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Our Spanish centre – Personal tuition in the sun with limited risk to you
Wales can be a great place to fly. We have amazing open mountains to paraglide from and excellent flat lands and valleys to paramotor through. Our training sites couldn't be better and the UK has been referred to as Europe's largest golf course for these reasons. The one thing we haven't got in abundance is good flyable weather. When the conditions are good, the UK offers some of the best flying you can get but once you get involved in our amazing sports you will quickly realize that this country's unpredictable weather can hold you back. Learning to paraglide in the UK can be frustrating when many of your training days are cancelled due to unsuitable conditions. A lot of our students are happy to do all of their training in the UK and indeed, some pilots have absolutely no interest in ever flying abroad preferring familiar sites and having the patience to just work their way through their course tasks as the good days appear. After all, this is how most of us did it in the past!
But for a lot of students the picture is very different. More and more people are now leading very busy lives and committing the time to a training course that could take a few months to complete just isn't an option. More potential students are realizing the benefits of attending a residential overseas course to get trained as fast as possible in infinitely more reliable conditions than here in the UK. The main problem with going to foreign schools for your training is the massive variation in standards and the fact that this rarely leads to a BHPA rating that you are going to need to fly with in your local club. Students usually also require 'finishing'; a few days training in the UK to bring them up to standard and finish the syllabus. A lot of students don't realize this and end up paying a lot more in total for their tuition.
The biggest benefit though of training in reliable weather is having consecutive training days. To us here at Paraventure (as well as every other training centre in the UK), the biggest problem isn't the lack of total training days but more the problem of incurrency. Sometimes we'll do a couple of days training with a student then because of a combination of unsuitable weather and working commitments, we may not see them again for a few months. They then spend the whole of the next day relearning what has already been taught previously. This very often leads to the student taking far longer to get qualified than should be the case and worse still, many students just give up and never get to experience what our sports are really all about.
We set up our Spanish operation to address all of these problems stated above. We already knew that the Granada area of Southern Spain has the most reliable weather in the whole of Europe and this lead us to Antonio Castro. Antonio has been flying and training full time for the last twenty years and is simply Spain's most experienced instructor. He opened up most of the flying sites enjoyed by visiting pilots to the Granada area today. This mild mannered Spaniard who speaks perfect English believes in teaching the same way as ourselves; personal tuition to the highest safety standards possible with very small groups of students. We all believe that this is the only way for students to receive the attention they deserve. Antonio also holds the new Active Tourism qualification at its highest level. He is one of the first instructors in Spain to hold this new qualification and it will in 2007, become a legal requirement. If you are looking at any other training operations in Spain you need to ask if they have this qualification. Centers training without it will actually become illegal. Antonio's is the first paragliding school recognized by the Andalucian govening body (Junta de Andalucia ) to operate under the new restricted Spanish sports rules No:GR/AT/0078.
Antonio is very unusual in the amount of sites at his disposal. As well as all the usual well known flying sites of the Costa Tropical and Granada area, Antonio has a number of completely exclusive sites. These include excellent beginner training slopes, coastal soaring ridges and even Alfacar, said by many to be one of Spain's finest paragliding sites. Alfacar is in the Granada National Park and Antonio and his clients are the ONLY people with formal permission to fly here. A lot of students we talk to who have done some training abroad with other schools often complain of site over crowding spoiling their enjoyment and safety, sometimes even preventing them from flying at all. This will never be a problem for us with Antonio actually owning the take offs of many of the sites we fly.
As if all this isn't enough, we also have the use of two different bases; the first is in Motril on the coast and the other is at the famous Alfacar in Granada, between the take off and landing sites. This gives us the unique ability to always be in the best base to suit the conditions and student abilities. There is only a one hour traveling time between these two areas but the conditions can be radically different. The difference between the Granada area and Costa Tropical is normally between 5-10 degrees more or less depending on the season, so we can choose either warmer in winter or cooler in summer. As you can see, this is a pretty unique service we are offering our customers. In this area we can combine the soaring sea breezes with the winter thermals of the mountains but depending on the site we choose we can have weaker or stronger conditions to suit the clients. Staying in the Alfacar base we also have a bigger range of sites up to the north if we wish. The house in Motril overlooks the sea and is best described as 'organically rustic'. The complex is split up into self contained apartments with their own bathrooms and kitchens. The centre of the house is very big and the venue for the evening meals and videos etc. Antonio's wife Merisa is happy to cook a few evening meals a week and is an excellent chef; indeed some clients seem to come back mainly for Marisa's cooking! Merisa can also supply you with a comprehensive packed lunch everyday; just let us know when you arrive. Merisa is also a very experienced paragliding instructor as well as a good cook. The house in Granada is a typical large mountain village house but has been completely rebuilt to a Spanish rustic style. Like the house in Motril, it has many bedrooms with most being on suite. It also has an excellent restaurant and bar just up the road. The take off area for the Alfacar flying site towering being the house can be seen from the windows. The house is situated in a beautiful little village with a lot of history that Antonio will willingly tell you about. The flying here is mostly much bigger than on the