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27th August Mike is flying about the castle of Peyrepertuse as I write this. Photos to follow, I hope. Sadly, we have to report that after our next guest, Floss, we are closing down and moving to Germany. Udo has family there. Many thanks to all our visitors over the years - we've had some magic experiences here, incuding the fun we've had with people living locally. We know some of you've had some great experiences here as well. Please keep in touch, we hope to be back here for holidays or we may perhaps meet in Germany or the UK: you never know what's round the corner with this sport.
26th August 09 - Mike and Viv are here for a week, with Mike flying and Viv behind the camera. Mike at Ceret - joined a few of the local pilots for about an hour and a half. The thermals were lifty but not too strong.
	9th - 19th August 09 - Mat, Amanda, Alexander and Adam Udo has known Mat for a lot of years and taught him to fly gliders at RAF Wattisham. These ten days were a family holiday so we haven't got any flying pictures. Instead we were snorkelling, climbing Canigou (2784m), visiting Girons, and watching the village fireworks amongst other things. There is a Catalan tradition of Corre focs (runing fire) where the firemen and women dress up as witches and devils and run amock amongst the crowd with live fireworks, to the accompaniment of a group of drummers. Madness.


5th August 09 - The Castle of Peyrepertuse There was some great late afternoon flying to be had, not too crowded.	Jeremy on his Alpha 4 had his first had his first real high flight above the chateau: a very happy chappy at the end of the day. Now we are having some long cool drinks in celebration.

4th August 09 - Ceret At this point Mike (blue and red Sport 3) didn't know that he was going to be up for over two hours. His previous flying has mainly been in south Wales and Piedrahita. Jeremy had a couple of fights, the first was for half an hour and the second lasted an hour and a half. He got to about 500 metres ato and came back tired but pleased about having the chance to practise the art of staying with a thermal.

	27 July to 2 August 2009 - Pilots who flew in from Newcastle and Manchester with Jeremy from the Thames Valley. Above - 1st August. Non-flyable, so we made the best of it by going tubbing on the river Tęt at Marquixanes. Left to right: James, Jenny, Jair, Jeremy, Ross and (hidden) Rob. Left - Jair and French pilots above the castle of Peyrepertuse 31/7 Below - Rob at Peyrepertuse 29/7 and Karting near Perpignan 30/7. Steve's was the time to beat. Drivers in the centre of the photo, Rob in the olive T-shirt, Steve with the shades and Ross in the dark T-shirt.


Above - Peter and James at Tuchan.	Below - Jair and Jeremy at Targasonne.

Below - Steve and Ross at Ceret

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15 JULY 2009 - CERET north TO. Chris had a flight in the morning and then he and Jackie went to the beach in the afternoon. Jackie is a great swimmer. The photo below shows take-off, long rectangular landing below and the lake which he over-flew the other day before returning to land. It is an inch from the top and two inches from the right and has a tiny island in the middle with bamboos and turtles.	16 JULY 2009 - Ridge soaring at Tuchan, Mont Tauch.

Didier with passenger	The vats of the Tuchan valley wine co-operative,where they store wine. Try the red "Mont Tauch", you sometimes see it for sale in English supermarkets. Another good local wine is "Fitou".

The yellow plant is wild fennel. A flight at Tuchan often smells of rosemary, thyme or fennel. It is a popular departure point for XCs westwards to Peyrepertuse and Limoux.	A perfect landing. Tuchan is not the easiest place to land because it is smaller than Ceret, on a slope and gets thermic: you have to be patient and be prepared to pull in your ears. The ridge behind is fun to soar and has rounded spurs running up it which generate thermals. Chris was up for about an hour and a half. "Proper flying, cracking, great fun", he said.

