LANZAROTE: Sun and Flying in Janurary. Come fly your hearts out with us!
HANG GLIDING & WIND SURFING are fast becoming the second reason for going to a small set of islands off the coast of Africa... The first is the SUN, Lanzarote enjoys temperatures seldom lower than 65 deg. all year round generally 75 to 80 and very little rainfall. The island is quite large, 45 miles by 20 miles, and has many pleasant beaches, there is something for everybody, quite remote places with old villages with a spanish lifestyle, to the fast club type resort, with all the modern convieniences and entertainment, restaurants of all nationalities and shops for everything.
The ISLAND is well blessed with sand, sun and sea, but more especially wind, making it ideal for hang gliding from the tops of extinct volcanoes. Occasionally!! in the winter, the wind strengthens to force 6-7, making wind surfing extremely good fun, normally however, the wind is around force 2-3 with a prevailing north-easterly direction. During light wind days, water skiing, aqua diving, towed hang gliding (windsurfing for beginners or the less experienced) and generally dossing in the sun take precedence.
The island has a mixture of coastal soaring, mountain flying and thermalling; wave soaring is also possible due to the meterological conditions and the proximity of the neighbouring islands, so for those of you who have never done a cross country, an out and return or just a down wind dash, it's an ideal place to practice. The ridge run in a westerly is tremendous. 5 kilometres of inland flying then a further 15 kilometres of 2000ft coastal cliff soaring, the views are breathtaking and the visibility excellent.
Because of the nature of farming in Lanzarote, the fields are covered by a layer of black granite, which causes a lot of differential heating. The sun beats down and the wind disturbs and triggers strong small columns of warm rising air. As ridge lift is usually present, a novice pilot is able to practice thermalling techniques, when ridge lift is less abundant, the league type pilot will be taxed to the hilt in trying to stay in the lift.
For details phone 01362 687000