Paragliding at the Torrey Pines Gliderport, USA

Day 1, beautiful soaring flight as far as the ridge goes

Flight information from the OLC: Click here

Pictures taken on March 9th and 10th, 2006

The story of this picture strip is playing the famous Torrey Pines Gliderport (visible here) at La Jolla near San Diego.

And the main actors are pilot Marcel, co-pilot Loecky and our Nova Mamboo paraglider, visible here.

The flying site is on the Pacific Ocean shore. The sandstone bluffs are up to 100m high. This is the view to the north.

The ridge is soarable for a length of about 5km (3.2mi). This is my northerly turnpoint, the famous Bathtub Rock.

This is the view to the south. Besides the seabreeze and thus good ridge lift, there were clouds with nice thermals, too.

Beautiful mansions are at the cliff edge. You can pass right by them, but you are not allowed to fly over their property.

That's another one, from high above. A swimming pool and one tennis court are the minimal standard for beachfront mansions. Please note that although it looks like I'm flying over their property, I don't do so, it's only the perspective.

Ups, all of a sudden I hit a good thermal and got to cloudbase, @ 360m (1200ft) asl. And I'm flying over the surf!

This altitude allows me to fly out over the sea and go for the Scripps Pier. Loecky was scared of getting wet...

We safely made it out and back, the pier was the southerly turnpoint in my flight. I flew for 4 hours total that day!

Day 2, nice evening flight after a day that was mostly rainy and blown out

All of a sudden, a flying window opened. I was the quickest of our group to be in the air. This is Tom launching.

Totally calm conditions with abundant ridge lift and wonderful sunset views made this hour long flight a pure pleasure.

Also my buddy Spark, who had coordinated all our travel plans (thanks!), enjoys the conditions on his Ozone Buzz.