During the last week of September 02 and the first week of October five adventurous pilots left the safety of their home flyingsites and headed out into the world once again to find the elusive perfect flying day. Rufus Hellendale, Blake Daley, Kevin Harvey, Tim Parker and I headed for the west coast of Portugal where the westerly on shore breezes were reputed to be as regular as clockwork, making for one of the best coast flying sites in all of Europe. Fortunately I had been there the previous March for amonth and had indeed flown Praia Cordoama on occassion. I had even flown the south coast at Priado Porto do Mos. However that was family time and nothing is more boring to a non flyer than watching a paraglider lazily drifting around the sky. So these two weeks were going to be just the guys (non sexist, we'd have loved to have a female pilot bit the bullet and hang out.) great food , great beaches, lots of history and above all else great flying. Well it turned out to be a little less great flying than we anticipated. The problem being that very infrequently a wind called the levanter (easterly) takes over and dominates the weather for days on end. Well there were moments of respite when the prevailing westerly forced the levanter back which gave us tempting moments, moments in which we could see all too well the posibilities that were alluding us. The long flight up the coast for twently five kilometers was only one of the "if onlys" We flew every day but we had to work hard at it and some flights are better described as last ditch desperation to get airborne. ie the sled run at the end of a day of chasing wind.

We did though manage to find an south east flying site that no local pilot had yet flown on a paraglider. Our good friend from Lagos, Gerry Breen the local ultrlight instructor, tipped us off to the site which we made a bee line for. it is a bit unforgiving in terms of lz since a landing on the gravel beach means a scramble over the rocks to get around the headland to the east to get to the little fishing village of Burgau. The cliffs were seventy metres high and formed a bit of a bowl in the north west corner so the prevailing sou'easter was funnelled up really nicely. top landing was a necessity if one was to avoid the walk out. After a particularly good day of flying there with Gerry and another local pilot they paid us the honor of calling the unnamed bay, Canada Bay!

Another great spot to fly on the south coast is near Lagos at Praia do Porto do Mos where many of the local pilots (not tht many there really) like to fly. Take a look at the picture and you'll understand why. Not to mention the avaiablility of Cafe con lait or freshly squeezed oj on landing.

Best sites in the Algarve

1. Definitley Praia Cordoama on the west coast near the village of Villa do Bispo. It is awesome, has great coastal xc potential and if you don't fly you can always surf. (west to north west wind)
2. Praia do Porto do Mos (south wind) very nice two kilometer coastal ridge
3. Canada Bay - Good to fly but you technical skill for strong conditions and top landing have to be together.

Contact: - Try gettting in touch with Gerry Breen at the aerodromo in Lagos. He knows the sites and his better half Karen has a wonderful villa very close to Cordoama where you can stay quite reasonably. If you're really interested send me an email and I'll put you in touch with them.