13 JULY 2009 - TUCHAN. Chris was flying the long ridge at Tuchan in the morning. In the afternoon he, Udo and Jackie went to Tautavel lagoon. Tautavel is famous for being the village where the earliest European human remains were found. There is a big museum there which houses the various archeological finds, for those who like pre-history. There are also things to see about bee-keeping. The gorge itself is popular with climbers as it has many bolted routes, but we usually like swimming and jumping in, with the rope swing attached to one of the trees.
14 JULY - This photo was taken at 6.20 a.m. opposite our house. The birds (hundreds of swallows, swifts and house martens) are chattering and swooping around feeding their young. They like to gather in the greenery and oleander bush under the church. Today is 14th July, Bastille day. There will be fireworks and celebrations this evening throughout France. Now it's 7 a.m. and I can already hear a bugle player. and someone's letting off fire crackers.
	10 JULY 2009 - A busy day ... We had a couple of flights from Ceret N in the morning. Several of the local pilots were out too, clowning about as usual. Chris from the Isle of Wight was back again, with Jackie. They are honorary locals now and Franck (Bar de l'Union) was pleased to see them again. Chris flew an out-and-return to the lake at St Jean Pla de Corts. Later that afternoon we had a swim in the lake, where you can, if you are luckly, see tortoises basing in the sun on the bamboo island in the centre of the lake. At the last count there were three middle-sized ones, one grandad and one baby. That evening we had a BBQ down by the lake near our home, with juicy steaks, succulent mushrooms, red peppers and other good things. Then coffee at our place, with Chris on guitar and Kiwi John helping out with the vocals. Photo left: Chris.
John Caston and his son, Tim, arrived from Suffolk for a couple of days. They were travelling through France as part of a well-earned family holiday. JC has a lot of tales to tell about his exploits on a paramotor. In 2005 he flew one over the channel and down through France to attend the Coupe Icare at St Hilaire. This time, though, he had his silent wing. On Wednesday 8th Jon and Andy returned to Southampton with Flybe. The pilot was Andy's son.

We had a week of light northerlies in the mornings followed by thunder stroms in the afternoons, so we were often at Ceret. Here's Andy taking off. The butterflies love the long grass and wild flowers on take-off. Many varieties can be seen, including swallowtails.	Kiwi John taking off.
EARLY JULY Jon, Andy, Kiwi John and JC Jon had time to enjoy the hassle-free flight from Southampton to Perpignan with Flybe, and his first day of paragliding at Ceret before, sadly, breaking a wrist. He had landed OK, but slipped at the last moment on the dry grass and put out a hand to "save" himself, which was all it took to cause the break. Usually we try to see what could have been done better, to avoid something like that, it was mainly bad luck. The clinic at Ceret put a cast on for him. We were very glad that he decided to stay here for the rest of the week and enjoy the other activities, such as the river below Peyrepertuse and taking photos. Here is Jon taking off at Ceret.

END OF JUNE: CERET and TUCHAN Mark and Jack from the Isle of Wight joined us while the Malvern pilots were still here. We went to Ceret when the wind was light and northerly and Tuchan when it was easterly. The group photo shows us enjoying the shade at one the cafes at Duilhac-sous-Peyrepertuse, after our swim in the cascades to cool off. The weather was very hot that week.
Mark at Tuchan	Brian, Ceret N

WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE - TARGASONNE Pilots from Malvern, Brian, Tony and Russell	Please see http://www.malvern-hang.org.uk/ if you would like to know more about where they normally fly.


WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE PEYRIAC DE MER We'd started off at our normal coastal site of Leucate but the wind was too far south instead of east, so we drove on up to Peyriac. This is further than we'd norally go but we are keen to explore new sites in preparation for future road trips. The low cliffs at Peyriac are covered with pine trees, rosemary, lavender and several attractive grasses. Serge-the-Ever-Eager, took off first, followed by Jean-Jacques and Udo. Good fun and easy to climb to the top for another go.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON - 14 JUNE 2009 We met up with the rest of the gang below the castle of Montsegur. This castle sheltered Cathars from their pursuers from the Inquisition until 1244. Finally the rocky cliffs were scaled and the Cathars captured. They had to renounce their faith or die at the stake. Over two hundred of them died in the flames on March 16th of that year.
The ride to take-off starts with a well-made road but finishes in big sharp stones and it takes 25-30 minutes. We were very grateful to the guys who gave us a lift up in their jeep. I wished we'd had a longer time at the top top for admiring the view and for taking photos, but we were eager fly. There is still snow in places on those high peaks and you have a 360 degree view over the Pyrenees. One of Serge's friends pointed out an XC that one of our friends had done the previous week ... so much potential and so few pilots have yet discovered the area.	Winds were light and switchy. None of us stayed up for long but we felt honoured to be flying at such a historic and magnificent site. We flew over one easy crest in the direction of the castle below. Udo flew towards it for a closer look. I just explored the ridge to our left then S-turned in the gently rising air, both of us coming in to land on by our truck. Magic. We continued on Monday to Port de Lers, where we had a couple of days' camping but low cloud stopped flying. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

SAT EVENING - SUN 14 JUNE Roquefeuil. Visited our friend, Serge. He and his wife have a weekend home a couple of hours' drive west of Perpignan at Roquefeuil. The local hills are separated by wide green valleys with plenty of landing potential. The area is known as the Pays de Sault, an isolated valley at 900m altitude with a magic atmosphere. On Saturday evening they made about thirty mouth-watering pizzas for all their flying friends using a pizza oven in their garden. Various people brought contribuitons such as cous-cous or various cakes for after, and the punch from La Reunion at 40% was wonderful.	The next morning we tried out their village site of Roquefeuil East with Serge and his two friends, Philippe-the-architect and "Manyac".

SAT 13 JUNE Peyrepertuse Castle. Dave was celebrating his 60th birthday with a tandem ride with Didier.	The air above the castle was peppered with pilots enjoying the late afternoon lift.

SUN 7 JUNE - a week with family and friends. On Sunday we visited the village of Cucugnan. French author, Alphonse Daudet wrote a short story about the priest of this village, which I've just translated into English and we took some photos to use for the front cover. After that we looked in the book shop and pottery before going on to the Gorge de Galamus where you can do climbing and canyoning.
On Monday we took the 4x4 to Batere, where we sometimes fly. This time we went hiking to the Col de la Cirere, which takes 40 minutes to get to if you are fit, from the tower of Batere, near the old iron mines. If you keep stopping to admire the raptors and flowers it takes nearly twice as long. Coming down is quicker, as usual.
	JUNE 6 CERET FETE For the Ceret Fete, we flew in the morning then it got thundery in the afternoon, so we went to Dom's house for aperitifs and a picnic followed by Pierrette's home-made raspberry and vervaine liqueurs. Trophies were awarded to the best three XC pilots, Jean-Jacques, Aldric and David. Photo: D Weber.
MAY 29th. We were in Ceret, meeting Mark from the Southern Club and arranging a tandem ride for his friend, Steve, who is learning to fly. There were about 11 local pilots flying and conditions were lifty but fairly smooth. Ceret is a great place to come if you want to combine a famiy holiday with flying for yourself.	The nearby coastal town of Banyuls is famous for its wine, the works of sculptor Maillol, and being the start of the long distance footpath the GR10 which runs all the way to the Atlantic. The beach is stunning.

MAY 24 & 25 LEUCATE Leucate has been great this week. Friends of ours were soaring the north side yesterday and were were out flying for most of the day on the east side on Monday 25th. Ian, (right) who used to live in the Alps, was introducing his new wing to coastal flying. Pictures below: Left: Jen, using the Can-can to launch (Photo I Gough) Right: Udo (Photo I Gough) Below those: Jen and J-F


