The third edition of the Paragliding Festival of Los Realejos (Tenerife, Spain), Flypa 07, was preceded by Ramon Morillas' highly publicized flight from Jerez de La Frontera in the south of Spain to the Canary islands in paramotor. The feat was a new world record of distance and Flypa was not only sponsor but co-organizer of it, showing the will of the town of Los Realejos to associate the Flypa name to something more than an annual flying event. In 2007, Flypa also sponsored a competition team formed by Canary pilots who are taking the name of the Festival to all the events in which they participate and taking advantage from Flypa's promotion and support for their sportive development.

Thus, we can only congratulate the strong work of promotion for our sport that this festival is doing in such a short period of time, having as main showcase a colourful event loaded with aerial shows that manages to attract the attention of mass media and public towards the most positive side of flying.

The Flypa 07 held at the end of April, started with a well-deserved tribute to Granada's pilot Ramon Morillas, who only a few days earlier had smashed his own paramotor world record of distance (951km), covering 1105 km in 14 hours cruising above the sea. We could feel part of his excitement in a video with the best images of the flight, shot at the takeoff and during the flight from a military helicopter. After the usual fireworks display, Flypa 07 was inaugurated before two hundreds of participants and many companions, journalists and visitors both from Spain and abroad.

The following morning activities started early with the retrieve of pilots from their hotels to take them to Izaña, where they could try the magical flight from the Teide natural park with the summit of the highest volcano of Spain behind. This would be done every day for those in the mood for an early start and stunning views of Tenerife. The more busy takeoff of La Corona would be open for the rest of the day, with transport back available at the LZ of El Socorro beach.

The adrenalinic and non-stop show of the Flypa was reinforced this year with talented acro pilots that visited the island for the first time, like the Austrians of the team "Against the Grain", or German ace Michael Knipping, who even had the chance to taste the salty waters of El Socorro beach after falling into the sea due to a failed maneuver –luckily, with no significant consequences.
More attention surely received the Japanese pilot Seiko Fukuoaka (see box on the left), one of the very few women who compete at the highest level in Acro paragliding and who showed her abilities at the controls of a tiny U-Turn glider. She also caught the glances of fellow pilots while she enjoyed sunbathing in her bikini on the beach…

The SAT team, a usual one at the Flypa festival, took to themselves the most radical maneuvers and synchrony works, with peculiar team-crossings among their members (Felix is in the Ozone team, Hernan in the Acrobatix, and they all fly different brands of paragliders).

More visual than radical, the Renegades' was probably the most photographed show during the festival and you could notice how much their 5 members enjoyed each flight hooked to the canopies and lines of their mates…

The Ozone team dedicated their exhibitions mainly to parachute jumps from paragliders, with occasional acro displays in charge of some of their pilots.

Mathieu Rouanet was without a doubt their most ‘exhibitionist' pilot, tirelessly throwing tricks above the waves of El Socorro beach and in front of the takeoff: The precision of the world's number 1 in acro manoeuvres powered by his paramotor. He was seen all day long going and coming between the takeoff, the beach, the Port and back, always taking his manoeuvres to the limit –although he told us that this year he was taking it easier…It's a pity that the light-man was not able to find him during the final show at night while he descended doing sats in the dark …

The young Green brothers did their last show as members of the Ozone team at Flypa, because shortly after they moved to Apco to fly their new acro paraglider. Above, prepared and in full-stall...
People at Flypa: Happy faces at the LZ after the flights.

The Slovenian brothers Urban and Aljaz Valic were special guests of the 3rd Flypa festival. The brothers are not only top level pilots but also –at that time- the ones who had flown the farthest with paragliders (426km), although the FAI did not certify it as world record. We don't understand why the organization did not arrange some kind of talk of them during the festival: many of the participants would have appreciated to hear the full story of that flight.

For the night time, the Flypa invited the participants to a concert of the popular Spanish band M-Clan, where we were accommodated in a VIP zone with free beers; and there was another concert at the beach of El Socorro, the main meeting point of the festival.

The weather was irregular this year, with strong winds one day, low clouds and even some rain another day; but flying was possible nonetheless. At the boulevard of Puerto de la Cruz several paramotor pilots gathered to offer tandem flights at reduced prices that were a big success with the public, with nearly 20 flights each day per pilot! An excellent way to introduce flying to the general public!

But not only the tandem pilots flew their paramotors. In addition to Mathieu and Ramon that used their machines for the show, there were some participants of the festival who took their own paramotors and flew as much as they could over the Port. Karen and Jason Skinner, passionate lovers of powered paragliding, told us that they had a fantastic time despite the limited flying area (there are few landing options available) and plan to come back next year to enjoy both free and powered flight.

But we also heard some critic voices, specially those of the pilots who could not go to Izaña one day after getting up so early, because the bus never showed up... A situation that the organization solved for the remaining days, although there were still some complaints for the low frequencies of buses between takeoff and landing, or for the lack of a good place at the beach where the pilots could meet, rest and leave their gliders, or hide from the rain in the event that the weather was not with us. The Flypa organization has always been keen to do the best for the pilots and to make a festival that is enjoyable for everybody, so we believe that they will keep on improving for future editions, as well as continue supporting sportive challenges and promoting paragliding in such a fantastic way.

Long life Flypa!!

The FLYPA festival is coming back in 2008: April 30th to May 4th!

*Special thanks to the organizers of FLYPA 07 for their support to cover the event and do this article,
and for yet another great paragliding event.

+Info: www.flypa.es