HOTEL CALIFORNIA 1999

(Extracts published in Skywings March 2000)

This years flying holiday was to Spain. Since I had never been there before, unless you count Lanzarote, I thought it was about time. But which bit do we go to. Many people had said that Piedrahita in the more northerly area was good flying and that the Hotel California in the south was run by 2 of the nicest people you could possibly meet. The rumours are true. I chose the latter for 2 reasons; 1, personal recommendations from friends who had flown there, and 2, I quite fancied the top takeoff at 12000 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I did the usual phone/email call for interested parties so they could voice there opinion as to where we should actually go and all agreed to Hotel California, as they too had never been there either.

I emailed Dirk, a Belgian NOT married to Tracy, an English woman, and between them own and run "HC". I was pencilled in for the week commencing Saturday 3rd July for 6 pilots and a retrieve driver, good old Wizzy. The routine was that we each send a £50 cheque as a deposit and we pay the rest on arrival. The flights were £141 each which was insignificant when compared to the bar bill.

Usual crowd consisting of Richard "The Amazing Gonzales", Old Ken Cole (a merry old soul), Mark the Penguin, "What a Guy" Wallis, and Nursey Brian, plus me and The Wiz of course. We arrived in Malaga without any hassle of delayed flights etc and picked up 2 of the 3 hire cars we were to have. The third was left for the Penguin to collect since he was flying from Luton while the rest of us went from Gatwick. The drive from Malaga to HC in Almunecar was about 90 minutes at sensible speeds, which was all our car was capable of. Wallis was giving me a running commentary on the fascist, jackbooted motorcycle coppers who had nothing better to do than give tickets out to tourists not understanding the road markings. I believe he had a run in with them in the past. Bottom line was, don't speed and don't cross any white lines, even when turning left. We arrived without a hitch and quickly settled to cool down with a beer. The drive was very hot, trust me to get the car without air conditioning. Turns out that it did have aircon. but I had no idea what button to press to get it working. The rest of the holiday, it was going full tilt. After a couple more beers we went out just for a look at the local coastal flying sites. There is a slight problem here in as much as if there isn't a local pilot flying, then Dirk is very loathed to fly there. The locals all use the beach as a holiday resort every weekend and they are under some opinion that we have no control as to where we land. The upshot of this is that the bods on the beach complain to the local plod and then they have do some work involving getting off their arse and talking to us. This is far too much trouble and so they just throw all the pilots off. In the interest of local pilot relations it's easier not to fly there when the beach is choc-a-bloc with fat oily bodies. Still, we weren't that concerned since we had been up for 18 hours with only 2 hours sleep the night before. We went back to HC for a superb bit-o-din dins.

We were informed that there were 2 other couples joining us but their flight was delayed from Manchester. They actually turned up at 2am the next morning, had the cheek to ring the door bell, and wanted to be let in!!! Dirk was happy to leave them on the doorstep but the boss kicked him out of bed to let them in. Enter Doctors Ashley and Steve, and non retrieve drivers Alison and Vicky.

FLYING DAY 1 was a bit of a disaster for some, a nice introduction to others and bleary eyed for our guide. We went to a local inland site known as Otivar, since that is the nearest village to takeoff. The T.O. is 1500 feet above the landing field. Alternatively on a good day you can apparently get to the coast and if you're really lucky (Dirk), or is it skill, get back again.

The picture on the right made the cover of the February 2000 Skywings magazine. Shame there was no mention of Wiz, the photographer.

The take off is big enough for 4 gliders laid out with consideration, and has a bloody great antenna/microwave receiver on it. Not a problem if you have no intentions of top landing. Flying doctor Ashley was the first in the air I believe and was on the landing field just as quick as he launched. The thermals hadn't quite got going and so I waited for a while. One by one the others took off and eventually so did I. I blundered around for a while and joined a thermal which some Swifts had marked, managed +600 feet. If there's air going up, there's air going down, I found it and cored it to the landing field. The next flight was better, straight off the hill and into a thermal. On the way up I watched Brian take off, or rather I didn't. The glider looked good as he ran off the hill but it then surged forwards and he ended up running a few more paces down the hill. This wouldn't have been too bad apart from the fact that his reserve handle had got caught on a bush and pulled it right out. Not only did the reserve bag come out his harness, but the reserve came out of the deployment bag. That was his first and last attempt to fly that day, for obvious reasons. (To add insult to injury it was all caught on digital video by Wiz using his camera).