MAY 10-17 LONG MYNDERS
	SATURDAY EVENING The castle of Peyrepertuse was flyable. Dave, Dennis and Dan got high and Amanda had her first tandem ride, with Didier (yellow glider). Dan Preece took this photo of her which can also be seen on the Beyond Extreme forum. Great photo, Dan.
	SATURDAY MORNING Ceret North. Here's Mo landing. The cherries trees in the landing field are full of fruit this year. They were thoroughly sampled and approved. One pilot came down in the trees and was lucky to get away with only scratches. With the benefit of hindsight, what could we all have done to minimise the damage? Each person needs to think it out for him/herself but here are some suggestions: Careful pre-flight checks to make sure no line has a knot or a twig, particularly if you are forward launching If the pilot says "launching", it gives other pilots more chance to spot any problems with the wing and shout "stop" if necessary Radio the pilot if you see the wing has a problem Consider what's best in the circumstances: throwing reserve, turning away from hill, and/or using weight-shift rather than controls If the pilot lands in the tree, make SURE they are safe, remembering that adrenaline may mean they underestimate any injuries Re-think whether you want to carry basic tree-cutting equipment in your car and dental floss as a "rope" when you fly Buy ice cream for the guys that helped you in warm weather: much appreciated.
	VILLEFRANCHE, RAIN, CAVES, CASTLES, CASCADES and KARTING> THURSDAY was a rainy day. Dan, Amanda and Mo went to Villefranche, a medieval walled city where you can be a tourist for a while or go in the caves, which are magnificent. FRIDAY was blown out so we all went to see the take-off at Peyrepertuse castle, then Queribus castle (shown here.)
	In the afternoon we went for a walk along the river which runs below Peyrepertuse castle, where there are rock pools and cascades for swimming in the summer. Then we drove to Perpignan for Karting. Howard set the pace in both races.
	On WEDNESDAY the brightest place to be was on the coast. Udo and Liz were standing by the sea, when a plate-sized fish fell down from the sky. It was still breathing and looked unharmed, so Udo put it back in the sea. Maybe it was raining fish, but more probably it was dropped by a group of seagulls squabbling above us. The sea water doesn't look all that summery yet, but is now warm enough for a pleasurable swim (cold getting in, but pain free.) Sadly the wind never increased enough for us to fly but Dan and Jenny got the wings out for some ground handling. That evening Lynda organised a goulash evening in their gîte. By bringing the kitchen table into the living room there was plenty of room for the nine of us, and we feasted on salad and goulash followed by apple tart with cream or vanilla ice cream and strawberries. Thanks, guys!
	SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY We met Lynda, Dennis, Mo, Dan, Amanda, Dave and Howard at Perpignan airport and took it easy on the first day because some of them hadn't slept much the previous night. They visited Villefranche, a walled town with ramparts, built in the eleventh century and fortified around the time when the border between France and Spain was drawn up, 1659 . On Monday and Tuesday we went up to Targasonne, where the weather was clearer than in the valley. We've been suffering from "entrées maritime" which is air coming in from the sea, moist and heavy, which has been hanging round low and obscuring the hills. The main Targasonne take-off at over 2000 metres asl and the lower take-off at Cereja, in the valley below, lie above the cloud and so visibiity was better. Lynda and her Eagle took off first. Over the last week we've met a new friend, Ian, who used to live near Chamonix but who now lives down in this neck of the woods. We look forward to doing some good flying with him when he gets back from working abroad for a while.

Dan	Howard

Mo	Dave top landing

Amanda	Dave going UP

Dennis	Boulders (Targasonne is famous for bouldering)

