Roldanillo, Colombia XC

Come join us in the glorious Cauca Valley, Colombia. A great escape from winter to flatlands paradise, there is no better way to work on your thermaling technique.

XC 1 – 05 to 11 January
XC2 – 14 to 20 January

Flatlands of Colombia

Situated in the middle of the Cauca Valley, Roldanillo is the well-known paragliding capital of Colombia. It is the perfect place to work on your thermaling skill ahead of the European season. Flights start in the mountains but as the day progresses and the valley heats up we will slowly transition to the flats to enjoy the wonderful gentle thermals and perfect tracking the drifting climb.

We will have a small intimate groups, focusing on enhancing individual pilots skill with one on one guiding.

SELF Retrieve: We don’t offer retrieve as the Cauca Valley has brilliant transport connectivity, and the locals are super friendly and helpful making hitch hiking easy. It is typically faster to self retrieve than wait for the bus and it gives you an experience of the Colombian community.

Travel

To reach Roldanillo you will fly into Pereira airport where you can get a taxi to your hotel. There are 2 flights into the airport a day so it will be likely that we organise to have shared taxis or a bus if there are more than 4 pilots.

Accommodation

Roldanillo is a small town with many Air BnB's, homestays and hotels in town. Most of these places are 5 -10 min from the town centre and our morning meeting point.

Fees & Dates

Guiding Fees : £850 includes XC guidance, and GPS Trackers.

Duration : 7 flying days

Guide : Josh Sanderson

Self Retrieve

Flying Sites

Roldanillo.

Facing east the main takeoff launches you high above the town of Roldanillo. The mountains around takeoff have very reliable house thermals but do have a possible pacific wind that comes in, so takeoff will be earlier in the day.

Ansermanuevo

“Anserma” is our backup takeoff, we use it in the case of a northerly flowing wind, as it gives more options for distance to the south. This launch is more sheltered, thus it can be used later in the day. It is a bus journey to the town and transport up the hill in the infamous Willys jeeps to get to the takeoff site.

Typical Routes

The typical route in Colombia is a 4 leg route, starting at Roldanillo we head north along the ridge with a turn point at La Union, from there we will usually head out into the valley and start our flatland flying. We will then head south and fly as far as we can with what the day offers.

Depending on the conditions of the day we may head north from La Union, from there we will be aiming to fly as far north up the valley as possible.

Trip Checklist

01. Flying Kit

We expect that you will arrive with a functional paraglider, harness, reserve parachute, helmet, and Vario/GPS.

We recommend you bring along your own trackers (Inreach / Spots). If you don’t have one then we can provide you with one, but do let us know before the course

The weather is nice and warm, good enough to fly in shorts, thin flying jacket and gloves.

02. Insurance

It is essential that you have travel insurance which covers you in respect of the following:

Medical Treatment
Medical Repatriation
Search & Rescue by helicopter

We will hand out a central grab sheet form, where we would like all pilots to fill in their emergency contact details, insurance policy, and contact numbers.

This grab sheet also mirrors all the Risk Acceptance sign-offs that are a part of this document. Please give it a good read and make sure you understand and accept the risk involved.

Please be aware of your own physical and mental limits throughout the tour and on each flight. We aim to do a lot of flying and this can be tiring, especially in heat that you may not be used to, so please be realistic and fly within your comfort and skill levels, cut the flight plan early if you feel tired. We can always change our flight plan to suit what you feel happy dealing with.