Gliding in Spain

[Ian and Pauline Kennedy]

Anyone have any info/contacts for clubs in Spain in areas that are "good" in
June/July time.............and dont get too full?
Cheers,
Ian K

[Bert de Wijs]

Ian and Pauline,

 

I have been flying in Spain last 10 years in Fuentemilanos. Good, good weather for big flights but crowdy place.

 

Think about outlanding. Starting as from beginning half july the fields are good to land. Before more difficult.

 

Good places depends on your requests. Comfortable? swimming pool? Or just flying with no requirements?

 

Here the possibilities in middle Spain, north from the guadarama.

 

1) Fuentmilanos  (80 kms north-west from madrid)

Best for flying and infra structure is Fuentemilanos. Book before february or you will not have place. Beuatiful place is Segovia at 15 kms. And nice (relative) cool mountains near. Good always open restaurant, Swimming pool, acceptable camping, or small pensions in village. Some trees on the airfield. Hangars, max 100 gliders/motorgliders. Busy, but good organised, 3-4 towing machines. 1000m long perfect asphalt runway. Not very cheap.

 

Towing 15 kms to mountains can give early start about 11.00 - 11.30u. Thermals in planes start at 12.00-13.00u. Many 1.000 kms have been flewn there. Mostly more days in season possible. Depends on your experience and you have to be lucky for the right day. Chaeper than Fuente.

 

2) Campolara (30kms west from Fuentemilanos)

30 kms from mountains. Good dirt runway in 2 directions. Camping between the trees. No restaurant on field, but big container with chairs and refrigerator. Same soaring conditions as Fuente, but very far from mountains for early start. Hotel and restaurant in village.

 

3) Santo Tome (60 kms east from Fuentemilanos)

Where the N1 from Burgoss to Madrid crosses the Guadarama mountains. 5 kms from the mountains. Also early start possible, like Fuente. Mostly a little bit later, due to different side to the sun. Same soaring conditions as Fuente and Campolara.

Camping is just a field. Do not expect any comfort. 1 toilet and that's it. Electricity on generator. Not expensive. Good for low budget with good flight conditions. Since last year, short not wide asfalt runway in SW-NE direction (along the mountains). Other runway not too good grass.

 

This 3 gliding fields are on the north of the guedarama mountains.

Ayllon is a military gliding field and not permitted for privat.

The other airports do not have gliding activity (yet).

 

South from the guadarama

 

4) Ocana (south from Madrid)

Excellent infra structure. Rooms at the airodrome for low prices. Restaurant, big swimming pool at the aerodrome. Partly asfalt runway. Not to many towing machines. Not sure you always will be up when you want it. No mountains near. Mostly  no thermals before 12.30-13.30h. Later in the day thermals can be very high and strong. with sometimes cloudstreets at 4.000 m. Toledo Sierra gives good at 40 kms south from field.

 

5) Lillo (20 kms south from Ocana)

New airfield from 2000. I have never been to. Dirt runway. No infrastructure yet. Same soaring conditions as Ocana. No mountains.

 

6) Gliding Field where Brian Spreckley flies

Seems ok as I was told. Never been there. Quite a journey south. Near Albacete. I have no maps here on the moment. Forgot the name. But he has an internet site.

 

7) Some field near Cuenca near Sierra Universales

2 years ago I was at a small aerodrome in the middle of nowhere. There were german students of the Stuttgart university. Looked good for thermals. Mountains near, the Sierra Universales. Where the thermals are nearly always super, when I pass during the day.  I have to find out again the place. But nothing at the field. Just grass and a small spanish village.  It was a privat field. No towing available. Bring it yourself. To me it looked ideal for early start and late landing. But that's all the fun. For real lovers. May be with a camper or tent with generator and motor glider?

 

Lots of pleasure. Spain is the Australia of Europe, I flew 7 times 1.000km tasks there with my DG-800. As long as nobody discovers some better in Russia or so. That would be a new adventure. Continental heath should be giving fantastic thermals somewhere in easteurope. But what about infra structure? Outlanding? Language? Hospitality?

 

Bert de Wijs

soaring is high pleasure

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian and Pauline Kennedy <p.ke...@clara.net> schreef in berichtnieuws Itq36.28139$WC3.2...@nnrp4.clara.net...

[Fredrik Konstenius]

Hi,

Try this link: http://www.encomix.es/~jseto/

Regards,
Fredrik
Malmo, Swden

Ian and Pauline Kennedy <p.ke...@clara.net> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:Itq36.28139$WC3.2...@nnrp4.clara.net...

[Janusz Kesik]

Look at shape of the Ural mountains. 2000km long ridge wide for 30 km. I
also saw in catalogue of local outdoor clothing company with photos from
Chechenya (Kaukaz mountains) with beautifully stacked lennies, but flying
there would be "russian roulette" :)

Additional advantage of Ural may be that half ot the Year there's day and
second half there's night (it's in Siberia) so problem of sunset goes away
;)

But who will issue an insurance for this expedition... :)

--
Janusz Kesik
Aero Club of Czestochowa, Poland
jant...@interia.pl
www.soaring.enter.net.pl

(...)

[Brian Penfold]

I'm also looking for Soaring sites in the south of Spain for the end of July. Can anyone help me out?

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[Brian Penfold]

[Francisco De Almeida]

At 19:50 01 January 2001, Brian Penfold wrote:
>I'm also looking for Soaring sites in the south of Spain for the end of July. Can anyone help me out?
>

Hello Brian

Have a look at the Spreckley's site, they are very knowledgeable regarding Spain: http://www.soaringclub.com/

While you are at it, check what they say about Evora in Portugal. I can confirm that this is an interesting site, as I have my glider based there.

This airfield is shared by gliding, parachuting and general aviation. It has very good resources, the airspace is uncluttered, excellent acommodation can be found in the town nearby.

The soaring conditions are similar to those found in southern Spain, although of course more influenced by the sea. Last July I enjoyed several days with thermals up to 3000-3300 m agl. The terrain is flat, being a natural extension of the Spanish plateau. Outlanding possibilities are excellent.

Usually there are two tow planes based at the site during the summer, but you must check availability with the operators as they only operate seven days a week during a couple of months. The single seaters available for hire are LAK-17, PW-5's and Grobs. The operators are Planar (cego...@hotmail.com, 351.96.3037332) and Aeroclube de Portugal (351.21.8405317).

Good seeking,

Francisco

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[Mark Wright]

Ten of us from Rattlesden (U.K), flew at Ontur & Ocana, With Brian and Gill Spreckley for two weeks during 2000. The conditions,Aircraft availability & briefings were excellente.
Pardon the pun but they really know their onions. We're hoping to go again as a group in 2002

Best Wishes
MW

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[Bert de Wijs]

Janusz,

This would mean, that there is not a strong thermal activity possibly. Even
during summer.
Than you have to rely are totally on wind. Where in bad places, sometimes
thermals can keep you up, they might not be there?

Also the wind has to be forcefull from one direction in a very lagre area.
That is unusual. My opinion is that we need long mountain ridges, but may be
more south.

I remember that Sailingschool Oerlinghausen has been in the Kaukazus
mountains? Some years ago. But that mountainridge would be too short I
suppose. What about wars in that surroundings?

From Europe the travel to South America is quite an organisation. Diffenrent
than to Spain or Turqui or even Russia.

Bert
soaring is high pleasure

Janusz Kesik <jant...@interia.pl> schreef in berichtnieuws
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