Dave about 1000 ft ato	Spring flowers
MAY 1-3 BANK HOLIDAY We went to Berga in Spain to fly with our club and had a great weekend flying. Berga is about two hours' drive SW from our place in Vinca. We flew four times in three days, at three different sites. Accommodation was in one of the local villages close by, where there are also two PG shops, general stores and bars. This is a site we incorporate in a road trip. Interested? Give us a call on 00 33 468 96 35 18.
On the third morning we took off from Figuerassas (1480 m asl). The Photo was taken by Udo in-flight. Take-off is behind him. Crossing the ridge can be an issue if you suddenly lose a lot of height, as at least three of our party found. There is a sanctuary on the ridge, see that building? Then you can turn right and travel for miles and/or cut across to one of several other ridges. Brilliant fun. After a mid-day break we then flew one or more of the "Marias". There is a series of take-offs numbered Maria I, Maria II etc and you can easily fly from one to the other or make your way up to the ridge behind.
	WEEK OF 20 APRIL 2009 We explored on foot along the coast. Directly west of Perpignan is Canet, with its long stretch of sandy beach. North and south of Canet you can find other holiday towns, each favouring a particular type of holiday style, to suit children, wind surfers, land yachters, art historians, oyster buffs, tree-climbers, smooth-surface canoers, sea kayakers, horse riders etc. Canet seems to aim at the bucket-and-spade brigade and from the harbour you can take a boat ride to explore the rocky coves further south. People were swimming in the sea but not staying in long. The sun was warm for drying off afterwards.
	Leucate was flyabout for about four hours that day, but we had to wait a while for it to come on: a great opportunity for some ground handling and general larking about. The guy who was practising the cobra launch got advised to try the "couleuvre" first. This is a long, non-poisonous local snake, not known for raising its head.

Aldric, from the Ceret club on his orange Niviuk.	Aldric and Serge. In the bay behind, lies the village of La Franqui, where John Pendry has a school and shop for wind sports such as kite surfing (search ADRENALINE FRANQUI for details). John was world champion PG and HG.
10-17 APRIL Chris and Gordie were with us this week, experienced pilots from the Isle of Wight. Their first flight was from Ceret N - good for a gentle orientation flight. This is Chris's in-flight photo showing the highest peak, where the south take-off is, and the north take-off, apparently about half a centimeter below it. The landing field, massive and flat, can be seen middle left. A direct flight from the north take-off is just over 2˝ km and if you take off from the south, facing Spain, the direct flight down is just over 3˝ because you have to fly left all along the ridge before turning left again for the landing field, unless you have plenty of height, enough to avoid lee-side turbulence. In that case it's safe to fly over the top of the ridge. Photo credit: C Gibson.
Tuchan was flyable but rough. Local pilots Joël and Claude were flying.
In Targasonne (2000m TO) it was snowing, so we went for a walk in the gorges of Carança. Towards the top of the gorge you can find rope "monkey bridges", Indiana Jones style, but we just went part of the way.
Chris, on his yellow Aspen, setting off to join Gordie and Jen. He got to 200 metres above take-off before a big grey cloud appeared behind him. He flew north, so as not to lose visibility.	Has Gordie mastered the art of tumbling with a pause for photography mid-turn? Photo credit: G Mucklow.

	SUNDAY 5TH APRIL In the morning Rod caught the "frogbus" which runs buses several times a day between Perpignan rail station and Girona airport. The others were due to catch the evening flight back to Liverpool. Again it was Ceret that was flyable, and it has the advantage of being on the way to Girona. The flying conditions were ideal, with relatively smooth thermals available to ride upwards on. Malcolm got about 2000 ft above take-off and cruised around for an hour and a half. All the group flew. We look forward to seeing some of their photos, and to their next visit. Bon voyage and good luck with the French lessons, Nick. To see what they guys themselves had to say, and for more photos, please see http://derbyshiresoaringclub.org.uk/e107_plugins/pm/pm.php from Malcolm or http://www.beyondextreme.co.uk/forum/read.php?f=2&i=34821&t=34821 from Nick.
FRIDAY 4TH APRIL, CERET N Airwave Sport Squadron strikes again Glyn clocked his hundredth hour of unpowered flght today by staying aloft for at least 2˝ hours. WELL DONE GLYN!! He and Nick registered over 5,000 ft. The sky was dotted with small cumulus and was working well until about 6 pm, when the wind changed direction and started coming over the back. It was one of the busiest days we've seen at Ceret, but there was still acres of space to do your own thing. Local pilots went off XC. David did a Boulou/St Jean triangle to the north and Didier headed east. He got plenty of height and crossed over the gap to the Alberes range at St Christophe but haven't yet heard where he landed this time. Later, while we were celebrating in Frank's bar, Glyn was giving us a few tips: "a thermal is not usually straight up like this glass of beer, it's more like my arm, travelling with the wind, so you need to think about the best place to join it ..."
	FRIDAY 3RD APRIL Once upon a time grandfathers used to sit in armchairs ... Hi Malcolm! Some of the guys took excellent photos yesterday, flying at Ceret and we hope to be able to show you them shortly, but today they'll probably want to be concentrating on the flying as it's their last weekend. On Friday they were playing with the various ridges and villages which usually give off lift after take-off. With a bit of luck yesterday you could be flying around for 40 minutes or more. The skies were overcast but providing gentle lift. Most of them had three flights. Karl cooked for seven people after full day on the hill. The chicken curry was superb, authentic flavours, with a keylime pie for dessert, a sort of cheesecake with limes, so tasty.
THURSDAY 2ND APRIL Evening flight at Ceret. A simple fly-down from the cutting in the forest on the skyline and over the sweet chestnut forests and swimming pools.	There was not a lot of lift around at 6 pm but Malcolm registered 300 ft ato.