Brian was not the only one caught out at this take off. Gonzales also took a tumble where only his pride was dented. Wallis however did the two step tango sides ways, tripped over a stick that was still growing and sprained his wrist on touchdown. All this was captured on video, I'm pleased I wasn't in the viewfinder when I took off.

Whilst all this was going on I was riding my thermal to +1650 feet where it got extremely rough. I kept getting spat sideways with the canopy doing all sorts of nasties, except collapsing. I was obviously at the inversion layer and was going no further. Ken joined me and he also found it rough. The wind picked up and we both headed off for the landing area. The landing field is interesting in as much as it is on a spur, albeit a large one, overlooking the valley. All the lift coming up out of the valley seems to get directed there and so landing was tricky at this time of day. I came into land with the ears in and having landed, congratulated myself with what I thought was my best ever technical landing.

Ken came in next and was on a final glide to make the flat area of the LZ. Then the lift switched off and his glide angle was now all wrong. He landed quite heavily on one foot just at the edge of the flat area. He said quite categorically that his foot was going to hurt later. I radioed up to Dirk and suggested that the low airtime pilots didn't fly down. He agreed and so as it was the first day we thought an early break for beer was in order. All too soon it was time for our nosebag which started off with Tapas closely followed by being spoilt for choice on the home cooked menu. Beer, wine, and a late night number one then followed.

FLYING DAY 2

Wallis drove me to the Sierra Nevada mountains, which took about 90 minutes at warp 6. The flying site is known as Cenes De La Vega and overlooks the town of the same name. The flying wasn't that memorable here that day. I managed 2 flights of 20 and 15 minutes before the hill was blown out.

Food and liquid refreshment as per day 1 was compulsory back at base.

FLYING DAY 3

We went back to the mountains and drove another few miles past Cenes De La Vega to Canadillas. The take off is at 2213m and is easily identified by a ruined observatory on the top. There are two takeoff points, either side of the observatory and at 90 degrees to each other.

The sky was clear apart from the inversion haze, and the thermals were quite strong. I took off first and headed off towards the plateau where I was told there would be lift. Biggest sink hole I've ever come across. I landed and radioed back to the others who were just starting to take off and told them to stay to the right of the plateau and keep over the ridge that separates the valley from the plateau. As I packed my kit away in the heat of the flat, windless plateau, I watched most of the others fly past in the lift on the ridge towards the Cenes takeoff. Distance from Takeoff to plateau bottom is 3.5k.

One by one the rest of the gang lost height and all ended up in the plateau apart from Wallis and Dirk. The non flyers then arrived with the cars and we went up to the Cenes takeoff and watched Dirk take 10 minutes to land. Wallis watched the landing from the air and decided he could do it too, rather than head out away from the hill and land at the rubbish dump/designated landing field. The wind was going off the hill a bit and he found himself with a downwind touchdown. It was a hard impact with one foot and he hobbled away knowing full well that he'd done more than bruised his ankle. What a guy... what a wally. We then decided to go back to Otivar since it was on the way home.

It was late in the day by now and I took off into loads of lift. It was rough by my standards but I suspect it was the norm for the site. Some of the other pilots landed and I then heard on the radio that it was worth going to the coast for a flight. I left my thermal and landed only to be told that the plan was scrapped, we're going back to the top, typical. We all took off again but by this time the thermals had lost their punch.

FLYING DAY 4

Back to Canadillas in the mountains and again I was the wind dummy. I headed out towards the right hand ridge of the plateau in the hope of getting to the Cenes take off. Just my luck, the ridge wasn't working. Every one else saw me land by the road and so they all took the left hand ridge on the other side of the plateau and most managed to get to Cenes. I think it's time I let someone else be the wind dummy. One of the problems you encounter when doing as Butterfly suggests, "get your head out of your arse and get ready to fly".