coast and in a very different setting but some of our smallest training sites are also in this area. Remember to pack light so we can move from the one house to the other if needs be. We have more than 40 diferent flying sites all within a one hour drive and some only a few minutes away from either house. We offer four different courses at our Spanish base to BHPA standard and two different holidays for the already qualified. We offer Elementary, Club (Novice) Pilot and a combined EP/CP course leading to full rating. Also we have paramotoring courses for the beginner. Finally, we also run holidays for qualified Club Pilots wanting to expand their experiences and fly the bigger sites. For the Elementary course we as always offer all the equipment needed for training. For your Club pilot tuition, we always advise you use your own equipment to get used to flying it in a school environment prior to finishing your training. As in the UK, we aim to deliver personal tuition to the highest level. To this end we try whenever possible to keep the groups to 5 pilots per instructor/guide on our holidays and 2 - 3 students per instructor for our qualification courses. This ratio is currently unmatched in the UK. To better this we would need to instruct on a one to one basis but we often do that too anyway. Our pricesOne week Elementary course - £749 (at least 4 days actual training) One week Club (Novice) completion course - any pilots with under 10h total airtime - £749 (at least 4 days actual training)) Two week combined EP-CP course - £1395 (at least 8 days actual training) One week BHPA restricted Paramotoring rating - £749 ( at least 4 days actual training; this course needs to follow basic paragliding EP) One week paragliding or paramotoring guided holiday - £549 10 days paragliding or paramotoring guided holiday - £695 Daily rate for any course or holiday above - £150 As you can see from the above, we have built in protection against losing days to bad weather by keeping reserve days in hand. This helps to reduce stress levels and keep the training to a reasonable speed. If we have excellent conditions unabling you to complete your course early leaving spare days, extra training can be provided at our usual hourly rate. The cost for these courses closely matches what we charge in the UK. We wanted it to be no more expensive for you to learn to fly in Spain than here in the UK. You will however need to purchase a flight to get to Malaga airport. You will also need a holiday insurance policy that covers paragliding. You can find a good one here. Training in Spain will cost you at most £35 a day more than here in the UK which is what most students spend on traveling each day to Abergavenny anyway. It is virtually flyable everyday on the Costa Tropical and it gets 320 days of sunshine a year. We try to guarantee 4 days training per week when you are with us. LOST DAYS - if for whatever reason we can't deliver the number of days training indicated above, you are welcome to take outstanding days in Wales during our normal training season. Just like our courses in the UK, we think you should only pay for what tuition you have received and not walk away empty handed should you be really unlucky with the weather. We are also confident that this will rarely be the case due to the excellent flying conditions that Spain enjoys. On previous holidays and courses we have found plenty to see and do on the rare days it isn't flyable. Of course, there is also theory that must be absorbed before going on road trips! All you need to do is to click the link and register your interest in the next trip and which one you want to go on. We will email back a confirmation and let you know the dates as soon as we can. We will then email you a booking form for you to fill in and post back with your payment details. With only 3 students minimum required per trip, the holidays are close together and this is only possible because of our personal tuition. Dates for winter 2007 - 2008As you can see, all the dates except for October start on a Wednesday. By doing this we avoid paying excess weekend flight prices. We are doing this to help keep the total costs of our trips as low as possible for our clients. All trips except 1st Oct are for 8 nights in Spain; the two dates quoted for each trip are for the first day and the return day. We prefer if people fly from Bristol via EasyJet; We go out the evening before the start date dep. 17:05, arr. 20:40 We fly back from Malaga on the last day, last flight dep. 21:15, arr. 22:55 Be using these flight times it means you will be ready to start fresh on the first day after a good nights sleep. It also means it can be possible to use the last day as a spare day if needs be. So as you can see, we are allowing 7 days per week for possible flying and not losing 2 days of your holiday traveling. We have looked at this very closely and it is the best way to run these courses. Please talk to us first before buying any flights for final confirmation. We arrange airport transfers if you use these flights. If you are coming from another airsport you may need to find your own way to us in Motril. 1st Oct to 10th Oct 2007 - CP+ Holiday. A 10 day holiday for pilots with more than 20 hours total experience. 10th Oct to 17th Oct 2007 - CP completion or any pilot with less than 20 hours total experience. 7th Nov to 14th Nov 2007 - Beginner to EP only. 14th Nov to 21th Nov 2007 - CP completion or any pilot with less than 20 hours total experience. 5rd Dec to 12th Dec 2007 - Beginner to EP only. 12th Dec to 19th Dec 2007 - CP completion or any pilot with less than 20 hours total experience. 9th Jan to 16th Jan 2008 - Beginner to EP only. 16th Jan to 23th Jan 2008 - Paramotor training and coastal tour. Paramotoring tuition for beginners, BHPA FLPA conversions and refresher training. Experienced paramotor pilots welcome as the intention for the week is to fly the beaches and coast of the Costa Tropical. 6th Feb to 13th Feb 2008 - Beginner to EP only. 13th Feb to 20th Feb 2008 - CP completion or any pilot with less than 20 hours total experience. We will require a non refundable deposit of £249 to secure your place. If you take out the holiday insurance at the same time, even your deposit will be protected against holiday cancellation or illness on your part. We are confident that we have a service that's second to none. So to recap here, are the key points of our Spanish training holidays; Courses in the most reliable weather area in Europe The ability to fast track your training Instruction by Paul Williams, Chris White and Antonio Casto Two bases of operation; to be in the right place at the right time Exclusive flying sites Excellent value for money All flying sites within a one hour drive, some only a few minutes Pick ups from Malaga airport
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