VINCA BY NIGHT Wednesday 1st April Curry evening at our house. NICK BUBB took this picture from our balcony at about 8:30.
	WEDNESDAY 1ST APRIL A flying holiday? April fool! It was raining. We had to go karting instead. Malcolm, Will and Karl. Beware of No. 29 By the second race Nick was in fighting form MIKP (most improved Karting Pilot) was awarded to Rod.
SLOVENIA TO MONACO 1001 km paraglider flight cross-Alps video "1001 Bornes Alpines" http://vimeo.com/3928840 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SWEDEN and PYRENEES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuINK-6xoww "FlyHelix Pyreneerna del 1" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4KbaoVSgI "FlyHelix Pyreneerna del 2"	NEWS OF SOME VIDEOS: The first is from the site XRIDAIR.FREE.FR Did you hear about the three young lads, Martin, Jojo and Fred, who flew the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in 2006? They went on to fly Kirghizstan (300 km, 14 days) in 2007 and in the summer of 2008 they flew the Alps from Ljubljana in Slovenia to Monaco, 1001 km of vol bivouac on paragliders in 37 days. There is more info on their site : xridair.free.fr including a map of their approximate alpine route http://xridair.free.fr/index2.html Fred, who is a local pilot, e-mailed us this morning to say that the video has just been made available on youtube. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The other two videos are from FLYHELIX.COM which gives information about flying in Sweden. In their "Galleri" you can see pictures of the Tosseberg site, near their home as well as other stunning pictures. Five of their pilots came to see us in November 08. Very many thanks to Bernt and the gang for these fine pictures.
TUESDAY 31 MARCH Natural hot sulphur springs, St Thomas les Bains Hot, hot, hot: nature was revealed in all it's glory - snow, ash trees, steaming hot water arising from the ground and several prime specimens of homo sapiens bathing in a rock pools.
	MONDAY 30 MARCH They're all missing you, Jul's, especially Will! Visited the north and south take-offs at Ceret. The weather's not great so they've all gone to have a dip in the hot sulphur springs today.
SUNDAY 29 MARCH AIRPORT PICKUP DAY, GIRONA What's to see in Girona? - Cathedral - old arab baths - Jewish quarter (heritage of silver-smithing) - museums, shops. - Lots of festivals like flowers, music, dancing. Not far from the Costa Brava.
SATURDAY 28 MARCH - ST MARTIN & CAVES The forecast was not good for flying so we went for a walk to see the monastery of St Martin du Canigou, which was originally built by Guifred, Count of Cerdagne in 1009. For more details and a great picture see http://www.creme-de-languedoc.com/Languedoc/sightseeing/st-martin-canigou.php We went up by a path wide enough for a 4x4 and returned on a steep narrow track through the gorge. At the top we saw an isard on the rocky crest but weren't quick enough to catch it on camera so I've borrowed a photo from the site refuge.caranca.free.fr, to stick on top of our own photo. That site is very helpful if you happen to like walkiing in the wilds and want to see what the magificent nearby gorge of Carança is like. After the walk Rob and Ruth visited the caves at Villefranche (not shown.)
	THURSDAY 26 MARCH - CERET A warm day: T-shirt weather. We started the day with a bit of ground handling in the landing field. Rob and Ruth (Winchester) are back with us this week and Geoff and Judith (Long Mynd) were there too, visiting from their Spanish home just across the border. Geoff, who prefers to reverse launch, was revising his forward launch technique in preparation for their visit to Annecy for SIV soon. Photo: Ruth, landing. It was evening before we considered it safe to fly. First it was too breezy then we'd been watching the clouds, which had a lenticular look to them. Towards evening we took off in a nil wind and had a smooth flight down. The dew brought out the smell of the soil and plants and just before we left the Michelin Man flew overhead.

