Azua, as most of the rest of the South West is a desert terrain.

It's an amazing flying site considering the takeoff altitude.

Pilots often takeoff early in the morning, about 10, to soar with the incoming sea breeze. A little later you can start feeling thermal activity that gets to a peak about 12:30 PM.

Thermals may be a little disordered, but if you are patient and get more than 800 m AGL then you can head N to the bigger stuff. If you succeed in reaching the big mountains behind the takeoff area, then the normal route would be NW, following the range to exploit the altitude wind blowing E.

A gentle soar is the type of flying in this site. You can fly either with S or E breeze, which blows from 10 AM to 8 PM. A perfect alternative for the flight in Azua when conditions are too strong for thermaling.

This is an advanced flight. There is no landing field in your glide range, so you've got to be sure you'll go up.

The predominating wind in the area and at that altitude is E, but the takeoff heads S. The range travels N and that's the main XC route. To the W side of the range there is a valley that runs parallel to it. On the other side, to the E, there is nothing but bigger mountains ending in the steepest valleys I've ever seen.

So the easiest XC flight is when the wind blows from SW, which, as I said before, is not very common.

On the other hand, when the wind blows E, as usually does, you can try one of those extreme flights you have dreamed of.

To the S, there are more mountains and steep valleys, to the N, the valley of Neyba. This valley is a big plain which descends up to 50 m under the sea level.

Up in the mountains there are plenty of cold humid woods, down in the plains, desert.

La Job has a set of conditions that is pretty hard to understand. Because of the humid sea breeze entering the plains, some sort of stability settles in the valley and thermals rarely rise to the takeoff height. These are blue thermals days, with hard core thermal and always flying below 1200 m AGL.

But some days, let's say 50 % of the days, instability wins and you can see beautiful cumulus above the peaks.

The most intelligent XC route would be to head downwind (W), but that's until you see an endless sea of bushes and not-appropriate-for-landing cactus fields. So you either go N to the valley or headwind (E) to the nearest town, Cabral. There is a fourth choice and is to go south to the bigger mountains and steepest valleys, but as with the first one, none of us have tried it.

With an amazing altitude in the takeoff, the best flying days are the ones with little or no wind at all. This range is protected from the Alisios winds by the Central Range and is also out of reach of the sea breeze entering the valley (because of the takeoff altitude and distance to the sea).

So you may find strong thermaling conditions (+3 to +6) with healthy cumulus forming with bases over 1400 m AGL most of the time). Thermals are wide and well formed.

There are several XC possibilities, as you can travel the range either W or E. You can also try getting into the valley where some dust devils can be seen once in a while.

But the greatest fly would be crossing the range to the N and getting to the Valley of San Juan. We need higher bases to achive that flight, as mountains exceed 1800 m.

The valley is over 20 km wide and the landscape is greener than the rest of the south because of the numerous rivers and water streams coming down form the Central Range.

This site is also very protected form the Alisios wind and is definitely out of the reach of the moist sea breeze.

Thermals are wide with strong cores (+5 over the peaks and +2 in the valley).

There are amazing XC possibilities. The Central Range travels WNW entering Haiti. This flight would be the continuation of the XCs started in Azua (look at the map). If we ever get to join them, then we would have a 120 km flight in a Caribbean island... Should I say anything else?

Oh yes, just one thing more... there are great triangle possibilities too because wind blows mild from E and there is a lot of activity over the valley.

This site is quite versatile. You can fly on very different conditions, with the wind blowing either N, NE, S or SE.

Good days are given by nice cumulus forming over 1200 AGL (1700 m AGL in winter). Thermals are middle sized with a lot of cloud activity.

You can travel W or E, and there is also a possibility to go S, entering a set of valleys inside the Central Range.

This is a good thermaling site that can also offer soaring conditions in the afternoon. Thermals are smooth and wide, often generating fairly healthy cumulus downwind from the takeoff.

The wind blows either from E or SE setting XC options either heading N, S or W.

It's a beautiful soaring site a hundred meters away from the coast with landing spots next to the beach. Most flights take place either early in the morning up to 11 AM and in the evening, because the wind may get stronger by noon.

You just have to pull your wing up on the plain, take a few steps climbing the first hill, turn around and enjoy the elevator!

This is a very popular mountain because it has a funicular taking tourists to the top, which happens to be a National Park. Despite these facilities, there is no suitable takeoff on the summit, so we rather have a 20 minutes walk to a spot in the middle of the mountain, and let thermals do the rest of the job.

Predominating wind alternate along the year. In winter we have NNE and ENE or just E in the summer. Both directions are OK.

Conditions in summer, which is the wet season, are very "tropical" like. Cumulus cycles are very short and dew point rather low because of the moister air. This generates constant rains coming from E.

But the dry season promises higher cloud bases and the chance to leave the mountain high enough to get to the Septentrional Range which runs W up to Haiti.

This can be a perfect soaring site by the coast, and could also take you to the Oriental Range, downwind.

Winds may be too strong sometimes, but it holds a good direction all over the year (ENE).

This is the least explored site we mention here.

The 2 km long dam of an artificial lake serves a a great "play site". The "wall" is only 40 m high, and about 40 degrees steep.

The road goes right across the dam, so you just have to take your glider out of the car, and kite while the wind is mild. If it blows up to 15 km/h, then you can turn arround and float your way arround...

Early in the morning, about 10 AM, when the wind blows E, pilots start soaring and circling the first thermals rising. Most of the days the wind gets stronger by noon, when the valley breeze starts blowing.