TRIPS TO BAJA, MEXICO
We will return to La Salina, Baja, Mexico for our fifteenth year in February, 2007. We will pick up participants at the San Diego Airport (Lindberg Field) on Saturday morning, February 24, 2007 and drop everyone at the airport on Saturday afternoon, March 3, 2007 after eight possible days of flying.
La Salina is perhaps the only area in or near the United States that is flyable at this time of the year. The mesa is one of the most consistent flying sites on the entire North American continent. Each year we have visited this site, we have flown almost every day and often gotten in flights of several hours.
The reason this site works so well is that the mesa, an ancient lava flow, is very sparsely vegetated. It is 680 feet high and 4.2 miles in length. It is located a mile and a half from the Pacific Ocean. Every day the sun shines, and that’s most days in a desert environment like the Baja, the mesa heats up, thermals pop up off the heated lava flow and cool air is sucked in from the Pacific Ocean to replace the air rising in the thermals. This sea breeze usually overpowers ambient winds and produces a soarable westerly breeze.
We stay at the Baja Seasons Resort, an American style resort on the ocean only a mile and a half from the mesa. It is possible to land on the beach in front of the resort from a launch on the ridge under favorable conditions. The resort features ocean front villas, a hot tub, sauna, swimming pool, tennis courts, a restaurant and a cantina. It is an hour south of San Diego and only 20 minutes from Ensenada.
View of paraglider pilot out in front of launch looking west toward the Pacific Ocean. The buildings on the beach directly below the pilot are the Baja Seasons Resort.
You pay for your own airfare to San Diego airport and food at the resort. You can pick up groceries at an American supermarket in San Diego and cook your own meals or eat at the restaurant at the resort, other area restaurants, or in Ensenada. The following packages include ground transportation from San Diego airport to La Salina and all flying sites, a week at the Baja Seasons Resort (double occupancy of rooms in the ocean front villas unless indicated otherwise) and paragliding instruction.
PRICES
| Beginner Package | No previous experience | Includes
|
$1,275.00* |
| Pilot Package |
Para 2 or above rating | Includes
|
$999.00* |
| * Discounts of $100 available for any package paid for before December 31, 2006. Also group discounts of $50 per person for two or more. | |||
THE FLYING EXPERIENCE AT LA SALINA
The mesa at La Salina is a challenging site for even the most experienced advanced rated paragliding pilots, with mid-day thermals that often exceed 800 to 1,000 feet per minute. Flights of three and four hours to cloud base and beyond are common and, with the right glider and piloting skills, cross country flights are entirely possible, even in relatively "weak" conditions in February.
By getting high and shooting (crossing) the "gap" in the ridge (about a mile from the southern end), it is possible to soar the entire 4.2 miles of the ridge, hugging exquisitely sculptured basalt spires or skied out 1,500 feet above launch. Top landings are routine on the mesa's flat top with almost football field sized launch areas that double for landing zones. Flyable almost every day for experienced pilots, La Salina is paragliding heaven on earth!
At the same time, Baja, Mexico is ideal for beginners with no previous paragliding experience. I am an advanced paragliding instructor certified by the USHGA and my wife, Ruth, is a basic instructor. Our training program is tailored to the specific needs and abilities of each individual. Our students progress through their own training program as quickly or as slowly as they desire, always keeping safety firmly in mind.
Students begin with an hour of video tape instruction on how and why the paraglider flies, with graphic details of aerodynamic principles, basic meteorology and many examples of other beginners learning to launch, fly and land paragliders. After an hour or two of hands on training inflating and ground handling the paraglider on the beach, the student progresses to soft sand dunes up to 90 feet in elevation at Cantamar, 10 miles north of the resort at La Salina, for their first fledgling flights.
After a day or two on the dunes, most students are ready for their first flights from a 300 foot launch at Black Mountain in San Diego. By the fourth or fifth day of flying, most students can fly from the 680 foot ridge at La Salina in fairly calm conditions early in the morning or late in the day. By the end of the week, many of our beginners can soar the ridge at La Salina under radio guidance. Many of our students leave La Salina with their Para 2 (solo) ratings in hand.
Of course, each person is an individual and learns at a different pace. Safety is always our utmost concern. We will invite students to progress to higher sites only when they demonstrate skills and judgment necessary for that site. Ultimately, the decision to progress to a higher site rests with the student after consultation with the instructor. Although some of our students may be able to soar by their fifth or sixth day, not all students demonstrate sufficient skills to launch from the ridge or soar during their first week of training at La Salina.