	Can you identify this person?
THURSDAY 19 MARCH - CERET Conditions were great: smooth lift and beaufully warm. Local pilot taking off. While I thik of it, the annual Ceret fete is scheduled for June 6th with flying of various sorts including tandem rides, food and music.	Not long now, till the famous cherries in the landing field will be ready.


WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH - Coastal site of LEUCATE - The breeze was light: only the experts were flying.	Cormorants, we think.
	TUESDAY 17 MARCH - Cascade near PEYREPERTUSE - A good place to chill
Udo and the gang soaring the castle of Peyrepertuse (Department of Aude, Languedoc Roussillon, south of France) Photo credits: Kyle Wood
	TUESDAY 17 MARCH - PEYREPERTUSE Udo and the gang soaring the castle of Peyrepertuse (Department of Aude, Languedoc Roussillon, south of France) Photo credit: Kyle Wood
	MONDAY 16 MARCH - VILLENEUVE DE LA RAHO AND PEYREPERTUSE Kyle started by brushing the winter rust off his wings by ground-handling at a gentle slope near Perpignan. That's our version of the story. His version is that the photo shows him landing after a four-and-a-half hour flight from the peak of Canigou behind. Nice one Kyle!
	By about 3.30 we were taking off at the castle of Peyrepertuse This is a castle perched on a rock, long and narrow, forming a spine-back. As you fly over it you can see how well-defended it must have been back in the thirteenth century, when it was under seige. The difficulty would have been keeping the occupants supplied with food and water. Pictures of the castle itself can be seen on our GLIDING SITES page. This photo shows Kyle as he took off, with another Cathar castle, Queribus, on the skyline opposite. We had a good flight with plenty of lift.
SATURDAY 14 MARCH - CERET. That morning we had a phone call from a couple of sky divers who live in Figueres, Spain. They wanted to watch us paragliding and to find out if it might suit them. They gave us a lift to the top and watched us take off. They sounded enthusiastic about learning. Morning flights were smooth but by 1 p.m. the spring thermals were working and providing lift and surprises. My Golden had a full frontal and gave a loud rustling noise but recovered quickly. In the background you can see the small slope they use for training and refreshers as well as the foothills of the Alberes range which run between the motorway into Spain and the Med. Our neighbours from Vinca joined us for a picnic lunch under the trees in the landing field. We were glad to see the cherry trees are budding up and should be good for scrumping by May.
Some early-hours French pilots were practising their first fly-downs from the cutting in the trees which can just about be seen on the skyline below the lower pilot. They came down extrememly happy after their "grands vols" , except for the guy who didn't take into account that when the wind is in your face it slows you down and you can't necesessarily reach the landing field. He accomplished a safe tree landing: lucky chap.
After lunch we went with our non-flying friends to the lake at St Jean Pla de Corts. This photo was taken some while ago but it shows another view of the Alberes range, below St Christophe. The highest peak in that range is Neolus, about 1200m. You can make out a track which looks good for walking or cycling if your non-flying partners are interested. Often in the summer we cool off in this lake at mid-day before flying again in the late afternoon. The bamboo island is good for swimming round and turtle spotting.
	MARCH: FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, a lucky day for some of the local pilots flying at Batčre (advanced site on the side of Mount Canigou, west of Céret) in a light northerly. Ceiling was at 2600m. Aldric flew to La Preste near Prats de Mollo by the Spanish border and David did an out-and-return to land by the car. Dom, Max and Jean also flew for an hour, one hour 40 minutes and two hours respectively. The map shows the approximate road route for Aldric's flight, about 21 miles by tarmac. The terrain is impressive - well done guys.
TUESDAY 10 MARCH - Today we are painting instead of flying, although it's light and variable 15 degrees C with sun and a little cloud... must be mad. The local pilots have been doing some good XCs in the last few weeks. Meanwhile we've been moving house (just down the road, for the sake of having a garage to put the wings, push bikes etc). Once we get our heads out of the cardboard boxes and out from under the paint splashes we'll try to remember to take our cameras out when we fly and give you some decent pictures. Amongst other things, I'll be putting in the link to a great video taken by Bernt, from Sweden.	We are looking forward to meeting Kyle soon, then the return of Ruth and Rob from Hampshire, followed by Nick Bubb and his merry men. Nick wrote a great article for Skywings for us the first time he came out and you can see his video on our gallery page.