Wallis arrived with a car and took me to the Cenes site. Some of the others were in the process of being retrieved from the plateau, the conditions were good and so I launched with Wallis watching. I searched around for about 60 seconds and then bumbled into a nice 3 up. I was soon well above take off when the others arrived. Dirk asked me what it was like up in the air because the wind had picked up on take off and was very marginal in terms of whether it was safe to launch. Dirk then launched and came and joined me in my beautiful thermal. Dirk advised the others on the ground that it was a little too dodgy and so they went off to the cafe near the plateau. I passed over the cafe at +3000 feet and finally reached the inversion at +4000 feet. At last I had the magic height gain figure I needed for the Silver FAI Eagle Badge and the vario logging it. Just a 30k XC needed now. I headed off alone, down wind across the plateau loosing 1500 feet in the process. It was still a sink hole. I reached the other side and slowly clawed my height back to arrive at the Canadillas takeoff, distance so far 10k.

I rounded the observatory with the GPS logging to prove I had got there, and then headed off back to the Cenes take off. The valley wind had really picked up and I was hardly going anywhere. I put on full speed bar and started to make headway. Unfortunately it was also downwards at an alarming rate. In no time at all I was back over the cafe with power lines between me and the Cenes take off. I had no choice but to land. I was quite pleased to be on the ground as the wind coming over the ridges from the Cenes direction was disrupting the thermals and it was a bit hairy coming down.

With the mountains now blown out, we headed home via Otivar. I took off there and struggled to make any height gains. There was lift around because Dirk had made some good height. I then saw the wisps of a cloud forming out in front and so flew straight towards it. I lost 300 feet getting there but picked up a nice bit of lift that took me to +1300 feet. Gonzales was struggling below me and so I told him to head for a house below me in the hope he would pick the thermal up. He wasn't at all impressed when most of his wing collapsed and it was of course my fault for inviting him over. Delusions of grandeur then took over and I headed off in the hope of finding more thermals out in front which would help me to get to the coast. I found bugger all and landed at the bottom.

I was a good day's flying, with a personal best height gain. The beer and wine flowed quite well that night. There was also a medical conference with regards to Wallis's foot, see picture. The resident doctors prognosis was it may or maynot be broken. Get it X-rayed to be on the safe side.

FLYING DAY 5

Breakfast time and Wallis turned out after a late night at the hospital. Good news, it's not broken. However he would rest it that day and stay at the hotel whilst the rest of us went off to break the spanish XC record, NOT.

I Took off from Canadillas and quickly made +1500 feet. Three of us flew off towards the Cenes takeoff. It was interesting to compare the performance of three different canopies. Ken was on an Airwave Alto XM28, Brian was on an Edel Sabre 26 and I was on the MAC Feeling 29. We all had the same glide but the Alto was faster. We all took slightly different paths as we approached the Cenes end of the plateau, but we all got eventually arrived above the take off. The task was now to get back to the Canadillas takeoff.

Thermals Came and went and the three of us were joined by Dirk as we went over the back. I soon found myself struggling and ended up in a hole at the bottom of the Castle ruin. This mountain face at the head of this valley faced the sun quite nicely and I knew it was possible to get out, as Brian had done so the day before but it took him 20 minutes or so. My 20 minutes seemed an eternity. The flight out of the valley and back to the clear air above the plateau was complicated by a massive power line, I really had to be sure I wasn't going to hit sink at the wrong moment and end up barbecued. Finally after dozens of beats back and fourth across a very narrow rock face, a thermal came through that took high enough to make the jump across the power lines. I was too low to get back to the Cenes takeoff and so I headed slightly downwind and across the quarry. I found absolutely no lift at all. Landing was going to be a problem. There wasn't anywhere easily accessible by road and so a walk out was going to be the order of the day. I spotted a clearing and made my approach. The air then got turbulent and it was an interesting landing. I came in low over a ramshakled house/farm only to be greeted by a pack of dogs barking at me. That's all I needed, for me and my canopy to get savaged. Still, I landed in a small patch of ground surrounded by fruit trees of some description but the dogs stayed away. I radioed in to say I was safely down then quickly packed my kit and started the 800m walk downhill to the main road. It was there that I spent 2 hours in the blazing sun waiting for a retrieve, and what didn't help was watching gliders fly high above me.

