I’m 22 and live in Algodonales and work for FlySpain My dad started flying paragliders and then switched to hang gliders because paragliders back then weren’t safe we started to take it more seriously and the school lent me a newer glider I was kiting and they asked: “Wanna fly?” My mom had no idea I was very nervous and failed at least six times until I finally launched It was just a top to bottom but I finally unleashed what I had inside Subscribe to Cross Country for €4.50 – Get instant online access to this article and hundreds more plus Masterclasses The picturesque village of Algodonales in southern Spain sits nestled below the burly Sierra de Lijar mountain It’s a European mecca for beginner and low airtime pilots who come to one of the numerous English shuttles from the various companies run up and down the hill ferrying clients and in the evening the town square is full of pilots excitedly sharing their adventures in one of several cheap eateries on the main square It’s a good place to go to get your training signed off over an intensive week of guaranteed weather low airtime pilots can come to progress and clock up hours with guided XC there are some big distances and triangles to be flown here too when the day delivers The sea breezes from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic battle it out sometimes creating convergence areas that allow for big flights northwards The easterly and westerly winds that sweep the Strait of Gibraltar and North Africa sometimes encroach this far north and can blow the site out for several days But typically it’s smooth early in the day and ideal for beginners In peak season it builds by 2pm with punchy 5m/s thermals pushing up Low pressure systems can bring some pretty brutal inversions but you can still enjoy mellow sunset flights that sometimes deliver restitution The landscape of irregular rocky limestone peaks and undulating fields will test your hill and flatland flying techniques on every flight This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Algodonales in Spain is a mecca for paragliding and hang gliding offering almost year-round thermalling and soaring conditions These four sites are all good alternatives for pilots based in Algo and looking to explore further afield Read the main site guide to Algodonales here and so are the competitions and free-flying events Here is a small taste of what’s upcoming in April and May The first stage of the Brazilian Paragliding Championship takes place in Castelo-ES-Brasil It is always a full event and this year saw 253 pilots hoping to grab one of the 125 available places in this Pre-PWC event eventos.cbvl.esp.br Under the eyes of Meet Director Ferdinand Vogel (Red Bull X-Alps 2023) 130 pilots will compete in this FAI Cat 2 event The Niedere is a well-known flying area along the Alpine foothills offering many possible routes and exciting tactical options for competition pilots civlcomps.org The Paradise Airsports Nationals is a flatland aerotow competition – part of the U.S The grass runway of Wilotree Park (Sheets airfield) is in the centre of Florida civlcomps.org The Algodonales flight area in the Sierra de Cádiz boasts some of the best European flying weather year-round With an incredible 403 pilots hoping to grab one of the 125 available spaces the competition has already started for this Pre-PWC Cat 2 event civlcomps.org Interlaken and Grindelwald host a PWC event The area is known for its ideal flying conditions and “tactically interesting” route options Pilots from all over the world will come to challenge the terrain pwca.events The second stage of the PGAWC will see 80 pilots flying through Alanya’s sky before landing on the famous Kleopatra beach – as close to the centre of the target as possible pgawc.org This hike-and-fly race is now in its eighth year and attracts pilots from beginner to “hardcore” levels Competitors will race a pre-determined route – typically 50-100km – through the Black Mountains of Wales crickhowellparagliding.com fly and bivouac their way around the Bornes Chablais and Mont Blanc massifs in this three-day hike-and-fly competition The 100-250km route will be announced the day before the race and amateurs will compete alongside the world’s best in this Red Bull X-Alps inspired event bornestofly.fr varios and much more will be available for testing at this testival event surrounded by fantastic views of the whole Zillertal Nearly 30 of the industry’s manufacturers have already confirmed making sure there is something to interest everyone flying-high.at In the run-up to the Hang Gliding World Championships 2013 which start in Australia on 7 January 2013 Grace Cain interviews some of the key pilots from the competition He was also very focused and very well prepared So first I had to learn to lose against him which allowed me to progress to the stage where I won nearly every competition I entered Not so far away are Monte Cucco and also the Dolomites which to me are the most fantastic place in the world Alex Ploner is now on top and it will be hard to beat him Primoz and a few others… we will see at the end www.ozreport.com www.forbesflatlands.com • Got news? Send it to us at news@xccontent.local In a video a vulture is seen flying alongside a duo on a paraglider and then sitting on a selfie stick that’s being held by one of them shows the bird landing on the selfie-stick and calmly sitting on it before flying away The two men were gliding above the picturesque mountains in Algodonales in Spain It also turned out the bird landing on the selfie stick was not a coincidence It’s a vulture that has been trained to do this Paragliding instructor in Spain pioneered what is called ‘parahawking’ where a trained bird of prey guides him on flights to thermal columns that make his aerial trips  longer and more birdlike.