Piedrahita 2007

[Chris Dusgate]

Hi All,

Nick's gong to share with Steve Jones on the trip so there are two single rooms and one double available.

Regards


Chris

[Chris Dusgate]

Happy New Year to everyone, here's hoping it's a good year for flying.

Next week I'll be emailing a few other flying clubs in an effort to fill up the house I've booked. The last week of June is confirmed for the British Comp so if you want a cheap accommodation for 14 days of potentially flyable weather please get in contact asap.

Cheers

Chris

[russskydancer]

Hi Steve, I'm going to the French Pyrenees with John Nash next september 10th to the 17th the trip is run by Brett Janaway of xTc paragliding and is advertised on this web site, i haven't flown there before but i think Jon Pope has, it may be worth giving him a ring to ask him about the sites weather conditions etc, i think the conditions will be great in September with good thermals and restitution flying, but as i said i haven't flow there before so cant say for sure.
Anyway have a look, make a few inquiries and see what you think, bye for now and thanks for all the excellent work on the club web site.
Have a very merry Xmas
Humphrey...................

[Steve Watkins]

Thanks Chris, all advice taken in. I also spoke to Gareth earlier and he advised very similar. I wouldn't want to knock my confidence by flying in very thermic conditions until I get some more experience with thermals in the UK. Not to say mind that perhaps later in the year I may think about going somewhere not so challenging.

So I will give this one a miss and look for one later on

[Chris Dusgate]

Hi Steve,

The following comments on based on my experience of Piedrahita and I'd welcome the comments of anyone else who has been there in mid summer, Nick especially. I don't want to encourage someone to come who's flying  confidence takes a backward step as a result

I think that on a "good" Piedrahita day you'd probably find the afternoon thermals too strong for your current experience. The thermals coming through take-off after around 2pm can be strong and intimidating when launching. It sometimes becomes "blown out" until  evening. However on these good days the thermals usually don't start working until after noon (the hill faces NW), therefore morning top to bottoms are usually gentle affairs. Evening flights (from 6pm onwards, sometimes later) can produce lifty conditons without the strong thermals.

There are a number of pilots in the club, many of whom have flown abroad, who may benefit from flying at these times, unless the general conditions are weak and untypical, in which case OK all day. I'm hoping that by going for 2 weeks we won't feel quite the usual pressure to fly as much as possible each day.

I guess it comes down to what you want out of the trip. Do you fancy saying "not today guys, I'm having a break from flying today, I want to go for a walk/cycle/beer/swim", I hope so.

Chris
 

[Steve Watkins]

I would come but I think its possibly above my flying experience? I wouldnt want to sit on the hill as I have a tendency to although if I took my radio Im sure I would come on in leaps and bounds?

[Chris Dusgate]

It's filling up,

Ivor and Gareth have now signed up and I therefore have the following rooms remaining:

1 of single bed room
1 of double bed room
sharing room with Steve Jones

Don't miss out (14 potential flyable days for less than £400 plus your food !)

I'll be advertising the rooms to non club members in mid January

Chris

[Chris Dusgate]

Update

Steve Jones has booked a room for 16 June (Sat) to Monday 25 June, 9 nights. He know's he'll have to share with someone unless he pays for the whole 15 days so there's a chance for a non-snorer to part share with him at a cost of approx £115 for the 15 days.

Chris

[Chris Dusgate]

Well here goes, the memories of poor weather on the last two club trips I've been on have faded, and I've decided to have another go at organising a club trip.

The British Paragliding Champs are having a comp from 24/6/07 to 30/6/07 at Piedrahita. The comps I attended at Piedrahita in 2000 & 2001 definitely progressed my flying and I'm attempting to organise a trip which should appeal to the tightest of wallets.

The comp date was only announced at the weekend and I've been quick off the mark and are tomorrow arranging a bank transfer to pay for a deposit on a 15 day rental of a house in Piedrahita. The dates I'm booking the house for are Saturday 16 June to Sunday 1 July. That means a potential of 14 days flying.

Now then, the house,
It has 6 bedrooms of which two contain twins. I don't want to crowd the house however and given it's relatively cheap it may be only 6 people stay there. The cost for the 15 nights per room is approx £160 at today's exchange rates, yes around £11 per night per room. It's self catering of course and given we'll be there so long I suspect we will do a bit of this as the food in town can become a bit repetitive, even if it's not to expensive.

Other costs will be;

Flight from Bristol to Madrid (Easyjet), currently £89 return although it's an extra £30 if you want to declare your paraglider as sport's equipment and have more weight allowance for your clothes. Car hire for the two weeks will probably be two cars between 6 and should be about £95-£100 each. You'll need to add in flying insurance as well and car parking at Bristol (off-site  around £15 each).

Nick's already said he'll go so we are looking for 4-6 others. It may be that you can go for only a week but you'll only have 6 days potential flying rather than 15 and may have to catch a bus back to the airport.

Nick and I have flown there 4 times before. There's the chance to do the Brit comp if you wish, but it's only an option. The week before the Brit comp is the Nordic Open. Nick will probably be doing that but I won't (pacing myself!). Non-flyers welcome (make good drivers ! and at this stage I'm giving precedence to club members (i.e. my mates !) who want to go for the full 15 days, after that it'll go to those club members who want to go for the first week only.

To book a place you need to pay me a £44 deposit for a room.

Please feel free to give me a call on 01792 /386343 (day) 386709 (evg) to discuss

or email at cdusgate@aol.com

Chris