My lift eventually arrived and was I taken to Cenes takeoff, where a repeat performance of the last good flight from there was about to happen. This time Dirk came with me and thus made the flight a lot easier. I managed +4300 feet this time and was bouncing along the inversion. It was a bit rough. I Flew straight past the Canadillas takeoff and headed off further up the valley towards the ski resort. Dirk was in front of me at this stage but a lot lower. I watched him turn back as the further we flew towards the ski resort, the lower we got as the mountain was coming up to meet us. I watched him scratch around, probably no more that 50 feet above the road, but then lost sight as he drifted behind me. All too soon the mountain started getting closer and I wasn't getting any higher. I marked my position on the GPS and turned back straight into the damn headwind again and struggled to make any progress. I could now see that Dirk had made his way back to the other side of the Canadillas takeoff and was safe from landing too far from where the cars were. I pushed on hoping to get just above a rise in the ground and then fly out into the main valley. I didn't make it. As I came down the wind dropped off to nothing and I landed on top of the lump that blocked my path. The wind was so light that it wouldn't have blown a candle out. Dirk saw me land and radioed for a retrieve for me.

Another good night for wine and this time we went into town and had a paella in a beach restaurant. Beware the non-shelled cockles!

FLYING DAY 6

A new site for us today. We drove inland to near where a new dam is being built. The take off is called Padre Eterno and is near a Budist temple above the town of Alpujarras. This region of the country is described in the book "Driving Over Lemons" by Chris Stewart. The ether came alive with radio transmissions between the convoy vehicles, as those that had read the book this week, recognised the area. Everyone but Dirk and myself flew as soon as we got there. The wind was light and there wasn't any lift. Wallis was in the valley below guarding a splendid parasol and was the official lookout for wild winds coming up the valley.

One by one all that flew landed and then Dirk and Wiz went back down with the cars to bring them back. By the time they did get back the wind had picked up. Dirk took off and made little progress up wind but soon got over the lump between the take off and the landing site, which incidentally was a river bed. I then took off cross wind and flew out slowly going backwards. There was a bomb out landing zone just down from the takeoff, but I never got anywhere near it. I cleared the power lines on the lump out in front and then flew straight down to where Wallis and Dirk were.

It was a daft flight. I should have flown earlier and not have bothered waiting for any activity, since as soon as it got active, the valley wind was ridiculous. We then went off to another site along roads that resembled those in Crete, and it took an hour to get there even though we knew it was going to be blown out. This site has 3 large aerial on it and is 12k from the landing zone, again a dry river. It was our last night here so some of us went back to the hotel and started the BBQ whilst a few went off to a beach flying site. Whilst shuffling the canopies between cars, I drove off whilst Wiz was attempting to close the boot. My excuse was that I was tired. What a night followed! If you go to Hotel California, insist on a BBQ every night.

FLYING DAY 7, GOING HOME DAY

In the morning some of us went to Otivar. The flying wasn't anything special. It could have been but I was tired and just couldn't be bothered to look for and stay with the lift. I shouldn't have flown at all. When I realised that I wasn't really having a good time and I ought to be on the ground, I landed and declared the holiday a success. Wiz agreed, as out of the sprained wrist, 2 twisted ankles, unintentional reserve deployment, 1 visit to casualty, none of them involved me.

In summary, I can honestly say that the Hotel California experience is well worth going for. The flying has superb possibilities but unfortunately for us that week, the inversion was something exceptional.

Dirk goes out of his way to make the holiday whatever you want it to be and is at your disposal almost 24 hours a day, when you meet Tracy you'll see why it's not a full 24. Nuff said :-)

Hospitality is next to none and the nosebag you get every night except Thursdays, won't disappoint you. I will be going again and probably at the same time of year too (July), as this is supposed to have the best XC potential time of year. However Wiz wants to go when the orange and lemon trees are in blossom. Thus we'll have to go twice.

One last point, Dirk drives like a true Belgian. When you get back home, remember that there is the option of throttle control on your vehicle.

Thanks for a great holiday Dirk/Tracy, see you next time.

As a postscript, when Wallis got home he had his foot x-rayed again and the British Medical Experts found a fracture in his leg bone that the Spanish Quacks missed. Lesson there I think.

If you want to go then check out their web site.