Background information
Ray and Josie came highly recommended by several
people who I have met on the hill. They are a British couple who have lived
in Lanzarote since early 1989 and have a "farmhouse" in Macher with
3 spare bedrooms which they let out to visiting pilots.
Ray flies both Hang gliders and a Paragliders and acts as your site guide for the duration of your holiday. The winds on Lanzarote are such that you can't really do without a local site guide if you don't want to spend all your time charging around the island looking for a hill facing the prevailing wind.
Ray and Josie advertise in the back of Skywings and currently charge 120 Pounds per person per week. This is room only with the use of your own kitchen. One room has an en suite shower/WC whilst the other 2 rooms make use of a separate shower and WC which is shared between the occupants of these 2 rooms. Josie will cook for you up to 3 times per week if you wish on days of her choosing, but when we were there we always went out dinner in the nearby town of Puerto Del Carmen.
Upon arrival at Arrecife we were met by Josie who took us to collect our hire car. This cost us 75 Pounds for the week which is cheaper that it would be since Josie passes on her commission to the visitor. 10 Pounds worth of fuel did us for the whole week covering 400km.
We went in the last week of October 1996 which is very much the beginning of the flying season. The Canary Islands get the Trade winds throughout the summer and is the place to be if you are into wind surfing or any other wind propelled sea sport. Ray will also assist you in these sports as well as the flying ones.
Some days were just too windy for a paraglider and so we either watched the stiffies fly or went sightseeing. My wife insisted that we go to the National Park, Montaña Del Fuego, which is the volcanic hotspot in the west end of the island, and also to the lava caves right up the other end of the island in the North East.
The flying
As soon as we had arrived at the farmhouse I set
about looking for my first flight. The farmhouse is located right at the bottom
of a volcano cone, as is everywhere else on the island. My wife drove me to
the top to the launch area. The wind was probably blowing a steady 12mph but
the thermic conditions regularly increased this up to 18 mph. I launched in
a lull between thermals and ridge soared whilst waiting for the next cycle to
start. It was a very bumpy flight and the turbulence caused a leading edge tuck
which quickly came out. Asymmetric tucks were very common too, the flight certainly
was an active flying one. I chose to land at the bottom of the hill outside
the farmhouse and wait until the late afternoon before flying again. The latter
flight was very much smoother. Both flights were 30 minutes each. That night
the six of us who were staying in the farmhouse went into town for a nosebag.
Next day the flying was abysmal. I had one 5 minute flight where the wind was off the hill. As soon as I was airborne and got out a little way the wind was at 90 degrees to the slope. I side landed and walked back down to the farmhouse. I had a few beers instead and just generally enjoyed the excellent weather.
The next day Ray showed us the way to Famara, up in the North East of the island. The launch point was about 1500 feet up overlooking a very flat plain in front of the sea. To the west further along on our right the plain receded until it was just the cliffs and the sea. This site is the start of a 14 mile ridge run which wasn't going to be achieved that day. You can see from the photograph there is cloud on the cliffs in the distance. We watched these for a while and it was evident that they were rolling down hill towards the sea. Where we were there was a very slight up-flow of air.
Ray lent me his Alto28 and I alpine launched it, see photo again, and started to beat up and down the face of the cliff. After about 20 minutes the wind had increased sufficiently for the stiffies to launch. Gradually over the course of 1 hour the wind speed picked up more and more. Ray had briefed us before launch that a top landing should only be made in very low wind conditions. The rotor back from the edge was particularly nasty and Ray had watched 2 people get killed there, he wasn't interested in making it a third. A paraglider could easily land right up the front by the edge but I wasn't in a confident enough frame of mind to try it. That didn't stop the stiffies though. Two of them top-landed quite a way back from the edge whilst Ray had his face buried in his hands. They got away with it. The same 2 pilots took off later and bottom landed with the rest of us and we waited for the retrieve.
The next day was a peculiar one with respect to the wind direction. It seemed that no matter where we went the wind was always off. I totalled 5 minutes in 4 flights. 3 of these were at Macher behind the farmhouse and 1 at Cuchillo. Cuchillo is the remnants of a volcano cone that blew one side completely away. The layers of lava that cooled when the cone was made is clearly evident. This was another site that had bad rotor and was the scene of another death. Ray was full of disaster stories that had the effect of focusing the mind.
The next day was a similar story. The wind was all
over the place. I flew at Mirador which is right up the North East end at the
other end of the 14 mile cliff run from Famara. The launch at this place was
a nightmare. I was on my own as the walkout to the launch point was too far
for anyone else to be bothered. There were these plants all over the place that
actively tried to grab my lines, bastard things, if there was ever a case for
"agent orange" and other defoliants, then this was it. 
The last flying day I got 45 minutes at Macher.
In total I only got 3 hours flying in, but I wasn't really bothered as I needed the holiday as a relaxing one. I got to see a lot of the Island that the common tourist wouldn't see and also got to be on the winning team when we all went to play some sort of Boules game. Ray professed to be an expert and I've never laughed so much at one guy getting so upset when the rest of his team were playing like complete novices, which we were.
This year (1997) we are going back for 2 weeks at Christmas when the weather will hopefully be more sympathetic for the paraglider pilot. I can't wait.
If you want to go and stay with Ray and Josie, then email them r.cooper@teleline.es or phone them 00 34 28 51 26 04.
Read about Christmas flying in Lanzarote 1997
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