Improvements at take off

One of the priorities of the Corneja de Gredos Club is the improvent of the take off at Peña Negra.  Erosion had effected considerably the gradient of the launch necessary for gaining correct and safe flying speed during our take offs.   Obstacles such as the mountain broom and stones can cause collisions and turbulences near the ground with cause unnecessary risks.   The gravel causes a level of abrasion to the paragliders and often ends up in the cells.  The barb wire fence behind is an obvious and important risk for paragliders in the event of being dragged or blown back in stronger winds.
If Piedrahita is to recover its flying tourism it must offer an infrastructre which allows both top pilots and club level pilots safe conditions for launching.  The take off must offer a margin of security to the small errors often occurring during our launches, so as not to cause serious accidents.

For this reason last August we made known to the president of the Provincial Government, Augustin González, that a relatively small investment in the improvement of the take off could lead to a large recovery in the flying tourism of the valley.  We gave them a detailed document (pfd) to consider.  The technicians of the Provincial Government drew up a plan for the improvement which you can see here.  The budget of 32.000€ is for the movement of earth, seeding with grass and drainage.  The area will be cleared of the broom and the barb  wire fence replaced with round wood.

The New take off of 55m with have an inclination of 30% and 48m of run to the drop off at the road.  We believe this to be an important improvement.

The pilots of the whole world give our thanks to the efforts of the Provincial Government and the Town Hall of Piedrahita.

We must also now strive for a range of landing fields and achieve alternative take off sites for other wind directions (south, south west – Lastra del Cano and East).  We will continue to work with the town hall of Piedrahita to achieve these objectives.

PDF Perfil Arreglo Peña Negra

PDF Superficie Arreglo Peña Negra