Not having been to Kalo Chorio for ooh, over a year now, we had been curious as to the state of affairs regards the landing area. I had heard from one source that there was currently no safe landing for that site, but that negotiations were in place to bulldoze a new landing. Knowing the Cypriot approach to hard work, I wondered when this might come about and whether I would still be alive then, never mind on the island! With that in mind, as well as the desire to see with our own eyes what was available now, my friend and I set off to take a look. I was amazed how much had changed, both for the better and for the worse. The house which was started a year ago was, to my surprise, finished and lived in! However, it wasn’t all bad news, far from it. A larger field to the south and west of the old one was ripe for the landing and, despite having our gliders with us, my buddy and I decided to wait for another day, since our visit was a little late on and I had Elena and Kyle with me and didn’t want to keep them waiting. Apparently, no one has flown this site for some time, which I find a little strange, because the options, to me and my friend seemed better now than a year ago. It had been described to me as having ‘no safe landing’, though no answer to the question, “did you fly it?” was forthcoming from my informer. I was puzzled! Nevertheless, it’s official, KX is once again ‘on the menu’!
Curium magic
I was on the beach swimming with Kyle and Elena in the early evening and very pleasant it was too! After 7.10, I decided that it was worth trying the evening soaring plan and sent out an SMS to my good friend Mano and went up to the top. Once there, I sent another, saying, ‘Looks like a top to bottom, so I’m going now!’ Moments later Mano arrived and as usual, not packing his glider or disconnecting from the harness, he was set up and off first. I was away right behind him and, noticing he was staying up at the east end, I followed. It was looking like a ‘who can stay up longest’ contest and actually, there was plenty of lift available, but mostly all in the same place – quite a small area. We know each other quite well and have a good deal of trust in the air, so this was not really a problem for us. We worked the lift very well and stayed up for about 25 minutes, mainly at the east end cliffs. One more glider and I am sure that we wouldn’t have managed this. Once high enough we did a beat back toward take off and I headed back toward the east again to top up. On looking round, Mano was nowhere in sight, surely he hadn’t gone down? No indeed, I saw a figure on the take off and deduced that he must have top landed. Naturally, as much as I may have wanted to land on the beach, I now decided I would top land too! I clawed plenty of height on my way back and, staying out away from the hill seemed to be the most economical route, so that’s the one I took. My phone beeped a message at me from inside my pocket, ‘no time to read that now’, I thought! I arrived quite high and applied copious amounts of brake until I was about four feet off the ground at the front of take off. I knew I’d never get back up there if I went round for another run, so I hauled down on the brakes and stalled at that height and dropped as if jumping from a low wall, my wing dropping behind me and just brushing the tree. “Doing some free fall?” came the sarcastic jibe from the top landing master just behind me, “Yep” I replied. I checked my phone, the sms read, “For me it was a top to top, but I don’t know if you will manage the same! :-)))”. I laughed and we packed up and went down for a drink at Chris’ BBC.











