St.Vincent-les-Forts (France)

The surroundings of Lac de Serre Ponçon make a stunning flight area. There are several take-offs close by. Like St.Vincent-les-Forts, where you can take off just next to the terrace of paraglidingcentre Volantis. From there you can soar along a huge ridge with a beautiful view over the lake, 500m below you. Toplanding is possible near the take-off, but another landing zone is located at camping Lou Pibou, down at the lake. Be carefull with the valley wind in the afternoon which may cause you not being able to reach the Lou Pibou landing field. When you get above the lake with a lot of hight, you have perfectly suited conditions to do some exercizes or acro. Just take the proper measures concerning safety, like a life jacket, when going for the more extreme stuff. You can also gain some more height and fly to Mt. Dormillouse, which has his summit at 1600m above the lake. At the bottom of Mt. Dormillouse you'll find the little ski-village of St. Jean which accomodates the official landing field. From the landing zone it's a 5 minute walk to the ski-lifts which can take you the Plateau Dormillouse (500m above the landing field) or go even higher to the summit, but that'll require a decent walk to the take-off. The camping site at Camping Municipal du Lac is sufficient with some lakeside activities. You can also stay at paraglidingcentre Volantis where a couple of rooms are available. In the close proximity you'll find a couple of other take-off sites like Mt. Colombis (1000m hd) and Mt. Chabanon (850m hd). At the St.Vincent-les-Forts site, it's a good habit to get your equipment ready for flying and arrange your glider on the field behind take-off. When you're ready to start, you get it all fieldpacked, go to the actual take-off area to launch and make a nice flight. After toplanding near Volantis, you can take a seat on the terrace and enjoy the view of other pilots flying by while having a well earned drink. In Volantis you'll find a paraglidingshop and it's also possible to book tandem flights for your relatives with the local French instructors.

Oludeniz - Babadag (Turkey):

In May 2004 I went to Oludeniz for the first time. I should have done it earlier because it's a superb place to fly. When you start from the Babadag at 1700 or 1900 m asl, your view is amazing. Just about 10 minutes flying and you are above a deep blue ocean, looking out over a beautifull blue lagoon with a fantastic white beach, laying out for you like a runway.

Transport to the take-off sites is done by 4x4, in our case manned bij Ibo from the SkySports crew. The landscape is quite unforgiving when you have a rushy driver, but Ibo did a really good job bringing us up in a safe manner. Costs for transportation are about 12.500 Turkish Lira and the same ammount for the forresters who want to get paid, before someone can pass. Doing (too) good business. The story is told that before May 2005 they'll build a cablecar from Oludeniz to the take-off sites. Also the take-offs wille be concreted and renewed. That would be very good news, because it 'll shorten the time for travel significantly I presume. That means: more flights every day : )

There are diferent start directions available depending on the conditions. The 1700m start is quite broad and easy to launch from. The other launches are at the 1900m level, both sides of the summit. These are a little bit more trickier, rocky, small and steep. A good backward launching technique will definitely give you some advantage in safety. For the XC-course with Jocky Sanderson, we left from the 1900m sites. Due to the laminar sea breeze it's really a joy to play around high above the sea, doing a SIV-course or even some acrobatics. The environment is ideal for those activities. When you've landed on the beach, the SkySport crew will fold your glider and put all your equipment in your bag, while you are already telling big stories to your fellow pilots. For this service they charge about 2000 Lira and if you got some sand from the beach in your wing, they also take it out for you. They do a really good job and handle your glider with care. We stayed in the Flying Dutchman Hotel with our group. It's a nice hotel with a swimming pool and a grill restaurant serving good dishes around a big open-air fireplace. Paul, the owner and a fellow-pilot, takes care of the entertainment of his guests.

Along the Oludeniz Beach there are numerous restaurants for all kind of tastes like of course Turkish dishes, but also Mexican, Italian, seafood and grills. They accept euro's for payment. In the little village you'll find a lot of tourism-oriented shops. Bags, fake brand watches and clothing. Remember one thing: ALWAYS bargain !! Because if you feel too shy or you don't like to do it, you will rip yourself off.

Le Grand Bornand (France):

This is a site with excellent facilities to fly. The main landingzone la Patinoire is located in the close proximity of camping l'Escale. From this camping (with appartments) it's just a two minute walk to the nice village of Grand Bornand. At the Tourist Office in de center of the village you can get a meteo update every day and a forcast for the rest of the week in french and english.

At the other site of the village, about 700 meter from la Patinoire you can hop in the Telecabine Rosay which brings you halfway to the top of mount Lachat. There you can take a seat in the chairlift to the top of the mountain (HD 1090m). You can buy yourself a special 'parapente' 10-ticket arrangement. When you step out of the chairlift you're at the starting area. It's quite broad, but also very steep. That's the reason pilots most often make forward launches. Best wind direction is SouthWest. Due to the steepness of the hill it's also possible to launch with light tailwind conditions.
Early in the morning you'd best fly to the left, directly after you launched around the top, because the sun is warming up the hill already over there. You can fly in the direction of Grand Bornand and there's a small spine on your way. You'll find great lift when flying over there. More experienced pilots can opt for a cross country start at Mt. Lachat and fly to the near La Clusaz of head on to Annecy.

During the afternoon a valleywind is coming up and landing at Patinoire can get quite turbulent. In that case it's also possible to land at le Bouchet. You get there driving past La Patinoire, follow the road and go to the right at the end. A couple of hundreds of meters further on your right you can see a chalet on a big concrete surface and a windsock close to it. Seen from the launch area to your left, you can see this alternative landing zone quite well. Last year, because of the Tour de France finish in Le Grand Bornand, the landingzone at Patinoire was paved. Therefore we had to land on the other side of the road (down and opposite to the A on the picture just above the brown field). This may have changed afterwards, so check it out before you leave.