to swim out to and coves to explore on foot or by kayak, as well as a volley ball court on the beach and a place to get drinks and a bowl of chips. | 
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| While Mike was here he spotted this deer while having his lunch, near Targasonne. Later in the week he and Jen got out of the truck to stop the traffic on the road up to Targasonne because a young deer was on the road and had to be persuaded to climb back under the barrier and into the forest. Mike's best flight was on Ceret (north take-off). |
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| 9th June - Europe hasn't had wonderful weather this May, though usually it is one of our best months. Andy, Martin and Arthur came over and we managed some flights at Ceret and Leucate and Targasonne (Cereja). Apart from the Pyramid orchids (above) we saw a weasel at the Peyrepertuse cascade. Photo credits Arthur, who did a lot of early morning cycling including altitude climbs - over a kilometer upwards! He spotted a couple of badgers, deer and ponies amongst other things. For his other photos please see http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/arthur.cullender/Pyrenees. There is still a lot of snow on mount Canigou, behind our village. If you are interested in a recent article about Canigou rescue, see http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23491526 (British teenagers hailed as heroes for saving stranded climbers). | |
| May 11th - 18th Chris, Geoff, John, Mike and Paul, demonstrating (right) the long Tuchan ridge with its XC potential. Below, John landing in the spring flowers at Tuchan and Paul taking off at Ceret. Below that, Mike providing the after-flight cherries, Chris and Mike showing that flying makes you happy. |  |
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| Geoff and the others - nice even lift for cruising out into the valley. |  |
 | May 4th - 9th Nick, Karl and Phil were here. You can see their account of their trip on Derbyshire Soaring Club Forum. The photo to the left shows them exploring the Targasonne slopes. Forward or right takes you into Spain. They became "locals" at Frank's bar in the evening. Great to see you, guys! |
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| End April and beginning of May - Tuchan was good for soaring, We saw an interesting rock formation on take-off, not sure of its name but please tell us if you know. Richard's best XC was on his last day. At first it didn't look hopeful, but after a low save above the landing field he got back up to take-off, gained some extra height and turned east down the valley via Font Romeu then towards La Llagonne, where the gliders take off from. Congratulations to him! |
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| April 26th: Udo top landed to picnic with his family, visiting from Germany, Richard (Mustang) headed west and did an excellent flight into Spain and Jen landed near Llivia. Dave has 1000 hours on a PPL and tried his first tandem PG ride. The conditions were right for a "prestige" flight . |  |
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| April 25th : Targasonne - the route up to take-off is accessible again after the snowfalls. Monsieur et Madame Marmotte were out to greet us, with their youngster. Here is one of the adults basking on the rock, well-camouflaged, bottom left of the photo. John was with us (Thames Valley), complete with Aspen and lenticulars. |
| April 16th: Mount Neolous in the Alberes (foothills of the Pyrenees, where they meet the Mediterranen). 1200m above sea level. We erected a new balise, to give wind readings every 15 minutes, automatically to our our radio frequency. Very shortly we hope to fly this site to assess suitability for our visitors. Udo just needs to decide which are the softest trees to land in (just kidding). |  |
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April 5th LEFT: Kostas taking off from Ceret North (850m asl). Four pilots got away. Didier turned east, 850m flew over the motorway which connects France to Spain, connected with the Alberes range and reached the Mediterranean, landing at Argeles. David, Dominique and Jean-Jacques went west, further into the Pyrenees, landing at Prats de Mollo and St Laurent near the Spanish border. |
| ASK US ABOUT THE NEW ROUTES | March 27th Local weekly newspaper LA SEMAINE DU ROUSSILLON published a list of local airports: Perpignan, Beziers, Carcassonne, Montpellier and Nimes, as well as a long list from Girona. Here's just one example: you can now fly to Beziers from ****Bristol**** |