My First visit to Spain

Take off at Lijar.
This is the take off at Lijar Poniente above Algodonales, where I had my first flying holiday in Spain. Lijar is a huge limestone hill with its highest point 1051metres above sea level. It is just outside the Natural Parque Sierra de Grazelema The land around Lijar averages around 400metres above sea level, giving you a no lift glide, (Called a top to bottom.) of 650metres. (2100ft.)
The take off area is quite small, making it quite congested in the peak flying periods. Paragliders in the early years were very tolerant and friendly people. Over the years more and more people have come here to fly, but some brought some of the worst manners in flying etiquette. For a number of years the flying sites were overbooked and gangs of pilots filled the take off areas, trampling over other peoples lines and canopies in an effort to take off first. Ignorance was the order of the day.
There are guide rules about how many gliders can safely fly over a given hill or ridge. At one site that I used to fly from there was a voluntary limit of 8 gliders flying at any one time. If one landed another could take off. On one day at this site I counted 15 gliders in the air and seven just about to take off. I never even took my glider out of the car. I and the other British pilots just went home. The Spanish pilots argued and there were near fights. I could sympathise with them, they had flown here for years. It was their country after all.
In the picture my glider has been pulled off the ground and is flying above my head. You have to kill it’s forward motion with the brake lines, otherwise it will fly in front of you and collapse on your head.
During this manoeuvre you have turned to face the wind and must now run like hell, whilst gently pulling the brake stirrups. If you are lucky, within a few strides you are lifted off the ground and you fly away from the hill. The upward moving air flowing over Lijar lifts you literally by the seat of your pants and you climb high above the take off area. This always gave me a big buzz.


 Flying away from the hill there is a ploughed field two thousand feet below, which is where you aim to land if things go wrong, or you loose height and cannot make the landing field further to the north. My foot got in the picture because, to use the camera, I had to let go of the controls and use my body to turn the glider where I wanted it to go. This requires that you lean heavily to one side to turn. As a consequence your leg comes up as counterbalance.
The strange looking hill to the left of my foot, which seems to have a crest is actually a fold in the rock, which geologists call an anticline. This one is quite spectacular and can be seen close up on the road down to the pueblo of Coripe This is the little road you see in the valley bottom.