CERET, Mon 16 Feb. Shaun and Ian brought their mountain bikes and have discovered some excellent trails. The photos they took on mobiles were much more spectacular: hope they'll give us a copy when they get a chance.	Here they are near take-off at Ceret, Mount Canigou in the background.

CERET, Sun 15 Feb. Local pilot, Jean-Jacques, found the best lift.	Paul from Macclesfield followed - nice style, Paul.

This is Emma, apparently near the lake where we swim in the summer, with the Meditteranean in the distance and landing field bottom left.	Making the most of the lift, Paul?

The sky looked as if there was wave around, so we called "coffee time"	But it had been a good day, nice and gentle for a first flight of the holiday.
Sunny Monday, 9 Feb. We went to Santa Brigida to meet our frineds Geoff, Judith and Michaela from the Long Mynd club. The lift was more thermal than dynamic and just strong enough to have some fun with. Best moment? Leaning aboard a thermal after ten minutes of cruising the ridge, surging upwards and catching sight of the snow peaks behind. You could see all the way to the Med.	Santa Brigida is about 25 minutes west of Girona. This weekend the village will have its annual Aplec (social gathering with barbecues, dancing and flying.) Thanks for the after-flight beer, guys!


Sat 17 Jan. PUIGMAL, across the valley from Targasonne. Some flights you always remember, such as your first cliff flight or your first XCs. This was the first time we'd taken off in snow, what a brilliant experience. Many thanks to Manu who told us about the sortie and to Serge, who gave us the briefing. We got to take-off by ski lift (free of charge to paraglider pilots carrying wings). Luckily take-off was only about five minutes' walk because the snow was knee deep if you stepped off the beaten track. We watched a couple of others take off then stamped down the intended runway. Luckily the wind was perfect to build a gentle wall and get away over the ridge. It took a bit of thought to choose a flight path: where to cross the ridge, how much height you'd lose crossing the tree belt etc, but at any time we could have branched left and landed out. The official landing was easy to find, you can choose either of two big fields. Fantastically beautiful.




	Sunday 11th Jan. This is Sorede take-off, part of the Alberes range between Girona in Spain and Perpignan in France, looking north, with mount Canigou to the west and the Mediterranean to the east. When we arrived there were about a dozen glider setting up, which is a real crowd for this area. It was great to see everyone out and about after all the (unusual amount) of snow we've been having.
To make this page quicker to load, the less recent news has been transferred to a separate page.	To see news of 2008 flying, please click on the tab at the top of this page called "News 2008".

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