Paragliding in La Salina, Mexico

Day 1, XC flight from La Salina to Zaragoza

Read my report: PDF (266k) / HTML (forum post)
Flight information from OLC: Click here

Pictures taken by Tom Ceunen on March 12th, 2006.

Launch at Las Salinas, Mexico
The flying site of La Salina is found 73kms (45mi) south of the US border, on the western shore of the Baja California peninsula. The launch is about 200m (660ft) above sea level, and is neatly laid out with old carpets, protecting your wing from the sharp rocks beneath. It's not overly demanding, but the often strong wind, the steep drop off out front and the thorny vegetation around it don't make it a place to fool around.

 

 

View back to launch
Tom and I got airborne at around 10.30am. We quickly hit an excellent thermal that yielded up to 4m/s (800fpm) of lift and took us up to cloudbase at around 1020m (3350ft) above take off. As evident from the picture, we had already drifted quite a bit downwind over the mesa with the thermal. Once at cloudbase, we simultaneously shouted at each other: "Let's go XC".

 

Fantastic cumulus clouds over Mexico
You won't be suprised about our XC plans if you see this picture. The sky looks just amazing for every paraglider pilot. Wonderful cumulus cloud streets indicating good thermals as far as one can see. However, the terrain below looks a little bit less inviting for a XC flight. Very rugged, sparsely populated, with only few roads, trails and landing fields.

 

Marcel's Mamboo on glide over the mesa
That's me on glide over the mesa. Isn't that a very beautiful wing I'm flying? It was still very early in the day, only 11am and I was a bit anxious whether the flatlands would already work, i.e. release thermals. However, there was no reason to be overly worried. We hit the next thermal soon enough and got back to cloudbase.

 

Canyon in Mexico
This canyon was exactly downwind on our course line. It doesn't look like it's a very good idea to cross it at low altitude. Thus, we flew crosswind and followed the mountains on the right side, where we picked up the next thermal. We then drifted exactly over  the canyon, though at safe altitude. Awesome vistas were included.

 

Back at cloudbase
This is the view back to the sea, where we came from. After the canyon thermal, we went on glide and got low, very low. Just about 50m (165ft) above ground level, we found the next thermal on a little hill that had a horse carcass on its top. We were very close to sinking out, but then the thermal brought us back to cloudbase.

 

Back at cloudbase
This is almost identical to the picture before, but it's the view in the other direction. At cloudbase we drifted over the mountains to the big valley on the right, where the next crosswind leg was waiting for us. I was a bit unlucky and missed a thermal and soon got very low...

 

Marcel desperatly low
Here you can see how precarious my situation was. I'm that tiny little speck down there that is barely visible in the low resolution picture. In about the position I am on the picture, I found some zero sink to loiter around. Then, I found a weak thermal with which I drifted, hoping it would take me to the next good one. It happened indeed, and I got a ride back to cloudbase on the next sunny hillslope.


 

View from cloudbase towards Zaragoza
Back at cloudbase, it wasn't easy to continue. The whole downwind sector was unpopulated and rugged terrain where we didn't want to fly into. So we had to fly crosswind again. We zigzagged back and forth, and finally after several tries got high enough to follow the Tecate road to the village of Zaragoza.

 

Landing in Zaragoza
From Zaragoza, the road turned and led upwind. It's very difficult to fly successfully fly XC with a paraglider against a 25kmh (15mph) headwind. We tried our best but it became apparent that Zaragoza was the logical endpoint of our flight. We had a smooth landing and were greeted by the villagers. One offered to drive us to the town of Ensenada, from where we caught a bus back to La Salina.

 

Day 2, soaring flight at La Salina with a beach landing

Read my report: PDF (7k) / HTML (forum post)

 

View from launch
This is the view from launch at La Salina towards the Baja Seasons Resort, where we stayed. The sea is about 1.8kms (1.1 miles) away, and it's about a 8:1 glide to the beach. In good conditions, it's fairly easily doable, though. The bailout LZ is the brown spot right in front of launch.

 

South of the gap at Las Salinas
This is the view south, on the southern portion of the ridge. You need to cross a gap to get there. It's not very wide and thus not very difficult. However, beware of the venturi (canyon suck), if you are low.

 

View to the north
That's the view northwards, from about over the gap. The three bright spots are the different launches, all laid out with old carpets. The glider next to me, the red Ozone Buzz,  is piloted by Spark

 

Marcel on his Mamboo
After a nice flight of 2 hours, the wind picked up more and more. It was time to head for a landing - on the beach of course. Isn't that a very beautiful wing I'm flying? Also note the position of the bailout LZ which is to the left of myself.

 

Approaching Baja Seasons Resort
In flight perspective while heading for Baja Seasons resort. While I twice got out to the sea and back to the ridge earlier in my flight, I had to struggle now. Due to the strong headwind, I was only crawling, despite hitting full speedbar.

 

Over the Cuota
A view down to the "cuota", the toll road which leads along the coast of Baja California from Tijuana to Ensenada.

 

Beach Landing
The tiny lawn in front of our apartment was my LZ, note the windsock on the front end. Already at first inspection I had considered it as a suitable landing spot, and the conditions that day were so favorable that I could end my Mexico flying trip with a spot landing right in the middle of it :-).

 

More Picture Galleries / Home Marcel Dettling, 19.3.2006