Costa Rica paragliding

[mcelrah]

Sallie, Carlos, Laszlo, Magda and I went with Nick Crane (paracrane.com) 11-20 February. Nick provides transportation, guiding, instruction (inc. tandem), lodging and some breakfasts for $1099 a week. He and Fred Grotenhuis (Granpa Ninja) and Fred's noble sidekick Tom really know the sites (some of which they have opened themselves) and weather patterns. We flew five: Caldera, Jaco, Dannyman's, Dominical and a newly opened site I will call Finca. Granpa Ninja's is a beautiful house with pool (cannonballs from the deck) up in the hills that always gets breezes so air-conditioning is unnecessary. Leo and Nancy are the "tico" couple that provide excellent friendly service, home-cooked breakfasts, laundry etc. Dinners were at local restaurants - very good fresh seafood!
Nick got us to Caldera the first day in time to launch before the wind got too strong (helped some of us launch since it was ramping up) and we had satisfying 90 minute flights on the ridge there, circling with frigate birds.

The next day the dreaded north winds came, so we moved to Dannyman's, a 1400 foot launch from a flat pad that has significant bushy growth right up to the lip. Used to slope launches, I managed to end up in the bushes THREE times trying to launch in light cycles.

The next day, we did some remedial kiting on the beach at Jaco and had shorter scratching flights on a small ridge there (annointed our gliders with red dust).

Tuesday the 15th, we were back at Caldera and Sallie got her first high flight from this 350 foot launch. Nick was talking to her on the radio, but she couldn't hear him well, did everything correctly anyway and landed on the beach like a pro. The rest of us luxuriated in the ridge lift. Had some nice close encounters with black vultures and frigate birds. Alas, a Canadian pilot on his first day of vacation pounded in on the beach and got a compression fracture that required surgery.

Wednesday we redeployed to Dominical, a dirt street surfer splinterville (had to make room at Granpa Ninja's for Ben and LE, fresh in from Argentina and Chile, plus Phil Givens of Skywackers). The launch is at 1700 and you can also soar a 700 foot ridge out front near the beaches. Carlos finally landed in the soccer field of the school (instead of helicoptering in between the roofs of the school itself like last year). The kids remembered him and he them - someone has taught them how to fold gliders!

That afternoon we went to look at a newly opened site south of Dominical. It's sort of a side hill launch over a small valley (with no vehicular access) so you either top land or land on the beach and hike out to a beach road. Nick, Laszlo and a couple other pilots got off before a thunderstorm moved in and...Laszlo got trapped in the valley to end up in a 100-foot tree. Fortunately, one of the local pilots is the best tree climber around and was able to get his glider out with 3 1/2 hours of machete work - just before dark.

Thursday was Dominical again. Sallie took a tandem with Nick all the way to the main beach. Laszlo, proud of his elevated tree-landing rating and apparently wanting to pass on his experience, turned into Carlos while they were both on the upper ridge, giving him a partial collapse and a riser twist that put him in a tree behind launch. Fortunately, Carlos was unhurt, but his glider took a tear (field-reparable with duct tape). Carlos has been quite conscientious about paying for the damage he did at the school when he took out a power line to one of the buildings last year - corresponding with the principal about doing some other good for the school/students. He even asked her out to dinner; now Laszlo, Nick and I want to land on the roof at the school also...

Friday was our last flying day and I finally conquered Dannyman's (there was a better breeze this time) and...SO DID SALLIE! This is especially remarkable because you can't see the LZ from launch. I was there on the ground to talk her in (once again, she couldn't hear Nick's radio) but she ended up in the next field over, which was perfectly OK. A nice truckdriver gave us a ride to the bar so we could await retrieval in the shade while enjoying adult beverages.

That same day, we made it 2 hours back up to Granpa Ninja's, stored our gear there so the 5 of us could fit in our small rented SUV for the drive up to the Monte Verde cloud forests at 5000 feet. This was a bit of an adventure in the dark on a rough dirt road for a further couple of hours, but we made it without any problem.

We did a bit of a trail run in the cloud forest early Saturday morning - in order to make it to the zip-line place. Having had 3 "canopy tours" at Dannyman's earlier, I thought this would be anticlimactic, but the dozen runs included some 1800 foot long ones over a small valley, plus a 100-foot Tarzan swing and a last run in the "Superman" or "hang-gliding" position. We had wonderful cool weather at that altitude and great views.

You need to have some flexibility as Nick and Fred deal with the exigencies of vehicle breakdowns, injuries (Kathy, their driver, spent 3 days at the hospital with the injured Canadian), weather - but that's what you are paying for: THEY deal with it all. Having seen their sites...I will stop bad-mouthing OUR launches and LZs - but Dominical in particular is spectacular. Alas, while we were there, construction engineers were putting up stakes on the launch. Nick is negotiating with them. If any pilot is looking to retire to Costa Rica, please act fast and buy the launch! (Maybe you could still build on it while retaining the launch area?) Costa Rica is really better organized than most developing countries - but it's still developing - don't expect it to be just like here (why would you want it to be?!) It's cheaper than here - but not outrageously cheaper. I would go back - and maybe also spend some time learning to surf... The people are very friendly - and some of the young women are gorgeous (some cute guys too for you female pilots - like all the guys who were hooking us up for the zip lines...) Pura Vida!

- Hugh

[cthornberger]

Brilliant, Hugh! That sounds like an amazing time. I'm glad to hear everyone had a stellar time. ..Good job, Carlos too .
Fun in the sun sure beats the 'snows and blows'.
Great to have ya back.
-Chris Hornberger

[uplandann]

Awsome storytelling. Sounds like so much fun! Glad Sallie was able to fly. I didn't know there were so many of you going together, it's so great to share an experience like that with a group. The tarzan swing, and 1800' zip lines sound amazing. Surfing would have definately been on my agenda...
Duct tape??? really?
Thank you for sharing your fantastic trip!
Ann

[mcelrah]

Something to put on your calendars: the Eagle Rock fly-in 10-12 June. This is for both HG and PG, a big wide launch (actually a couple of them) that is appropriate for H2/P2. (I haven't seen it except on U-tube, but that's what I hear.) Camping on-site and a good party. Phil Givens ("P-1"), whom I met in Costa Rica, is the organizer. ER is in the Roanoke area... - Hugh

P.S. The other event that week is the East Coast Hang-gliding Championship (ECC) 5-12 June at Ridgely, MD. Even if you aren't quite up to competing, come out and watch, maybe volunteer (haven't checked with Sunny and Adam at Highland Aerosports whether they are looking for volunteers). You'll learn a ton.

[sailin]

Sounds like a great trip Hugh!!! Costa Rica is such a beautiful country! Are the the roads any better over there now???? When I visited I think there was more pot holes then there was actual roadway!!!
The flying sounds cool and I can imagine the sights from the air are amazing!!
How are the Hang Gliding opportunities over there?

Jon

[mcelrah]

Roads are better - but I actually like it that some are still rough dirt - keeps the riff-raff out. Coulda used a hang-glider for some of the shallow launches with light wind (did I mention going in the bushes 3 times?! but I was not alone...) but LZs could be tough - Falcon for sure. Also, we only flew on the western side at low elevations - and it seems like the tradewinds would favor east-facing launches at the higher elevations, where it's more pleasant anyway - and you'd need a HG to handle the stronger stuff. - Hugh